WHEN THE SCOUNDREL SINS
Series: Capturing the Carlisles #2
Genre: Historical Romance
Author: Anna Harrington
Release Date: August 29, 2017
A MOST INDECENT PROPOSAL
Annabelle Green needs a husband-and quickly. To inherit the only home she’s ever known, she must be married by her twenty-fifth birthday.
But finding a suitor has been next to impossible after a reckless rogue named Quinton Carlisle seduced her into a scandalous midnight tryst. Her reputation in ruins, Belle now needs a rather large favor. And she knows just who to turn to . . .
Quinn can hardly believe that the shy bookish girl he teased as a child has grown into such a brazen beauty. The very idea of marrying Belle to right the wrongs of his past is downright shocking . . . and deliciously tempting.
Too bad marriage, convenient or otherwise, is the last thing Quinn wants. He’ll help Belle find a husband and be on his way.
But if he can’t control his attraction to the bride-to-be, this marriage could go up in flames-of wicked desire.
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“You look much more like your father now,” she commented, nervously licking her suddenly dry lips but only serving to draw his attention to her mouth. Which made her even more nervous, so nervous that she couldn’t stop the trembling of her fingertips as they wrapped into the skirt of her night rail. “But you’re still a troublemaker.”
A faint smile played at his mouth. “And you’re still a bluestocking,” he countered. Unintentionally simmering a slow heat low in her belly, he reached up to tuck a stray curl behind her ear. “Still retreating to the sanctuary of your library.”
“Because books are usually more pleasant than most people,” she answered, swallowing hard when he trailed his fingers down the side of her neck. She forced out, not at all as firmly as she’d hoped beneath the soft touch of his fingers,
“And more trustworthy.”
Ignoring that jab, he slid his hand lower to let his fingers play at the edge of her shawl. “Yet there are things that people can do that books can’t.” His fingers tugged gently at the shawl and pulled it down her shoulder to reveal the scooped neck of the nightdress beneath. His gaze flicked to the small patch of revealed skin at the base of her throat, then back to her eyes. “All kinds of interesting things.”
She should stop him, swat his hand away, shove him back—but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Just as she couldn’t hold back the hot shiver that swept through her or the gooseflesh that formed on her skin. His touch was proving to be as equally intoxicating now as that night six years ago.
“Then I have no interest in learning them,” she countered, although from the way her blood hummed, her body was very interested.
Madness—that after what he’d done to her, she could ever want to be in his arms again. Yet she desired just that, although that could never happen. Kissing him once had ruined her reputation. Kissing him again might destroy her entire future.
She thrust her chin into the air. “I know of your reputation.”
“Thank you,” he half purred.
His finger hooked beneath the wide shoulder strap of her sleeveless nightgown and slid it slowly down her arm. But this time, with a stretch of bare shoulder revealed to his eyes, he didn’t bother feigning propriety by looking away and instead flamed a prickling heat beneath her skin everywhere he gazed.
She pulled in a deep breath to steady herself. Oh, why did she always go light-headed when she was alone with him?
“That was not meant as a compliment.”
“Wasn’t it?”
When Annabelle Greene needed to marry to keep her inheritance, the only man she’s ever considered was Quinton Carlisle, AKA, the man who ruined her reputation six years ago. But Annabelle is desperate. If she doesn’t marry before her 25th birthday, she’ll lose the only inheritance she has, putting her future in jeopardy.
The only problem is Quinn isn’t interested in marriage, no matter how tempting Annabelle is. He already has a plan: sail to America, make his fortune there and make his family proud and a marriage to Annabelle would put an end to his plan. So when Annabelle proposed to him, he rejected her. He did offer to help her find a suitable person for her to marry.
But Quinn quickly finds out that it’s hard to find a suitable suitor for someone you want for yourself. And Quinn wants Anabelle. He wants her and none of her suitors seems suitable enough. Despite their raging attraction to each other, Quinn and Annabelle continue to stubbornly resist one another. It’s clear from the get go that Quinn would end up marrying Annabelle but the book went through great lengths to make Quinn as stubborn as a mule.
So even though I enjoyed the story overall, I couldn’t help but feel a tad frustrated with how long it took them to come together. It was frustrating and annoying. I was disappointed with Quinn because there were so many instances where he could’ve manned up and marry Anabelle. But nope. He was so set in his ways that he refused to even consider marrying her because he already has a plan.
He did realize in the end what needed to be done and we got our HEA. But yeah, the book could’ve used a little less frustration in that area. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book a lot. I read it and couldn’t put it down.
Anna Harrington fell in love with historical romances–and all those dashing Regency heroes–while living in London, where she studied literature and theatre. She loves to travel, fly airplanes, and hike, and when she isn’t busy writing her next novel, she loves fussing over her roses in her garden.
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