Page 80 of Titus

“Well, I’m not a billionaire having a crisis on a yacht that they need you to fix,” she chuckled, sliding into the covers.

“I can say right now those problems are easily managed as they don’t incite fear and anxiety in me,” I chuckled. “Back in a sec,” I advised, then left her to curl up with the pillows she already snuggled into.

I already had half the house rearranged to make Amelia more comfortable. Additional pillows. New patio furniture. A ridiculously oversized outdoor lounger being delivered for the small Japanese-inspired garden sanctuary just outside my bedroom.

Was it all necessary? Probably not. But taking care of people was what I did best. I built environments designed to make people feel safe, comfortable, and happy. And if Amelia was going to spend the next several weeks terrified every time she felt a cramp or checked for blood? Then I was going to make sure she faced it somewhere beautiful.

“Are we going to talk about what Titus did?” Amelia asked when I came back into the room.

“We did,” I smiled at her, tucking a pillow behind her back. “I’m very grateful you mixed the buildings up and ended up at his.”

“I didn’t tell you this part yet,” she said in a way that kept me from trying to end the conversation about him.

“What part?”

“He was very gentle and caring with me, and once he knew I was your sister, he treated me like I was even more precious cargo,” she said, softly laughing.

“That’s good to know,” I smiled at her.

“I don’t think his fascination with you has anything to do with him hiring you, sis,” she yawned, tired from not sleeping well at the hospital.

“I think you’re exhausted and projecting romantic theories onto the wrong billionaire.”

“You call me stubborn,” she rolled her eyes, snuggling further into the fluffy blanket and pillows. “You’re the worst.”

“I’m not saying I don’t appreciate what Titus did to help you,” I answered. “I’m just not going to take it to mean anything more than a man doing the right thing for a woman, using the resources he had at his disposal to get you to the hospital safely and quickly.”

“Well, I just think there’s more to that man,” she said, closing her eyes.

“I will most definitely express my gratitude to him once we’ve had a minute to breathe and everything settles down.”

My doorbell ringing alerted me that someone was here with deliveries. Today would be a bit rough for quiet rest, but once installations and everything were in place? By sunset tonight, Amelia would be perfectly happy in this little oasis of a house.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“The Maldives deal is dead,” I announced as I walked into the boardroom for our seven o’clock meeting.

I wasn’t surprised when silence settled across the room. It was most likely everyone assessing where I planned to take Hawk Crown Reserve from here.

I stood at the head of the onyx table as Colton leaned back slowly in his chair. Colton and Wyatt might have sat casually around the table, but legal was reacting quite the opposite. The entire team, minus the bastard I fired two weeks ago, immediately shifted their attention to the financial projections illuminating the wall screens.

“That leak destroyed my leverage. Once word got out we were pursuing the acquisition, the sellers immediately inflated their valuation.” I paused. “Now, they’re asking twenty-two percent more than they were six days ago.”

“It was fifteen percent last week,” Wyatt informed the room. “Interesting how that works, right?”

“Greedy bastards,” Colton said.

“Predictable bastards,” I corrected. “Once the second acquisition interest becomes public, people stop negotiating intelligently and start fantasizing about extortion.”

Colton gave a slight smirk in response. “So, we walk,” he said.

“We absolutely walk,” I answered without hesitation. “Emotional attachments or not, the deal is dead.”

The first thing that killed any business was its weaknesses, and emotional attachments were nothing but weakness.

“The market noticed us killing it, too,” I added calmly. “I’m not rewarding inflated positioning because someone overheard a casual conversation at a restaurant.”

Interesting that legal had nothing to say during this meeting. Good. Maybe they’d finally learned a lesson because they were lucky I didn’t fire the entire team over what one of their members fucked up.