Sins of a Virgin Read Online Free

the police office yesterday.
    Huntford’s gaze swung to the door she was hiding behind. He couldn’t see her. She knew that. She’d hidden this way a hundred times before. She was out of sight. Her breathing was light and shallow through her nose. There were no shadows under the door. There was no way he could know she was there.
    Yet when his attention lingered there, she had to fight the urge to back away, her heart fluttering in her chest like that of a cornered rabbit.
    Madeline narrowed her gaze, annoyed at her body’s betrayal.
    Huntford suddenly disappeared from sight and Madeline had to shift to find him again. He stood at her desk, flipping through the blank sheets of paper on top. After a quick pause, he moved behind it and opened a drawer. When he discovered that the only thing inside was a list of her current bidders, he’d be disappointed.
    Madeline smiled. She’d intended to make him wait until eleven but this was too good an opportunity to pass up. Keeping her steps silent, she left the parlor and walked to the study door.
    G abriel’s hand rested on the brass drawer handle. He’d meant to come here and refuse the assignment, a task Potts thought so important that he’d reassigned not only the Simm murder, but all Gabriel’s other cases until Miss Valdan’s job was complete. But now Gabriel stared at the page of names. It must be a list of the men bidding on her.
    Lenton. Billingsgate. Darby. The names seared across his mind. They were three of his suspects.
    Potts had said she wanted to hire a Runner to investigate the men bidding on her. What if he could use her investigation to hide his own? Potts was right, most of his suspects would do everything they could to avoid a murder investigation. But if they meant to win Miss Valdan, they’d be willing to—
    The door suddenly swung open.
    Miss Valdan paused in the doorway, eyebrow raised, her gaze on the paper in his hand. Gabriel straightened but he didn’t bother to scramble away from the open drawer. It was too late for that. But why hadn’t he heard her coming? And damnation, his cheeks were heating like he was an errant child.
    She inclined her head. “Can I help you locate something?”
    Gabriel shrugged. “I thought since you were occupied, I’d leave a note and come back when you were available.”
    She glanced pointedly at the blank paper and ink on the top of the desk. She didn’t believe him, but then he hadn’t really expected her to.
    “Like at eleven, our appointment time?”
    “I’m afraid I have a pressing matter to attend to then.” Because he hadn’t thought he’d stay here longer than it took to refuse her job.
    Madeline checked the clock on the mantel, then gestured to the door with a flick of her hand. “Well, it’s almost eleven now. If you cannot stay, feel free to send someone in your place.”
    Gabriel almost agreed. But those three names on the list beckoned, too tempting to ignore.
    No, he needed to stay even if it meant giving her the capitulation she sought. “The other meeting can be postponed.” Hopefully. His witness, the old coachman, Bourne, was always at the tavern. Gabriel could ask his additional questions later.
    “Good. I assume Potts told you what I will require?”
    “He did, but perhaps you should tell me so there will be no misunderstandings.”
    She walked toward him. Gabriel moved to the other side of the desk, reluctant to have her near him again. Rather than claim the chair as he’d expected, she stopped and glanced out the window.
    The daylight poured across her face, and Gabriel studied her afresh. Surely the unforgiving rays of the sun would reveal some flaw. A freckle. A pockmark. A heavy dusting of rice powder. But if anything, the sun rendered her skin more radiant. More pristine.
    His teeth ground together as lust rose unbidden. Everything from the lush cupid’s bow of her lips to the way her fingers rubbed at a knot in her lower back whispered of sensuality. It surrounded her