A Baby For The Billionaire: Triple the Fun / What the Prince Wants / The Blackstone Heir. Maureen Child

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      “Okay, little girl, no fair splashing when I’m trying to get hold of your brother.”

      Sadie babbled at him while Sage climbed up Connor’s chest, a wet, wriggling mass eager to be out of the tub. Connor grabbed one towel, wrapped it around the tiny boy, and said, “Stay right there.”

      Then he turned his back on Sage to reach for the next baby. Sadie scooted out of reach, so it was Sam who was the next one out and wrapped like a burrito in a soft, dark blue towel.

      Dina just watched. Sure, she could grab the boys and lend Connor a hand, but this was more interesting. She wanted to see how he reacted to the nightly ritual. If he’d fold or rise to the occasion.

      While Connor reached out to grab Sadie, Sage dropped his towel and ran past Dina into the hallway, giggling all the way.

      “Wait! Come back here!” Connor lifted Sadie, wrapped her up and swung around. His gaze met Dina’s and he said, “Well, thanks for the help.” Frowning, he looked past her into the hallway, swinging his hair out of his eyes. “Where’d he go?”

      She shrugged and smiled wider. Couldn’t help herself. “Where he always goes. To the toy box in their room.”

      “Great,” Connor said, holding onto Sadie while she squirmed, trying to get back into the water. Sweeping Sam up into his arms as well, Connor stood and faced her.

      He was dripping wet. His white shirt was soaked through and plastered to what looked like a very impressive chest. Water droplets rolled down his face and clung to his hair. She smiled again. How could she not?

      “Did you enjoy the show?”

      “Oh, a lot,” she assured him, still grinning. “But the show’s not over yet. There are still three naked babies to diaper, put into jammies and settle down for bed.”

      He shifted the two on his hips. “And you think I can’t do it?”

      “I know you can’t,” she said, leaning against the doorjamb, folding her arms across her chest. “Not on your own.”

      Sadie squirmed; Sam grabbed a handful of Connor’s hair and tugged. “Wanna bet?”

      From the other room came Sage’s high-pitched squeals and the sound of a little truck being pushed across the floor. Dina bent down, picked up the discarded towel and tossed it over Connor’s shoulder. He’d had a rough go of it, but he was still standing, and she had to admire him for that. Still, she had the feeling he was about done.

      “Absolutely,” she said, enjoying the harried expression on Connor’s face. She’d known him less than four hours, but she knew that harried wasn’t a look he often wore. This was a man who ruled his world. He was used to people jumping to do his bidding. Now he had to deal with three babies who were used to calling the shots. He was in so much trouble. “What’s the bet?”

      A slow, seductive smile curved his mouth and Dina’s insides shivered in response. Maybe betting with Connor King wasn’t the smartest move she could make.

      He hefted both babies a little higher and then said, “When I win, we sit down with a glass of wine and talk about where we go from here.”

      “And when I win, you write a check and disappear?”

      The smile on his face faded away and Dina thought she’d gone too far. But what did he expect? She’d known him just a few hours and he’d crashed into her home, her family and taken over as if he had the right—which he didn’t. Not from where she was standing.

      He took a step closer and she kept her gaze on his. Still holding the babies close, he said, “It won’t be that easy, Dina. I’m not going anywhere, so you’d better get used to it.”

      “And if I can’t?” she asked.

      “I’m willing to bet you can.”

       Three

      Dina really didn’t want to be impressed, but she was.

      When the triplets first came to live with her, she’d been completely lost and practically hopeless at caring for them. She hadn’t done much babysitting as a kid and none of her friends had children, so she’d had zero experience. But she’d consoled herself with the fact that most first-time moms were as lost as she herself was. Since she didn’t have any choice but to jump in and do the best she could, Dina had learned as she went. She hadn’t so much gotten the babies into a routine as she’d gotten herself into one. She’d had to learn from scratch—and fast—how to take care of three babies, and she’d made too many mistakes to count.

      Then Connor King arrived, jumped into the fray like a natural and handled it all. He’d seemed so darn sure of himself, she’d stood back, prepared to gleefully watch a disaster unfold. Instead, he’d taken charge, as he probably did in every other aspect of his life, and gotten the job done. Sure, he was a little harried, but he’d done it. Babies were bathed and dressed and tucked into their beds with a story read by Connor, complete with sound effects that had them all giggling.

      And honestly, that’s what irritated her the most. The babies liked him. She was here day in and day out and one visit from a handsome stranger and all three of them were won over. What happened to loyalty to good old Aunt Dina, she wanted to know.

      As she watched from the nursery door, she felt a small niggle of worry as Connor moved from crib to crib, smoothing his hand across the babies’ heads, each in turn. He was taking a moment—what he probably thought was a private moment—to really look at the children he’d helped to create. She thought she understood what he might be feeling right then, as she’d had a very similar moment herself when the trips had come to live with her. To her, it had felt like a wild mixture of protectiveness and the realization that her life as she had known it was over.

      She hadn’t planned on having custody, obviously, but now Dina loved those babies with a fierceness she wouldn’t have believed possible. They were her family. Her only real family now, except for her grandmother and a handful of distant cousins. She would do whatever was necessary to take care of the trips and to protect them from being hurt. Even if that meant protecting them from the man who had only wanted to be a part-time father.

      * * *

      By the time the evening was over, Connor was wet, exhausted and wanted nothing more than a cold beer, his bed and complete silence for ten or twelve hours. One out of three, he told himself wryly, wasn’t too bad.

      He took a long drink of the beer Dina’d given him and let the cold froth slide through him, easing away the tension that had had him in its grip for the last couple of hours.

      “So,” Dina said and he heard the grudging respect beneath her words, “you won the bet.”

      He managed to turn his head to look at her. “I always do, honey.”

      Her eyebrows lifted. “Honey?”

      His lips quirked. The offhanded honey had slipped out, but now that he saw how annoyed she was by it, he pushed it a little further, just for the hell of it. “Babe?”

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