Read Online An Unexpected Sin by Sarah Ballance - Free Book Online

sitting position, his torso lining up inches from hers. Her hand slid from his chest when he moved, but he caught it and gently pressed his lips to her fingers. When she squirmed from the splendid pleasure of his touch, he captured her, drew her in. And just as gently as the night existed around them, he softly kissed the corner of her mouth.
    Time did not freeze so much as it waited. And when he nuzzled the spot behind her ear, time shattered.
    Propriety splintered into tinder for the fire he lit inside her, and as hotly as it burned, she wanted more.
    He seemed to sense the inferno raging, for the gentle trace of his lips against her throat intensified. While he had cradled her gently before, he now held her fiercely. Her breasts ached from the needful pressure of his body pressed to hers, and she wanted nothing more than to feel his entire length against her. How easy it would be to fall to the mattress—for their hands and their bodies and their lives to join in a single moment that would mean everything.
    His thoughts must have mirrored her own, for in a swift motion he repositioned her so she straddled his lap, her skirts left asunder by the sudden shift. Slowly, in great contrast to their rapid breaths, he pushed his palms up her thighs, not stopping until he gripped her from behind and pulled her tight against his pelvis. The forbidden sensation of his arousal against her womanhood was so exquisite she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning.
    She raked his hair. Clutched desperately at his back. Found it was she who moved against him, for he had eased his grip in favor of taking fierce hold of her breasts. In the dark and through her clothes, he put his mouth over first one, then the other. Desire toppled her sensibilities until she was left arching her back, every part of her begging to be closer. Begging for the kind of fulfillment she knew in her heart only he could deliver.
    Begging until he broke free.
    Breathing heavily, he bathed her in the lopsided, boyish grin she had long adored. “Your father will see me to the gallows for this,” he said in his low, husky voice.
    Though the logic of his words found her, she wanted not for sensibilities. She wanted Josiah. “My father sleeps upstairs.”
    Josiah took a deep breath. “It is not often I wish to be a lesser man,” he said, “but a lesser man has a certain advantage when a beautiful woman comes to him in the dark of the night.”
    A beautiful woman . Anne had never imagined such a description could belong to her. “You could never be a lesser man.”
    “Rest assured, if you return to my room in the dark of the night, I will be nothing more.”
    Though his tone was light, she did not miss its undercurrent. His serious nature made his words all the more thrilling, for they left little doubt as to what he wanted—or how badly he wanted it. She could not keep the smile from her voice as she asked, “Are you saying I need only walk from the room for a minute’s time to make a lesser man of you?”
    “I would like to think myself more honorable, but I make no promises in my current state.”
    “Perhaps we should test that supposition.”
    He grinned and leaned in, kissing her softly. “As much as I ache to know every inch of you,” he said, “it is not my desire to make off with your honor like a thief in the night.”
    She splayed her fingers across his warm, bare chest and took a deep breath of courage. “You have long stolen my heart. My honor will not be far behind.”
    With a light stroke of a fingertip to her cheek, he said, “If that is to be true, then verily I am a lucky man. But I wish for more than a brief encounter in the night. I want the time to know you fully—to memorize every curve. To learn what makes you fall apart from pleasure, and to indulge the night in taking you there again and again. And afterward, when we lay spent, I want to hold you as you sleep and be the first you see when you awaken.”
    “I want that, too.” And