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Adam’s direct gaze. “I’ll marry you. But only if we live here.”
    â€œI have a condo within walking distance of the club.”
    â€œHave you ever considered you might appear more settled if you lived in a house instead of a bachelor pad?”
    He dipped his head. “Good point.”
    â€œI won’t give up my job.”
    â€œLauryn, you won’t need to work.”
    â€œBut I want to.” She took a slow breath and then blurted, “And I won’t sleep with you.”
    â€œYou’ll have your own room.”
    â€œNo, Adam, I mean no sex. You might be able to be intimate with someone you don’t love, but I can’t.” Not anymore. She remembered all too well the self-loathing afterward. She’d wanted to hurt her father with her brazen behavior, but she’d only ended up hurting and hating herself.
    â€œI’ll get tested if that’s what you’re worried about.”
    â€œThat has nothing to do with it. I mean, it is important given the legions you’re rumored to have bedded, but—”
    â€œLegions?”
    â€œYou’re not known for your discriminatory tastes.”
    â€œThere haven’t been legions.”
    â€œHow many then?”
    â€œNone of your business.”
    â€œIt is when you’re trying to talk me into bed.”
    He hesitated and then shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    â€œYou didn’t count or you can’t count that high?”
    His chin jutted forward. “How many men have you slept with?”
    Her shameful past crept over her. She’d wasted her youth looking for ways to flout her father’s iron-fist authority, and she wasn’t proud of that. She’d been a rebel, but she’d reformed. She’d practically become a nun. “Hey, if you don’t have to answer then neither do I.”
    â€œWhat am I supposed to do for…relief?”
    A slideshow flashed in her mind of ten different ways she could give him sexual relief, but she shut it down. The heat flushing her skin wasn’t as easy to vanquish. “That depends on whether you’re right-or left-handed.”
    â€œAnd you?”
    Her cheeks ignited. “I can take care of myself.”
    His jaw muscles bunched as if he were gritting his teeth. He paced to the window, paused and then turned. “Fine. I accept your terms. Do you have a passport?”
    For a moment she was too stunned to speak. “Yes. Why?”
    â€œI’ll have Brandon make the arrangements. He and Cassie can set up a quick, quiet Bahamas wedding. Does that suit you? Or do you need a circus?”
    Cassie…it took a moment for Lauryn to place the name. Cassie Sinclair had been John Garrison’s secret lovechild from an extramarital affair. Or so the papers reported. Even though Lauryn had never met the woman, she felt a kinship with her. Another outsider. But at least Cassie had known who her parents were. Cassie currently owned and managed the Garrison Grand-Bahamas and had recently hooked up with Brandon Washington, Adam’s attorney—if the club’s scuttlebutt was to be believed.
    â€œI don’t want a big wedding. But why the Bahamas?”
    â€œIf we get married in Miami my family would expect to be invited and there’s a good chance there would be a media blitz.”
    Avoiding both the media and the Garrison family appealed. “Something quiet in the Bahamas is fine. I’ve never been there.”
    â€œWe’ll stay a few days and call it a honeymoon.”
    Honeymoon? “I won’t change my mind about the sex.”
    â€œLauryn, it’s imperative we act like a couple who’s fallen in love and eloped. If this marriage doesn’t look real it’ll do me no good. We’ll have a honeymoon.”
    â€œThe business council nomination is that important to you?”
    Again he hesitated. “It’s what the nomination represents that’s