Read To Sin With A Scoundrel for Free Online

of his coat, Lucas added, “It strips the combat down to the bare essentials, so to speak, when you look at each
     other, eye to eye.”
    She edged back. “I’m not interested in playing your game.”
    “Are you sure?”
    Her hands betrayed a tiny tremor. “Q-quite sure.”
    “As a gentleman, I cannot force you to listen,” he said softly. “But I’m getting rather desperate, and desperate men cannot
     be counted on to mind the rules.”
    He heard her breath catch in her throat. “I cannot imagine how your concerns could have anything to do with me.” She stirred
     the bubbling liquid. “We do not move in the same circles.”
    “And yet our paths have crossed.” He stepped around a stack of brass canisters. “Aren’t you the least bit curious as to why?”
    “I am curious about a great many things, Lord Hadley. You are not one of them.”
    Though Lucas admitted he deserved some measure of scorn, her tone pricked his pride. He was not about to let a reclusive widow
     have the last word. “Before you presume to pass judgment, why not hear me out?”
    “And if I do?”
    “Then you have my promise that I will not trespass on your hospitality a moment longer.”
    The widow hesitated, then abruptly unknotted the strings of her bonnet and set it atop the stack of books. “Very well,” she
     said, turning to face him.
    Surprise rendered him momentarily speechless.
    His image of her had been completely wrong. Save for the thinned lips.
    But that was only because at the moment they were compressed in a tight line. In their natural state they were full and finely
     shaped—he was enough of a connoisseur of feminine beauty to recognize their exquisite form, even when distorted by anger.
    Lucas was transfixed by a sudden, thrumming awareness of every fine-boned, graceful detail of her face. His pulse quickened,
     and his heart thudded against his ribs.
    Lud, how was it he had not heard the lady was an absolute stunner?
    He stared for an instant longer before slowly releasing his pent-up breath and raising his eyes to meet hers.
    Disapproval had dulled their seafoam green color to a stormy gray. Beneath the surface swirled a deeper emotion.
Distrust.
Darkened with a tinge of fear.
    Lady Sheffield appeared wary of men. He wondered why.
    But before he had time to give the matter further thought, she snapped, “Do go on, sir. I haven’t got all day. You might not
     have anything better to do with your time, but I do.”
    Arched brows accentuated her displeasure. Like the curls that had come loose from her hairpins, they were a subtle shade of
     russet gold, sparked with glints of copper. The fiery highlights reflected her smoldering impatience. With a toss of her head,
     she shrugged off her cloak.
    Forcing his gaze away from her willowy body, Lucas turned to retrieve his portfolio of papers.
Shake off this strange bewitchment,
he chided himself. He had seen far too many naked—and willing—women to feel such a visceral reaction to a widow dressed like
     a nun.
    “It might be better if you had a look at these before I explain myself.”

    Ciara took her time in untying the flap. “Is this some sort of joke, Lord Hadley? Some drunken bet scrawled in the betting
     books for all of White’s to ogle over? Let me guess the gist of it—five hundred pounds says Hadley cannot penetrate the widowed
     witch’s lair.”
    A last little yank snapped the strings. “You may enjoy all the lurid attention, and the notoriety of having your name become
     a byword for bad behavior. But I abhor being the subject of idle gossip, of sordid speculation.”
    His eyes narrowed slightly at her words. In the wink of scudding sunlight, Ciara could not be certain of what she saw. Surely
     it must have been anger, and not regret. A wastrel like Hadley was not the sort of man to repent his sins.
    Still, the urgency of his reply took her by surprise. “As you say, my exploits are well known. I don’t have to engage in any
     such prank to