Page 51 of The Billionaire's Accidental Legacy

“Well, what about you? Did you ever think you would get married?”

“No. I very much intended not to. But my father didn’t live to see the day, so I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.”

“Indeed. How nice to be a cloud.”

“A sexy cloud.”

“A cloud that you aren’t going to touch.”

She didn’t know why his compliments affected her. Men had always called her beautiful. Sexy. It didn’t mean anything to her because they didn’t.

And that right there was a troubling revelation. Ewan was a playboy. He was used to complimenting women. He was accustomed to flattering them. It meant nothing. It meantnothing.

And she meant just as little. He wanted to protect the baby.

But still... No one had ever been protective of her other than her sister. And they were more protective of one another.

But the sensation of wanting someone to protect her, even if it was because she was a vessel for the actual main attraction... It did something to her. She didn’t want to admit it, but it did.

This was just so damned difficult. And complex.

But she was smart. She hadn’t gotten this far being emotional, and she wasn’t going to start now.

You’re going to have to be something for the baby.

Well, yes. But she had months to figure that out. So... She would take months.

But she only had two weeks to think about the wedding. And the fact that she was going to be a bride. She only hoped that she had the wits necessary to withstand him. She could make her brain work in her favor. She forgot nothing. And while she couldn’t convince herself anymore that he was simply a vacuous playboy—there was more to him than that—it was the part he chose to play.

If there was one thing she understood it was that the commitment to a role could be stronger than the truth about someone’s whole personality.

She knew because she lived it.

She knew because it was her.

And when the wedding came around, she would be smart. And when they got married, she would remember that it was only until she and the baby were safe.

Because they had created this accidental child together. And they would protect her together. She looked at him, and suddenly she felt resolved. Like the two of them might have something deeply in common.

Neither one of them had been protected by the people who should’ve protected them most.

And together, they would not allow the same fate to befall their child.

On that, they could agree. No matter what.

“Two weeks,” she said finally.

“And it’s going to be a hell of a party.”

“Great,” she said. “I love a spectacle.” Though usually, she liked a spectacle because it was distracting from the con. And this was indeed a con, but she wasn’t entirely sure it was a con designed in her favor.

But the thought of a con at least made her heart beat a little bit faster. It was a relief to have her heart doing that over something other than Ewan.

CHAPTER NINE

THEANNOUNCEMENTHADcreated a splash in world headlines, just as he had predicted that it would. Just as he had known it had to. But there was one more thing he felt he needed to see to before he would feel good about the direction they were taking things. Yes, he had private investigators working to find what evidence was required to take her father down. But the thing about Ewan was he was a man who did not intimidate easily. Or at all. When you were raised by the very devil, what could frighten you?

He shut the image out of a limp blue baby.

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