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Suddenly Alexio disappeared again, down towards her bump, and she heard him say, ‘Belle, I’ve just asked—’
Alexio yelped when Sidonie grabbed his hair and pulled him back up.
‘Yes!’ She looked at him. ‘Yes...’ she said again, framing his face with her hands. ‘I’ll marry you, Alexio.’
Alexio kissed the palm of her hand and then took it in his again, to slide the ring onto her finger. ‘I had a jeweller meet me at the plane and I picked that one out because it reminded me of your pure heart...but I can change it...’
Sidonie shook her head, looking at the ring glinting at her. ‘No..’ She felt more tears coming after what he’d just said. ‘I love it...and it’s really glittery.’
Alexio pulled her in close. ‘I’ll give you glittery things for the rest of our lives...’
Sidonie stiffened and pulled back, making Alexio frown.
‘No... I don’t want anything from you, Alexio... I mean it. I know you say you trust me, but I don’t want you to ever doubt that I want nothing from you except you. I won’t marry you until I can sign something that says I’m not after you for your money.’
Alexio sighed. ‘Sid, don’t be ridiculous.’
Sidonie pulled away and dragged her top down over her bump. She shook her head again and crossed her arms. ‘No marriage unless you agree.’
Sidonie saw Alexio’s eyes slide down to her bump and she put a hand over it.
r /> ‘And no more cutesy manipulation of our daughter before she’s even born.’
Alexio rolled his eyes heavenward and then threw up his hands. ‘Okay—fine.’
His eyes glinted with determination then and he reached for her, pulling her into him so tightly that she didn’t know where she ended and he began. Sidonie slid her arms around his waist and snuggled against him. They rested like that for a long moment, the calm after the storm.
‘Sid?’
‘Hmm?’
‘Are you going to sleep?’
Sidonie nodded her head against Alexio’s chest and said sleepily, happily, ‘It’s those hormones again. I have a feeling you’re going to be keeping me up late, so I should really nap now. And also pregnant women shouldn’t be subjected to too much excitement—it takes it out of us.’
She felt Alexio tense slightly and heard his affronted, ‘What happened last night was more than hormones and you know it. Luckily we have the rest of our lives for me to prove it to you...’
The rest of our lives...
Sidonie smiled and moved closer to Alexio, deeper into his embrace, and he moved slightly so that he could put a possessive hand over her belly, setting off a chain reaction of desire.
‘Okay,’ she admitted sheepishly, lifting her head to look at him. ‘Maybe it wasn’t just pregnancy hormones...’
Alexio cupped her jaw with his hand and looked down at her. ‘Excuse my French in front of Belle,’ he said with a wicked smile, ‘but damn right it wasn’t.’
Two days later, Dublin
‘Now I just want to make absolutely sure I haven’t missed any loopholes or sneaky amendments. This was all drawn up very quickly because my fiancé has arranged our marriage for two weeks’ time in Paris.’
Sidonie ignored the snort of insult from the man pacing the solicitor’s office. She smiled sweetly at Mr Keane, who looked as if he was having trouble holding back nervous hysterics. No doubt he hadn’t expected to see one of the world’s foremost self-made billionaires in his office, never mind in this position.
Sidonie went on. ‘Is it absolutely clear that if we divorce—’
‘There will never be a divorce,’ came the fierce pronouncement.
Sidonie rolled her eyes at the solicitor and then looked at her fiancé.
‘Well, of course now we don’t think there’ll be a divorce, but you never know what will happen in life and I want to make sure that if and when such a time comes I walk away with not a cent of your fortune.’
