Free Sweetest Little Sin by Christine Wells Page B

shoulders. “You bloody little fool! Radleigh is corrupt. Dangerous. He’ll hurt you.”
    Hurt her? Radleigh? He hadn’t laid a finger on her, hadn’t even dared to steal a kiss. Would Jardine go to any lengths, tell outrageous lies to stop her marrying him?
    Louisa swallowed hard as she searched Jardine’s eyes for the truth. If Radleigh posed immediate physical danger to her, it was something Faulkner had neglected to brief her about.
    No, she wouldn’t let him make her doubt her cause. She would not accede to Jardine’s wishes. She’d no intention of going through with the marriage, after all, and what could Radleigh do to her in the midst of a house party?
    Even if she believed Jardine, she couldn’t let him know it, or she’d have no ostensible reason to continue the engagement, nor to visit Radleigh’s home.
    Quite apart from the fact she’d given her oath to speak to no one about her role in Faulkner’s plans, she couldn’t imagine what Jardine would do if he knew why she’d agreed to marry Radleigh. Close those long, white hands around her neck and wring it, most probably.
    “I thought you’d tired of our entanglement , yet you risked being seen with me to tell me scurrilous lies about my fiancé?”
    The last word seemed to inflame him. Air fired through his pinched nostrils.
    Suddenly, he released her shoulders. With a strained, muttered curse, he swept her into his arms.
    Oh God, not this.
    She turned her head to dodge the anticipated kiss, craned her neck to keep her mouth out of his reach.
    Her breasts, her body pressed against his hard form in a contact that was delicious torture. On a groan, Jardine bent his head, slowly sliding his lips along her exposed neck.
    She didn’t fight him; she had enough trouble fighting herself. Despite the call to arms that trumpeted in her head, every cell, every nerve ending in her body urged her to surrender.
    Tears of frustration gathered behind her eyes as he drew her fichu aside and kissed the swell of one breast.
    She shuddered and forced out on a sobbing breath, “You don’t want me. Why do you torment me like this? Let me go, Jardine. The least you can do is let me go.”
    “Break the engagement,” he said roughly. “Break it, or I’ll kill him.”
    She stared up at him. He meant it. He truly meant it. Radleigh might be the worst kind of villain, a traitor, a betrayer of brave men and women, but she wanted him brought to justice. She didn’t want his death to be at Jardine’s hands.
    Jardine’s mouth softened a little. “Don’t do it, Louisa. Don’t settle for him.”
    Fear whipped into fury. “You are the last person on earth who has any right to tell me whom I should marry. My God , Jardine, you have a hide.”
    “Tell him no.”
    “I will not!” Louisa’s anger hit boiling point at his autocratic tone. She wedged her hands between them and shoved at his chest. “If you want me, just tell me so! Don’t come here with threats because you don’t know how else to keep me for yourself without actually claiming me as your wife. That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You’re a dog in the manger, Jardine. You don’t want me, but you can’t stand the thought of someone else taking your place.”
    He let her go, then. Flung away from her to pace, murder written over his features.
    Louisa squared her shoulders in determination. She needed to nip this in the bud, before he put himself beyond redemption.
    Her voice trembled. She was shaking all over, despite her stiff posture. “When that boy died last summer, you told me you didn’t kill him, that you were no assassin, despite what I’d always believed. Jardine, killing for your country . . . I don’t like it, but I’ve learned to live with it, as a soldier’s wife must. But murdering out of jealous spite is something I will not forgive.”
    She swallowed. “I don’t know if you care what I think of you. But I will not renounce my betrothal. And I will never forgive you if