Be My Babygirl A Billionaire Romance - Jane Henry Page 0,22
its brightness.
“Oh!” she says when her eyes come to me. “You’re here!” Her face lights up with a smile so bright, it makes my heart ache. I can’t put my finger on why I’m so enamored with her. It isn’t just those beautiful eyes framed with impossibly long lashes, the pouty red lips, or her perfect, curvy little body, but more. So much more.
“Of course I’m here,” I say with a smile I feel down to my toes. “I missed you.”
My stomach clenches. I didn’t mean to say that.
I walk over to her and reach for her hand. She reaches back.
“Did you?” she asks, her head tipped to the side. “I’m glad, because I missed you too.” She stands up on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek. I swear to God if I had a ring in my pocket, I’d drop to one knee right here, right now.
I am losing my goddamn mind.
I cup the back of her head and press my lips to her cheek for a brief, chaste kiss. She smells like sunshine and roses and violets, all wrapped up in a bundle. “Let’s get your things and go upstairs.”
“Oh,” she says, flushing pink. “I, um, maybe brought a few things.”
“Good. I’ll have someone bring them up.”
Why does she look so embarrassed?
I signal a bellhop to bring a trolley to us, while the driver opens the car and extracts her belongings. I feel my lips curl up in a smile, but I try to school my expression. I don’t want her to think I’m laughing at her, but God is she adorable.
She’s got a large, faded pink duffle bag with a broken zipper stuffed so full of things it’s nearly bursting at the seams, two enormous tote bags overflowing with clothes and shoes, several pillows tied with…string? She watches them loading her possessions on the trolley, but when they take a quilted backpack with frayed edges out, she holds up her hand.
“Stop!” I look at her in surprise, and she flushes brighter pink. She clears her throat and lifts her head. “I’ll take that personally, please,” she says with dignity.
She holds something precious in that bag. I wonder what it is.
They hand the bag to her politely, but I intercept and take it myself.
“I’ll get that.”
“You really don’t have to,” she protests.
I shake my head and whisper in her ear, “This is exactly what a daddy’s supposed to do.”
“Oh,” she says, her eyes widening. “Well, in that case… have at it, big guy.”
I chuckle, take the bag, and swing it onto my shoulder. Something hard bumps against my back. Is that a… laptop? Holding hands, we walk inside. She peppers me with questions along the way.
“Is that a fountain made of champagne?”
“It is.”
“Do people drink it?”
“Of course. Would be wasteful otherwise, wouldn’t it?”
She nods. “Yes, of course. Ohhh, is that fondue? Next to the champagne? Like… a fountain of chocolate?”
My lips tip up. “It is.”
“That’s like a dream of mine,” she murmurs. “Liquid chocolate.”
I lean in and whisper in her ear, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“What do you dip in it?” she asks.
I chuckle. “Anything you want.”
She gives me a sly, coy look. “Anything?”
We pause beside the fountain of chocolate. I reach and grab a skewer, pierce a ripe, lush strawberry, and dip the tip into the melted stream of chocolate. I hand it to her. “Yes, babygirl,” I say. “Anything.”
I hand her the strawberry, my mind going a mile a minute with thoughts of what I can do to her when I have her alone.
She takes the chocolate-covered berry eagerly, bites it, and moans as her eyes roll back in her head. “Before you, I’d been living off of noodles,” she says. “You make my belly very happy.”
Living off of noodles? Maybe she does need a keeper.
“Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
“We’ll order room service upstairs.”
She nods, but a look of concern passes over her features. “Does that come out of my pay?”
My chest tightens. She’s so used to pinching her pennies, she’s concerned, I remind myself, but I don’t want to talk about our agreement out here in the open.
“Of course not.”
She flushes, but only nods her head. “Okay.”
I whisper in her ear again. “Does daddy need to remind you of the correct response, little one?”
“Oooh,” she whispers. “I like that. No, daddy, I’ll remember.”
She oohs at the light show in the lobby and ahhhs at the waterfall by the escalator. I lead her past the entrance to the shops, past the displays of jewelry and silk scarves, and