Persuading Prudence (7 page)

Prudence’s face flushed crimson. “No, I haven’t forgotten.”

“Shocking perhaps, but pleasurable all the same?” he teased.

“I believe you know the answer to that, so I will not encourage your vanity.”

“You do not have to pleasure me in that manner, if the idea displeases you.” He fervently hoped it did not.

“But, you would enjoy it if I did?” she asked uncertainly.

His cock leapt with hope. “I believe I would enjoy having you explore that avenue of lovemaking, yes.” He crossed his hands behind his head casually and studied her reaction.

A curious frown puckered her brows as she shifted down so she could better access him. She cradled his arousal in both hands and, oh so slowly, lowered her head. Kolton closed his eyes as her hot breath tickled his cock, his balls tightening in anticipation.

***

Prudence took the time to study the part of the earl’s body that had brought her so much pleasure. She thought it odd looking if she were to be completely honest. It was long, thick, and hard with a curiously spongy, mushroom shaped tip. She lowered her head and ran her tongue along the pronounced veins rippling its length and heard Kolton give a sharp intake of breath. Emboldened, she ran the flat of her tongue up his staff. He tasted different than she expected, both salty and musky. She lapped at him, covering the entirety of his organ, leaving only his tip unexplored, before she placed a wet kiss at the top.

He groaned loudly. She looked up to see him watching her, his eyes fiery with lust, his expression tight as his jaw clenched repeatedly. She pulled back, embarrassment burning her cheeks. Did the fact she enjoyed exploring him with her hands and mouth make her a shameless wanton? Perhaps, but he had seemed to be enjoying her ministrations. Had she done something wrong or did his expression mean he liked what she was doing?

“Am I doing it correctly?”

Kolton let out a gust of air and laughed breathlessly. “You certainly are not doing anything wrong,” he replied hoarsely.

“Perhaps you could tell me what you would like that I might please you further?” she asked hesitantly.

He propped himself up on his elbows, his eyes glowing with desire. “You could take it into your mouth,” he suggested, his voice far from steady.

“Then what should I do?” The thought was exciting, but she didn’t want to do anything wrong and spoil what he was obviously enjoying.

“Do anything you want,” he replied quickly, nearly tripping over his words. “I only ask that you be careful with your teeth. That is a very sensitive part of a man’s body.”

“O-Oh, of course,” she stammered and felt heat suffuse her face.

She lowered her head and took the tip into her mouth, swirling her tongue over its surface. She traced the slit she found there and noticed a slightly bitter, salty taste. It wasn’t bad: as a matter of fact she liked it, and it made her wonder what she tasted like to him.

Kolton let out another deep groan as she took more of him in her mouth and sucked lightly. She glanced up. His head was thrown back and his face was awash with an expression she could only classify as ecstasy. Prudence felt a sudden surge of excitement, which sent an instant spike of heat knifing through her belly to pool hotly between her legs. She was in control; she had the power to make his breathing come faster and it was she that made him groan with pleasure. The notion gave her a heady feeling and excited her beyond measure.

She paused a moment, eliciting a disappointed sigh from him, and wrapped her hand around his length. She began to stroke him before she took the head back into her mouth and suckled strongly.

***

Kolton gave a strangled moan and reached out, pulling her hair over one shoulder, enabling him to see her as she took more and more of him into her mouth while she continued the movement of her hand. Her inexperience only heightened his excitement. He placed his hand on her head and showed her how to move it up and down in time with her stroking. She picked up the rhythm quickly. He removed his hand and propped himself up again on his elbows.

She continued suckling his staff, pausing now and then to run her tongue along the underside of the head. It didn’t take long for his heart to begin racing and his breathing to grow short and ragged.

His balls drew close to his body, and he felt his approaching orgasm coming quickly. “You need to stop now, sweetheart,” he said, placing a staying hand on her head.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked timidly.

When she looked up at him, her wide eyes both innocent and a bit fearful, her hand still clutching his cock, hair falling in tumbling disarray over one shoulder, Kolton thought he might disgrace himself right then.

“No, love,” he reassured her. “It is just that I am close, and I do not wish to finish in your mouth. I would much rather be inside you.”

“Oh,” she said, releasing him and moving to lie beside him.

“No,” he said grabbing her around the waist before she could lie down, and moved her so she once again straddled his hips. “I want to watch you while we make love. I want to see your glorious body move against mine and perhaps suckle your breasts while you stroke me with your wonderfully tight passage.”

Prudence’s eyes grew round, and for a moment he thought he might have said too much and frightened her. She was self-conscious about her body, he knew, but he was telling the truth when he told her over and over she was beautiful.

He positioned her over his cock relieved, and exceedingly aroused, when she took hold of his member and guided it into her. She sank down, engulfing his shaft in her wet heat, and moaned with pleasure.

