Read Online When Marrying a Scoundrel by Kathryn Smith - Free Book Online

the broad brim. “Stop that!”
    He did it again. This time, she retaliated by shoving both hands against his chest, knocking him back a few steps. “Sod off, you great stupid arse!”
    This time when Jack came at her he didn’t touch her hat. Instead, he seized her by the face, his palms cupping her cheeks as his strong fingers curved around the back of her skull. He pulled her forward, forcing her up onto her toes. Sadie grabbed hold of his lapels to keep from falling into him. She should slap his face, but she couldn’t seem to lift her hands once they met the solid wall of his chest.
    Jack tilted her head backward, his eyes bright like green-flecked amber. The muscle in his jaw ticked as he stared down at her, and Sadie could do nothing more than stare back. Was he going to kiss her? Was it wrong of her to wish he would? Just once she’d like to feel those lips against hers again, taste the rich sweetness of his mouth, desperate and hot.
    For a second, she thought he might actually give her what she both wanted and despised, but he didn’t. Instead, a look of great determination took hold of his features, tightening his brow. “I won’t let you do this.”
    “Do what?” she whispered, so confused now she hardly knew what she was about.
    “This,” he replied, releasing her with a little shove. Hepointed a finger at her. “I won’t let you harm what I’ve worked so hard to build, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you from harming yourself.”
    “How in the name of God will a tea shop harm me, or you?”
    “Jesus, Sadie, you’re a fraud!”
    She froze, slapped still by his words. He’d never come right out and said it before, though she’d always known how he felt. Still, that word sounded so terrible on his tongue. So low and base. Dirty.
    To his credit, Jack looked aghast that he’d actually given voice to his thoughts, but he did not apologize.
    “If I am a fraud in your estimation,” Sadie said, voice tight with the effort to keep it from breaking, “it is because you made me so. But regardless of your low opinion of me, I signed a lease for this property, a lease that was agreed to and also signed by Trystan Kane. If you plan to stop me from having my shop, you’d best take it up with him.” How full of bravado and certainty she sounded! When in reality her knees were knocking together. Jack wouldn’t really try to take her dream away from her, would he? Not when he’d already taken more than he could ever know.
    “I will,” he replied with a stiff nod. “I will take it up with Kane.”
    Oh , Jack . Sadie wouldn’t have thought there was anything left of her heart for him to break, but the familiar pain in her chest proved otherwise.
    “Then we’ve nothing left to discuss.” Lifting her chin, she leveled him with the haughtiest expression she couldmuster with tears burning the backs of her eyes. “Good day, Mr. Friday. I hope I never see you again and that you rot in hell.”
    He had the gall to look saddened. “I’m afraid that’s exactly where we’ll meet again, Sadiemoon.”
    She turned on her heel and marched out the door before she humiliated herself by screaming or bursting into tears. She refused to show defeat, even when she climbed into the privacy of her waiting carriage just outside the shop and tapped on the roof.
    Years ago she would have been destroyed by Jack calling her a fraud, but now she was merely disappointed—and angry. She was done clinging to girlish hope where he was concerned, and from this point would go forward as if he were nothing more than a blister on her heel. He might succeed in keeping her from having this spot, but he couldn’t stop her from finding another. And he couldn’t take away what she knew to be truth no matter how much he denied it.
    Jack Friday had decimated all her dreams once before. Sadie would be damned if she let him do it again.
     
    The club at Saint’s Row took up almost the entirety of the east side of that small