Chapter 21

“Pardon?” The word escaped her lips before she could stop it. She simply stared at him, dumbfounded. Clifton met her gaze, the corners of his lips still turned up. “If my proposal doesn’t appeal to you, you may go to church as planned.” Hearing the word ‘church’ again jolted Merdi back to reality. She realized what he’d said wasn’t a hallucination and quickly shook her head. “No! I mean… that’s fine.” Her vehement denial drew a low chuckle from him.