AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh. They were facing reality, were they? How disappointing.
“Socially,” she replied. “She’ll have you cut from invite lists to galas and events.”
“I’ll go anyway.” He dismissed her reply with a shrug.
A sunny ball of hope broke open in her chest, then a shadow moved across it.
“Humbolt is the greater threat. He’s spent twenty years using my father’s money to curry business connections and political favors. He has a lot of sway when he wants to use it. God, I hate him.” She shoved her legs out straight as though she could kick that man out of her life once and for all. And now he was trying to marry her off to that insipid—
She sucked in a breath of realization and sat up, curling her legs beneath her so she knelt as she faced Rafael. She set her hand on the white velvet of the robe that coated his strong shoulder.
His cheek ticked in awareness that she had let the sheet drop and was naked before him, but his gaze remained locked with hers.
“Yes?”
“You and I should marry.” She was shocked that such words spilled from her lips, but they felt right.
“Oh?” He used the excuse of leaning to pick up his mug to force her hand to fall away. “I was planning to wait until after I turned thirty-five.”
“How old are you now?”
“Twenty-nine. But I have hundreds of goals ahead of me before I settle down. Thousands. Billions to acquire,” he added with dry significance.
“I don’t want to marry, either.” She dragged the sheet in front of her, but stayed kneeling on the bed, gaze turned inward while she spoke her thoughts aloud. “When Humbolt realized I was coming up to twenty-four, he also realized that puts me a year away from taking control of my trust. I could have taken the reins sooner by marrying anytime, but I couldn’t stand the idea of a husband. I still don’t want one, but Humbolt has handpicked this son of his crony. He thinks this dolt will keep me in line and allow him continued access to my fortune. Mother wants everything done properly, of course. A year-long engagement and all that nonsense.”
“This isn’t the Dark Ages. Tell them no and wait it out,” Rafael suggested as though it was just that easy.
“I was planning to, but Humbolt holds the purse strings and uses them to bring me to heel. I’ve put aside a nest egg,” she confided, proud of the way she’d embezzled from her own funds. “It’s a hoard of jewelry in a safe-deposit box. I’m like a dragon,” she said on a chuckle, then sobered. “It’s enough to keep me going for a while, but it’s insurance for something else.” She veered from letting herself worry about publicity and legal fees. It wouldn’t happen. She was always really careful to keep her secret very much a secret. “Mostly I hate the idea of walking away and allowing him to keep my money. So I have to fight for it. But the last time I outright defied him, he had me placed on a psych hold so—”
Rafael swore. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. I was still a teenager. I was supposed to go back to boarding school in Switzerland, but instead I went to Ibiza for six months.” That was the cover story she always told when referring to that time of her life. “I don’t think he would go to such an extreme length now, given he’s trying to marry me off, but he’ll find some other way to make my life miserable. I refuse to let him win, though. It’s my money. And he’s been using it—and me—for his own gain for almost twenty years. I don’t want to put up with another year of him and Mother holding me at gunpoint.”
“How much money?” he asked curiously.
“A hundred and fifty million. I get the balance when I have a baby or turn thirty. Five hundred million, give or take. I imagine that sort of asset would be helpful to you, if you had access to it?” She fluttered her lashes at him, knowing it damned well would.
He was impervious to her flirting, though. Her lover was gone. Rafael might as well be wearing a three-piece suit and a fresh shave. He was all business.
“It would,” he acknowledged with an unreadable expression.
“My sense is that you’d like to continue having sex with me? At least for a while? Am I wrong about that?”
“I was going to suggest we continue this affair.” His cheek ticked again.
“Then here’s what I propose. I’ll tell Mother this was a final fling and I’m ready to play ball. That will distract them long enough for you and I to negotiate our prenup.”
His brows went up, but she wasn’t an idiot. She’d had to look after herself once before and knew how to do it.
“We’ll marry in secret then, bam!” She punched into her own palm. “We’ll hit them with it in a few weeks.” She was already laughing at the shock on their faces.
“That seems like a lot of unnecessary drama and subterfuge.”
“Would you rather announce our engagement and watch Humbolt use my money to try to destroy you?”
“Is that a threat?”
“No. I’m telling you what kind of man I’m dealing with. But if you don’t want to marry me, that’s fine.” His rebuff stung, though. It really did. “I’ll find another way,” she decided. “Another man. I had made up my mind not to marry so I didn’t even consider this avenue, but now that I have, I’ll shop for my own docile but useful idiot...” She threw off the sheet and scooted to the edge of the mattress.
