Too Dangerous to Desire by Alexandra Benedict Page B

in even greater harm.
    Another tap of the hot iron poker.
    Adam seized and clenched his teeth to refrain from shouting.
    “Try to be a little more obliging,” said Dmitri. “My master does not want to take a whore for his wife. As a man, you can understand a husband’s desire to take a pure and innocent woman to his marriage bed. My master only wishes to know if his fiancée is still such a woman.”
    Adam girded against the abuse, speechless. So that’s what the bloody “master” really wanted to know?
    Dmitri tsked. “I see I will have to be a little more persuasive.”
    The scorching iron dragged across Adam’s ribs, making him howl. The room was spinning. He could not get his eyes to focus. Darkness was coming to snatch him away again.
    “There are other, more invasive ways to prove her innocence, you know? My master prefers I in terrogate you, but if you continue to be stubborn, I can always examine her quim—”
    “She’s innocent,” gritted Adam. He had not touched her in that way, and since she lived a shel tered life, he suspected no one else had touched her, either.
    But he had kissed her. And right then the sweet memory of their kiss eased the torment in his soul.
    “Good. My master will be pleased to hear that.”
    Adam resisted the urge to curse his master again. He had learned one blissful truth. Evelyn was still alive! And untouched, it seemed. Her fiendish fiancé intended to marry her before he consummated the union—and then murder her like his first wife.
    Adam searched his weary brain, thinking about Evelyn’s harrowing plight. When was her betrothal to Vadik scheduled to be celebrated? Tomorrow night? Or tonight? Was it morning al ready? But then the couple were to head for the mainland to be married. If he could just break free, there was still time to snatch her from Vadik’s monstrous hold.
    But he was chained—and hanging.
    Blast it all to hell!
    A door opened.
    A robust figure stepped inside the room and stormed, “What in bleedin’ hell is going on in here?”
    Adam gathered what was left of his strength, and seized the moment of distraction to kick his legs into the air and knock Dmitri into the oppo site wall.
    There was a distinct thunk as the villain smacked his head against a hard surface and dropped to the floor.
    Very nearly drained of life himself, Adam whis pered roughly, “Get me down!”
    But the mysterious figure in the doorway didn’t budge. “Who are you? What are you doing in my shop?”
    With the door ajar, Adam had an opportunity to better explore his surroundings. And it was clear to him then he was inside a blacksmith shop: the perfect place to gather information, for it had a wide variety of torture devices—and it was no where near Evelyn.
    “Unlock me!”
    The other man was unmoved by the curt command, though. “I think I’d better fetch the magistrate.”
    “Wait!” Adam had to remember he was not a captain aboard ship, barking orders. He lowered his voice and rasped with more civility, “My name is Adam.”
    The blacksmith pointed to the body on the ground. “And who’s he?”
    “The devil.”
    The heinous charge gave the burly smith pause. “I still think I should summon the magistrate.”
    “You have to let me go!”
    “How do I know you’re not the devil?”
    “You don’t!” He sighed. “But I’m asking you to trust me.”
    Clearly cross, the other man looked ready to protest, but he must have sensed it a wasted effort, for he grumbled something unintelligible before he raided a chest of tools for the key. “I’ll break your teeth if you misbehave.”
    Adam fully believed the robust smith.
    The man unlocked the shackles.
    Adam’s arms dropped, and he groaned at the inflammation in his shoulders. He sat down on the ground with a loud grunt. His thoughts went round and round in his head; the room moved, too. He had to breathe deep and hard to keep from fainting. There was still Evelyn to find. He had to stay awake for her