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Lucien and Garrison Stark had gone to school together. Garrison didn’t care much for Lucien, as he said the man was an egotist and power monger. He was right.

“Her?” Mitch asked, hoping it was someone else but knowing that it wasn’t.

“Well, yes. You know I don’t tend to hire women, but she is a bit exceptional.”

Mitch knew that Rebecca was quite exceptional. And he had no doubt that was exactly who the man was talking about. Surely, she would want to work in her father’s company.

“You are hiring Rebecca Stark,” Mitch said flatly.

“You know her?” Lucien had a little sparkle in his eye. Lucien knew that Rebecca and Mitch had ‘known’ each other. Was this a test? Or should Mitch wonder about whether this was yet another test?

“Yes,” Mitch said, “But I haven’t seen her in years. Her brother is my best friend.”

Five years, eleven months, and twenty-three days since they’d last made love, since he’d held his Bex in his arms and then made the biggest mistake of his life by walking away from her.

What had he been thinking? He wondered if she had ever told her parents.

They were still speaking to him and inviting him to visit, so he had to assume she hadn’t.

Alex had never challenged him on their stolen afternoon or the other stolen times that followed in the two weeks before he left for London, which he was grateful for.

Mitch had made excuses at the time. Heck, he'd lied, but Alex had been distracted with his own activities, which had been a blessing.

All Mitch knew was that visiting the Starks had become much more complicated in the years that followed.

He never went there in the summer or on holidays when he knew she’d be there.

No, he went on off weekends when he happened to be in New York.

Now that the Starks had decided to relocate the company headquarters to Portland, Oregon, it was much less convenient to visit them.

About once a year, Garrison and Victoria would show up in London to see him under the guise of checking on their hotel.

He missed them terribly. And from what Alex said, they missed him, especially Victoria, who still sent him his favorite cookies at Christmas along with a hand-knit sweater she’d made or a perfectly picked gift she wanted him to have.

It was not unusual to arrive home to a care package from Victoria containing food or books, things she knew he’d like.

When his own parents died, well, his father had left his mother, never to be heard from again until the police showed up and told them his body had been found floating in the Hudson River.

Then his mother died from cancer and Mitch suspected a broken heart.

The Starks had adopted him as their own.

He’d lost his family as an adult at eighteen, then met Alex’s family when he was twenty, and for the last ten years, he had been close to Garrison and Victoria.

Yet, he couldn’t be around Rebecca. It was a mess.

And it was getting worse because they had mentioned it to him, and he had played dumb.

He had yet to introduce Garrison and Victoria to Lily, but he made sure they would be able to attend his wedding.

“Rebecca is flying in tomorrow for a final interview. I interviewed her last week when I was in New York and pretty much decided she was the right fit for the position, but I’d like to have another look.

Besides, she is very nice to look at.” He whistled as if Rebecca was a piece of meat or horse flesh he wanted to ride.

Stay away from her, old goat. Old married goat.

“Tomorrow? I’ve got a pretty busy day?—”

“This is a priority. I want you to sit in on the interview. Then we will take her to lunch and see how much she drinks. Yanks are always opposed to drinks with lunch, or they drink like fish. If she behaves herself, I’ll offer her the job.

There is the background check, but that is just a formality. ”

Mitch’s heart beat faster than it should.

How many times had he thought about Rebecca and wondered if he should reach out to her?

Well, almost every day for the past six years.

He always rationalized not calling her with the idea that if she wanted, she knew where to find him.

She had always driven every decision that involved them.

Why should their future be any different than their past?

It was passive aggressive, but it was too late now. He had chosen his path.

That night, he took Lily to Borough Market, and they had dinner at Fish!

for fish and chips. Not surprisingly, she had one hundred and one different things to share with him about the wedding.

As he ate his traditional halibut fish and chips with a glass of buttery chardonnay, he tried to act interested when she asked if he preferred lemon cake or lemon cake with elderflower essence.

