Too Dangerous to Desire Read Online Free

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    Dudley’s blackmail notes had started a fortnight later. The demands had been small at first, and she had managed to cobble together payments by giving a few extra music lessons. However they had quickly escalated. Her jaw tightened. The earrings would buy a bit of respite. But after that, she had nothing left to offer. No more money, no more jewelry. No more excuses.
    I’ll think of something before then , thought Sophie, trying to put some force behind the assertion.
    The hackney came to a jolting halt, saving her from further brooding. Drawing up the hood of her cloak, she slipped out the door and darted into the alleyway, praying that none of the neighbors would notice a flitting shadow stir the darker shades of night.
    The carefully oiled scullery door opened with nary a squeak and Sophie quickly made her way up the back stairs to her bedchamber overlooking the tiny garden.
    “Thank God for small favors,” she muttered under her breath, shaking the mizzle from her cloak and hanging it inside the painted armoire. However, her relief at having her absence go undetected was punctured in the next instant by a whisper from the drapery-shrouded window seat.
    “Where the devil have you been?”
    Damnation. Swearing a silent oath, Sophie carefully removed her veiling and bonnet before turning around. “Don’t say ‘devil,’ Georgie. It’s not acceptable language for a proper young lady.”
    Georgiana retorted with a far worse word.
    “You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You are a clergyman’s daughter,” scolded Sophie, mustering her sternest older-sister voice.
    “So are you,” pointed out Georgiana. “And I daresay that sneaking off for a secret midnight tryst in the Capital of Sin is a much more serious transgression than taking the Devil’s name in vain.”
    “I may have to start keeping a closer eye on your reading material,” replied Sophie tartly. “It appears that Lady Vere is right in warning me that horrid novels stimulate the wrong sort of thoughts in impressionable young females.”
    “You are trying to change the subject.”
    For all her tender years, Georgiana was sharp as a tack. That fact was usually very welcome, but at the present moment it was proving decidedly uncomfortable.
    Lighting a candle, Sophie carried it to her dressing table.
    “If you weren’t trysting, then what were you doing out at this hour?” pressed her sister.
    The soft ping of hairpins dropping upon the wooden top seemed to amplify the ensuing silence.
    “By the by,” added Georgiana after waiting through several more pings . “It wouldn’t be such a bad thing if you were trysting. You’ve spent most of your life shouldering all the responsibilities for our family. Once in a while, you ought to cut loose and kick up your heels, even if it means sneaking a few forbidden pleasures, before…before…”
    “Before I turn into a dried-up old spinster?” Sophie gave a tight smile. “I’m on the shelf, Georgie, with my heels primly tucked under my skirts.” Picking up a hairbrush, she set to work on her unruly curls. “My days of indulging in anything forbidden are far in the past.”
    “You make yourself sound as aged as Methuselah,” grumbled her sister. “Twenty-seven is not so very old.”
    Despite her worries, Sophie let out a wry laugh. “That’s exceedingly kind of you, for I know that to someone who is only seventeen, it must appear positively ancient .”
    “Not at all. You are quite well preserved. I only have to dust the cobwebs off you once or twice a week.”
    Their gazes met for a moment in the hazy glimmer of the looking glass before Sophie dropped her eyes.
    “Please look at me,” said Georgiana.
    Sophie reluctantly turned around in her chair.
    “You may still see me as a scrubby schoolgirl, but I’m not a child anymore.” To emphasize the assertion, Georgiana rose from the window seat, the hazy moonlight outlining her slim, long-legged height and womanly curves. “In case you