Page 28 of The Billionaire's Instant Triplets

“Hey yourself.” Ria shrugged, clearly fighting a smile. Then she reached for the flour again. Tristan closed the gap between them, grabbing her hand to stop her movement. Ria pivoted, twirling under his arm like they were in a ballet, and put a dot of cocoa powder directly on Tristan’s nose. Finally, he retaliated, smearing cherry juice along Ria’s cheek. They were both laughing harder than Tristan had laughed in years.

“Okay, okay.” Ria held up her hands in surrender. “Truce. The kids will be up soon.”

“Truce.” Tristan held out his hand to shake. Ria took it, and he pulled her closer to him so that he could toss flour onto her arm. “Okay,nowit’s a truce.”

Ria’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded. “For now, anyway. But don’t think I’ll forget this anytime soon, Mr. West.”

“Oof.” Tristan released her arm. “Not even my employees call me that.”

“Really?” Ria leaned against the counter. “Why?”

“Mr. West is my father. I always wanted to be different from him.”

“All right, then.” Ria smiled. “Don’t think I’ll forget this,Tristan.”

“Better.” Tristan looked around at the mess. “I’ll start cleaning this up.”

“You’ll need my help.” Ria tossed him a kitchen towel. “Start with the walls.”

They both began cleaning. Every once in a while, one of them would find batter in a very strange location — inside the refrigerator, hanging like an icicle from the ceiling, or splattered across a tile in the exact shape of an octopus — and they’d both start laughing again.

Eventually, Ria straightened up from where she’d been cleaning the fronts of the cupboards and put her hands on her hips. “Okay, I think we got everything.”

“Um, not quite.” Tristan tried to hide his smile. “You still have a little batter on you.”

“Where?” Ria looked down, then started to laugh again. Batter was splattered on her bare legs, across her pajamas, and on her face. Tristan, who had been standing behind the mixer, had escaped the worst of the splatter. Ria wiped her legs and pajamas, then her arms and face. “Did I get everything?”

“Not quite.” Tristan tapped his own nose. “You missed some here.”

Ria wiped the tip of her nose with a paper towel, but the batter just spread onto her cheek.

“Did I get it?”

“No.”

“Come on, then.” Ria’s hands were on her hips again and her expression was half-daring. “Help me with it.”

Armed with a paper towel, Tristan stepped closer. Very lightly, he dabbed the towel across her nose and cheek. Once the batter was gone, his hand fell slowly to his side as he realized just how close they were standing. He could feel the warmth of Ria’s body just inches away and see the flecks of gold in her green eyes. He could count the freckles scattered like constellations across her cheeks and see the way that her pink lips were ever so slightly parted. Her head was tilted back to meet his gaze, and she looked sweet and defiant and vulnerable, all at once.

“Tristan,” she said, her voice soft.

“Ria.” He reached for her hand, and she let him take it. Her hand was small and warm in his. She lifted onto her tiptoes, and Tristan bent his head towards her. All he could think about was Ria. She was like the sun, bright and warm and all-consuming, and he was a planet caught in her orbit. All rational thought was gone. Tristan hesitated just long enough to give Ria time to pull away, but she didn’t. She just reached for him, her hands resting on his shoulders as they slowly closed the distance between them.

There was an inevitability to this moment, as though they had been pulled together by the sheer force of gravity from the first moment they’d seen each other. Tristan could already imagine the soft press of Ria’s lips against his own and the?—

"Waaaaaah!"

Tristan and Ria jumped apart like teenagers caught out after curfew. The crying over the baby monitor was loud and insistent and couldn’t be ignored. Tristan’s heart hammered in his chest. Thank goodness for whichever of the triplets had just woken up. A second longer, and he would have kissed Ria. That would have been a terrible mess — even if kissing her was all he really wanted. Even if she seemed to feel the same way.

“I’ll go,” Tristan said. Without waiting for Ria to reply, without looking at her face to see how she was feeling, he turned on his heel and hurried out of the room. The whole way down the hallway and up the stairs to the triplets’ room, he chastised himself. He should never have let himself join Ria in making breakfast. And he definitely never should have joined her playful food fight. And he certainly, absolutely, should never have allowed himself to come so close to kissing her.

Yet as much as Tristan told himself off, he knew it was no use. He cared for Ria. No amount of chastisement and no amount of keeping his distance would change that. Now, the only thing that mattered was what he was going to do about it.

And for now, what he was going to do about it was get the kids dressed and go to work. He needed a little time to think things over. He needed to figure out what to do next.

CHAPTER13

RIA

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