Page 29 of When the Scoundrel Sins

Sweet Lucifer…Quinn knew kisses, and knew them well. He’d kissed more women than he could remember, and a misspent youth had made him good enough at it to turn half of those encounters into full-out seductions. But this,thiswasn’t just a kiss. This was so much more.

Those other kisses didn’t leave him trembling the way that he trembled now. They didn’t intoxicate him with the wild scent of the highlands and heather. They didn’t leave his gut twisting into knots and his head spinning, or make the world fall away until he was aware only of the warm sweetness of her breath tickling at his lips, her soft body leaning into his in innocent invitation. But Belle’s kisses did just that. They were addictive, leaving him hungering for a deeper taste…one which he knew he shouldn’t claim yet desperately wanted.

But if this morning was to be the last time he’d ever get to see her, why should he stop? He’d have this moment together to remember her by.

And just like six years ago, he couldn’t help himself.

“I remember everything about that kiss,” he murmured truthfully against her lips, although at that moment he would have said anything to keep her mouth against his and her body leaning into him, tasting the unbearable sweetness of her. “And how beautiful you were that night. How alluring.”

“Quinton,” she whispered in a soft plea.

Another kiss, but this time, he took her bottom lip between his and sucked, eliciting a shiver from her as he drew her lip deep into his mouth.

She inhaled a jerking breath. Then the last of her stubborn resistance melted away, and she slumped bonelessly against him. His arms around her kept her pressed close, to prevent her from slipping down his body to the ground. Instead of pushing him away, her hand at his shoulder now fisted the collar of his wool coat in her fingers to keep him close.

Joy soared inside him at her capitulation, and he welcomed her response as her mouth softened against his and her body relaxed within his arms. Sweet and delicate, the kiss possessed none of the flaring passion nor the eager fumbling he remembered from six years ago—but it was just as magnetic, just as arousing. Even more so. Because her body was now softer and more yielding with her maturity, which only made him crave more.

“I remember this, too.” He slid his thumb to her chin and gently tugged down, opening her mouth as he slipped his tongue between her lips.

A shameless lie. He hadn’t kissed her so intimately that night beneath the rose bower. If he had dared to sweep across her inner lip like this, to delve his tongue inside the dark, moist recesses of her kiss and taste the sweetness hidden there like ambrosia—God help him, because even now her kiss heated him down to his core and left him shaking.

She whimpered softly. He responded to her growing arousal by cupping the back of her head against his palm, to keep her mouth captured against his as he began to thrust his tongue in rhythmic strokes between her lips. He knocked away her tweed cap and dug his fingers into her soft hair until it tumbled loose down her back, all the while not stopping in his relentless desire to kiss her the way no man had ever kissed her before. If he had to leave with only this memory to remember her by, then damnation, he wanted to make certain she never forgothim, either.

But when her lips closed tentatively around his tongue and took a gentle suck, he felt the unpracticed pull of her mouth straight down to his tightening gut. He was a fool to think he could control this encounter, now as swept up in the embrace as much as she.

“Annabelle,” he rasped hoarsely, tearing his mouth away from hers to nip his teeth down the side of her neck and drawing a breathless moan of need from her.

Dear God, how he thrilled at those little sounds that came from her! Even now his cock tingled at her guileless response. She dug her fingers into his hair, and he gladly let her, because every electrifying scratch of her fingertips against his scalp sent shivers spiraling through him.

When she moved her mouth against his to kiss him back and nibbled tentatively at his bottom lip the way he’d done to hers, he groaned.

She pulled back, a worried frown marring her pretty face. “Is something wrong?”

He cupped her face between his hands and pursued her for another kiss. “Nothing.”

Just everything.For God’s sake, at that moment, he should have been packing his bags and readying his horse to leave, but he couldn’t tear himself away. He tugged back the collar of her coat to gain access to the side of her neck where it sloped beneath her shirt, then licked at the patch of revealed skin.

She bit back another moan rising at her lips, and he smiled at her innocence as he sat back on the stone. To fight away the very thing that would bring such pleasure…Yet he understood her nervousness, because his own hands shook as he reached beneath her coat and encircled her waist to draw her onto his lap.

Trembling hands? He nearly laughed. The woman hadallof him shaking! So much for his reputation as a rake if such an unschooled gel like Annabelle had him as nervous as a green pup, so nervous that his fingers could barely unfasten the buttons of her waistcoat.

“Quinn?” His name was an uncertain whisper.

“You’re so pretty, Belle,” he whispered, his hands gently pushing her waistcoat open to reveal the thin white shirt and the shadow of her breasts beneath in the blue morning light. He groaned—she wasn’t wearing stays. “I had forgotten how much.”

He trailed a hand slowly down her front and pulled at the shirt to draw the fabric taut across her breasts. Her nipples, already pebbled in arousal, showed dusky rose through the white material. His breath hitched at the sight of her. Sweet Lucifer, she was beautiful.

“Quinn.” This time, his name was an aching sigh of permission as she arched herself toward him.

Unable to resist, he lowered his head and captured her right nipple through the thin fabric, finally taking the taste of her he craved.

A gasp of surprise tore from her at the intimate contact, but she leaned harder into him, her fingertips digging into his shoulders as she fought to regain the breath he’d so easily stolen from her. His pulse spiked. He couldn’t remember ever kissing another woman who was so responsive to each little touch and caress. Even now as he suckled at her nipple, she trembled beneath his mouth, her eyes closed and her lips parted, as if having his mouth on her like this gave her the most intense pleasure she’d ever known.

When he lifted his head, he saw the wet circle his mouth had left through her shirt, the now translucent material tantalizingly encircling her nipple. He couldn’t resist tracing his thumb over the hard bud and making her shudder before he leaned up to capture her mouth again. This time, she welcomed him eagerly with a hot, openmouthed kiss. One that left him hard between his thighs and throbbing for her.

He wanted to make her ache just as much as he did. With his left arm around her to keep her close, he shifted her on his lap, until she straddled him as he perched at the edge of the stone.

Her eyes flew open, and all of her tensed. She stared uncertainly up at him but didn’t pull back. Instead, her arms tightened boldly around his neck, her breath coming in small pants of arousal. She bit her bottom lip.