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2026-10-20 06:11:13
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Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil 164
I was halfway across the nursery when Liora pulled herself up against the wall and came after me.Elias had the room plan spread across both hands. I'd sketched it on the back of an envelope the week we moved and he'd copied it onto proper paper, adding the measurements in his square handwriting along the edges."Can the cot go against this wall?"He stretched the tape across it while I stood by the window. There was room for the cot, a changing table and a chair without crowding any of them."Wardrobe opposite." He marked the plan. "We might need to shift it so you have more space beside the changing table.""Leave it. I want that side kept empty."He added it to the measurements. I checked the doorway. The door needed to open all the way into the hall."It needs to swing clear.""Why?""Because I'll be going in and out of here with her in one arm and a basket in the other. If the door only opens halfway I'll be putting her down on the floor to move it."He wrote it down and went bac
Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil 163
Liora sat on the floor beside me, pulling clothes from the basket as fast as I folded them. At seven months, she could sit without support and move across the room with a determination that made every task take longer. She had also discovered that making noise got my attention, especially if I was busy. By late morning, I had folded the same small pile of laundry twice and still hadn’t put it away. “Those are clean. You’re not helping.” She pulled another shirt free and waved it at me. I took it from her and added it to the pile. Elias would usually have kept her occupied for a few minutes while I finished something like this. Today, there was nobody to hand her over to, and the laundry could wait. I left it on the sofa and followed her towards the other side of the room. Her breakfast had included more food on her fingers than in her mouth, but she had eaten enough. Now she wanted to explore, pulling herself forward across the floor and reaching for anything that caught her in
Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil 162
Liora had managed to get both hands around the pony’s enormous ear when Gideon leaned forward to keep the rest of it from tipping over her. “Careful. That thing is bigger than you.” She answered by pulling harder. I laughed, and Gideon looked far too pleased with himself. “You bought her a pony?” “No feeding, no stable, no vet bills. A very manageable pony.” He replied. Elias, sitting beside me on the rug, examined the plush animal from its oversized head to its four soft legs. “You brought our daughter a horse.” “Pony,” Gideon corrected. “That weirdly makes me feel better.” I laughed again. Gideon glanced at me, and for a second we were back in those early days, when I had only just moved into the house and Liora was still growing inside me. We had spent enough time together then for him to develop a habit of making outrageous suggestions on Elias whenever he thought I needed a distraction. “You remember what you told me?” I asked Gideon. His grin widened. “I remember you
Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil 161
“Michael has spent the whole week trying to get everyone to admit the old meeting room arrangement was better.” Lena was halfway through explaining his latest argument when Liora lifted her head from my arm and smiled at her. “Oh, hello.” Lena leaned closer. “Have I been talking to myself all this time?” Liora answered with a small sound, her head wobbling before she steadied it again. “She does that whenever she hears a new voice,” I told her. Lena offered a finger, which Liora caught at once and tried to pull towards her mouth. I gently freed it before she could succeed. “She’s determined to eat everything she touches.” “That’s going to be difficult for her when she meets something she doesn’t like.” “She hasn’t met anything like that yet.” Lena laughed and let Liora catch her finger again. My daughter had become much more alert over the past few weeks. She could hold her head steady for longer, followed people moving around the room, and rewarded the smallest attempts to e
Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil 160
I reached over and slipped two fingers beneath her blanket. Liora started crying before Elias finished buckling her into the car seat.“I’m here.”She screwed up her face and cried harder.Elias checked the straps, tugged the buckle once, and shut the door. I stayed bent over the seat, rubbing Liora’s stomach through the blanket, until he walked around to the driver’s side.The engine started.She kept crying.“Can you reach her?” Elias asked, watching me in the mirror.“I’m right here.”“I meant, are you comfortable?”“Just drive, dear.”He pulled away without another word.I kept my sweaty hand on Liora’s blanket. Whenever she paused, I thought she was settling. Then her mouth opened again, and the crying started all over. I touched her fist with my finger. She caught it and held on, her little fingers tight around mine.I wished I could pick her up and she understood that I wasn’t leaving her, and we would be home soon.Instead, I sat beside her and let her hold my finger.Elias ch
Touched by the Billionaire, Owned by the Devil 159
His mother was at the kitchen table with Liora in her arms when I came down. She'd arrived mid-morning with a covered dish and a bag of baby clothes and had let me put both aside without argument. The dish was in the fridge. The bag was still beside her handbag where I'd left it.Elias stood at the counter washing a bottle with a bottle brush. I'd washed the other bottles yesterday.His mother looked up as I came in."You look better.""I slept.""I can tell. You were grey yesterday.""I was not grey.""You were the colour of the wall."Elias turned from the sink. "She was grey.""You're both very funny.""We're not lying either."I pulled out the chair beside her. Liora had one cheek pressed into the cardigan and her mouth was moving in her sleep. His mother had her hand flat on the baby's back."I can take her.""She's fine. Sit down."I sat.Elias put a cup of tea in front of me. It was the right temperature. He'd been standing at the counter waiting for me to come down so he could
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