Read Too Wild to Wed for Free Online Page A

move. "Going to be a little embarrassing leaving my house bright and early in the morning like this, isn't it, Augustine? What will the neighbors say?"
    "They'll say you spent the night with your fiancé. Happens all the time these days. Even in small towns like Tipton Cove. Perfectly acceptable. Don't worry. Your reputation won't suffer." He started for the door.
    "Oh, gee, thanks. Well I'll tell you something, I don't give a damn about my reputation anymore. But what about yours, Xavier?" She sprinted after him as he opened the front door and stepped out onto the porch, "What will they all say when they find out I ended my engagement after only one night with you? They're bound to think you must have been a heck of a disappointing lover if you couldn't even please a dull, boring, terribly naive little history professor."
    Xavier glanced across Letty's tiny, neatly groomed front yard and saw her neighbor, the elderly Dr. Knapthorpe. Professor Emeritus of English Literature. The good professor was engaged in the process of pruning his rosebushes, which bordered Letty's drive. Knapthorpe was close to eighty but there was nothing wrong with his hearing. Xavier knew the old man was taking in every word.
    "I don't know what the neighbors will think about you standing out here shrieking like a fishwife at your fiancé, Letty." Xavier strode over to the Jaguar and opened the door. "Why don't you ask them?"
    He had the satisfaction of seeing her blush furiously as she realized Dr. Knapthorpe was listening.
    "Beast," she hissed.
    "By the way," Xavier advised as he slid into the leather-upholstered seat, "don't bother returning that wedding gown. You're going to need it when you marry me at the end of the month. Unless, of course, you find the idea of being married in a formal gown a little too conventional and dull for your taste. You're welcome to show up naked at the church if you like, but one way or another, you will be there."
    "Never," she yelled after him.
    But Xavier was no longer listening. He was too busy wondering if she was really serious about taking that suitcase full of frilly lingerie to the quarterly convention of Sheldon Peabody's Order of Medieval Revelers.
    3
    "HONESTLY, MOLLY, it was the most humiliating moment of my entire life." Letty shuddered.
    Molly Sweet grinned cheerfully around a mouthful of anchovy and onion pizza. "From the sound of it, that isn't saying much. Apparently your life has been so blessedly bland that you haven't had any real experience with supremely humiliating moments."
    "Don't remind me." Letty eyed the remains of the pizza and wondered what had happened to her normally healthy appetite.
    She was usually more than capable of downing her half of the giant pizza she and Molly always ordered at this particular off-campus pub. Maybe if she sprinkled some more hot peppers on her half she could work up some interest in the dripping pizza. She reached for the bottle of crushed dried peppers.
    "So he actually had you investigated? By a real detective agency? Like one of those on TV?"
    "Yes. An outfit called Hawkbridge Investigations. And they didn't find one single exciting thing in my past. Twenty-nine years old, Molly, and not one event worthy of mention. You should have seen that single-page report. I could have died. Dull, dull, dull."
    "I'd love to see it." Molly's eyes widened behind her glasses. "Oh, not because I'm curious about you."
    Thanks," Letty muttered sarcastically. She had to pitch her words over the sound of recorded rock music, clinking beer mugs and the noise coming from the pool table in the corner of the pub. "Apparently everyone's curiosity about me is very easily satisfied. Nothing of interest to anyone except someone looking to marry a woman without a past."
    "Now, don't take offense. I just meant I'd like to see what a real background check looks like, that's all."
    "Believe me, there wasn't much to it." Letty glanced up from her contemplation of the pizza and smiled