Raphael rolled off of Flicka and gathered her against his chest, holding her and running his lipsover her forehead and hairline. “I’ll kill him. I swear to God, this time I’ll kill Pierre Grimaldi. What the hell did he say to you?”
She contracted inward, burying her face against his chest. “He had an offer.”
“Say no. I’ll tell him no. I’ll shove it down his throat.”
“He’s going to keep coming after me. He’s not going to stop until I do something to make him stop.”
“I’ll kill him. I’llbe gone a few days.”
“He said that if I went back to him, that we’d live separate lives but that I had to have two babies for him. He said that, in the contract, I wouldn’t be allowed to have children with anyone else. It’s like he would own my body. He would force me to have children and only his children. I’m scared, and I hate him.”
Raphael’s arms tightened around her. He growled, “I willkill him this time.”
“You can’t, but you can get me pregnant. I’ll stop taking those pills tonight. If I’m pregnant, it’s like I’ve broken the contract before I’ve even signed it. He’ll let me go. He’ll have to.”
“I can think of several legal ways to circumvent that. He could not recognize your first child as legitimate. He could just exclude your first child, whether or not he recognized them.”
“But he won’t. It wouldlookbad. Everything is how thingslookwith him. If I were pregnant by someone else, he would leave me alone.”
Raphael stroked her hair, and he rested his leg over hers. “Having a child with someone means that you have a bond with them that never goes away. Even with someone like Gretchen who took her first chance to flee and not have anything to do with Alina, if shewanted to, she could come after me legally. She could try to take Alina away from me. She could force me to live in the same state as her so she could have visitation rights.”
“But it would be you,” Flicka said, trying to worm closer to his warm chest.
“Yes, but you don’t want that,” he said. “We’ve talked about this. You don’t want children, and that’s your decision. It’s your body no matterwhat that asshole thinks. His opinion is not as important as your right to control what happens to your own body.”
She looked up, her chin rubbing his bare chest.
He was looking down at her from where his head lay on the pillow. He didn’t look angry anymore, or worried. The slow blink of his gray eyes and the fullness of his lips looked pensive, maybe even wistful, maybe sad.
Flicka struggledup the bed and laid her head on the other pillow. She looked straight into his pale eyes. “I want to.”
He stroked down her arm and ended up holding both her hands. “It’s forever. It’s not just until the child is five or ten or eighteen, though I suppose it legally ends when the child is eighteen. But it’s forever. A child binds you together forever.”
“And I don’t want that with Pierre,” shesaid. “I don’t want him to control my body, and I don’t want to be tied to him forever. I want to put him in my past and never think about him again.”
He held her hands in his. “You don’t want to be tied to anyone like that until you’re ready,unlessyou’re ready to have a child and spend the rest of your life with them.”
Flicka sucked in a deep breath and opened her soul. “I want that withyou.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I’ve always wanted that with you. Ever since London. And it feels like I’ve wanted it my whole life. I just didn’t want it with anyone else, and I thought you were gone.”
For a moment, Raphael breathed, slowly taking in air and watching her eyes.
Then, still holding her hands, he reached backward with his leg and slid off the edge of the bed. His belt buckle caughton the sheet and tugged it, sliding it underneath Flicka.
Horror swept through her that he was going to literally walk away from heragain.
Instead, Raphael used her hands to pull her to sitting on the edge of the bed, and he bent, balancing on one knee. Light from the tiny nightlight behind her glimmered on his bare chest and the strong bone of his jaw.
He said, “Then marry me.”
Oh, goodLord.He wasn’t running.He was proposing.
“But that would take months or a year,” Flicka said. “Your mother is still shopping churches and venues for us. I haven’t even begun to pick out flowers or colors. And really, the wedding planning was to pacify her so she’d like me.”
“If you want to bind us together for all our lives—and I want that so very much—then we should be married.” Raphael’svoice was pitched low as he looked straight into her eyes, dead serious. “I know it’s too soon. I know you should have more time to deal with the divorce and all that has happened to you. I love you. I’ve told you that, but I wasn’t sure you wanted to hear it. I love you desperately. I want to be with you for the rest of our lives.”
