“Did not,” Delilah protested, but inwardly had to smile. He really thought she’d wrapped him around her finger? No man had ever said that of her. She wasn’t a temptress. Never had been, never would be. She wouldn’t even know where to start.

He smiled at her. “Did too. And you so willingly shared my bed. Believe me, no man is that lucky.”

Delilah looked at him. Did he actually mean that? Had he looked in the mirror lately? Guys like him did get this lucky. All the time.

“That’s not a good enough reason for going behind my back.”

“No, but fear of another betrayal is. What’s that saying? ‘Once burned, twice shy’?”

“Betrayal?” Now she was curious.

“There was a woman.” Samson looked at her to check for her reaction. Should he tell her the whole story, all of it? It would help her understand why he’d been so afraid. Why thinking she would betray him had sent him into such a tailspin.

“The redhead.”

He was stunned. How had she guessed?

“You looked so tense, so full of rage when you spoke to her.”

He stretched out his hand to motion her to sit with him. Delilah obliged him and took a seat on the floor pillows next to him. He wanted to feel her close when he told her what had happened. Not even his friends knew the details he was willing to share with her. All they knew was that he’d discovered that she’d been after his money. He’d never told anybody about the horrible things he’d overheard her say on the phone.

“I was introduced to her by a mutual acquaintance. Ilona was new in town. We started dating, and she made me believe that she cared for me. I was at a point in my life where I didn’t want to be alone anymore.”

“Did you love her?” Delilah’s voice was low, almost as if she hadn’t wanted to ask that question. No woman wanted to hear a man confess that he loved somebody else. Even he knew that much.

“I believed so at the time. Everybody told me what a great couple we were, so I figured if everybody saw it, it had to be true. The night I was planning to propose to her, I surprised her. She hadn’t expected me. I overheard her on the phone, talking to one of her friends. The things she said …”

Samson felt her soft hand on his forearm, stroking him gently. It felt so good to have Delilah’s warm hand caress him. He didn’t dare touch her for fear she’d stop. Her fingers were comforting and soothing.

“She said, she hated being touched by me, that she couldn’t stand making love to me, and that once she’d be bl … married to me, she didn’t care who saw to my sexual needs, but it wasn’t going to be her. That she’d throw up if she had to kiss me again.” Even now he couldn’t repeat her exact words.

Delilah looked at him, her eyes wide in shock.

“All she wanted was my money.” And once she had it, she would have had somebody get rid of him. He couldn’t prove it, but he suspected it.

“But weren’t you going to have a prenup? Everybody in California has one.”

He shook his head. “That’s not how it works with me. No prenup. The woman I marry one day will have equal rights to everything I own. She will be my partner, in life and in business. Once I commit myself to somebody, it’ll be without reservations.” A blood-bond was more than a marriage. A blood-bond was marriage without prenup, without divorce. It truly was till death do us part. He would have to explain it to her, one day, one day soon.

“Oh.”

“But that’s not all. After I broke it off with her, I couldn’t trust another woman. I didn’t want to see anybody, nobody interested me.”

“That’s normal after a breakup like that,” she said softly, compassion clearly written in her lovely face.

Samson shook his head. “It’s not normal for a man to suddenly have no sexual appetite anymore. And it’s definitely not normal to have no erection for nine months.”

Her mouth fell open at his frank admission.

“It’s true.” He nodded, watching her.

“Your friends know all this?”

“Only the basics, I never told them what actually happened and what she said. You’re the only person who knows.”

He’d confided in her and her alone. He felt her move closer to him.

“So your friends tried to help you and got you a stripper …” Delilah let the sentence hang in the air.

“And instead, you showed up, and suddenly everything sprung back to life. I couldn’t believe what was happening at first, but when I kissed you for the first time, and you were struggling to fight me off, I got so turned on … Suddenly everything that had been dormant for so long woke up.”