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“Physical attraction is not a good basis for a marriage,” she mumbled, her face now fiery.

“It seems like a very good basis to me, along with a child we can love and raise together,” he replied. “A very good basis, indeed. And more than physical attraction,” he added, “I think we like each other. As people.” He eyed her steadily, although saying as much had opened up an uncomfortable vulnerability inside him. The thought of her denying it hurt way more than he liked to acknowledge. “I admit,” he continued, “we don’t know each other very well yet, but I have…enjoyed spending time with you, and dare I say it, I believe you could say the same of me.”

Rose stared at him for a long moment before she let out a huff of breath. “All right, fine, maybe,” she said finally, sounding reluctant to admit as much, “but Christos, that’s still not enough.”

“It’s more, a lot more, than maybe even most people have,” he countered. “And besides that…” He paused, wanting to frame this in the right way. “It would be good for this baby. Wouldn’t it? A stable home? Security, loving family, a future? Isn’t what’s best for this child the most important thing to consider for both of us?”

Rose still looked incredulous, but Christos thought he was starting to get to her. She nibbled her lip, looking torn, and when she shook her head, it was with far less vigor. “What would your mother think about this?” she asked on a huff of breath. “Considering she wanted to buy my baby and put me out of the way?”

“She doesn’t want you out of the way, Rose,” he corrected her swiftly. “She doesn’t even know you. What she has wanted was your child in the way. That’s all. She was thinking only of the baby. I think she’d be pleased by this turn of events.”

Rose shook her head again, more resolutely this time. “I can’t believe we’re still talking about this.”

“And I can’t believe we haven’t talked about it before,” Christos countered. “It seems obvious to me. Except…” He paused, knowing he had to say it, even though each word felt like a shard of broken glass in his mouth. “You would not, of course, be able to have other children. That would be a sacrifice you would need to be willing to make, and I’m very sorry for it.”

“Oh, Christos.” Rose shook her head. “Of all the… That’s not something that would be an issue. I wouldn’t…” Briefly she closed her eyes. “Okay, let me just put this out there,” she said, color flooding into her pale cheeks as she cast her gaze to the ceiling. “The sacrifice I’m not willing to make is marrying someone who doesn’t…doesn’t love me. Who’s only doing it for…expediency.”

She opened her eyes to stare at him starkly, her lips trembling, her vulnerability on full display. “I’ve been part of a family where I wasn’t wanted, and I hated the way it made me feel, every single day. Like I wasn’t lovable. Like I was just an inconvenience, an irritant. And the thought of feeling that way again, all the time?” She bit her lip hard. “I can’t do it,” she whispered. “I just can’t. Even if it’s the best thing for the baby. It would be the worst thing for me.”

Christos was silent for a long moment, knowing that admitting so much had cost her. He had the urge to take her in his arms, but she was afraid she would resist. “Rose,” he said quietly, “you would be neither an inconvenience nor an irritant, I promise you.”

“But there wouldn’t be love,” she replied, her voice still wobbling. “And I admit, I want the fairy tale. Not all this…” She flung a hand wide, to encompass the whole estate, his whole world. “Not the castle or the prince or the glitz and glamour or any of it. Just…love.” She cradled her bump with one slender hand. “That’s why I went down this route. Because I was tired of being alone, of feeling…unloved.” A shaky laugh escaped her. “And to enter into a marriage that has no love in it…to face that kind of rejection again…” She shook her head, her eyes glassy with unshed tears. “I can’t do it. I can’t do that to myself.”

Christos knew she had a painful history behind those broken words, and he wanted to respect her honesty as well as offer his own.

“I am not,” he finally said slowly, choosing his words with care, thinking through each one before he spoke it, “suggesting a completely loveless marriage.”

Her eyes widened, her lips parting, but no sound came out. Christos felt himself flush, feeling as if he’d revealed more than he’d meant to. “Only that,” he continued, his tone turning a little clipped, “the basis we have now, of affection and attraction and a shared hope for this child, is enough of a foundation for a good marriage. What happens in the future remains to be seen, but love is, perhaps, something that can grow, with time and effort and getting to know one another.” He was not opposed to loving Rose, although admittedly he balked at the thought of loving someone who did not love him back, which was certainly a possibility. They would both be taking a gamble not just with their lives but their hearts.

