Page 55 of Hidden Heir With His Housekeeper

‘He doesn’t deserve either one of his daughters. I’m guessing, in her heart, Bea knows that, because she’s not stupid. And, believe me, you and your family do not need someone that toxic in your life, at any price.’

He’d had to agree with the guy.

He hadn’t told Beatrice about her father’s demand. She did not need to know the man was still a Class A ass, determined to remain estranged from both his daughters. But he’d been relieved when she had seemed more than happy to have her brother-in-law as a substitute.

The fact that Beatrice and Jack had once been engaged might have made Wolfe ‘giving her away’ super weird. The glossy magazines had certainly gone into gossip overload when unauthorised photos of the wedding had hit the internet. But Mason hadn’t cared how it looked. Because when Beatrice had appeared at the end of the aisle on Jack’s arm, dressed in a silk wedding gown which shimmered in the candlelight and made his breath back up in his lungs, he knew his bride had only ever had eyes for him.

And the Wolfes were family now.

Jack and Katherine’s three sons—because her second pregnancy had turned out to be twins, to everyone’s shock, especially Katherine’s—would be playmates for Ella, and all the other kids he was hoping to make with her mummy one day. So they had been more than happy to invite the Wolfes to join them this summer in Portofino, once he’d finished having the old Grande Hotel where Beatrice had once worked converted into a luxury fifteen-roomcastello, for their exclusive use.

Beatrice hadn’t been super-keen on the idea when he’d first bought the place as a wedding present for her. Until he’d got her to admit the reason why... She was concerned that her friends at the Portofino Grande would lose their jobs.

So he’d decided to buy a string of resorts in the region to launch Foxx Italia in Liguria and appointed Marta and Fabrizio to head the executive team to oversee the renovations and relocation of the staff. A win-win—not only as a sound business investment but also as a way to show Beatrice that he respected her input and they would always be a team.

‘Wave goodbye to Uncle Jack and cousin Luca,’ he said, propping the freshly changed Ella onto his shoulder. She was getting fussy. Probably because, being smart as a whip, she had figured out the new game wasn’t nearly as much fun as the old one.

‘See you later, Ella,’ said Jack.

Luca waved enthusiastically, before continuing the in-depth discussion he’d been having with his father. ‘The Big Bad Wolf is not a mis-pun-derstood wolf, Daddy,’ he said, mispronouncing the word with considerable gravity. ‘He’s a very naughty wolf.’

Mason was still laughing as he headed into the house.

His daughter got crankier while he had a conversation with the head chef, who wanted to brief him on tonight’s dinner menu, and a chat with his sister-in-law, who was looking suitably pleased with herself after having got twins Cai and Dafydd down for their nap with the help of the nanny they’d hired for the summer.

By the time he and Ella arrived in the Presidential Suite, his daughter was making her feelings known in no uncertain terms. And they were not happy ones.

He felt bad about her tears as he tried to soothe her, but it was hard for him to feel anything but a swift kick of joy when her mother rushed out of the bathroom.

Although the suite of rooms looked totally different from last summer, with all the new fixtures and fittings bringing it bang up-to-date, he recognised the fierce emotion that flowed through him as he spotted her. Because he’d felt something similar when he’d first seen Beatrice walk out of that bathroom with a bucket and mop, her hair shorter than it was now, and her figure round with the baby he now held in his arms.

He hadn’t understood it then, but he did now as his wife rushed up to them both and scooped the loudly protesting Ella out of his arms.

‘Uh-oh, has Princess Trouble got overtired?’ she said, sending him an amused and slightly smug smile over the tuft of blonde hair on their daughter’s head—which made her look like a cute, and currently very indignant, dandelion.

‘Yeah, a little too much fun in the sun with Daddy again,’ he murmured ruefully as Beatrice settled herself and the crying baby on the bedroom’s generous sofa and released her breast from the nursing bra.

The emotion he hadn’t figured out then was easy to figure out now, he thought as he sat beside them and slung his arm around his wife’s shoulders, while his daughter latched onto her plump nipple as if she hadn’t been fed in a month.

Shock and awe, fierce pride and total, all-consuming love.

‘Success!’ Bea whispered triumphantly as she eased the door closed to her daughter’s bedroom.

Was there anything more wonderful than watching your child falling into a deep, peaceful sleep?

‘That’s only because you have all the right equipment,’ Mason quipped as his strong arms wrapped around her from behind and he tugged her back against his chest. ‘You cheated.’

She turned in his arms and laughed, delighted with them both. And the incredible life they’d made for each other. As well as the fact that their daughter would now be asleep for several precious hours when his hands strayed down to her bottom and squeezed.

‘You’re just jealous,’ she teased. ‘Because I am the Queen of the Magic Boobies.’

He chuckled. ‘Not true, Queen,’ he said, boosting her into his arms and walking her backwards towards their bedroom, the provocative look in his eyes full of the hot promise she adored. ‘Because I happen to love your magic boobies too.’

She was still laughing as he dumped her onto the bed, but it wasn’t long before he had turned her triumph into a quivering mass of desperate need.

Half an hour later, Bea lay, limp and well-satisfied, in his arms, watching the early evening light turn a rich blue on the horizon.

‘So then Luca says, “He’s not a misunderstood wolf, he’s a naughty wolf”. You should have seen the expression on Jack’s face, it cracked me up,’ Mason said as his fingers stroked her arm lazily.

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