Free Surrender to the Devil by Lorraine Heath

I’ll have your answer then.”
    Sterling watched as she strolled out of the room in her plain dress, which for some reason didn’t appear plain at all. She touched Swindler’s arm. He looked down on her and something warm passed between them. Sterling flexed his fingers. At that moment, he thought he could bring the inspector down with a single punch. By God, he was feeling possessive in a way he never had before.
    Then Swindler glared at Sterling, before following Frannie into the hallway. Sterling turned his attention to the garden and pressed his hand to the cool window, but it failed to ease the boiling in his blood. Only one thing would accomplish that: a night with Frannie Darling.
     
    Ever since she’d ordered the furniture, Frannie had been envisioning where each piece would go, and now she looked at the plush bright yellow chair and couldn’t remember if it was for the sitting area in the library or the offices for one of the staff. She simply couldn’t think.
    She’d seen in his eyes that he intended to kiss her, and rather than discourage him or move beyond his reach, she’d stayed exactly where she was and welcomed his mouth playing havoc with hers. Even now, she could still taste him, smell him, feel him…
    She wanted to be with him in the garden, wanted things she could never have.
    A throat cleared and she jerked her gaze over to Jim, who was waiting for her answer, and studying her as though he was searching for something else.
    “The library,” she said smartly, deciding she could always move it later if it wasn’t where it belonged. “If you’ll excuse me—”
    He moved in front of her before she’d taken more than a couple of steps. She could see the worry and concern in his green eyes, but then he always looked at her as though he expected her to shatter at any moment. “He’s not one of us,” he said quietly.
    “Neither is Catherine, yet she and Luke get along well enough.”
    “Because he’s one of them.”
    She couldn’t chastise him for saying exactly what she’d been thinking at the wedding. She knew he worried over her, they all did—but sometimes she wanted absolute freedom, although the one time she’d sought freedom had ended in disaster. In all likelihood, this situation with Greystone would end the same way: with regrets.
    “Is it so obvious what Greystone wants, or did Jack give you a hint?” she asked.
    The muscle in his jaw jerked and his cheeks flamed red. She thought of the animosity that she’d sensed between the two men.
    “Have you spoken to Greystone?” she prodded again.
    “I delivered a message.”
    “From Jack?”
    “From both of us.”
    She loved them, she truly did, but they had to understand that she was a woman fully capable of making her own decisions. “And what, pray tell, was the message?”
    “To stay away from you.”
    And he had stayed away until today. A suspicion niggled at the back of her mind. “What did you do to him?”
    His jaw tightening, he slid his gaze over her head.
    Dread mixed with anger and disappointment roiled through her stomach. “How badly did you hurt him?”
    He brought his gaze back to her. She knew he’d never lie to her. “Not as badly as I could have, not as badly as I wanted to.”
    They came from such rough beginnings, but sometimes she grew weary of them.
    “Do you trust me?” she asked.
    “With my life.”
    “Then trust me to know how best to handle this matter.”
    “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
    She gave him a soft smile. “I don’t want that either.”
    “He won’t appreciate what you’re doing here. One of the lads I’ll be bringing you is serving three months in prison for stealing a crown. Hell of it is, he doesn’t know the difference between a shilling and a crown. Those I work with think they’re putting an end to crime when they arrest these children for petty offenses like stealing an apple. You should ask your duke how many apples he’s stolen.”
    “He’s not my