“And do you think it will?” Rose asked, her voice soft with what sounded like sympathy. “Grow?” Inwardly Christos cringed, like he’d revealed a need that he absolutely had not meant to. This was about Rose and her need to feel loved. Not him.

* * *

“I don’t think it’s some sort of magic pill,” he replied a little too sharply. “Love is just a word, and what I am talking about is action. Building something together. Making it work. That is more important to me than some—some fairy-tale feeling.”

Rose blinked, and Christos released a long, low breath. “I’m not dismissing it, either,” he continued, knowing he needed to find some balance they could both believe in. “But what even is love?” he asked. “Is it a flimsy emotion that you sometimes feel and sometimes don’t, or is it what you put into practice, day in and day out, even when it’s hard or it hurts?” He blew out a breath, knowing he needed to explain more. “Tiana…the woman I was engaged to…she said she loved me. To her, I think, it was just a feeling, and it came with all the trappings of the life she could expect, the luxury and the privilege. I’m not interested in chasing some feeling.” He met Rose’s gaze levelly, determined to put the conversation back on a sensible footing. “I’m interested in doing what is best for this baby, and living that out, day by day. And I would hope that is what you are interested in, too.”

* * *

Rose stared at Christos, this man who had admitted so much and clearly had such a strong moral compass guiding his every thought and word. She admired it, him, and yet right now she didn’t know whether they were talking about a sacred vow or a business merger. Maybe both. As for love? She felt like she didn’t even know what it was anymore. A flimsy fairy-tale feeling, as Christos had said, or a commitment to action?

“Rose?” he prompted, his tone gentling. She blew out a breath as she turned away from him, her mind still reeling from everything he’d said, everything she’d learned. Too much had happened too quickly, and while she knew she wasn’t going to hightail it out of here as she’d been intending mere minutes ago, she wasn’t about to say I do, either. Not by a long shot.

“Christos… I am not going to agree to marry you right now,” she told him shakily, doing her best to firm her voice along with her resolve. “That is life’s biggest decision, and I can’t rush into it, even if you make a pretty compelling argument.” She turned around, taking in his blazing eyes, his taut body. He was a beautiful man, and more importantly, despite the bumps along this strange and winding road, she knew he was a good man. “Can we just…shelve it for a little while?” she asked, a pleading note in her voice. “You invited me here to get to know you, your family, this place. Can we just…do that, for a little while, at least?” She tried for a smile, a laugh, but only managed the first. “You said you were going to give me a tour of the estate?”

Christos stared at her for a taut moment. Then he smiled faintly, his eyes creasing in a way that was already becoming familiar. “So I did,” he replied, a concession. “There’s time before lunch…” He gave a wry grimace. “If you’re still willing to meet my mother then, that is.”

“I think I have to be,” Rose replied, “if she’s willing to meet me.” She didn’t know how she felt about meeting the woman who wanted to buy her baby, but for Christos’s sake, for her baby’s sake, she was willing to give her a chance.

“She is, of course,” Christos said quickly. “Rose…please don’t let that one conversation color your perception of her. It is not who she is.”

“Well, it’s kind of hard for it not to,” Rose replied, not really joking, “but I’ll try.” She straightened, smiling, wanting to move past that particular quagmire. “But as for now, how about that tour?”

“Very well.” He nodded, accepting, his expression somber, although there was a hint of a smile in his eyes that Rose liked. He was such a serious man, a man with the weight of the world or at least his family’s world on his shoulders, and if she could lighten it just a little…well, that felt like a job worth doing. That, in its own way, was a kind of love.

It was food for thought as Christos offered his arm and they strolled out into the summer’s day.

He took her through the magnificent gardens that tumbled right down to the lake, a riot of color and blossom, and then along the path that ran by the shoreline, the lake stretching out before them in sparkling blue. He’d started off by giving her the potted history of the Amanti family, from Renaissance-era nobility to the aristocracy of the eighteenth century, but after a few minutes, her mind already stuffed full of various places and names, Rose shook her head.