One Wicked Sin Read Online Free PDF Page B

betrayed her, that was at odds with the brashness of her words.
    “Are you trying to shock me?” he asked.
    Her eyes gleamed. “Am I succeeding?”
    “Not remotely.”
    “Oh well…” She sounded cross, like a thwarted child. “I could try harder but to tell the truth I cannot be bothered to do so.”
    “You wanted your friend’s husband,” Ethan said. “Why?”
    He sensed her surprise. “Do you know,” she said slowly, “no one has ever asked me that before?”
    “Well?”
    “You sound like a stern governess.” She sounded petulant. “I don’t know! I was bored, he was handsome….”
    Ethan knew she was lying. He could hear it. He also knew she would not tell him the truth. Not now, not yet, if ever. Lottie Palliser had been badly hurt and that damage had made her draw her defenses so tight no one would ever come close to hurting her again. He understood that. He had been doing something similar since he was fifteen years old.
    “You have an interesting concept of loyalty to your friends,” he said now.
    “I have no concept of loyalty.” She sounded tired. “And it was not even worth it. He had a tiny penis and was only concerned for his own pleasure in bed.”
    Ethan laughed. “How disappointing to lose a friend and gain so little in return.”
    A small smile lifted the corner of her mouth. “That was the least of my betrayals. I deceived Joanna several times over.” She sighed. “Even so, I think she would have helped me, but she has been out of the country for over a year, in Scandinavia and Russia, or somewhere equally far-flung. I forget. I wrote to her but the letter probably went astray. Geography is not my strong suit.” She gave an irritable little shrug. “Must we speak of this?” He could feel her gaze resting on him. “There is no need for us to talk, is there, least of all about me?”
    “Not if you do not wish.” Ethan was amused. For as long as he could remember he had had women desperate to tell him their life stories. He had been the one trying to escape the intimacy.
    Lottie shifted on the seat and he caught a faint scent of her jasmine perfume, fresh and sweet. The hunger gripped him again, as razor-sharp as it had been in the brothel. It was a very long time since he had had a woman. As a prisoner of war he had had little opportunity to satisfy his lusts and had grown accustomed to ignoring them. Instead he had focused all his energies on the long, dangerous, treasonable game he was playing. Yet now it seemed that Lottie Palliser’s intriguingcombination of reticence and experience was proving a great deal more seductive than he had ever imagined.
    At first he had thought she was acting the prude to titillate the jaded palates of Mrs. Tong’s clientele. An experienced woman playing the virgin was not unusual, but in Lottie’s case it would have been pointless since everyone knew her history. And at no point had she attempted to deny her promiscuity or the infidelity that had led to her downfall. That honesty interested Ethan. Not a single woman of his acquaintance would have been as open as Lottie had been with him, and he admired her for that unflinching truthfulness.
    She moved slightly on the hackney carriage seat and he heard the rustle of her silk skirts. “How did you come to this?” she asked, turning his question back on him. “Since you seem so anxious to speak to me, you can tell me how you came to be a prisoner of war.”
    “I was captured at the battle of Fuentes de Onoro in Portugal,” Ethan said. “When Wellington discovered who I was, he sent me back to England as a prisoner.”
    “How careless of you to be caught.” Her voice was cool. “The British must have been delighted to lay hands on you when you have been a very public affront to your noble father for so many years. In fact—” her voice changed, became thoughtful “—I am surprised that they let you loose.”
    “They kept me locked in a prison hulk at Chatham for a year.” Ethan