‘Have marital relations?’
Lili wanted to squirm. She put her glass down. ‘Well, not exactly. I’d be willing to discuss using IVF which I think would be appropriate given that we don’t know one another.’
She couldn’t read his expression and rushed on before he could say anything. ‘Maybe that would suit you better too? The marriage and having a baby, an heir, need not impact your life all that much at all? You could get on with your usual routine…’ And she’d remain a virgin. Possibly forever. That made her feel cold even though she couldn’t countenance the alternative.
‘I heard what you said about not wanting a child after…what happened. This way, you could fulfil your duty and have as little contact as you want.’
‘Hardly an ideal scenario for the child, is it?’
Lili squashed the yearning inside her for the kind of scenario that featured two loving parents. Two parents merely doubled the risk of not being loved. Better to have just one parent who adored you.
‘I would love this child and protect it above anything else.’
He asked, ‘It’s a lot to sacrifice just for a child.’
‘It’s not a sacrifice for me. My parents were wealthy but cold and unloving, obsessed with status. I’ve always wanted to have a child of my own, to do it differently. Give them a better experience than I had.’ Lili stopped. It was more than she’d revealed to anyone, ever.
* * *
Cassian stood up, towering over the table and then he walked over to the edge of the terrace where the rest of the garden was in darkness, leading down to the lake. He had to turn his back to this woman who was making him reel with her suggestion. Everything she was saying. He’d suspected what she wanted to talk about but she’d still surprised him. Maybe she really was someone who just wanted a quiet life. A child to love. Because of her own experiences.
And, he was no different really, wasn’t he a product of his experiences? Cassian lifted his wine glass and took a sip. His hand was trembling slightly. The thought of a child was something he’d managed to push down deep ever since he’d known about this requirement for keeping the villa in the family. Because it came loaded with terror. The thought of something so small, and vulnerable depending solely on him when he hadn’t managed to save his own family.
To his shame he knew this was probably at the heart of why he’d prevaricated over doing something about securing his Lake Como inheritance before now. The fact that he would have to have a family to do so.
But if what Lili was saying was true, then maybe, just maybe there was a chance he could contemplate it. If she could love the child and keep it safe. Clearly her experience with her parents made her want to lavish a child with the love she hadn’t had.
Cassian had had that. The love of two adored and adoring parents. They’d made him feel so safe and secure, like nothing bad would ever happen. But it had. The worst thing. So maybe someone like Lili would be a good mother, because she hadn’t had that experience. She wouldn’t fear the worst.
This child would be kept safe at the villa. Secure. And they would inherit the Corti legacy and Cassian would keep his distance, and they wouldn’t be tainted by his demons. The demons that still haunted him because he’d walked away from that crash without so much as a scratch. He’d survived an inferno and his family hadn’t and he still didn’t know why that was.
He turned around to face Lili again. ‘So, let me get this straight, you’re willing to sign a prenuptial agreement that gives you none of my fortune except the right to live here with our child. You’d be willing to go through IVF to have this child and you’d be happy for me to continue taking lovers?’
Lili nodded. ‘Yes. That’s why I couldn’t help listening when I heard you say how impossible it would be to find a woman who would be happy to stay here and who wouldn’t want more. That’s exactly what I want.’
He came back closer to the table shaking his head, genuinely curious about this woman now. ‘Forgive me but in spite of what you’ve said, I still find it hard to believe a young woman of…?’
‘Twenty-four.’
He continued. ‘Of twenty-four, would be prepared to give up her life for a marriage in name only and hide away with her child in a secluded Lake Como estate.’
CHAPTER THREE
LILI WANTED TOfade into the background, not be the focus of this man’s silvery-grey gaze, narrowed so intently on her face. Her very bare and unremarkable face. ‘I’m afraid it really is that simple. I want nothing more than peace and security. A child of my own.’
He sat down again, long legs spread under the table. Lili pulled hers together and slanted them away in case they touched.
‘And it would be your child too,’ she pointed out.
Something flashed across his face for a second but then disappeared. ‘Our child then.’
Lili’s heart beat a little faster.Our child.‘I really don’t need much. I could be happy here with our child.’
‘Your parents, you don’t see them?’
She shook her head. ‘We’re not in touch.’
‘Siblings?’
