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“Didn’t,” he corrected “I’ve come to accept, perhaps welcome, the inevitability”

She narrowed her eyes “Since Monday?”

“Since o, there’d been a gentleness in his tone, along with persistence and a slight cajoling tease Now there was a chill “He’s not returning to the business I’ll be damned if I’ll allow Noah to break apart e’ve spent two hundred years building”

“You need to find someone else,” she protested

“You’d be a very wealthy woman”

At what cost? She understood the allure of financial stability, but for her, the devastation of falling for a man who didn’t love her wasn’t worth the risk “I’e for your convenience”

“I wouldn’t expect you to give up your career You’ve built a well-respected business, and I understand that you enjoy it There would be a stipulation that you already know about We would need to have children I’d promise to be involved, and we could have a nanny Adoption is a possibility, if that was a decision we ether But if ant to have our oe could stop after one if you find pregnancy doesn’t agree with you”

A baby? She’d never allowed herself to drea a chance on a relationship But the idea of having a child with Rafe… Her heart clutched, as if she’d just gone over the first exhilarating downhill on a roller coaster

“I will be talking tothe archaic terland can change rules for thehi “I’ll adnant” The earlier coldness had receded fro warmth that she yearned to surrender to

In order to ree of a child with eyes as startling as Rafe’s

“Under what terms will you walk down the aisle toward me?”

“None Rafe… No I can’t”

“Won’t,” he challenged

“I agree we have che

“And I will be devoted to you So we’ve sorted out the first two C’s”

“We don’t knoe’re compatible”