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“No,” Emmie said. Looking up at the pergola’s greenery and white blooms, she sighed with a wistful smile. “You are who you are.”
Theo had always tried to take pride in that, so why did her words make him feel like he’d somehow let her down? Worse—like he’d lethimselfdown?
Stubbornly, he pushed the feeling aside. “So you’re trying to punish me for being practical and logical?You, of all people? Because that’s all a prenup is. A logistical plan.”
“Why would I punish you for that?” she agreed sardonically. Dappled sunlight caught gold and strawberry glints in her dark blond hair. “I love that you’re already planning our divorce.”
He ground his teeth. “I’m not...” Then he realized that a prenuptial agreement was, by definition, laying the groundwork for their divorce. He took a breath. “You must see that any man in my position has no choice but to ask for this. I’d be a fool otherwise.”
“And you’re not a fool.”
“Exactly.”
“Because you earned your money the hard way, all on your own.”
“Yes.”
“And it wouldn’t be fair if you were forced to shareyourmoney with some nobody ex-wife, who’d done absolutely nothing but raise your child.”
“Uh...” he said, sensing danger. He changed tactics. “So you’re just trying to delay signing it? By coming up with a crazy idea of celibacy that would only hurt us both?”
“I’m not delaying anything. I’ll sign right now.” Brushing through the pages, she marked it up with her pen and handed it to him. “Here. Call in Wilson to witness.”
Looking down, Theo saw she’d crossed out the clause that would have paid her millions in any divorce caused by his adultery. “You can’t be...” As he read further, his eyes widened. He looked up triumphantly. “You made a mistake.”
“Did I?”
“You forgot to cross out the same penalty ifyoucheat on me.” He snorted. “You can’t mean that you’d encourage me to sleep with every woman in the world with no problem, while if you so much as kiss another man, I could divorce you and you wouldn’t get a penny, not even if we’d been married thirty years. How would that be fair?”
“It wasn’t a mistake,” she said serenely.
“What?”
Emmie shrugged. “I’m not going to cheat on you. For me, marriage vows are sacred.”
Insinuating that they weren’t sacred for him? He ground his teeth. “So let me get this straight. You’re telling me to sleep around, while you’re planning to remain chaste as a virgin for the rest of your life.”
Her cool violet eyes met his. “For the rest of my life.”
Theo leaned forward in his chair, furious.
“Why, Emmie?” he ground out. “Tell me why.”
She looked down at her clasped hands in the lap of her white sundress, resting close to the swell of her belly. “I don’t have to explain.”
“You’re wrong. I deserve to know.” He licked his dry lips. “It can’t be...can’t...”
It couldn’t be that she didn’t want him.
Could it?
A hot breeze blew across the rooftop terrace, ruffling the papers on the table, swaying the flowers and vines woven above. Several pages of the prenup broke free from the paper clip and scuttered across the terrace. Rising, he went to pick them up.
All he could think about was their kiss that morning, how he’d felt her respond in his arms, rising like the center of a storm.
And in Rio—
After weeks of work closing a development deal, he and Emmie had both been exhausted. When she’d sighed that they never had time to see anything but the job site and conference rooms in the cities they visited, Theo had decided to prove her wrong. So after they’d closed the deal, he’d called in a favor and taken her to Mount Corcovado above the city after the site was officially closed for the night. The two of them were alone at the base of Rio’s most famous symbol, the massive Cristo Redentor statue, lit up in the darkness.
