Chapter 12

Charley gaped. "Who told you my sex life was—?"

"Adelina, who else?"

Her best friend, Adelina, had said that about her—to him?

"She gave you two different lovers, neither of whom lasted beyond the first venture between the sheets." "Englishmen, of course," he said, "with a fumbling lack of finesse."

"And you think speaking to me like this shows finesse?" The heat of dismay and the sharp sting of hurt were crawling all over her. She had never felt so let down by Adelina in their ten-year friendship! How dared she speak to him about Charley’s personal life—how dared she tell such wicked lies about it? "Well, I don’t," she said grimly. "And I am not going to listen to any more of it."

She turned once again to leave.

But that relentlessly cool voice was not going to let her go. "Marry me next week and I will bail your father out of debt, pay off his loan, and send in my own team of experts to help oversee the recovery of his company," it continued, bringing her to yet another quivering st