Damaged Billionaire Daddy Bear - Leela Ash Page 0,13

knew that look. He had seen it often enough on Carla’s face to know a full-fledged tantrum was in the making. He didn’t need his shifter powers to sense the storm brewing beneath little Kal’s already disturbed exterior.

He rose to his feet at once, smiling down at both girls, “Let’s go see if Kal needs some help with his plane.”

Kal looked up as they approached, his eyes stormy and unwelcoming. He ignored them, even when Theodore dropped to his haunches in front of him.

“Hey, Kal. Need some help with your plane?” Theodore said, in a voice modulated for speaking with the boy.

Kal glared back, “It’s broken. Don’t bother.”

“Just let him take a look,” Carla assured him. “Maybe he can fix it. My dad’s really smart.”

Kal didn’t look impressed. He looked at them doubtfully. “Do you really think you can fix it?” he asked dolefully.

“Well, I will try my best.” Theodore took the little airplane in his hands and tried to decipher the problem. He quickly spotted a loose wire in the battery chamber and reconnected it. Experimentally, he pressed the start button, and it whirred to life. He grinned as he handed it to a suddenly joyful Kal.

He looked at the little boy. Kal’s eyes were shining like twin bulbs in his face as he excitedly reached for the toy plane.

“You fixed it!” he exclaimed, as a wide smile spread across his little face. Before Theodore could respond, Kal flung himself against his legs and hugged him tight. “Thank you!”

Theodore stroked a hand through the boy’s hair. “That’s all right, mate. Now, come on, Hyper,” he added, motioning at Carla. His daughter wrinkled her nose at him at the familiar nickname, and he laughed.

Ever since she was two years old, he’d taken to calling her ‘Hyper’, short for hyperactive.

Kal’s little sister, Arizona, offered him a disappointed look, “If you stay just a little longer, you can meet our mom!

He chucked her underneath her chin, marveling at how kids could be such bundles of cuteness. “I’m sure I’ll meet her soon enough, Pinky. But we have to go. Maybe next time, okay?” he added, ruffling her hair.

“Thanks again! Bye,” Kal and Arizona chorused as he strode out the door, herding Carla ahead of him.

Theodore’s thoughts were in a whirl as he urgently walked Carla toward the parking lot.

“Are you all done with work, Dad?” she asked.

“Why? What do you wanna do?”

She hooted as she began to jump in place, “The lake. The lake. The lake.”

With a sigh, he acquiesced, “Then the lake it is, Hyper. But first, home and lunch. Then, the lake.”

She bounded ahead of him, racing for the parked car.

“Hey, don’t run,” he called, trying to pick up his pace.

A warm, soft body collided with him, and the owner of the body went sprawling with a yelp. He caught her just before she hit the pavement, hauling her up and against his body until she steadied. She had long blonde hair that hid her face, but her scent was so delicately feminine and tantalizing that his nostrils flared in appreciation as he inhaled deeply. Something masculine inside of him growled and stirred with interest.

Just then, she lifted the heavy fall of hair away from her face, her lips already forming her thanks as she looked up at him. They both froze; green eyes clashing with turbulent gray ones, which immediately hardened into distant, cool ice chips.

“You! I suppose, because you own the entire resort, including the pavement, you cannot be bothered to watch where you’re going?” she said, her lips curling in contempt.

He gave her a glare that far surpassed hers in iciness as he retorted, “Well, your eyes look fine to me. Why weren’t you watching where you were going?”

She started to respond that she had been rushing to pick up her kids when a niggling voice at the back of her mind made her pause. He was a cold-hearted jerk, so how could he possibly understand that slight anxiety one felt when one’s kids had been left just a little longer at the daycare than they should have been?

She shook her head, taking a step back, “Do forgive me, your high mightiness. I’ll try to be more careful in the future,” she drawled.

He grabbed her elbow against his better judgment, “Cut out the sarcasm, smarty-pants. And this isn’t some resort. I would hate to think you accepted this program thinking it was going to be a vacation,” he added before he walked around her and strode toward