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‘Merely relaying his approval of you.’
‘Oh.’ She sounded surprised. ‘He and his wife are very kind. They’ve been welcoming to me.’
‘I’m glad to hear it,’ he returned smoothly. It was all seeming very promising. She clearly liked living here, and she wanted the money. All that remained was whether she could stomach looking at him—and sharing his bed.
‘And those are your only qualifications for a wife?’ Milly asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Really?’ She sounded cynical again. ‘You don’t care about your wife’s likes or dislikes? Her sense of humour, or her sense of honour? What about what kind of mother she’ll be?’
Alex’s mouth compressed. ‘I don’t have the luxury to care about those things.’ Ezio’s latest escapade had provoked a knee-jerk reaction in him to sort this, and quickly.
Milly was silent, and Alex watched her, noticing the emotions that crossed her face like ripples in water. Indecision, fear, but something else, as well. Something darker...guilt, perhaps, or grief. His proposition had struck a painful chord inside her. He was almost certain of it. ‘And why an heir?’ she asked at last. ‘Isn’t that rather an outdated concept?’
‘It’s a biological one.’
‘Still.’
‘I want to pass my business on to my child.’
‘A son?’
‘Or a daughter. It doesn’t matter.’
She cocked her head, her eyes narrowing as she tried to make him out. ‘Why?’
‘Because if I don’t,’ Alex answered tersely, ‘it passes to my stepbrother, who is likely to run it into the ground in a matter of months.’
‘It’s not like an aristocratic title, is it? Why should it pass to him?’
He drew a quick breath, forcing himself to relax as the memories bombarded him. Christos, looking so pale and weak, one claw-like hand extended towards him. Begging him. And Ezio, drunk in some nightclub, not even bothering to show up, to say goodbye to his flesh-and-blood father. ‘Because my stepfather stipulated it in his will. The business was originally his, and he bequeathed it to me when he died. But he made a provision that if I should die without issue, it passes to my stepbrother.’
‘That all sounds rather archaic.’
Alex inclined his head. ‘Family ties are strong in this country.’
‘Yet it’s your stepfather,’ Milly pointed out. ‘This isn’t about flesh and blood.’
‘He was a father to me more than any other man was,’ Alex answered gruffly. Emotion clutched at his throat, made it hard to speak. ‘And the will is watertight. This is my only option.’
‘What about ad
option? Surrogacy?’
‘As I said, time is of the essence. I’m thirty-six, and I want my child to be an adult when I pass the business on. Also, I believe a child should have a mother as well as a father. Family is important to me.’ The words ignited a blaze of pain inside him, and he snuffed it out quickly. Coldly. The only way he knew how, to keep on living.
‘What if I can’t get pregnant?’ Milly asked baldly. ‘There are no guarantees.’
‘You’d need to have a full medical check before we wed.’ He shrugged one shoulder. ‘The rest is up to God.’
‘Would you want other children?’
He almost laughed at that. He knew she certainly wouldn’t, not once she saw him. ‘No, one will suffice. After that I will leave you alone.’
‘Would I have to live on this island for the rest of my life?’
‘You wouldn’t be a prisoner, if that’s what you are implying.’
