by Tee, Marian
"So..." Tilly waited until they were in the privacy of the billionaire's limousine before speaking. "How did your meeting with your lawyer go?" She managed not to make a face at the description, considering what her best friend Google had revealed.
Claudette Berger, 31 years old, divorced, and a former long-term girlfriend of Logan Hardwall.
Tilly struggled not to glower.
A woman who still wanted her husband, in other words.
Logan's broad shoulders moved in a shrug. "As well as it should be, considering what I'm paying her."
And because he was never the type to delay the inevitable, he added after a moment, "I'll be attending the Oil Barons' Ball with her tomorrow night."
"Oh?"
"Since we're still at Stage 2 in our timeline, we need to let at least another month pass before I'm able to take you anywhere public."
"True."
"That's what we agreed on, if you recall," he went on doggedly. "We need to make this whole thing realistic and credible, rather than risk having people think of us as a whirlwind romance and doubt our capability as parents to Liam."
Was it just her, Tilly wondered, or was the billionaire really acting so suspiciously defensive?
"And since I'll only be there to conduct business, it makes sense to bring Claudette along and have her help with negotiations."
Tilly couldn't help feeling that the billionaire was somehow forcing himself to put her in her place.
"You understand, don't you?"
"Of course." And she did. She had to. Because mail-order brides like her couldn't be afford to be picky. Billie was safe and healthy, Liam was the sweetest, and Logan was the kind of man she would always be able to count on—-
"Mama, look." Liam, seated on the carpet, tugged at her skirt then proudly showed off the train set he had been able to piece together.
Tilly gasped. "Wow!" She quickly knelt down to give the little boy a tight hug. "You're so good!" She smiled up at the billionaire. "Isn't Liam good, Mr. Hardwall?"
"Very much so." Logan smiled back even as he tried to convince himself that her not calling him by his given name didn't mean anything.
Chapter Sixteen
"The nerve of that man," Charlotte raged over dinner the next night. "I can't believe he's using the stupid timeline as an excuse for his abhorrent behavior."
"I don't think he was lying about having business to conduct during the ball." Despite her own hurt, Tilly simply couldn't help rising to the billionaire's defense.
"Logan always has business to conduct," the other woman retorted. "But for him to ever need help with negotiation? Does he look like the kind of man who'd need such help?"
"Oh." And Tilly's shoulders drooped. No wonder she was unable to completely convince herself everything was fine between them. A part of her had already known, Tilly forced herself to accept, that things had once again changed between them.
And this time, it wasn't for the better.
She had tried to wait up for him last night, hoping he'd visit her at the nursery, and when the night nurse had already come to start her shift, she had paced outside his bedroom rather noisily, hoping it would be enough of a hint for him to come out.
But the door had remained closed, and fifteen minutes were all she had been able to manage before everything became too much to bear for her pride, and she had quickly rushed back to her room so she could lock herself in the bathroom before silently bursting into tears.
The next day, she had spent a good half hour applying makeup to hide the tear-ravaged condition of her face, but the effort had been all for naught. When she and Liam finally came down, it was to find out that the billionaire had already left for work...at five in the morning.
Looking up, Tilly blurted out worriedly, "What if he took one look at Claudette Berger, saw just how different we were, and realized that he had tied himself down to the wrong girl?"
Charlotte rolled her eyes. "Please. I've known Claudette for a long time, and Logan even longer. She's definitely not his type—-"
Tilly frowned. "Don't you mean she's exactly his type? Long-legged, blonde, and accomplished?"
"Er, never mind that." There were a lot of things Charlotte was confident she could get away with, but letting that particular cat out of the bag - and to Tilly of all people - was not one of those things. Checking her watch, she said slowly, "Harry told us we could stay out for as long as we wanted, right?"
"Um, yes, but—-"
"Then that's exactly what we're going to do," Charlotte decided.
Tilly gazed at her friend uneasily. "I don't think it's okay—-"
"Harry will be more than happy to take one for the team, Tilly. She knows we'll do the same for her." Charlotte gestured for one of the waiters as she spoke and asked for the bill.
"But what exactly will we be doing that we'd have to stay out—-"
"We're going to San Antonio," Charlotte told her, "and by the time we get there, the ball should be winding to a close, and you'll be waiting outside to give that man-eating bitch—-" She saw Tilly wince at her choice of words and had to bite back a smile. "—-the biggest surprise of her life."
"Which is?"
How much Logan wants you, Charlotte thought. Because she had seen the way the billionaire looked at Tilly, and she had a very good plan on how to use that to force her friend into confronting his feelings.
"I'M SORRY THIS NIGHT wasn't as fruitful as we hoped it would be," Claudette said with a sigh as the ball officially came to a close, with the host reaching the end of his farewell spiel.
"It's fine," Logan dismissed. "We're not exactly going home empty-handed." Although an emergency had the Crown Prince of Najma leaving just ten minutes into the party, it had been enough time for the billionaire to invite the notoriously horse-mad sheikh to visit his stables and enjoy an exclusive viewing of the newly-birthed foal of his most prized Thoroughbred.
