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Into Temptation
Jeanie London
MI6 agent Lindy Gardner always gets what she wants. And right now she wants Joshua Benedict to come clean about his relationship with the criminal mastermind behind the White Star amulet's disappearance.She knows Joshua is the best "fixer" ever to walk on the wrong side of the law — no man could elude capture for so long without being very, very good.But Joshua has his own agenda. He needs to know what British Intelligence has on him. Why not challenge sensual, daring Lindy to an international game of hide-and-seek? There's only one hitch. Joshua wants to be caught. Is this game on…or game over?
Into Temptation
Jeanie London
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Dear Reader,
THE WHITE STAR legend continues… The amulet is now leaving the United States to follow its destiny into several sexy European locales. While it journeys to places both familiar and new, it weaves the power of true love over two new lovers.
True love is about the last thing MI6 agent Lindy Gardner expects when she crosses the big pond to pursue the man who can lead her to the amulet. Joshua Benedict isn’t expecting true love, either. He doesn’t believe in legends or curses – only in the luck he makes for himself.
But the White Star possesses a power that finds the pure of heart even in the unlikeliest places.
The instant I heard about this continuity series, I knew Into Temptation was the story for me. I hope you enjoy!
Very truly yours,
Jeanie London
To all the folks who had a hand in creating this
wonderful world…my continuity buds: Lori
Wilde, Carrie Alexander, Kristin Hardy and
Shannon Hollis; our project manager
extraordinaire, Kathryn Lye; and my own
always-brilliant editor, Wanda Ottewell.
It has been a pleasure, ladies!
A warm breeze stirred branches, filling the air with theincense of eucalyptus. Yet Egmath glared into the sultrynight, a mixture of defiance and despair making thismagical place seem unfamiliar, though he had alwaysfound refuge here.
“How can so perfect a night herald such heartache?”he demanded of the dark that lay as sweeping velvet overthe river, studded by stars and illumined by moonlight.
He would find no shelter this night. He could escapeneither destiny nor duty, for on the morrow his marriagewould take place in the Hall of a Thousand Pillars.
Always, Egmath had intended to speak the sacredvows with his beloved Batu, but the priests had swornhim to her sister, the heiress to the throne. And the godswould mock them all, for he and Batu would fl ank theirfuture queen before the altar while he uttered vowsbinding him to the wrong woman, tearing the heart fromhis beloved’s chest, from his own.
These past days of feasting and preparation hadblurred together, marked only by his spiking dread as thewedding approached. He told himself a feted warriorwho had faced death in battle should be more courageousof spirit and reconciled to duty, yet obligation lay as adeath pall over his future. When he could fi nally endurethe agony no longer, he had summoned Batu, knowinghe would not find the strength to endure the morrowwithout holding her in his arms one last time.
He stared into the moonlit darkness with eyeshungry for the sight of her. She emerged from theshadows as she always had, bereft of the adornmentsof the royal court, a simple gown flowing around her,tempting him with sleek curves and raven hair thatgleamed silver and gold beneath the night.
In her welcoming smile he found his shelter.
“You came to me,” he said.
She approached with a grace that had made herfi endishly difficult to catch when they had played theiryouthful games as children, liquid strides that hadenticed him since his arrival in manhood. Feasting onthe sight of her, he extended his hands. She slid herown within.
“I would look upon you one last time as we havealways been.” Her heart glowed in her eyes. “I wouldlook upon you as you always will be—my love.”
Their bodies swayed close, drawn together asnaturally as the pull of the tide, barely touching, yether nearness soothed away the ache in his soul andrighted the universe.
Then he brought his mouth down upon hers. For thespate of one shared breath, the promise of a future thatshould have been theirs lay between them—the preludeto their kiss, so agonizingly sweet, before need crashedin, and passion reigned.
Batu yielded beneath the press of his lips. Hethrilled to her giving response, his own yearning thatdefied destiny and circumstance, made him ache to tossobligation to the four winds and follow the call ofdesire. This woman was his lifeblood…his friend, hisstrength, his fantasy.
With his mouth upon hers and his tongue tastingthe demand of her kiss, Egmath would have laid downhis life to avoid the morrow. But self-indulgence wasnot to be his. Only in his strength would Batu fi nd hercourage to face their future. He loved her too much todeny her any chance to fi nd peace.
When finally they broke apart, their passionlingering in their ragged breaths, in the whispers ofthe palms on the breeze, she pressed something into hispalm.
“What is this?” He gazed down upon a mother-of-pearlamulet fashioned in the shape of a star.
“I would give you my heart.” Her voice trembledthrough lips reddened by his kiss. “To keep with youforever.”
“I will cherish your gift always. Your heart shall bemy strength and my beacon through this darkness.”
When she held her hand over his, he knew sheunderstood all his feelings so poorly conveyed.
“I would beg such a prize of you as well, Egmath.”
“It is yours, my beloved, as is my heart.”
“Then grant me tonight, where I will be yours alone.Gift me with a memory I shall cherish forever.”
