Page 22 of One Night with the Billionaire Boss

“Will you come in?”

“Yeah,” he says good-naturedly, putting one arm around her and hugging her. “Hey, have you said hello to Auntie Elizabeth?”

“No, hello!” She comes up and hugs me.

“Hello, you.” I give her a big cuddle. She’s only a few inches shorter than me. “You want your prezzie now?”

“Ooh, yes please!” She sees the parcel I brought on the table and rushes over to it. “Can I open it now?”

“Of course.”

She rips off the paper as her friends crowd around, and they all squeal. It’s a nail stamper kit with kid-safe polish, over a hundred icons, and five design pods.

“I thought you could all give yourself mani-pedis at your sleepover tonight,” I tell them.

“I love it! Thank you so much!” She comes up and hugs me again and then runs off with her friends to investigate the different icons.

Huxley gives me a wry look.

“What?” I ask.

“You know they’re going to want to give me a manicure.”

“Why do you think I bought it?”

He meets my gaze, and his eyes are hot, bright. “Don’t think I didn’t notice,” he says.

“Notice what?”

He drops his gaze to my feet, then looks back up at me. “I presume that’s a good sign.”

I look down at my toenails. I painted them red last night.

“I forgot,” I say.

“Yeah. Right.”

“Seriously!”

“What’s going on?” Helene asks with amusement.

“Nothing,” we both say, and laugh.

Joanna’s finished looking at her new present, and she comes up to him again. “Dad. Show everyone how you do the nine times table.”

“It’s the hardest one,” one of the girls complains.

“No it’s not,” he says. “It’s one of the easiest, if you know the trick.” He makes them all stand in a row. Then he nudges his way into the middle of the line so he’s facing the same way as them. “Hold up your hands like this,” he instructs, lifting his hands up so his palms are facing him. All the girls follow. It’s like watching the Pied Piper.

I glance at Brandy, and she grins at me. I have no idea what he’s doing.

“You’re going to use them to count to ten like this. One, two, three…” He continues, going from the thumb of his left hand all the way to his little finger for five, then the little finger of his right hand for six, all the way to his right thumb for ten.

“Let’s say you want to work out what four nines are,” he says. “Fold your fourth finger down.” He bends his ring finger and looks along the line. “Fourth finger,” he corrects the girl next to him, tapping them. “One, two, three, four.” He folds it down for her, and she giggles. “The fingers on the left of the folded down one are tens. The fingers on the right of the folded down one are units. So how many tens do you have?”

“Three…” They all say doubtfully.

“And how many units?”

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