Page 28 of Signed, Sealed, Married

‘Hardly dwindling!’

‘Poorly managed then.’

His stare challenged her to disagree. But what was the point? Some major errors at exactly the wrong time had undone them.

‘You’re just in it for the profit?’

‘I wouldn’t take on a business unless I knew I could make a profit from it.’

Which didn’t answer her question. Gisèle sensed his prevarication was significant.Elite, he’d said. Is that what drew him? Did he want the company as proof of success on another level?

Surely not. Everyone knew Adam Wilde had made it. He had success, wealth and all the power he could want.

Yet the unanswered question niggled.

‘If you turn to the shorter contract...’

Gisèle forgot her curiosity when she started reading their private contract. The one in which she promised to marry him within five weeks.

Five weeks! Panic grabbed her throat and made her heart stutter.

There was also a penalty clause that would cost her more than she got from the sale of Fontaine’s, more than she could hope to raise from any other sources, if she reneged.

Pain grabbed her chest as her lungs tightened. The terms were Draconian but clear. If she signed this she’dhaveto marry him.

The fact that he’d provide her with an outrageously generous stipend on top of her salary, while they were married, couldn’t negate their power imbalance.

She seethed at being put in this position.

He’d realised she’d do whatever it took to preserve her family legacy and used that to his advantage. The contract even specified a minimum number of public events they’d attend each month or host together, at his discretion! The man left nothing to chance.

He’s buying your time. Your presence.

At least there’d be no misunderstandings about sharing her body!

He’d even included a promise of strict confidentiality about the nature of their relationship—her condition that no one know the marriage wasn’t real. It was the one saving grace in the whole appalling document.

Rapidly she flicked through the clauses listing all the assets she wouldn’t have a claim to, should they divorce.Whenthey divorced, she silently amended. But why quibble over that when there was so much else to concern her?

‘This doesn’t set an end date. Just that we’ll live together,’ she cleared her throat, ‘for a minimum of eighteen months.’

Adam shrugged. ‘That gives us time to review the situation.’ When she didn’t respond his eyes narrowed as if with displeasure. ‘If you don’t like our arrangement then, you can file for divorce.’

Eighteen months. It seemed a lifetime.

‘This lists penalties if I renege on the deal. What about you? If we’re seen...courting publicly, but don’t marry, the press will have a field day.’

She shuddered, imagining the stories, again, about her supposed inadequacies.

‘I won’t renege. I’m the one who wants this!’

‘Nevertheless. I demand a significant penalty if you withdraw.’

It seemed crazy to say it, when she abhorred the idea of marrying him. But she couldn’t sign this as it was. He needed to treat her as an equal party.

‘Very well.’ He scrawled something on his copy and passed it to her. ‘Will this do?’

It stated that if he reneged on the wedding he’d pay multiple millions of euros within seven days.

---