His Nanny Mate By Eve Above Story

Chapter 22: Family Ties
Moana

“Ahem.”

Ethan and I jerked our heads up from the portfolio of his childhood drawings, our train of conversation now broken, to see none other than Edrick standing in the doorway — and he didn’t look happy.

“Oh, hello,” I said, feeling a bit nervous under the billionaire’s strangely disapproving stare. “Ethan was just showing me some of his work.”

Without a word, Edrick slowly walked into the studio. His shoes clicked loudly on the concrete floor, echoing through the room’s tall ceilings. For several long moments, the Alpha billionaire slowly circled the studio and looked at all of the art with his hands in his pants pockets. I noticed that he wasn’t looking around with wonder, like I had when Ethan first turned on the light, but rather with an almost disgusted look on his face. He almost seemed repulsed by the art, which was surprising considering the fact that he had plenty of expensive artwork hanging in both his mansion in the mountains and his city penthouse.

Finally, Edrick turned to face me and slowly walked up to where Ethan and I stood, stopping in front of me. He hardly paid any mind to Ethan, as though his brother wasn’t even there.

“Ella is looking for you,” he said to me in a deep, irritated voice. “You should be with her.”

“I’m sorry,” I replied, feeling even more nervous as the Alpha billionaire towered over me, looking down at me with an aggravated look on his handsome face. “I thought she was with her grandmother.”

“She is,” Edrick said. His gaze finally slid over to Ethan. There was something dark about the way he looked at his own brother, as if he didn’t trust him. Meanwhile, Ethan only looked back at Edrick with an almost amused sparkle in his eyes, as if he had been experiencing this behavior from his brother for a long time already.

“Hello to you too, big brother,” Ethan said.

I sensed a palpable air of discomfort, and it involuntarily made me take a step backwards. “I’ll go back to Ella, now,” I said, heading nervously for the door. “Thank you for

on each other for a moment before I glanced over at Edrick, who seemed to look at me

come with you,” Edrick

last thing I saw before the door closed was Ethan’s face. He was smiling, almost knowingly, as if he could tell that there was something more between Edrick and I than

being a bit rough with me and his hard grip burned my bare arm, so I yanked my arm away and stopped in my tracks in

feeling my hands curl into fists at my sides. “I don’t appreciate you touching me like

moments, then back up at me.

“He’s your brother–”

is not

way his face flashed with anger as he said those words. We stood there silently in the dark corridor for a few moments. The ceiling, I was now realizing, was made of patterned glass, which allowed the moonlight to shine down onto the marble tiles and cast designs on our faces. It made Edrick look both incredibly handsome and incredibly frightening at the same time as he glared

else, he turned on his heel and headed toward

I don’t want you to leave my side for the rest of

one last glance over my shoulder at Ethan’s studio before jogging to catch up with Edrick. We briskly descended the stairs back to the main floor, then passed through the garden to make our way

milled about and sipped their drinks. I felt my face flush hot as I crossed the room right next to Edrick, wondering if he noticed

you are, darling,” Verona said, holding her hand out for Edrick. Her smiling eyes flickered over to me, as well as

pushing himself up out of

gave me a present.” On Ella’s wrist was a delicate silver bracelet with a small charm that had the letter “E” on it. Smiling, I took the little girl’s hand and inspected the

pretty,” I

bracelet,” Verona chimed in. “As Ella gets older, she can add

answer, Kelly ambled over to us from where she stood at a table nearby, champagne glass in hand. “Verona loves to spoil Ella,” she said. Her face was the perfect

my only granddaughter, after all,” Verona replied, squeezing Ella’s shoulders. “It’s my job to spoil

had a sour look on

and

seemed he didn’t want to answer, but also partially because the orchestra began to play again. I immediately recognized the song as one of my favorite classical pieces: Vivaldi’s Winter. Verona, seeing the smile on my face,