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to a sexual purr. “Very much.”

      She licked her lips. “That’s…that’s good.”

      “But for me, the commitment comes first…then we make love.”

      She doubted he was a virgin, but apparently he ascribed to the standard some men still maintained about the women they intended to marry. “You’ve got some very old-fashioned views.”

      “Yes. I am not ashamed this is so. I was born in a traditional Greek village. My grandfather’s beliefs may not find wholesale acceptance in me, but his influence is there.”

      “Sandor,” she said, latching onto a topic less volatile to her emotions. “You never talk about your past. I don’t know if your dad is dead, if your parents are divorced or why it is that you never mention your father, but your grandfather pops up in conversation on occasion. I know he’s gone…at least I know that much,” she muttered under her breath, “but I don’t know why you and your mother live here in America. I don’t know so much about you.”

      “Chief being the way I screw.”

      “Sandor,” she hissed while her entire body blushed.

      He glared. “I can be crude. Yes. It comes from the background you know so little about. But another thing comes from that past…the belief that a man does not take a virgin to his bed unless he is engaged to, but preferably married to her.”

      “Is that something your grandfather taught you?”

      “He drilled it into me every day of my life while he lived. Only a man totally lacking in honor would do so.”

      “I see.” She had a feeling there was a lot more to this topic she planned to explore, but first she was going to set the record straight on something else. “However, between us…the point is moot because I’m not a virgin.”

      “Of course you are.”

      CHAPTER TWO

      “AND WHAT HAS made you draw this brilliant conclusion?” she demanded in a tone her dad would have recognized with trepidation.

      Ellie didn’t get mad easily, but once she was angry…she didn’t back down.

      “Look at the way you blush when we discuss sex.”

      “Married women blush. If that’s your full supporting argument, you need to hone your deductive reasoning skills.”

      His eyes narrowed. “Do not play games with me about this. I know what I know.”

      “What you think you know.”

      “Stop this foolish claim. I am sorry if my observation has piqued your feminine pride, but I will never allow you to lie to me.”

      “Have issues with honesty do you?”

      “Yes.”

      “That’s surprising. Most businessmen at your level can be very inventive with the truth.”

      “But I will not tolerate untruth from those in my personal life. Ever.”

      “And will you give the same level of integrity to a relationship?”

      “Count on it.”

      “In that case, let me repeat…I am not a virgin.”

      His jaw tautened and white lines appeared at the corners of his mouth. He was getting seriously upset by her adamant claim to sexual experience. “You have never had a serious relationship.”

      “Is that what my father told you?”

      He didn’t even look uncomfortable at being accused of talking about her in very private terms with her father. “Yes.”

      “Well, he obviously doesn’t know everything about me, which should hardly come as a surprise.” He had to have seen ample evidence during the time they’d been dating how far from close she was with George Wentworth.

      “He has reason to know certain things.”

      “You mean the bodyguards I supposedly no longer have?”

      Sandor managed to look slightly chagrined. “You know about the security service?”

      “Of course.” She rolled her eyes. “Please. Just because I told my dad I didn’t want a bodyguard any longer doesn’t mean he listened to me, but at least with them as silent and distant watchers, I have a little more privacy than I did when my bodyguards remained within touching distance.”

      “Not that much privacy.”

      He meant not enough for her father not to know if she had a man stay the night or had done so with one. “I don’t have to sleep over with a man to have sex with one.”

      “But you would have to have had a relationship that went beyond a few casual dates because you are not the type of woman to sleep with a man on a whim.”

      “You’re so sure about that?”

      “Yes.”

      She couldn’t deny it because he was right. And she did not lie. Like him, she hated lies. Like the lie when a person told you they loved you but didn’t. Not really.

      “So…I have had more than one relationship that lasted a few months. I’m twenty-four years old, after all.”

      “But none of those relationships were deep.”

      “How do you know? My father said so,” she guessed. “You can’t trust the judgment of a man who thinks that balance sheets are more comprehensible than people. He doesn’t know me.”

      “Like I do not know you?”

      “I’m afraid so, yes.”

      Sandor shook his head with an impatient jerk. “You are wrong.”

      But she wasn’t. Sandor did not know her any better than her father did, which meant he couldn’t care for her any more deeply than her dad. While the knowledge hurt, it also really begged the question why Sandor wanted to marry her.

      He was looking at her as if he expected another argument, but she didn’t have to convince Sandor of her point of view. In this instance, it was her opinion that mattered and his confident insistence wasn’t going to change it.

      “I am not relying on his word alone,” Sandor said. “I had you investigated.” His expression showed not even a hint of remorse at the claim.

      “What? Why?”

      “When I first started considering you as a potential wife, I thought it prudent.”

      “You are kidding.”

      “No.”

      “I would have thought you too arrogant to believe you needed anything besides your own reading of a person in a situation like this.”

      “You have called me arrogant before.”

      “Have I?”

      “Yes, the time I told you who would win the Super Bowl.”

      “You were so sure you were right and you aren’t even a football fan.”

      He shrugged. “And yet I was right.”

      “Well, you’re wrong about me being a virgin.” And as much as the memories of the reason for her lack of innocence hurt, she felt a certain grim satisfaction in catching him in the wrong.

      Maybe she should be offended he’d had her investigated, but she wasn’t. She was, however, bothered. If Sandor wanted a relationship with her, why hadn’t he made the effort to get to know her better rather than having her investigated? Maybe it wouldn’t be so worrisome if he’d done it in addition to the investigation, but he hadn’t.

      The similarities to her dad were piling up and not in a good way. She’d been raised by a

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