She had found herself a new friend for life, and since said friend told her to trust Charlotte, who had in turn basically advised Tilly to be herself…
“Here you go.” Tilly served Logan his second bowl with a flourish, the way she normally did back at home. Her over-the-top antics were usually enough to send Billie into hysterics, but she obviously had her work cut out when the same gesture only earned her a politely-worded response of thanks from the billionaire.
Logan could feel her eyes on him again as he took a sip of her soup, and fuck if he knew what to do about it. Women staring at him in greedy, calculated fashion, he was used to, and so were women who looked at him as nothing but a sexual conquest to boast to their equally shallow-minded friends.
Tilly Wakefield, on the other hand…
The way she looked at him was different, Logan thought broodingly. And he wasn’t sure at all if that was a good thing. In fact, he had this rather sudden urge to leave the room, to get the hell out before it was too late—
“Do you know what convinced me you were the one?”
Shit.
He should’ve listened to his instincts, dammit.
Now, it was too late, and bolting out would make it seem he was this asshole who hadn’t any time to talk about the stuff that women tended to obsessively overanalyze.
“You’re supposed to say yes,” Tilly prompted.
“Was I?”
Tilly couldn’t keep her lips from twitching at the billionaire’s utterly bland tone. “You really have the most amazingly dry humor. Any chance you’re British?”
“Not at the moment, but a new citizenship can be easily arranged, if that’s what it takes.”
“If that’s what it takes?” she echoed blankly.
“To earn a free pass from having to listen to what you have to say.”
She tried to scowl but found it impossible and could only swallow back a laugh. “It’s that, by the way.”
Logan frowned. “Excuse me?”
“You didn’t have to let me know you’re not in the mood to hear me talk, but you told me anyway. You’re unfailingly honest, and you were exactly like that, too, in your letter. You totally didn’t care about how much of an ass—”
The billionaire raised a brow.
“I mean, how astute a man you would come across as, realizing that someone in my circumstances would be suitable for your needs.”
Logan’s lips twitched. “Nice save, Ms. Wakefield.”
“Desperate straits, desperate measures, Mr. Hardwall,” she answered winsomely.
His cock twitched at the subtle note of submission in the way she said her name, and Logan bit back a curse. What the hell was wrong with his body?
Tilly cleared her throat. “Anyway, I was thinking, since we’ve already established the preliminaries—”
“Which is my honesty,” Logan slotted in, “and your desperation—”
Tilly let out a strangled gasp of laughter, but the billionaire only raised a brow, as if asking what she had to feel insulted about when he had simply spoken the truth.
Oh, the gall!
“I’m still waiting, Ms. Wakefield. Or have you brought the point up for no reason—”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not like that.”
“Then your point is—”
“I want you to kiss me.” And now it was her lips that twitched, with the way the billionaire’s jaw completely dropped.
“Where the fuck did that come from?”
Tilly couldn’t help wincing. “Language please.”
He shot her a look of incredulity. “Are you a kid?”
“We both know I’m not,” she said patiently, “but your nephew is, and so is my sister.”
“They’re not—” Tilly’s stubborn look made the billionaire change his mind about continuing his argument. He had not gotten to where he was by beating his head against the wall, and he would not start now.
“Thank you,” Tilly said graciously.
Logan didn’t answer, a part of him slightly chafing at the fact that he had given in so easily.
“And to answer your question, I just want to know, for your convenience of course,” she clarified quickly, “if we’re sexually compatible. Because if we’re not, then you’re free to, you know, and you won’t have any problems with me. I know I can trust you to keep your word about being discreet and—”
“Tilly.”
His voice was soft and polite, a blade that quietly cut through her words, and Tilly fell silent.
Because even without ever being in a relationship, Tilly was still a woman, and she knew instinctively that saying her name was the billionaire’s way of courteously asking her to shut up.
Oh dear.
As Tilly worried about having possibly displeased the billionaire for having a magpie for a wife, the billionaire’s thoughts were actually running in the opposite direction, with her words echoing inside his mind.
I would like you to kiss me.
He couldn’t fucking stop thinking about it, and the way her chest was rising and falling in rapid fashion in front of him was just like her unknowingly adding salt to the wound. The sight made him feel he had ended up wearing pants a tad size smaller, with how especially tight it was around the crotch, and his rigid, painfully throbbing cock fit to burst out of them any second now.