Free Past Tense by Freda Vasilopoulos Page B

especially for those he called bums—the unemployed, the homeless. He’d make donations to animal activists instead. He said that animals couldn’t help their situation but humans could.”
    Tony’s brows shot up. “And you were marrying this guy?”
    “He was a respected businessman. Our marriage was considered a good match.”
    Tony snorted. “Was it going to be a marriage, or a business merger?”
    From her present perspective she could understand how it would look to an outsider. At first Bennett had seemed an ideal partner. After a disastrous experience with an impoverished Italian prince during her last year at a Swiss finishing school, she’d been wary of fortune hunters. Bennett was rich, successful, and charismatic. But as the wedding date drew nearer, she’d felt as if a noose were tightening around her neck.
    “A marriage, of course,” she said with a heat that sounded defensive even to her own ears. “At least we both had our eyes open.”
    “And your family approved, no doubt.” Tony’s mouth turned down at the corners. “I know what those Westmount families are like. The right schools, the right colleges, the right careers, and finally the right marriages.”
    “We didn’t live in Westmount during my teens,” Samantha said. “We’d moved to the suburbs. Besides, I haven’t lived at home for years.”
    “But you kept up the communication.”
    “They were my family. It meant a lot to my aunt who was like a mother to me since my own died when I was a child. She and my grandmother. Aunt Olivia approved of Bennett.”
    She lifted her eyes, noting the frown that creased his brow. “Tony, it’s silly to argue about this. I wasn’t going to marry Bennett. I was planning to break off the engagement when my father died. With the funeral and everything I hardly saw Bennett. Then he left on his alleged business trip.”
    She spread her hands. “Please understand, it wasn’t a simple matter. This was the third engagement I broke off. It’s not easy to admit failure yet again.”
    Under other circumstances, his look of surprise would have been comical. “You were engaged three times? Samantha, you hardly seem the type.”
    “I know. I’ve changed. I’ll never be that person again.” Her breath hitched in her throat and she bit down on her bottom lip. “I could have been a princess. I was engaged to an Italian prince, but I broke it off when I found out about his penchant for skiing in Saint Moritz, sailing in Antibes, and his aversion to work. He’d gone through the family fortune, and he’d spent the money left him by an elderly widow he’d married before he met me. She’d conveniently died soon after—worn out, no doubt. Of course he didn’t tell me any of this, but I found out later that he’d also been cheating on me, so I was well rid of him.” She broke off, hugging her arms around her chest.
    Tony was conscious of relief. Contrary to what he might have thought, given her background, she wasn’t a playgirl, blithely cutting a swath through hordes of men, leading them on, and then dropping them when she got bored.
    “That’s once,” he said gently when she didn’t speak.
    “Yeah. It seems I couldn’t stop there. As soon as I got home after the school term, I started seeing a boy I’d known since kindergarten. It was strictly on the rebound from the prince. Luckily I came to my senses in time. Such a gentle boy. I hated to hurt him but I’m sure he now realizes it was for the best.”
    She lifted her hands and rubbed her temples, her mouth turning down in self-disgust. “Oh, forget it. I was a fool.”
    “We’re all fools sometimes,” Tony said. Far from undermining the attraction he felt toward her, her story only increased it. She was human; she’d made mistakes and been hurt. But she’d learned from the mistakes.
    The knowledge warmed him. He’d been afraid her aloofness might be her whole personality.
    But none of this solved the immediate problem of who was