Page 9 of Pregnancy Clause in Their Paper Marriage

‘What’s making you so uncertain?’

She finally looked up, and her expression was composed, even a little resigned. ‘The whole point of our marriage was to simplify things. To not involve emotions or—the physical side. To keep it...transactional.’

‘Has it really just been transactional?’ Christos countered. He knew he was skating on thin ice by simply asking the question, but he was willing to risk it...for now. ‘We’ve been friends, of a kind, haven’t we, Lana? Over the years?’ He’d like to think they had. They’d certainly enjoyed a camaraderie, of sorts, when their paths had crossed, at least. He enjoyed her company, and he was pretty sure she enjoyed his. They had interesting discussions; they made each other laugh. That, to him, was a pretty strong basis for a marriage...and a family. The family he knew he now wanted.

She looked startled, but then she smiled, her features softening, suffused with genuine warmth. When she looked like that...well, it was a kick to the gut. As well as to another region. ‘Yes,’ she agreed, her voice as warm as her expression. ‘We’re friends, Christos.’

‘So, we can stay friends.’ He made it sound simple, because it was, wasn’t it? At least, it could be. As first she’d spoken, and then he had, it had become clearer in his mind. Their marriage of convenience had had its benefits. Their baby of convenience could, too. It really could be that easy. ‘A marriage made on paper,’ he clarified, ‘with a pregnancy clause.’

She let out a startled laugh. ‘That’s some merger.’

The smile he gave her was certain rather than suggestive, even as his blood heated and his mind raced with provocative images he did his best to banish—for now. ‘Exactly.’

‘Christos...’ She was blushing again, shaking her head, shifting in her seat, responding to him in a way he loved to see. ‘Yes, we’re friends,’ she stated. ‘But I told you before that sex complicates things, and I still believe that. Emotions become involved. Feelings get hurt.’

‘Yes, when there are certain expectations,’ he agreed, even as he wondered when that had happened to her. Her romantic history was completely unknown to him, but he’d certainly been on the wrong side of that bargain himself, in the past. ‘But we know what we do and don’t want with this, Lana. We want friendship. Companionship. And frankly, the physical side of things would not go amiss, as far as I’m concerned.’

‘I doubt you’ve been missing that,’ she returned dryly. ‘With your penthouse suite on standby.’

Little did she know. He’d enlighten her at some point, but he wasn’t about to freak her out with that information now. ‘I mean it.’

She drew a quick, steadying breath. ‘All right, so let me hear your proposal. Three points regarding...?’ She trailed off expectantly, eyebrows raised, lips pursed.

Christos met her hesitant gaze with a certain one of his own. He might not have worked out all the details or scoured the fine print, but he was sure about this. About them. ‘Here they are,’ he told her. ‘One, we try for a baby the usual way. Two, we raise him or her together. Three, we stay friends and keep love and all its entanglements out of it. For ever.’

Her lips parted and for a second she didn’t speak. ‘Can it be that easy?’ she finally wondered out loud, sounding almost hopeful.

‘It can be if we want it to be,’ he replied firmly. He truly believed it. ‘You haven’t fallen in love with me for the last three years, and I haven’t fallen in love with you.’ Even if sometimes he’d wondered if hecould. The glossy, iron-willed woman he’d come to know was someone he respected and admired, but not someone, he’d felt, he could ever love...but was that all there was to Lana? He’d sensed something tender underneath, but he’d never tried to probe those depths...and he wouldn’t now. Just like Lana, he wasn’t interested in loving anyone, except their baby. A parent’s love for their child...that felt simple. Easy. Right.

‘That might be, but it’s not as if we’ve spent a ton of time together,’ Lana protested, which was true enough. They’d kept separate houses throughout their marriage, although they had guest rooms in each other’s homes, which they used on occasion. They appeared together frequently enough not to raise eyebrows or make people wonder—more in the beginning, less so three years on. But they’d never really hung out all that much, or shared real confidences, or spent more than an afternoon, maybe an evening, in each other’s presence.

‘That’s true,’ Christos acknowledged, ‘but don’t you think you would have fallen in love with me already, if you were going to?’

She let out a reluctant laugh. ‘Maybe.’

All right, he wasn’t going to let that one hurt. It wasn’t as if he wanted Lana to fall in love with him. Quite the opposite.

‘I don’t understand why you suddenly want a baby so much, Christos,’ she said quietly. ‘When you never did before.’

He shrugged, knowing he would struggle to explain the depth of feeling that had come upon him so suddenly. ‘Like you, my biological clock started ticking, I suppose. I didn’t realise it until you said something.’

She let out a little laugh. ‘Men don’t have biological clocks.’

‘Now that’s just sexist,’ he replied, smiling. ‘Men can have the desire for children the same way—well, almost the same way—women do. I thought I didn’t want to have children because—well, because I didn’t want to mess a child up. I still don’t.’ He smiled wryly, although admitting that much made him feel far too vulnerable. He definitely wasn’t going to go any farther with that. ‘When you said you wanted my baby, I realised I wanted that, too. I wantedyouto have my child.’

He let the words linger, so she could absorb the import, theintentof them, because he meant every word. Already he was imagining it, in a way he hadn’t let himself in three long years. Her body pliant and willing under his, her long, golden limbs splayed and open, handfuls of her sun-kissed hair coursing between his fingers, her lips parted, eyes dazed with desire...

He shut down that line of thought very quickly, before things got out of hand. He shifted in his seat to ease the ache that had started to throb in his groin. Besides, it wasn’t just about the sex. He really did want a family. He hadn’t expected to want that, hadn’t let himself even think about it, not after the disaster he’d made of his own family...but having Lana tell him she wanted a baby had suddenly blown open a door in his mind and heart he’d kept firmly locked for twenty years. A baby of his own, a child they could both love, a family they could create. A new start.

He knew Lana could be coolly pragmatic about most things, but he believed she’d be a good mother. Competent, assured, affectionate, all in, the way she was about everything she cared about. Yes, he was definitely sure about this.

And so, enough with the back and forth, he decided. He’d made his position clear, and frankly he felt it was an offer neither of them should refuse.

‘Well, Lana?’ he asked, eyebrows raised in gentle challenge. ‘What do you say? How about it? Are we going to do this?’

CHAPTER FOUR

LANASTOODBYthe floor-to-ceiling window of her corner office, its view of Rockefeller Plaza beneath her unseeing gaze. She’d paid a fortune for this office, and mainly for the view, but she was blind to it now because all she could think about—all she could see—was Christos Diakos. Her husband.