Page 21 of The Billionaire’s Paradise (My Billionaire #4)

Back at the house, Cal and I lay side by side in our gigantic canopied bed, our legs tangled beneath the cotton sheets. The moonlight slanted across the timber ceiling and cast long, sleepy shadows over the walls, but neither of us was close to sleep.

From downstairs, the freight-train rumble of Mrs. Mulroney snoring vibrated through the beams.

“She’s still going,” Cal murmured. “Maybe we should try to wake her and attempt to get her upstairs again.”

“Are you kidding? It took forty-five minutes just to get her from the front door to the couch. She’s denser than she looks. Just leave her—she’ll be fine. So long as the structural integrity of the building holds.”

Cal rolled onto his side and trailed a warm hand across my stomach. “You know she’s gonna wake up at four a.m. thinking she’s still at the luau.”

“And immediately start sniffing out the nearest bottle of whiskey.”

“God help us all.”

We lay there in silence, the ocean murmuring outside, our pulses finally beginning to slow .

Until I said, “Okay, but—Angus and Kimo? What was that all about?”

Cal groaned softly into my shoulder. “I don’t know. I don’t know, babe.”

“They locked eyes across a roast pig, and I swear I heard a harp.”

“Do not say twin flames. Don’t do it.”

“I’m not saying it. I’m just saying… somebody’s aura might’ve whooshed.” I tilted my head to look at him. “You saw it, right? I wasn’t hallucinating?”

Cal exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck. “I saw it too. Kimo looked like he’d been hit by lightning. And Angus said he was having heart palpitations.”

“I thought he was fine! But then they locked eyes across the pork platter and everything went slow motion. And did you hear the whimper? Angus actually whimpered.”

Cal laughed under his breath. “Honestly? I think it’s kind of sweet.”

“I do too! I just… didn’t see it coming.”

“Me neither,” he said, smiling up at the ceiling. “But hey—if Angus found something real on this island, I’m all for it.”

Cal’s thumb traced the line of my hip, like he was ready to put the night aside and reset our emotions. But my brain had other ideas.

“Do you think Makani’s really a princess?”

Cal shifted onto his elbow, squinting down at me. “Babe, I was about to get romantic.”

I barely heard him. “Because that would mean Mr. Banks—our Mr. Banks—is romantically entangled with Hawaiian royalty.”

“They were romantically entangled?”

“You saw them!” I sat up a little. “They were holding hands! And whispering! She kissed his cheek like she remembered the taste! There’s nothing past tense about it.”

Cal blinked at me. “So? ”

“So…” I said dramatically. “If she’s royal, that means Leilani is royal, which means our child will be part of the royal bloodline.”

“I’m too tired to process anything right now.”

“You were about to make whoopie.”

“Now I’m about to roll over and go to sleep.”

“We need to ask Leilani.”

“About the bloodline?”

“Yes.”

“And if our child is going to be fourth in line for a throne and a scepter?”

“Don’t mock the possibility of inherited tropical power,” I said, curling back against him.

“I’m not mocking. I’m refusing to acknowledge the panic in your voice.”

“Oh good. That’s what I need in a co-parent.”

“Fine, if you need to ask her about it tomorrow, go for it. Fill me in when I get back.”

“Get back? From where?”

He rolled over, facing away from me, his head settling into his pillow. “Hal’s flying in. We’re meeting in his suite at the resort. He wants to go over numbers for the venture.”

“Oh.”

“It won’t take too long,” he said, instantly catching my tone. “I’ll be back before dinner.”

“No, it’s fine.” I stared at the ceiling again. “You should do that. It’s important. Much more important than our child.”

“Matt… don’t be like that.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Fine, be like that then. I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”

The moonlight shifted, casting a silvery stripe across his back. Eventually, he reached out and laced his fingers with mine, but I couldn’t stop the tiny ripple of jealousy that tugged at my chest like a loose thread.

Hal .

Hotel suites.

Numbers.

All the things I wasn’t invited to.

“I just want us to do this together,” I said softly. “And not let anything—anyone—pull us off track.”

Cal rolled toward me, his hand suddenly warm and firm against my cheek.

“We are doing this together,” he said. “Hal’s just business.

A few meetings, some spreadsheets, a bunch of words like ‘asset leverage’ and ‘scalable margins.’ He’s all about financial deals.

But you—” He kissed me lightly, once, twice, a third time just because.

“You’re the real deal, babe. You’re the future. You’re the reason for all of it.”

I exhaled. The jealousy untangled just enough to let love back in.

“Fine,” I whispered. “But I’m still asking Leilani about the royal thing. And I’m putting in a formal request that our child gets a title. Something ceremonial. Like ‘Little Highness.’”

Cal chuckled against my shoulder. “I don’t think that’s how it works.”

“It is if you believe hard enough.”

From the couch downstairs, our very own queen spluttered out a loud snort—as if voicing her agreement—before settling back into her rhythmic rumble for the night.