Caught Between Three Billionaire Tycoons - Willa Hart Page 0,57

opened her eyes, one hand brushing her own cheek.

I had seen nothing like that smile in my life. As her eyes fluttered open, I felt goosebumps rising like fire across my skin. Something about this woman bit into my soul. Seeing her so happy pierced me to my core, and I felt I could even cry, the moment was so perfect.

Her joy was so pure. She wriggled under the sheets, reaching out for the kids.

“Adara! Egan!”

“No, No.” Little Adara pouted. “You have to see! See, look!” She pointed out the window, bouncing.

We all turned to look out the big window behind the bed. A storm had ravaged the mountains last night, although none of us had noticed. As the sun beat his way up toward midday, the clouds burned off. In their wake, they left the brightest, thickest rainbow I had ever seen.

For a few moments, we all sat and watched. We let Whitney pull a bit of sheet around herself and arranged blankets for ourselves. Only Egan gave me a grin and an eyebrow wiggle. He was still too young to really understand, but he knew people naked in bed meant that ‘naughty’ word.

The rainbow seemed to mesmerize us. Birds flipped in and out of it. My eyes turned from the wonder out the window to the wonder in my bed. Whitney’s eyes stayed focused outside, her big eyes reflecting the beauty of the sky and the mountain itself.

She looked like she belonged here, as if she had always been a part of this place. Her skin shone the color of light, sun-burned leaves. Her hair glowed like the fall of leaves in autumn. Her eyes were the warm, dark earth that fed and nourished all else.

I looked over at my brothers and it seemed impossible that I could ever fight with them. Anything we had competed for now lay dead in the dust behind us, and the old feuds were buried so deep they would never resurface.

Whitney. Whitney did it all. As if she was the goddess of this land, come to reclaim it and stop the fighting of her children by making them kin.

“Isn’t it beautiful, daddy?” Adara looked up into my eyes from the rainbow.

Not taking my eyes off Whitney, I whispered. “Yes. Beautiful.”

Emotion swept through us again, and it was like a cascading wave of sparks that rippled around Whitney and through us. She was aware of the connection we were feeling, but it touched her differently. We had unity. She was the cause of it.

Our driving force.

I let my eyes be dazzled by the view outside, and I couldn’t believe I considered leaving and never coming back. I couldn’t believe I had ever left in the first place. My restless, wandering spirit and desire for connection had driven me away.

It was a good thing it had. When I left, the fighting settled. With no one actively claiming the last piece of mountain the others all pulled back, not content but allowing the space to act as some kind of truce. In that time, the mountain had become too quiet, a slumber that would eventually lead to the death of its soul.

Not only did I need to leave to settle the emotions of those that dwelled here, I had to leave to find Whitney. None of this would have been possible without her.

I remembered that day I saw her in the warehouse. Even though I had seen her before that, this image was the one my mind constantly returned to.

Her oversized cream sweater, falling over dark brown slacks. Her hair in a wiry mess, barely held in by a clip. A few pencils stuck out from the knot it made at the back of her neck. She had her wire rimmed glasses falling down her nose while she examined a piece of Egyptian stone, checking for hieroglyphics.

I had thought about how ordinary she was. Incredibly, unbelievably ordinary. Anyone who looked at her would have said so. Some may not have been that kind.

But to me, she was astounding. There was no word in the English language that could describe how I felt.

I was well aware that over the next few months I acted like a perfect dick. I wanted her so badly. I knew my bear was imprinting on her, and I was powerless to stop it. I could have adjusted my behavior, talked to her, gotten to know her better before I ambushed her with a trip to a remote cabin.

Thing was, I didn’t