Boxed Set: Dominated by a Billionaire - Part 10-12: Irresistible Billionaire by Emma M. Green Page A

Clémentine’s return home. The young mother, in tip-top shape, spent two days making life hell for the entire maternity ward. Every hour, she pressed the little emergency button next to her bed, asking if she could go home with her baby. And when no one paid any attention to her, she started yelling that she was being held hostage, even though she was neither sick nor crazy. The volcanic redhead won.
    How could it have been any other way?
    Clarence greets us at the apartment, looking tired but with a blissful smile. We find Clem, comfortably settled on the couch with her son, dressed in a bright orange romper, propped up against her shoulder. She's got a half-empty bottle in her hand.
    "Look at this," she says loudly, not remotely concerned about waking him up. "I gave birth to a groundhog! This baby sleeps all the time, I don’t even have time to feed him before he starts snoring again."
    "I think he inherited my calm gene," Clarence teases, full of pride.
    "You mean your sluggish gene?" My best friend snaps back, raising her voice. Did you notice that I can yell at Clarence as much as I want, and he doesn't even wake up!"
    "I taught him everything he knows! My son is three days old and he already knows how to ignore women who bitch all the time. Way to go, Clint!" he adds, placing a kiss on the baby’s tiny hand.
    "If you call him that one more time, I’m going to live at Alma’s and I’ll leave you alone here with four kids!" Clémentine threatens, laughing.
    "Where are the other three?" I ask, noticing the surprisingly low noise level.
    "Clarence’s son is at his mother’s, the twins with their father. He’s taking care of them while we get settled in here. But they are already Clovis fans! They talk about him all the time and want us to buy them a black doll!"
    "Oh, that's so cute, the little Benetton family!" Niels raves. "If you keep it up, you’ll do better than Brad and Angelina!"
    "Thanks but no thanks!" the young parents answer in unison, looking at each other lovingly.
    "So, do we have to wait for 'Vadim, the king of pains in the neck' or can we open the presents?" Basile says impatiently, giving me his asinine smile.
    Vadim told me he’d meet me straight here, I have no idea why he’s late. He was talking to Adrian when I left the office, and I didn’t want to disturb him.
    Grrr… That new pale suit he was wearing… I would have gladly disturbed him for something else.
    Niels – clumsy but thrilled – holds the baby while Lily and Clémentine unwrap the presents, letting out screams of joy and silly giggles: bibs embroidered with his name, adorable little basketball shoes, gigantic stuffed animals and unaffordable, newborn size designer clothes. My brother can’t help making a disgusted face seeing Clovis spitting milk on his partner’s dark blue polo shirt. When the tall blond notices, he holds the newborn baby at arm’s length, as far away as possible, screaming for help. Clarence, cracking up, comes to his rescue and takes back his son. Vadim finally shows up amidst the general chaos, a mix of great joy and noisy mishaps.
    He fits right into the party, and gives the new mother a huge bouquet of flowers, and the father a bottle of Dom Pérignon. The baby gets a sort of next-generation walkie-talkie that works as both audio and video surveillance, as well as a musical night-light and motion detector. I don’t understand a thing except that I have the most marvelous man on earth.
    But his face darkens when he takes me aside to announce his news – good and bad, obviously.
    "Keith is back behind bars. My lawyers didn’t even have to do anything: he screwed up while he was still on probation and so, back to jail for him."
    "Great, you must be relieved," I say, slipping my roaming hands around his waist, under his jacket.
    It’s that suit, again…
    "Don’t you want to hear the bad news?" Vadim asks me, holding my face in his hands.
    "No, don't ruin everything. I want to hear my friends