Just as they were about to rise from their seats, one of the founding members of the ball's committee approached their table, the grey-haired matron asking Logan if he could join the rest of the committee for a photo.
The billionaire acquiesced, as was typical of him, and just as he walked away, Claudette noticed that he had left his phone on the table. Seeing it light up with an incoming message, she automatically took a peek—-
Charlotte: Tilly and I are at the lobby waiting for you. If you don't come out soon, I might find myself bored and start swiping right for the both of us. Boys can't have all the fun, you know?
Claudette was disbelieving. Why the hell was Charlotte Carmichael helping the nanny bag Logan Hardwall? Her hand curled into a fist as she fought against the vicious urge to hunt the nanny down and slap her face for even having the gall to think she could be a suitable match for the billionaire.
Her mind worked furiously as she thought of the ways she could turn this whole thing into her advantage. If the rich widow's message was anything to go by, then - as incredible as it may seem - the slut had already managed to sink her claws into the billionaire.
But claws could easily be cut off, Claudette thought, and that was exactly what she planned to do.
"Sorry for that," the billionaire murmured when he came back to their table and automatically pulled Claudette's chair out before taking her hand to help her to her feet.
He reached for his phone, and seeing that he was about to check it for messages, she quickly distracted him, asking, "Please tell me they didn't mention anything about those rumors between you and the help?"
At her words, the billionaire pocketed his phone instead and turned his attention back to her, asking sharply, "What rumors?"
"That you're the newest name to be added to the long and continuously growing list of billionaires who are likely to lose a fortune..." Claudette deliberately injected a note of awkwardness into her tone. "Because stockholders can't trust someone who shits where he—-" Her voice faltered at the icy glint in the billionaire's gaze, and this time she didn't have to
pretend feeling nervous even as she could feel her fury mounting. What the hell did that woman have, to make a normally cold-blooded man like Logan Hardwall act so out of character?
"I'm sorry," Claudette forced herself to say. "I didn't realize there was any truth in the rumors."
"Forget about her," the billionaire said brusquely.
How can I, she wondered angrily, when that woman was just outside, waiting to steal you from me?
Even knowing that what she was about to do could mean losing her job, Claudette's bitter need to lash out still won over common sense. As soon as they were out of the ballroom, her gaze immediately scanned the crowd in the lobby, and she found the bitch occupying one of the couches along with Charlotte Carmichael.
Her gaze bored through the other woman's, willing for the stupid nanny to look up—-
And the moment she did, Claudette turned to the billionaire and threw her arms around his neck as she covered his mouth with hers.
Logan jerked in surprise. What the fuck? His fingers snapping around her, he forcibly pulled her arms off his neck and scowled down at Claudette. "What the fuck do you think—-" And that was when he saw her standing at a distance, white-faced with shock.
Tilly.
Chapter Seventeen
"She forced herself on him." Charlotte was speaking in a nervous rush. "You know that, right? You saw how she did it, didn't you?" Because if Tilly didn't see it that way, she would never forgive herself for causing her friend to witness something unnecessarily hurtful.
Tilly couldn't make herself speak even as her gaze remained helplessly at the now-disentangled couple. The paps loitering in the lobby had gone wild at the sight of the kiss, and it had even gotten wilder when the billionaire, in full view of Claudette and everyone else, wiped his mouth clean as if the other woman's taste had repulsed him.
"Tilly? Are you okay?"
Charlotte's words were barely audible, with the noise and clamor around them as hotel security finally kicked in and did their best to prevent the paps from reaching the billionaire. Tilly knew in her mind that the kiss meant nothing at all, but it had still hurt, and she didn't want that.
I'm not hurt. I'm not jealous. I'm not.
"Let's get out of this madhouse," Charlotte was saying as she grabbed Tilly's hand and headed for the exit.
The guilty look on her friend's face forced Tilly to muster a smile as they finally made it past the doors. "I'm sorry you have to be involved in this—-"
"No, no, I'm the one who should be saying sorry," Charlotte protested. "And I am. I'm really sorry, Tilly. I should never have brought you here, and if I hadn't, then you wouldn't have seen—-"
"Another woman throwing herself at—-" My husband, she almost joked, but something stopped her. Logan, she thought of saying instead, but her lips refused to say his name as well. "Mr. Hardwall," was all Tilly could say lamely in the end...but even this, she thought sadly, didn't feel right either.
Charlotte wanted to kill herself. Or Logan. Maybe both of them. Tilly only used to address the billionaire formally by way of a joke, but this was...different. In a really bad way—-
And it's all my fault, she thought miserably.
Charlotte's car finally made it to the top of the hotel driveway, and she breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank God." She turned to usher her friend in first, and the first thing she saw was the billionaire's powerful figure striding towards them, a grim expression on his face.
Uh oh.
The hairs at the back of her neck started to stand, and Tilly knew without turning around it was him.
Logan.
She felt his presence before anything else, the billionaire coming to a stop right behind her, and a funny little ache squeezed her heart. A moment later, and his fingers entwined hers, and Tilly's gaze flew up to him in shock. "The t-timeline," she stammered.
