The Highlander's Forbidden Mistress - Anna Campbell Page 0,12

out his hand. "I promised to keep you from scandal. We’ve been lucky that nobody has come in to discover us."

"I doubt Lord Derwent’s guests are interested in the library," she said drily.

Her humor drew a huff of appreciative laughter from Brock. He was sure she was right. The house party had passed in drinking and gossip and sex – with Canley-Smythe and his prim betrothed distinctly out of place in the louche atmosphere. "Lucky for me I wandered in for a moment’s quiet reflection, then."

A moment alone, so he could plot his seduction of Cecil Canley-Smythe’s future wife, more like. It turned out no plotting had been necessary. Tonight, it was clear that the devil was on his side.

"Lucky for me." She took his hand and rose, then her upward movement continued.

Only as her arms slid around his neck and she stretched to fit her lips to his did he realize what she intended. He, the great seducer, caught out by a beautiful woman’s boldness. The press of her body made him as hard as a wooden spar.

But her lips were soft and eager and tasted of an innocence that belied her widowhood. Her awkward fervor made his head spin. Dear Lord above, she even kept her mouth closed like a young girl kissed for the first time.

All night, Selina had held him suspended almost painfully between tenderness and desire. Why should her kiss be any different?

It was slow to dawn on him that this woman who had been married for nine years and borne a child had no idea how to kiss a man. Tonight he’d heard enough to learn to despise Roderick Martin. Now he wished the bugger was alive so that he could murder him. The bastard had had the supreme good fortune to marry Selina, yet from what Brock could see, he hadn’t put an ounce of effort into cherishing her.

So the hands that curled around her waist were gentle, not urgent with possession. Brock used his lips to temper her untutored enthusiasm. When he flicked his tongue along the seam of her lips, she released a soft sound of astonishment. He repeated the action more slowly and sucked her lower lip into his mouth, laving it with his tongue. She tasted glorious and another of those confused little hums of pleasure sent arousal thundering through him.

When he pulled back, she gave a gratifying growl of disappointment. He trailed kisses down the side of her face. "Open for me, Selina."

She went rigid in his hold. "Open?"

He pressed his lips to hers and this time nipped at that luscious lower lip. When she parted to allow him entry, he felt like he’d won a mighty victory. With leisurely enjoyment, he swept his tongue into the warm, wet heat of her mouth.

Selina shuddered on a confused murmur. This symphony of incoherent moans and sighs was damnably stirring. He wanted to hear her when he thrust deep inside her, when he brought her to climax.

Not tonight. But soon.

He remained aware of their danger, even as she lost herself in the kiss. He drew her down onto the settle which at least offered some concealment.

With a muffled mutter, she pressed closer. Brock licked her lips and dared another foray into her mouth. This time, her tongue fluttered against his. That tentative welcome rushed through him like wildfire. He drew back, hoping she’d take his lead. Praise the angels, she did. As her tongue slid into his mouth, he sucked on it and she gave another hum, a longer, voluptuous note of surrender.

He’d never found innocence appealing. Too much risk of misunderstandings. His lovers were women who knew what they wanted. But teaching this widow how to kiss set his heart clenching with more tenderness. A tenderness that proved an incongruous companion to his craving to conquer and possess.

So while the kiss melted into passion, sweetness lingered. Brock had kissed more women than he cared to remember, yet he’d never experienced a kiss like this one.

By heaven, he’d remember this kiss. The day he died, he’d think back to Selina Martin’s tongue in his mouth and her graceful body trembling between his hands.

Because now she caught onto the basics, she proved an infernally adept student. He hauled her across his lap to give him better access to her mouth. Plastered to him as she was, she must know the effect she had on him. His heart crashed against his ribs over and over, and his cock swelled with hungry demand