Page 64 of Scot on the Run

“Come here, woman.” He scooped her up and sat down carefully, cuddling her in his lap. “I decided I couldn’t call you my fiancée.”

“I see.”

To her embarrassment, she was unable to hide her wounded pride. Ian knew her far too well by now to be fooled. “It’s not what you think, sweet Bella. The more I thought about my original plan, the sleazier it seemed. Promising to marry someone is a sacred thing. I decided I couldn’t cheapen that vow by pretending. It wasn’t right.”

“I see.” Apparently she only knew the two one-syllable words. This time, though, she wavered between relief and confusion. Since when did a cerebral scientist get to be so damned romantic and heartfelt?

As Ian held her closely against his chest, the tension gradually drained out of her body. His warmth and masculine scent surrounded her. The lights of Edinburgh were soft smudges in the misty air.

“Bella?” he said softly.

She nuzzled her head beneath his chin. “Yes?”

“I would very much like to make love to you tonight.”

She respected the fact that he didn’t dress it up with fancy words and flowery compliments. A man. A woman. No past. A doubtful future. Definitely a here and now.

“I’d like that, too,” she said.

He tipped her back over his arm and kissed her. His lips were firm and coaxing as if recognizing her doubts. “God, you’re beautiful,” he said. He feathered his lips over her eyelids, her brow. “I don’t know what to do about this… about you,” he clarified gruffly. Palming one breast, he teased the nipple through two layers of silk. “It’s eating me up inside.”

“The feeling is mutual.” Bella gasped as he slid a hand beneath her skirt. His long fingers were warm against her bare, chilled thigh. There was literally nowhere at all to do what they both wanted to do. Perched on a rocky promontory, they were exposed to the world… or they would have been if the world had been watching.

He kissed her again, this time harder, wilder. His tongue mated with hers, tasting of champagne and chocolate. “I want you more than I’ve ever wanted another woman. All I can think about is what it felt like to be inside you the other night. Tell me you want it, too. Or I’ll stop. Right now. All you have to do is say no.”

Raking her hands through his hair, she scraped his scalp with her fingernails. “Don’t be an ass, Ian. Of course I want you. Can’t you tell?”

Gently, he pressed a fingertip to the damp center of her lacy undies. “I suppose I can.” His voice sounded like glass breaking. He trembled, although he was the one wearing a jacket while she was clad in nothing but a silk dress and cobweb dreams.

“Holder me tighter,” she pleaded, “so I don’t fly away.” Her whole body shivered, not from cold, but with the intensity of the moment. Hunger clawed in her belly. “I’m on the pill,” she muttered.

“Doesn’t matter.” His chuckle was rusty. “I brought a condom.”

“Only one?”

* * *

Ian barked out a laugh when he could swear amusement was the furthest thing from his mind. His brain had turned to mush, his sex hogging all the blood supply. He plucked the pins from Bella’s hair one at a time, winnowing his fingers through the thick, black silk as her sophisticated twist fell apart like some erotic commercial for shampoo.

The sharp edge of a boulder dug into his ass. He didn’t care. His hands shook. His mouth was dry. “Are we really going to do this?”

Bella buried her face in his chest, her arms wrapped in a death grip around his waist. “I’m game if you are.” She touched him carefully, testing the length and breadth of his desire through his pants. When he gasped and cursed helplessly, she lowered his zipper and took him in her hand.

Dizziness and lust dragged him under. “Stand up, Bella.”

She did as he asked and shimmied her narrow skirt up her thighs until he could see the edge of her black thong. No wonder her perfect ass had been smooth under the black silk.

Recklessly, he took the tiny piece elastic at her hipbone and ripped it, tossing the remnant of silk and satin aside. The rush of raw satisfaction he got from that one quick move should have scared him. When Bella laughed low and wicked, he lost his mind.

She stood there like a siren on the rocks, coaxing him to his doom. Fumbling clumsily, he found the condom, opened it, and rolled it on. “Wait,” he groaned, half blind from the dark haze of hunger.

Taking her by the hips, he pulled her close, helping her straddle his lap. “Hurry,” she cried. “Before we get arrested.”

“No hurrying,” he said bluntly. “Not this time.” With Bella standing and him sitting, he touched her gently, stroking the spot that made her sigh raggedly and put her hands on his shoulder.

She shuddered as he concentrated on making her whisper his name in supplication. That sound was about the sweetest thing he’d ever heard… and the most incendiary. Bella was close. He knew it. Curling an arm around her waist, he pressed his forehead to her ribcage. With his free hand, he continued his quest. One last teasing brush of his fingertip and she came with a choked cry.

He held her close as the ripples of release left her sated and weak. “Now, Bella,” he said surging upward until he was buried inside her. “Now.”