To Sin With A Scoundrel by Cara Elliott Read Free Book Online Page A

were suddenly withdrawn, and his mouth—still lush with heat—was tracing the line of
     her jaw.
    Ciara closed her eyes and gasped for breath.
    “Heaven help me.” Was it a plea for strength? Or a signal of sinful surrender? She wasn’t sure she knew herself.
    In response, he framed her face with his palms, and that terrible, tempting mouth was once again suckling the swell of her
     lower lip. Gently, sweetly—as if such a thing were possible from a notorious libertine—his kisses fell like a soft summer
     rain. On her chin, her cheeks, her brow.
    Clutching at the solid, sloping slant of his shoulders, Ciara found herself melting, molding against his body.
Dear God.
Had every sensible bone in her body turned to putty? She knew she should summon the resolve to force him away. Yet as her
     fingers curled, it was only to rake at his coat, digging for a deeper feel of every nuanced contour.
    He stilled.
    The awful truth was, she wanted him to keep kissing her. No matter that he was a practiced rake, a lustful libertine. She
     was suddenly tired of having to be strong and sensible when inside she was feeling alone and frightened. And unwanted.
    She had buried her need so deeply, she had thought it beyond reach. But in a matter of moments, the earl’s lithe hands had
     stripped away her defenses, exposing that need to light and heat. No amount of scientific study had prepared her for the chemical
     reaction. It was explosive.
    “Dear God.” She said it aloud, finding her voice had the ragged pitch of a total stranger.
    He looked up and slowly smiled. “Whatever potions you brew here are potent as sin,” he said rather thickly. The sandalwood
     scent of his cologne was now mixed with an elemental essence of his own exertion. The effect was intensely erotic.
    Her mouth quivered. “I-I cannot explain this alchemy.”
    A sound—somewhere between a laugh and groan—tickled her earlobe. “Nor can I. But a man could die happily in its embrace.”
    Ciara blushed. “It makes no sense when you… analyze the ingredients. We are too different…”
    “I seem to recall hearing that opposites attract.”
    That
must
be the answer. Otherwise, there was no way to explain the forces drawing them together. “Logical thought would—”
    With a smooth, stroking touch, his finger stilled her lip. “Some things defy logic. Don’t think, just feel.”
    She was acutely aware of the chiseled contours of his muscle. Oh, he felt wickedly good.
    The earl’s whisper tickled her ear. “Sheffield was an even bigger fool than I thought,” he added. “To have sought his pleasure
     elsewhere.”
    The mention of her late husband saved her from surrendering completely to the madness of the moment.
    As reason returned, she somehow summoned the strength to pull back. “Like most men, Sheffield lusted after what he did not
     already have.”
    His heavy-lidded eyes narrowed even more. “You think I planned to seduce you?”
    Ciara didn’t know what to think. Or feel.
    “And if I did, is that so very bad? It seems to me that you have experienced very little pleasure in your life.”
    Confused, she sought release from the weight of his presence. “My personal life is none of your concern.”
    He did not object as she pressed her fists to his chest and gave a little shove. His grip slipped away and he stepped back,
     watching in silence as she smoothed her skirts.
    The loss of his heat left a dull ache imprinted on her flesh.
    “I—I must ask you to leave, Lord Hadley. And to take your papers with you.” Like her fingers, her voice was now stiff with
     embarrassment. “I granted your wish—you have had the chance to state your desire.” She drew in a breath. “It was, to be sure,
     an eloquent performance. But I have decided to say no to your request.”
    His gaze turned opaque, his expression hardened, betraying no emotion save for a sardonic curl at the corners of his mouth.
     “You have not yet heard the rest of the details about the