Page 125 of The Billionaire's Demand

‘You mean, how we were before? You want it to go back to the way it was before that morning?’

‘Yes,’ he said with a smile, then shook his head. ‘No.’ He dragged a hand through his hair. ‘I am terrible at this.’

Libby waited patiently.

‘I want to live with you, properly. As husband and wife.’

Beneath the table, Libby fidgeted her hands in her lap. It was so close to what she wanted, but still she was careful, cautious, measured.

‘Why?’ she asked simply, because there could be a dozen reasons for his change of heart. Worry about her health, protectiveness of the baby, a pragmatic preference to be near to one another for the late stages of the pregnancy. None of which equated to the happy-ever-after Libby wanted.

‘Why do you think?’

‘I don’t know, and it’s important to understand exactly what you’re saying,’ she murmured. ‘I need to manage my own expectations for this.’

‘I think you might be right,’ he said slowly, carefully.

Simply for something to do, Libby reached out and took an egg roll, placed it on her plate but then just stared at it.

‘I think there might be something fated about our meeting.’

Her heart leaped into her throat.

‘Let me show you something,’ he said quietly, reaching into his pocket and removing a necklace—a chain with a simple pendant on it. He stared at it a moment, his expression impossible to interpret. ‘It’s the only thing of my parents’ that I possess. It was my mother’s. I don’t remember her, or him. As I told you, they died when I was very young. This is all I was left.’ He moved it from one hand to the other, then handed it over to Libby.

She turned it over to see cursive script on the back, in Spanish. ‘What does it say?’

‘It’s a translation of an old English poem, about the value of living every moment of every day, the importance of not letting opportunities pass one by.’

Libby read the Spanish words but heard Raul’s translation, then passed the necklace back to him, still doing her best to be guarded with her heart, even when she was starting to hope against hope that her wildest dreams were coming true.

‘You were right about me,’ he said. ‘About my childhood, about how it shaped me. I was made to feel worthless by everyone in my life until I met Maria and Pedro, and even them I kept at arm’s length. Every relationship in my life is transactional. I don’t have friendships that are more than skin-deep. I am careful not to get close to anyone. And with you, it felt even more imperative to maintain those boundaries because, from the very first meeting, I knew on some level that you were a threat to how I live my life. That you could break down my boundaries if you tried to. I have done my best to control this, but I can’t.’

Libby’s eyes stung.

‘I told myself I walked away from this to protect you, but the truth is, I wanted to protect myself. You were offering me your love, something I wanted so fiercely that I knew if anything happened, and you stopped loving me, it would be the worst pain I’d ever known. I have never wanted anything like I have this.’ He waved a hand around the apartment.

‘So you left.’

‘But it was too late,’ he said. ‘The damage is done. You love me, and that means something.’

‘It doesn’t have to,’ she whispered, not wanting him to come back because he pitied her or was grateful to her.

‘It means everything,’ he clarified. ‘Even if it is only for now, even if this is temporary, I have to be here, to live this with you. I have to love you back, because I’ve come to realise there is no alternative. Real love cannot be controlled, as it turns out, no matter how determined you are.’

Libby’s heart soared now, given freedom by the hope she’d finally allowed to rein in her body.

‘Yes,’ she whispered, though what question she was answering she couldn’t say. But somehow she needed him to know she agreed, she approved, that she understood.

His eyes scanned her face. ‘I’m not going to be good at this.’

Libby’s laugh was tremulous as she stood, coming around the table and moving to sit in Raul’s lap. ‘I can live with that.’

‘I do love you,’ he said. ‘I cannot let you—this opportunity I have somehow been given—slip through my fingers. You are my fate, my all.’ He stared at her, then shrugged. ‘I just... love you.’

‘I thought so.’ She smiled serenely.

‘How on earth could you have that kind of faith in me?’

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