Page 45 of The Billionaire's Timed Wife

“You’d really do that? Protect my mother?”

“Yes. She’d have the best care and spend whatever time she has left near her only daughter.”

“I want to study.”

“I wouldn’t forbid you. But it would have to be in Rheadur. If no university there offers the program you want, I’ll build one. Whatever course you wish. But I want you by my side.”

“You make it sound like a contract.”

“That’s exactly what it is,” he says. “I want to contractually make you my wife.”

Chapter 22

“Let me go,” I say, barely believing what I just heard as I push him away, harder this time. When he finally releases me, I step back from his solid, masculine body.

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything. You can’t possibly be serious.”

His face hardens. “I would never joke about marriage. Even if I’ve never married before, I still believe in it.”

“A contract?” I ask, still stunned. “I know marriages are technically contracts signed by both parties, but you made it sound like you want to hire me as your wife. Like...like a job. What else would there be? A salary? A bonus if I—” My courage falters, and my face burns when I realize what I was about to say.

“If you what? Pleased me in bed?” he cuts in, a hint of irony in his tone. “I don’t pay for sex.”

“I didn’t say you do.” The idea is so absurd that, if I weren’t so nervous, I’d probably laugh. Kaled is gorgeous—any woman would jump into his arms at the slightest invitation.

“I would respect you after the wedding, just as I do now,” he says. “What I’m proposing isn’t a crime. I want us to share a life together. What’s wrong with that? We’ve already proven we’re compatible physically, and I enjoy talking to you more than I’ve ever enjoyed another woman’s company. That seems like a good enough start to me.”

I have no comeback for that, but I still feel uncertain. It’s not as if I’m deciding something small. This is a decision that could last a lifetime. “And what about what I want?”

“I don’t follow.”

“You’ve made your offer, laid out your terms. Am I just supposed to agree and sign on the dotted line?”

He crosses his arms over his chest, as if trying to hold himself back. “Tell me what you want.”

From his posture, I can tell he’s not used to being challenged. But I’m afraid to give in too easily, especially because, if I’m being honest, Iwantto give in.

It scares me how much I want to sayyes.

I have no idea what to negotiate for, but I’ll never admit that, so I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. “No other wives.”

As soon as I say it, I realize that probably wouldn’t have been an issue anyway. Still, I’ve just discovered something new about myself: I’m jealous.

He smiles, and that only makes me more annoyed.

“Jealous?” he teases.

How can I deny it when just the thought of another woman touching him drives me insane? But instead of giving him the satisfaction, I turn the tables. “If I were allowed to have four husbands, would that make you happy?”

He doesn’t even blink. His expression is serious. “No.”

“Then that’s exactly why I don’t want to share you.”

He earns even more of my respect by not saying what most men from Rheadur would: that men’s needs are different.

“A man having four wives is a right in our culture, not an obligation,” he says. “I don’t need more than one woman in my life. But our marriage will be real. You’ll sleep in my bed every night.”