The amulet blazed in their clasped hands, a firethat captured the power of their love, the force of theirshared passion, a heat that would bind them in spiritforever.
Egmath brought their hands to his mouth, breatheda promise in the kiss he pressed to her smooth skin.
She trembled.
“Tonight shall be ours,” he vowed.
Loosing the clasp at her shoulder, he swept awaythe gown to expose her golden loveliness. The double-edged blade of desire pierced his heart as she came intohis arms, unfolding in a sweep of lush curves and warmflesh that aligned perfectly against him.
“A memory to cherish always, my beloved Batu,a reminder that neither duty nor fate nor death canseparate us, for true love will endure.”
TO BE CONTINUED…
Table of Contents
Cover (#u5a8e7319-e51e-55ad-b069-c7b7f154d6bc)
Title Page (#uc58942d4-1f74-50ef-bfb6-e211ac10d557)
Dedication (#uebb3e65d-bae2-5afe-99f6-793ae49a7ce1)
Chapter One (#u9b50bad0-2fe4-5cf2-9d03-b061f7aa0f72)
Chapter Two (#u9145f1ad-0c34-53b7-b57c-09182baa3236)
Chapter Three (#u7170072d-2e15-5c2b-8205-05b5387f4301)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
1
New York City, where the chic and commonplace clash alongbusy streets that make the perfect place to pursue a man.
“OH MY, MY, but the man is even more dishy in the skin,” Lindy Gardner said to no one in particular as she focused the digital-cam binoculars.
The device had been designed to look like a pair of stylish sunglasses, so she didn’t concern herself with the passersby on the street, but zoomed in on the tall blonde leaving the ritzy Piazza Hotel.
Joshua Benedict aka Stuart Temple. Approximately thirty-eight years old.
Origins: unknown.
Current residence: Nice, France.
Occupation: Fixer.
She produced the man’s stats by rote, but peering through those lenses, Lindy didn’t see a familiar image from the surveillance photos the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, had collected during recent months.
Life sparked the lifeless images she’d studied during mission briefing into a wholly 3-D man. He stepped onto the pavement, his smile dazzling as he inclined his head to the doorman and moved past with smooth strides.
Definitely a man her old school chums would have called a cut above bog standard.
With the depression of a button, zoom lenses magnified her vantage again. Startling black eyes and brows contrasted with his pale hair and tanned skin. His hair glinted in the late-afternoon sun.
Joshua Benedict looked as if he spent much of his time sailing, fishing and windsurfing on the deep-blue waters of the French Riviera.
According to her intel, he did.
But Lindy also knew he spent the rest of his time jet- setting around the globe conducting business.
Legitimate society believed this man to be nothing more than a businessman with many areas of interest. But the world of the Secret Intelligence suspected Joshua Benedict of conducting illegal business, which was precisely why he was in New York City on this bright spring afternoon.
And why she’d followed him here.
Tracing her finger along the binoculars in what would appear to the casual observer as an adjustment to her sunglasses, Lindy depressed another button and captured the man’s image as he moved beneath the Piazza Hotel’s marquee.
Target acquired.
Joshua Benedict appeared to be a tourist, looking for all the world as if he belonged in the crush of people that ebbed and flowed along the street.
Lindy knew there was nothing casual about this man’s visit, however. An informant had relayed reliable intel that connected Joshua Benedict to a recent auction-house theft.
Not as the thief, though.
This man maneuvered easily through the layers of society, from the wealthy glitterati to the shadowy underworld of international organized crime. He rubbed elbows with power brokers, from global financiers to old-money families who made up high society on three continents.
He had established his reputation as a man who could mastermind brilliant business deals, “fix” any sort of unexpected situation and leave behind no prosecutable evidence. Most importantly, he could keep secrets.
A regular Johnny of all trades.
The thought made Lindy smile. Ironically, his job description didn’t sound so far off from hers.
Except that Joshua Benedict worked for the bad guys, and one bad guy in particular.
Henri Renouf.
The man SIS wanted to apprehend in a big way.
In much the same fashion as Joshua Benedict, Henri Renouf was known to the general public as a businessman with a cutthroat reputation—a reputation built through rumor, innuendo and suspicion. Since Renouf had been around for over four decades, he’d established himself as a private and very powerful man whom most people didn’t dare to cross.
According to Secret Intelligence, the rumor, innuendo and suspicion surrounding Renouf was well-founded. The man was known to be an obsessive antiquities collector, but Renouf didn’t let the availability of artifacts deter his acquisitions. In Britain alone, he was suspected of “acquiring” numerous priceless relics from museums and private residences through thefts spanning several decades.
Since Renouf had the resources to conduct his shady actions through intermediaries, he protected himself with distance. But with each passing year, he got bolder. While no international agency had enough evidence to prosecute, after a recent rash of heists all over the globe, her agency, in conjunction with Interpol, had deemed the time ripe to make contact with one of Renouf’s associates.
Joshua Benedict was a means to an end.
