Persuading Prudence by Liz Cole Page A

to force some kind of response if I really worked at it, but I don’t imagine it would be easy.”
    “Oh.”
    “And I wouldn’t wake you up to initiate an intimate encounter, that’s for certain.”
    “Oh,” she repeated apparently at a loss for words for once.
    “Now, where was I? Oh, yes, right here.” He lowered his head and pressed his mouth to her neck once again, licking and nibbling at her flesh.
    “Oh my. That feels nice, Kolton,” she gasped.
    “Mmm, yes, it does,” he drawled, grinding his erection against her soft belly. He rolled onto his back, taking her with him, and situated her so her legs straddled his hips.
    Sweet Lord, she is magnificent!
    With her hair in rioting waves cascading over her shoulders and down her back, her face languid and flushed with desire, Prudence was sex personified. Kolton’s eyes devoured the picture she presented; her breasts heavy and full, nipples boldly peeking through her magnificent mane, her legs parted, giving a tantalizing glimpse of her moist center as her beautiful bottom rested on his upper thighs.
    The situation felt unreal, as if this woman atop him were not really Prudence, but a goddess who had taken her place. How could he have known her, lived in the same house with her for so many years, and never caught the faintest glimpse of the vivacious creature living beneath the drab façade she’d erected?
    Perhaps he sensed it the other night when he’d stumbled into her room and climbed into her bed. Maybe fate decided he should discover, not just her beauty, but the other qualities he found so attractive: such as her humor, her sometimes sarcastic wit, her poise, and intelligence, only when he was ready to appreciate them.
    Her first season, he had been six-and-twenty, reckless and selfish as hell. There was no way he could have valued more than her beauty. But now, at four-and-thirty, as a more mature, discerning, and knowledgeable man of society and what it had to offer, he knew Prudence was a rare find. She knew how to speak her mind, and she was creative and smart. She would make a perfect match for him, a continued source of challenge that would keep him on his toes.
    She ran a soft hand down his smooth chest, tracing the hills and valleys of muscle she found there. “You have a strange look on your face, my lord. What is brewing in that wicked mind of yours?”
    “Strange look?” he said lifting a brow. “What kind of strange look?”
    “The same look you wear when cook serves your favorite desert: dreamy and excited at the same time,” she replied tracing his navel with her fingertip.
    “I was just imagining waking every morning with you beside me, having your body near me.”
    Prudence gave a weary sigh. “Kolton, I have told you—”
    “Atop me, beneath me, on your knees in front of me, bent over the bed as I take you from behind,” he continued as if she hadn’t spoken.
    “Lord Ravensbrook!” she all but shouted in indignant surprise.
    “What? You don’t like the idea? How disappointing.”
    “It is not that I...that is, the idea has its...Oh, bother! I still have not agreed to marry you and you insist on planning our future together,” she huffed crossing her arms over her chest.
    “Oh, now, don’t hide those beautiful breasts of yours,” he insisted tugging her arms away and eliciting an unladylike grunt of disgust from the woman destined to be his future wife.
    He hissed in a breath as her arms fell away and her hand brushed his arousal.
    “Did I hurt you?” Her disgruntled expression gave way immediately to concern.
    “Oh no, love, just the opposite, in fact.” To prove his point, he took her hand and groaned as he placed it on his cock and encouraged her to caress him.
    Her eyes grew wide as she stared down at his member. “My goodness,” she breathed tracing the head and trailing her fingers over the now throbbing length. “I have never felt skin so soft.” She wrapped her fingers around him, not quite able to