He despised elderflower but had no idea what he had said to her.

She decided for him. Elderflower it was.

He took her back to his flat for a nightcap, which she didn’t mind because she wanted to tell him how she would be redoing the space once they were married.

They had decided to live in his flat for a year or two until they decided to have children.

She wanted three. Mitch had thought better than to contradict her about his ideas to have two.

She might change her mind after childbirth, he hoped.

She wanted to redo the living room in sage-colored fabric and lots of chintz, like a proper English country home.

Only theirs was a modern flat with a view of the Thames.

To his surprise, she pulled a tape measure from her expensive handbag and took measurements for ten minutes.

Somewhere in the conversation, he heard Laura Ashley .

He didn’t like Laura Ashley with all her pastels and flowers, but Lily was going to start ordering fabric tomorrow.

It would look so much better once she had made improvements. He thought it looked pretty good now.

He would not admit it, but seeing Rebecca’s photo earlier that day and knowing she was coming tomorrow—heck, was traveling in the air tonight—he needed Lily to blow his mind this evening.

He needed to remind himself how much he cared for his fiancé.

He needed to remember what had prompted him to propose at Christmas.

He remembered thinking she was sexy in her own way, like an adult dressing much younger than she should.

It was new for him, but he had done a lot to find it appealing.

Finally, when she was done with the measuring, she sat next to him on the couch.

He built a small fire in his tiny living room fireplace to ward off the end-of-spring chill.

After a few minutes, he placed his glass of Amaretto on his coffee table and took the glass she held tightly out of her hands.

“What are you doing?” she complained. “I’m not finished.”

“I thought maybe we could make out on the couch,” he said and leaned close to kiss her. She allowed him to kiss her three times, but when his hand moved to cup her breast through the fabric of her floral dress—which was no doubt Laura Ashley—she quickly removed it.

“You know Mitch, all you think about is sex,” she said. “I’m getting a little tired of having to be the one who puts on the brakes all the time. I’m not in heat, and you are not a wild animal, so stop trying to hump me.”

“If you are tired of always being the passion police, then don’t.

Try letting go and see if you like it. We are going to get married,” he said.

“There is a lot we can do that doesn’t involve sex.

It might involve getting you out of that dress, but I assure you, you will still be a virgin when we are through. ”

She stood and looked down at him. “I’d be semi-virgin, for sure.

I don’t know how many times I have to say no to you.

We are not going to treat our bodies that way outside of marriage.

I made a promise to my family, to my faith, and to myself.

Sometimes I think I’m a test for you as well.

I cannot believe you think I don’t respect myself or that I would compromise my values. ”

“I respect you more than you know. If I didn’t, I’d do the ungentlemanly thing of plying you with alcohol, lay out a blanket, and make love to you in front of the fire.

You’d have one hell of an orgasm because I’d make sure you did.

I’m not doing anything like that because I’m a gentleman.

I respect you, and I listen. I just want to be close to you.

Don’t you have any desire to be closer to me? ”

“This is a ridiculous conversation. Let me speak directly so that you will hear me. I don’t need sex until we are married.

Now, take me home. Hopefully, when I get there, Daddy and Mums will already be in bed.

I don’t need them looking at me and seeing my shame that my fiancé has his little needs and thinks of me as a vessel to fulfill him.

I really don’t want to tell them that all you can talk about is sex. ”

“This might come as a surprise to you, but any other woman would already be living with me,” he shot back. “We would be making love on a regular basis. It would be a way for us to express our love for each other. You know, by making love.”

“So now you are trying to guilt me into sex? My own fiancé? Is that how our marriage is going to be? You are going to demand your husbandly rights? I have to put up with you letting me service your needs?”

Mitch couldn’t believe this conversation. Lily was getting more skittish the closer they got to the wedding date. Shouldn’t it be going the other way? “I seriously hope not. I don’t want it to be a one-sided experience. I hope it will be something you really like and want to do a lot.”