"I wasn't the one who brought you here," Logan said roughly, "so this doesn't count."
That didn't make sense at all, she couldn't help thinking, but she was just too stunned and confused to confront him about it.
Logan's gaze swung to his friend. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."
"There's no reason for you to be mad at Charlotte," Tilly interrupted. "I was the one who insisted on coming here—-"
"It's fine, Tilly. Really," Charlotte insisted when her friend didn't seem to believe her. "And I was at fault." She recalled the look of hurt shock on Tilly's face at another woman kissing her husband, and the memory left her feeling subdued. "I owe both of you an apology, and since I know you're too nice to rip into me, I'll leave Logan to do what's necessary."
"Count on it," the billionaire said silkily.
Tilly frowned. "But she's really not—-"
"Tilly." It was that soft, calm tone again, and although a small part of her wanted to rebel against it, she found herself falling silent in the end...but not before carefully pulling her hand out of his hold. It was the smallest gesture, something she thought no one would care to notice.
But she was wrong.
Logan visibly stiffened, and Charlotte apparently hadn't missed it either, with the way her friend winced just before quickly saying her goodbyes, as if in a hurry to give the two of them privacy.
The billionaire's limousine was right behind Charlotte's car, and Tilly meekly let the billionaire help her in, feeling like there had been enough drama for the night.
"We'll speak in my room tonight."
Tilly simply nodded, unable to think of anything to say.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence, and as hard as she tried to think of something else, she just couldn't stop replaying the image of Claudette kissing Logan over and over in her mind. He's mine. That man's mine. Mine. The memories desperately made Tilly want to say the words, shout it loud enough so that the whole world would know the truth and never go after her man again.
But she couldn't. She mustn't. Because those were against the rules, and she had Billie to think of.
Logan could feel Tilly hurting, and everything in him wanted to haul her close, kiss and comfort her, give her all the words she needed to hear to soothe her pain.
But he couldn't. He mustn't. Because those were against everything he had worked hard his entire life for, and if he broke his rule this once...Logan knew it wouldn't be the last, and before he knew it, he would already be no different from his father, with his future dependent on the whims of his wife.
The detour to the Montgomery home was a relief for Tilly. With Liam made energetic by his hours-long nap, the little boy talked nonstop, and listening to him offered her heart some much-needed respite from all the aching it had done over Claudette's actions.
It was past midnight by the time they made it back to Logan's ranch, and although the night nurse was already in the nursery, Liam had made a rare fuss about wanting Tilly close while he drank his milk. By the time he had finally settled down, it was already half-past one, and a sense of déjà vu struck her as she hesitated outside the billionaire's door.
She had stood at the very same spot just last night, and the memory had Tilly's heart feeling funny.
If he doesn't let me in again, my pride wouldn't be able to take another blow—-
The door suddenly opened, and Tilly started in surprise.
"Why are you just standing there?"
The billionaire was still in his suit, just minus the tie now, and even with his mussed-up hair, he was still such a magnificent sight to behold. The sensual beauty of his face and the earthy masculinity of his presence - he was just too perfect. And wasn't that reason enough for her to accept that the time would eventually come that a man like him would lose interest in a girl like her?
"Tilly?" The billionaire's impatient tone dragged her attention back to him. "Why didn't you just fucking knock?"
The question caught her off guard, and it had Tilly sending him an unconsciously chiding glance. Why do you think?
The billionaire flinched, and she blinked. It was almost as if he had re
ad her thoughts.
"Never mind that," Logan said under his breath. "Just come in." He stepped aside to let her in, and as his gaze followed the subtle but entrancing sway of her hips, he was reminded of the last time she had been in his room.
That had only been a week or so ago, and yet it felt like a fucking eternity had already passed. Just over a week, and she was already rocking his world so fucking hard that Logan knew he couldn't fucking let it continue. Just goddamn couldn't.
If he wanted to kiss someone else, he had every right to do so. He had bought her, and she had no power over him.
So make that clear once and for all, Hardwall.
But when he opened his mouth, something else came out entirely.
"I'm sorry," he said harshly. "I know you're smart enough to have figured this out already, but for the record, Claudette was the one who kissed me and not the other way around."
Tilly was staring at him blankly.
"Did you hear what I just said?" he gritted out.
"I d-did." Tilly's voice was faint.
"And?" His tone became forceful, defensively so, almost as if he didn't want her to know how much her answer meant to him.
Tilly didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was just so like him, so, so like her beautiful billionaire to do this. He didn't owe it to her to apologize, but he had. The foundation of their marriage meant that he would always be the one with the power to call the shots, and yet here he was, treating her like they were on equal footing.
It made her feel special, but more than that, it made him special, and it was then Tilly knew.
She hadn't wanted to admit to being jealous, but she had been. She hadn't wanted to admit to feeling hurt, but she had been.
Her eyes squeezed shut, but the tears fell anyway.
Because I love him.
Logan whitened when he saw the tears slowly running down Tilly's pale cheeks. "Why the fuck are you crying?"