A Little Bit Sinful Read Online Free PDF Page A

since he had returned from the museum, and it would seem they had increased profits for the ninth quarter in a row. To say Rodale’s was doing well was a significant understatement. He smiled. Would that his arse of a father been alive to see his success.
    It had taken him some significant concentration to get his mind on the books tonight. After the kiss he’d shared with Chrissy in the museum, he couldn’t get her off his mind. He kept hearing her words again and again, “thank you.” He’d never had a woman thank him for kissing her before.
    He definitely intended to kiss her again, until she told him to stop.
    There was a pounding as someone slammed the knocker into his front door. Justin glanced at the clock again, quite late for a visitor and he couldn’t recall expecting anyone. Perhaps it was his brother. Roe kept mostly nighttime hours, seeming to prefer moving about the world in the darkness. Justin’s butler knocked on the study door, then opened it. “Lady Clarissa here to see you.”
    She entered wearing a dark cloak, the hood covering her facial features. She swept it back off her head and smiled. “Hello, Justin.”
    “Chrissy. This is a surprise.” Justin nodded to the butler who turned and left the room. “Twice in one night, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
    “Can I not simply come for a visit?”
    “No, you would not do such a thing. Not after the last time you came to see me. Quite the trouble you caused.” He clicked his tongue. “Come in and sit.”
    She came out of her cloak and laid it against one of the leather chairs, then sat in the one opposite. “Well, now that you’ve been established as a dear friend of the family, perhaps it’s not too scandalizing. But you see right through me. I came because I need a favor.”
    She still wore that pink confection she’d had on earlier. Pretty, feminine, and so damned tempting. Though he had seen her a handful of times now, he still was not quite used to Clarissa as a woman. He still remembered how she’d looked as a thin girl of fifteen. Now, though, the only hint of the young girl he’d known had been her eyes. You never forgot eyes that blue. Gone were the gangly arms and legs, and in their place was a woman full of delicious curves. “More debts to pay off?”
    “Not exactly.”
    He’d asked about George earlier that evening to see if the man had been progressing their relationship, it did not seem as if he were. Still Justin wanted to remind Clarissa of George’s poorer qualities so that she might change her mind about marrying him.
    “Did you ever find out the truth from Mr. Wilbanks? Why he’d lied about owing me money?”
    “I never inquired. It didn’t seem important.”
    He could tell by the flicker in her jaw that that wasn’t the precise truth, but he merely nodded.
    “No, this isn’t about George at all, but a different matter. It would seem that my dearest friend Ella, well, her father, has made a series of poor investments and is need of some assistance.”
    Justin frowned. “You wish me to loan him money?”
    “No, of course not. Were it that simple, we could loan them the necessary funds.” She took a deep breath. “What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room. Can I trust you with my secret?” she asked, her blue eyes pierced into his.
    It was on his tongue to tell her that she could trust him with anything. Anything save perhaps her virtue, as she was looking increasingly more fetching by the moment in that gown with its plunging neckline that left little to his imagination regarding her breasts. Her pale blond hair was piled intricately on her head in a display of curls and jeweled pins. “How did you get here?” he asked.
    “I hired a hack. You didn’t answer my question.”
    “Yes, you can trust me,” he said. He sat, realizing he was most eager for what secret she was about to share. He’d known Chrissy since she was but a girl. He’d been schoolmates with her older brother, and Justin