Sins of a Wicked Princess Read Free Page A

until her maid returned from the little crisis he’d arranged.
    “I wasn’t even here last June. I’d been invited to Brighton with the regent.”
    Ah. Double damn .
    If that was true, then holding her at knifepoint was a rather large waste of time. He sheathed the knife and spun her around so he could study her face. “I can check that claim.”
    “Go ahead.” Her strange amber eyes could have frozen the devil’s horns.
    “Someone in your household is responsible,” he said. One of the letters had been written on parchment from her desk. Ian had verified it personally. And those revolutionaries had come here. Somehow he must have put the pieces together wrong.
    She inched back. “Unfortunately, you’re not going to get the chance to find out who.”
    “I will.”
    She grabbed a candlestick from the table and brandished it in front of her. “Not after I scream. My soldiers will gut you.”
    Ian laughed at her naïveté. With a single grab and twist of her wrist, the candlestick was in his hands. “Your soldiers consist of five lads playing dress-up with rusty swords. They can’t stop me from coming back whenever I choose. You won’t even be able to prove I was here in the first place.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Then I will shoot you.”
    He tucked a finger under her chin. Blimey, but her skin was soft. “Aren’t you the most darling thing?” Spunky. That was the word. The princess was spunky.
    J uliana slapped his hand away and he returned it to his side. She was not darling ; she was nearly a ruling sovereign. “I’ll double the security on the house.” Had she just spit as she talked? But she was beyond caring. She’d spit on this man’s grave.
    “Because your security was so efficient in keeping me out the first time, Jules?”
    If he didn’t stop grinning, she’d punch him.
    “You will address me as Your Highness.”
    “I make it a rule never to call any undressed person by their title.”
    That was it. She swung for all she was worth. His grin actually disappeared before her hand hit.
    Ouch .
    She winced at the impact. She might have broken her wrist.
    His strong hand clamped over hers, and she blinked her eyes open. Had she really closed them?
    She’d punched his arm. Not even his face.
    He tucked her hand behind her back, tight enough that she couldn’t move unless she wanted to dislocate something. “Very good, Princess. But don’t fear, when I return to your less-than-castle, you won’t even know I’m here.” His lips lowered until they were inches from hers. “And while you’re lying in bed thinking about my hard chest, you might ask yourself why you never did bother to scream.”
    He spun her away in a quick maneuver that made the world tilt. She had to catch the table to keep from falling.
    When she whirled back around, he was gone.

Chapter Three
    I an wanted nothing more than to climb into a bed. Not just any bed like most nights, but a soft bed with blankets that were made from bunnies covered with goose down.
    Despite his boasts, the princess’s house had been more difficult to get into than he’d anticipated. He’d had to scale to the third floor before he’d found any windows that could be opened from the outside.
    He just wasn’t as young as he used to be.
    His boots left imprints on the soft Turkish rugs in the corridor outside his room at The Albany. He seldom used these rooms. He generally preferred to skulk with his own kind in any of a dozen hovels in the slums of the city. But tonight, his back ached and a night on the floor of some hole would get him nothing but hours spent tossing and ruminating on a nearly naked princess.
    Besides, he had to do something with all the money Cipher had invested for him.
    He unlocked the door and stepped inside, already planning what he’d order from the kitchen staff. The price of the rooms was more than made up for by the divine creations that came out of the kitchen. Jean Pierre was a master craftsman when it came to