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“Move in?” she squeaked. This was going way too fast. “This is impossible.”
“I assure you, it’s not.”
“You’re going way too fast. I’d have to be mad to agree to this.”
“Actually, Tia.” He used her first name for the first time and she liked it. Really, really liked it. “I hd a feeling about you almost as soon as we met. I think you and I are very similar.”
“In what way?”
“We both trust our instincts, for a reason. Mine rarely let me down, and I would bet my last penny on yours being the same.”
She considered that, knowing he was right. She was a big believer in listening to herself.
“In fact, the biggest mistakes have coincided with times when I’ve used my head rather than let my gut steer me. You and I need something from the other, and I think it’s a far safer proposition to follow my trajectory than for us both to employ strangers.”
“I’m not employing anyone,” she muttered, trying to make her brain work again. Because this was truly stupid. “But Hamish, what you’re asking of me, it’s not possible.” She sighed, closed her eyes, tried to put her words in the proper order to explain. “I can bring a baby into the world using a stranger’s sperm because I would be the one raising the child. But to have a baby with someone expecting to become a father, and to not know anything about that man, I couldn’t risk it.”
“What is your concern?”
“You could be…any number of things,” she said caustically, her breath coming in fits and spurts. “You could be abusive, controlling, an alcoholic. You could have a gambling addiction or a foot fetish or grow mushrooms on the windowsill, or hang your jocks in the shower. I don’t know. A million things that I wouldn’t want to expose a child to.”
His smile made her heart tremble.
“Have a look at the back of the contract,” he said, nodding toward her desk.
Curious, she reached for the wad of paper and flicked to the back. To her surprise, the last ten or so pages contained character references, credit check, police check and recent blood test results from a full physical, and a doctor’s note describing him as being in excellent health. It also included his sperm count and motility.
Heat flushed her cheeks as she glanced through it. “As for the mushrooms and jocks,” he lifted one shoulder. “We can only hope you’ll get used to it.”
She laughed then, despite herself. “This is very thorough.”
“I knew you’d ask.”
Her eyes widened. “And if I hadn’t?”
“I knew you would,” he repeated. “I have your measure, Tia Stallone, and now I want us to make a baby together. What do you say?”
Chapter Three
“I SAY YOU’RE INSANE.”
“That’s in the report too.” He grinned, winked, and her heart stammered.
“Well, you clearly didn’t do great research on me, because if you had, you’d know I’m fundamentally opposed to the whole concept of hereditary titles. I don’t want to give birth to the next Earl of Ashcombe, thank you very much.”
“I’m the next Earl of Ashcombe,” he said, eyes focussed on her face, determination clearly unwavering. “And to be honest, I’m not a huge fan of hereditary titles either.”
“But you’re literally holding one.”
“Didn’t have a lot of say in the matter.”
“And nor will our child!”
“Our child will not be raised as I was,” he said, swiftly, and in a way that made her stand up and take notice. To really listen to what he was saying. Just as Tia was adamant to be a completely different kind of parent to what she’d experienced, she heard that same trauma in Hamish’s voice.
“Okay, well, we have that in common,” she muttered.
“I can’t help the fact that I’ll be the Earl one day, but I have no issue with our child—children—being raised in New York, and travelling home to the UK only for some holidays. I also have no issue with them attending a day school rather than boarding, unless we decide at the time that the boarding experience is beneficial, in which case, we can negotiate it.”
