Page 51 of When the Scoundrel Sins

He lowered his lips to her shoulder. She whimpered at the heat of his mouth against her water-cooled skin, at the light nibbles he took of her flesh when what she wanted was for him to devour her whole. A new contradiction that had her head spinning and her body tightening like a coiled spring.

“You should have passion,” he murmured against her wet skin.

“Passion is,” she panted out as he once again cupped her breast and strummed his thumb over her nipple, “overrated.”

At that wholly blatant lie, he laughed against her shoulder. A wickedly knowing sound, as if he’d read her body and found the truth there. “You’ve got so much passion in you already, Annabelle, just waiting to be released.” His lips smiled against her bare shoulder. “You probably fantasize about it when you’re lying in bed at night, unable to sleep. About what it would be like to have a man’s hands on you, caressing you until you tremble with need.”

Despite the cold water, her face flushed hot. “I don’t. I don’t think about any man doing that,” she countered. Sweet heavens, the last person she’d admit to having fantasies about— “Certainly notyou.”

He purred in a dark voice that dripped like liquid flames through her, all the way down to her toes, and made them curl into the mud at the bottom of the pond, “Would you like to think about me when you lie in bed? Because I’d very much enjoy making you do just that.”

Her fingers dug into his arm as it circled around her waist, holding herself tight against him as she panted out, “You wouldn’t dare!”

“Dare to make you want me?” The amusing disbelief lacing his voice spun fresh wariness in her belly. Taking her words as a challenge, his slowly slid his hand over her front and down…until his fingertips teased at the edge of the curls between her legs. “A beautiful, naked mermaid with soft skin and inviting lips, who’s practically begging to be taught a very important lesson about desire…” He delicately kissed her nape, then smiled against her bare skin when she shivered. “What rake could resist?”

Nervousness tinged with quick arousal sent her heart somersaulting. At that moment, she knew exactly how charming he was with his deep purring voice, his deliciously scandalous words, and his wandering hands. He was pure danger. “I don’t need to learn any lessons from you.”

“Then tell me to stop.” With a flirtatious tease, he combed his fingertips through her wet curls. His fingernails scratched tantalizingly at the soft skin beneath. “Tell me you don’t want this.”

Oh, sheshould. It would serve him right, the arrogant devil! But she couldn’t. Because a dark part of her knew the truth. That this was exactly how she’d wanted to be touched by him, ever since that night beneath the rose bower.

“Or this,” he drawled huskily, and slipped his hand down between her legs to finally give the caress she craved.

She gasped at the intimate touch, her breath tearing from her. The inhalation on her lips died into a soft moan as he slowly stroked her.Oh sweet Lord…The sensation was overwhelming, both tender yet exciting at the same time. She closed her eyes against the way his fingers played wantonly against her folds, her body yearning for every wonderful caress he was willing to give.

“Admit it, Annabelle,” he rasped hotly against her ear. “Admit that you like this, that you like being desired.”

“I don’t,” she panted, her pulse speeding at the sweet torture of having his hand against her. Biting her bottom lip, she fought back the urge to writhe her hips against him and bring him harder against her.

“Liar,” he drawled with a throaty little laugh.

She exhaled a deep breath and willed herself to unwind the tension gripping her like an invisible fist. But the heat swirling inside her was too delicious to give up. Too temptingly exquisite to deny herself. Quinn was being so gentle yet firm as his fingers stroked back and forth against her that the anxiousness slowly eased from her, and she gave over to the pleasure.

Heavens, how good it felt! His fingers were wanton and wicked, wholly scandalous…simply divine.

Helpless beneath her rising arousal, she stepped her legs wider apart. “Quinn,” she whimpered and turned her head to nuzzle her cheek against his shoulder.

He smiled triumphantly against her wet hair. “So you like that?”

“It feels—” Her suddenly thick lips could barely form the words as she capitulated beneath the truth. “Oh, it feels so very good!”

His fingers moved harder against her now, stroking farther into the hollow at her core and flitting teasingly against her intimate lips. Each caress slipped deeper…Andthatfelt so very wicked.

“This is what a man can do to a woman,” he murmured against her nape. “You deserve a husband who can give you such pleasures. You won’t be happy with less.”

He was right, God help her. Her body had craved this since that morning at the ruins when he first stirred the ache sleeping inside her. Now she longed for him to make the relentless throbbing even more intense, even fiercer, until it engulfed her.

He whispered hotly into her ear, “You need this.”

What she needed washim, but he wasn’t hers to have.

“No,” she whispered, even as his clever fingers did such things to her that she could barely keep her breath. “You’re wrong. I don’t—”

A low moan tore from her as he stroked again, this time so deep that two of his fingers slipped inside her.

She shuddered at the delicious contradiction of his water-cold fingers plunging inside her warmth, at the way her soft body clasped hard around him. And at the biggest contradiction of all, that it had to be Quinn who shared this first intimate touch. Somehow she’d known that all along.

She grasped onto his forearm as the sensation swelled through her that she was rising up and floating away, yet she was desperate to stay with him, right there in the circle of his strong arms. He drew such pleasures from her that she could barely keep from crying out at the intensity of them.