Page 84 of The Billionaire's Demand

‘A prenuptial agreement?’ he prompted.

‘Yes, exactly,’ she agreed quickly. ‘If something happened, and it might—we don’t know each other well enough to just trust blindly—and our marriage ended, and even ended badly, I would need to know that I would continue to be...looked after. That our baby would be looked after.’

His nostrils flared and the look on his face showed how offended he was by her suggestion. Tone stiff, he said curtly, ‘Naturally.’

‘I beg your pardon, but it’s not “natural”,’ she insisted. ‘Plenty of women get the raw end of the deal, particularly in marriages like this—where one person enters into it with so much more.’

He crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I will ensure you are taken care of, no matter what.’

She bit into her lower lip. ‘It’s not for my sake but the baby’s,’ she said, troubled by these negotiations even when she acknowledged their necessity. ‘There should be a trust fund or something, set up for them. You don’t know how you’ll feel in five years, or ten, nor whom you might end up married to next and what they might ask you to do. I want this child’s future to be inviolable if I do this.’

‘A moment ago you were prepared to give up any claim whatsoever to my wealth,’ he pointed out.

‘Yes.’ She nodded. ‘But if I marry you, our baby will get used to living a certain way. I don’t want him or her to have to face the prospect of losing that. Stability is important.’

‘Fine.’

She couldn’t tell if he believed her point was valid, but she took his agreement regardless.

‘Describe what our marriage will be like,’ she said after a beat, heat blooming in her cheeks.

‘In what context?’

He was really going to make this awkward for her, wasn’t he?

‘Obviously, it won’t be a real marriage, in the sense of...sex.’ She stumbled over the last word in her statement. ‘Contrary to whatever opinion you might have formed of me after that day, I’m not generally into meaningless encounters.’

A muscle throbbed in his jaw but otherwise he didn’t react.

‘You, on the other hand,’ she continued a little breathily, ‘presumably are.’

He lifted one thick dark brow and even though his expression didn’t change she had the strangest feeling he was laughing at her.

‘Go on.’

‘I wouldn’t expect that to change—’ she sniffed ‘—but I would require your absolute discretion.’

His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.

‘There are more kinds of insecurity than financial to worry about. I wouldn’t want our child to suspect our marriage was anything other than...happy.’

‘Fine.’

‘To which end, we would both need to agree to treat one another with respect,’ she said, thinking quickly. ‘And to get to know one another well enough to be...’ She searched for the right word.

‘Friends?’ he prompted, but his voice was loaded with cynicism.

‘What’s wrong with that?’

Raul looked at her for a long time, so long that Libby’s chest felt as though it were going to explode from the pressure being exerted on her.

‘We will get to know each other,’ he said finally. ‘Within reason.’

She frowned. ‘What does that mean?’

‘This is not an audition for a real marriage,’ he said coldly. ‘While we should be respectful and even friendly, it is important not to ever lose sight of why we are doing this. I will not fall in love with you, Libby, so please be realistic in your expectations. This is only for our child, okay?’

Her lips parted on a groundswell of shock. ‘Wow, ego much?’

---