Page 36 of How to Win the Wild Billionaire

“We can’t do this,” Bay whispered.

“I know,” Digby replied, his voice sounding strangled. He pulled in a deep breath, rubbed his hands over his face and tipped his head back to look at the ceiling. After a minute he spoke again. “Monica will be back in five minutes.”

Bay nodded and watched as Digby, before her eyes, transformed from her wild, intense lover into the debonair, suave businessman he always was. While she knew her cheeks were still burning, her nipples were throbbing and her intimate area was screaming for him to touch her, he looked like he’d just come from a business meeting.

Even his pants had subsided. He was in control and she wasn’t. The realization that she was the one who could lose everything—Olivia and her heart—yet he’d lose nothing, smacked her in the gut.

Bay placed her hands flat on Monica’s desk and blinked back unshed tears. She would be, she knew, easily replaceable in his life—sex was easy to find and this was the guy who didn’t do commitment or forever, remember?—but Bay doubted he’d ever be replaced in hers.

Sure, he wasn’t the only guy in the universe...

But he was the only one who mattered.

Hearing Digby’s low curse, she sighed when he placed his hands on her waist and gently turned her around. His eyes drifted across her face and he lifted a thumb to graze its pad over the soft skin under her eyes. “Goddammit, Bay, you’re exhausted.”

Bay looked into his red-rimmed eyes and raised one eyebrow. “Kettle. Pot. Black.”

Digby acknowledged her verbal hit with a quick half smile. Hearing the office door open, he stepped away from her, his eyes not leaving her face. “And that has to change,” he said, ignoring Monica as she pushed past them to settle in behind her desk.

Digby took Bay’s wrist and pulled her into the passage, away from Monica’s flapping ears. He slid his hands into the pockets of his suit pants, his expression intense.

“Do you trust me, Bay?”

What a strange, out-of-the-blue question. Behind her back, Bay placed her palms against the cool wall and considered how to answer him. She did trust him, with her body and her feelings, but not with her heart. Never with her heart.

Digby spoke again before she could answer. “If I solemnly swear to respect your privacy issue and that not a word of us being together will reach the press, will you come away with me, for a few days?”

She’d love nothing more but she had Olivia to think of. “I can’t be separated from Liv, Digby, not right now. I need to be with her, especially if the custody hearing doesn’t go my way.”

“It will go your way, and I understand that,” Digby said, darting a look down the still empty hallway. “My invitation includes Liv—I get that you two are a package deal.

“Besides,” he added, “Olivia is my favorite three-year-old.”

“She’s the only three-year-old you know,” Bay pointed out, amused and touched at his easy acceptance of Olivia.

“Fair point but I still like her. With regard to going away, I’ll see what I can organize,” Digby said and winced at Monica bellowing his name.

Bay watched him walk back into his office and shook her head. Going away sounded like a lovely idea but she knew how busy Digby was, how inundated they both were. When he hit his desk and work rolled over him, he’d realize how ambitious the thought was and that leaving for the weekend really wasn’t an option.

The thought counted, Bay thought, touched that Digby was worried about her. It was a lovely idea but it wasn’t practical so Bay pushed it from her mind.

The next day, Digby had just finished making a series of calls to put his plan into action when he heard a quick rap on his office door, quickly followed by Olivia’s high-pitched squeal. He lifted his head and there she was, barreling across the room to him, her smile powerful enough to compete with the sun.

“Dig, I was looks for you.”

Digby caught her, swung her up onto his lap and lifted an eyebrow in Roisin’s direction. The nanny shrugged and rolled her eyes. “She got this bee in her bonnet and I’ve heard nothing but your name all morning. I asked around, heard you were in here and thought you could give her a little attention.”

“And you a break,” Digby dryly replied, and Roisin flashed an unrepentant smile. Roisin was his employee but didn’t act like it. “I’m glad you are here—I was about to call you.”

Roisin frowned. “Problem?”

Digby quickly shook his head. “You have the weekend off. I’m whipping these two away for a long weekend.”

Roisin smiled. “Nice. Where to?”

Digby reached around Olivia’s little body to minimize his computer screen. “I wanted to go to our safari operation, Kagiso—I thought someone would get a kick out of seeing an elephant. But it’s fully booked and my villa is being used by a friend this long weekend.”

“I wants an elephant,” Olivia told him, proof that she was definitely listening to their conversation. “He can sleep in my bed and I’ll call him Fluffy.”

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