Caught Between Three Billionaire Tycoons - Willa Hart Page 0,45

deep brown eyes warm and inviting. She smiled, and it was a genuine smile. It just didn’t stretch as far as it usually did. It didn’t reach her eyes.

“Good morning.” I kept my voice low so it wouldn’t falter. I barely made it through the two words without choking on them.

“Good morning.” Her tone was too bright, she was trying to cover her discomfort just as I was.

I couldn’t turn to look at her again. I held my spatula high and focused on the eggs. Perfect eggs were easy. All you had to do was pay attention to them.

I wanted to say sorry, but I didn’t know how to make up for the fact that I scared her. I had told the kids about shifting instinctively, against their will, and yet I had let my bear get the better of me at the most delicate of moments.

I took several deep breaths, drawing the delicious smells across my tongue to calm myself. In quick succession, I freed some crispy waffles from the iron, scooped up bacon with the spatula and carefully lifted out two eggs. When I turned to face Whitney, my stomach was churning so much that the breakfast had ceased to make me feel better.

Then Egan and Adara came charging into the room. Whitney laughed and hugged them both, and I felt my own mood lift straight away. They were fully recovered from the events the day before and Adara daintily nibbled on waffles while Egan had a man’s breakfast—bacon, eggs, hash browns and a waffle on top, drowning in maple syrup.

Whitney and I made cracks about his hollow legs and growing muscles. It was easy to interact when the kids were there, and we focused on them, not each other. I tried to keep them at the table as long as possible, so I didn’t have to face Whitney alone, but they mopped up their food and left the room arm in arm, giggling and whispering.

“What are those two up to?” Whitney narrowed her eyes at their retreating backs.

“All manner of mischief, I’m sure.” I sat down with my own plate and coffee, thinking if Daire and Aleksy wanted perfect eggs they should have gotten up earlier. Nothing would burn on the griddle while it was turned down, but just keeping the food warm would overcook the eggs.

I looked at my plate and I knew I was hungry, even though I mentally did not feel like enjoying anything. I took a big gulp of black coffee and I felt somewhat better until I looked up into Whitney’s eyes.

Her face was very serious, more than I had ever seen it. Her mouth was loose and there was a little line between her brows.

Apologies rose in my throat. They crowded there, desperate to be set free. I drank some more coffee and shoveled eggs and bacon into my mouth, so I didn’t have to speak.

She smiled at me softly, taking another bite of the waffles.

“These are good. Did you make them from scratch?”

I nodded, face full of food. She smiled at me gently and I wanted to feel that everything was okay. I wanted to feel like she had forgiven me. Thing was, when a woman runs from the room in terror right after you’ve kissed her, there is no correct response.

“Whitney.” I swallowed hard, washing it down with coffee. “I have to say something.”

She shook her head. “No, you don’t. It’s perfectly okay.”

I shook my head right back. “No. I’m apologizing. Let me at least do that. I’m sorry. Really. I’d like to say that I don’t know what came over me, but I know. It’s my bear. It just… Loves you so much.”

Her eyes widened for a second, but she absorbed the words with little reaction. She was determined to stay cool.

“It's okay. Really, it’s kind of my fault. It was very exciting, a mad thought of mine. I shouldn’t have led you on like that just because I was having a selfish fantasy. You guys can’t get along and I understand that now.”

I stared at her in shock, leaving my face as impassive as possible. Our bears could get along now, as we had shed blood for the same cause. It was the volatile human side that needed to make its peace with that. If we could manage that, we might have a chance at this.

Of course, our bears were also fiercely territorial. We all wanted to own her. I lashed myself mentally. You can’t own a