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He knehat his responseslowly for emphasis ‘I will support you and our child But in return I want you toAlessandra’s hair in place had been digging into her scalp all day, a h for her to yank it out She got to her feet, swiping fallen hair off her face
For ato find the English she’d spoken like a native since early childhood ‘I know this is a shock for you I know, okay? Buther hardest not to let panic set in ‘Please, don’t say anything you’ll regret in thewhen you look at the situation with fresh eyes’
‘The nant’
‘And I still won’t beyou’
‘Alessandra’ He bit back his rising voice ‘Alessandra, think about it This is the obvious solution Marriage will give legitimacy to our child’
‘This isn’t the nineteenth century There’s no stigma to children born outside of wedlock’
His eyes swirled with an emotion she didn’t understand ‘Children need and deserve two parents You know that as well as I do’
One parent would have been nice in her case, she thought bitterly Yes, her father was still alive, but he’d never been a real father to her He’d abandoned her almost froambled and drunk away their home and had foisted Rocco and her into the care of his elderly father
She felt as if she’d been blindsided Marriage was the last thing she’d expected Christian to suggest The most she’d hoped for was public support for her and their child, and even that had felt like a pipe drea with the commitment-phobic Christian Markos He made Casanova look like aed her and the baby’s future with Christian flitting in and out when it suited him She’d even prepared her ‘please don’t introduce our child to a succession of aunties’ speech In her head she’d prepared for just about every iinable scenario Apart froe
‘Christian, please, be realistic Marriage is’
‘So her gaze with steady eyes
How clearly she reether, the night their baby had been conceived Fools had been just one of the ly enteredofneither of us wants’
He finished his drink with a gri in the conventional sense,to destroy either of our drea coe?’
‘Marriage will legitinancy and avert any scandal The press will still swarle will be softer towards you’
‘Accepting paternity will have the same effect At thiselse can be arranged between us later There’s plenty of tied ‘You tellto be a father and that you want est support I can—e—you dismiss it out of hand’
‘What do you need?’ she asked, now thoroughly confused ‘What will you get out of us ?’
‘The chance to be a father,’ he answered with a shrug ‘I’ve built up a multi-billion-dollar business and have no one to pass it to’