Read Online The Scoundrel's Lover by Jess Michaels - Free Book Online Page B

watched the couple grind against each other the first night she came here. He’d seen how focused she was on the intimacies they shared. In some way, she was titillated by the acts, by the voyeurism. And oh, how he liked that idea. On a deep, visceral level, he had loved watching it. He had wanted to awaken those dark and hidden desires even more.
    Which was exactly why he couldn’t allow her tempting offer.
    “I would not ask for you to take responsibility for me,” she insisted.
    “But I would be responsible,” he said. “At any rate, you are now out in Society. How would you ever pull off such a feat?”
    She stared at him a moment, and then she began to laugh. It was a warm sound that seemed to fill the cold room with light and color. It touched his ears and curled through his blood, settling low in his groin.
    “What is so funny, Miss Flynn?”
    “You forget who I grew up with,” she said, her laughter fading to a bright smile. “I will have responsibilities to attend to, yes, but nothing could be simpler than dodging a chaperone, whether it is my mother or my brother. I can tell one that I’m with the other and trust me, my family doesn’t verify these things. I could be spending the night with a friend or sneak out my damned window if it comes to that. Mr. Rivers, you have no idea of the depth of my ability to be a Flynn in every way that works in my advantage.”
    Marcus smothered a smile. It was hard not to be impressed with the woman who stood before him. She was confident and bright, as well as beautiful. But the idea that she would come here, that she would be here with him in his den of inequity…it was as dangerous as it was tempting.
    “Your brothers’ books may not fully prepare you for what you find in these walls,” Marcus said and found himself inching forward until her skirts brushed his thigh. “What you saw the first night you came here is only the beginning.”
    To his shock, Annabelle’s pupils dilated at that statement and her pink tongue shot out to wet her lips. Staring up at him with an expression of both innocence and desire, she was suddenly no longer a temptation he could resist.
    He cupped her chin, tilting her face toward his even more. He waited for her to step back, or to wallop him with a punch he was certain one or both of her brothers had taught her to throw over the years. But she did neither—she just looked up at him, trembling in anticipation.
    Whatever small shred of civility he had left floated away on the harsh exhalation of her breath, and he lowered his mouth and claimed her lips just as he had been dreaming of doing since the first moment he laid eyes on her so many years ago.
     

Chapter Seven

     
     
    Annabelle had been kissed before, but those caresses paled in comparison to Marcus’s… possession of her. His mouth slanted over hers, demanding entry that she had no choice but to give. His tongue swept past her lips, massaging and tasting, teasing and tempting and without meaning to she moaned deep in her throat.
    That low sound only drove him on. His arms came around her, dragging her against him, and she was helpless to resist the animal desires he stoked in her. She lifted to her tiptoes to get closer to him.
    He tasted so good, like fresh mint with a hint of smoky whisky. She could easily drown in those flavors, lose herself entirely as she let her tongue tangle with his.
    Her response seemed to stoke him further. He let out his own groan, and then his hands slid down her sides. He cupped her backside through her gown and tugged her against him even harder. She felt the rigid length of his erection against her belly.
    Her mind flashed to images of the first night she’d come to Marcus’s club. To the tangled man and woman, how they ground together in a sensual rhythm. How the man had cupped the woman’s bare bottom.
    She wanted to do those things. She wanted to surrender her body to this man and have him teach her about the dark desires that