“
Yes
.” Kolton’s eyes rolled back in his head. His lids drifted shut and he fell back against the pillows with a huge sigh.

“Mmm. You feel so good, Kolton,” she said and began rolling her hips experimentally, her inner muscles rippling around his cock.

His breathing increased with the pace of her undulating hips. He gripped her around the waist and guided her up and down on his shaft as she continued moving in little circles with each stroke. The sensation was exquisite.

Suddenly she stopped and began grinding herself against him, whimpering as she rocked her hips faster and faster. Kolton lay still, pushing against her to increase the friction she was seeking.

She threw back her head, hair flying about her shoulders like an ebony cloud, her whimpers giving way to sharp cries of abandonment and pleasure. He’d never seen a more wondrous sight – her face flushed with desire, lips swollen from sucking his cock, her full breasts jiggling with her movements, and the fiercely arousing view of their joined bodies.

Lust gripped him tightly as he watched their coupling, his release threatening to overwhelm him. Kolton fought the urge to flip her over and slam into her with all his strength. He wanted to watch her as she climaxed.

“Let go, Pru. Come for me. Come for me
now
!” he growled.

She cried out and arched her back, her hips moving at a frantic pace. Her inner muscles rippled and spasmed as she lost herself in pleasure.

“
Yes
! Oh,
God
, yes, Pru!” he bellowed as he held her still and pummeled her from below, his orgasm crashing over him with blinding force.

***

Another earth-shattering wave of pleasure engulfed Prudence; she raised her head and watched Kolton reach his peak. His body bowed, the tendons on his neck standing out, his muscles straining with effort. His eyes widened, an expression of astonishment flashing across his face before a look of painful pleasure captured his features, and he threw back his head, shouting her name.

They lay together in the aftermath, drained but satisfied, waiting for their harsh breathing and rapid pulses to return to normal. Prudence lay sprawled atop his chest, listening to the pounding of his heart.

He raised his hand brushed back the wild mass of hair covering her face and gently stroked her cheek with the back of his fingers.

“Marry me, Pru.”

Prudence stiffened.
Did he
have
to ruin this moment by bringing reality crashing back?

She rolled off of him and covered herself with the rumpled sheet. “I thought I made myself clear on that topic.”

“You certainly did, when you spent the night in my arms, and just now, when you fell apart atop me,” he replied, rolling to his side to face her with a determined expression on his handsome face.

Oooh, it would be
so
easy to give in to his determined desire to be wed. But she had seen what forced marriages did to all those involved. She wouldn’t put herself through the hell her parents had lived.

He mother had wanted to make a real marriage with Prudence’s father. Prudence had heard them argue about it—it was one of her earliest recollections. But their last evening together her father went too far. Prudence was six at the time and playing in the study behind her father’s desk when the two entered.

“James, please. You’ve never given us a chance,” her mother pleaded in a tearful voice,

“Evelyn. I don’t want to do this again,” her father replied wearily. Prudence heard the sound of glass tinkling. Papa was drinking again. The fights were always the worst when Papa drank.

“Why, James? Just tell me why you refuse to make our marriage work.”

“I don’t want to discuss this again! Damn it, Evelyn, don’t force me to be cruel.”

“Cruel? How can you say you are not cruel, when I know you have taken up with another woman? I am your wife! Why do you go to her bed and not mine?”

“Our marriage was arranged; it was never a love match, Evelyn. Why can you not accept this and make a life for yourself? Why do you insist upon trying to make it into something it will never be?”

Prudence hugged her dolly tight. Papa was getting angry and that always meant he would make Mama cry. She didn’t want Mama to cry again. She would lock herself in her room and not come out for days.

“It could work, James, I know it could. If you would only get rid of that harpy and –”

“Harpy! She is no harpy; she is a gently bred lady. You will not speak of her like that in front of me, or at all for that matter!” he bellowed.

“I will speak of a woman who ruins my marriage any way I please. I am your wife! The mother of your children, I deserve better.”

“Children? We have only one child, lest you forget. You have failed to give me a male heir. In fact, you will never do so. The doctor was clear that there would be no more children after the last miscarriage.”

Prudence heard her mother gasp. “Are you saying that because I cannot bear you another child, that I am no longer worthy of your attention in bed?” her mother choked. “That this tramp can please you, whereas I cannot?”

“You will not talk about her that way; don’t make me warn you again.”

“A woman who would sleep with another’s husband is not a tramp?” she spat. “Please, James, spare me your misplaced honor where she is concerned. You were happy to warm my bed once. What has changed? What makes her so much better than your wife?”

“You want the truth, Evelyn? Fine, here is the truth. I have never been attracted to you. Your hair is too dark, your breasts are disgustingly large; your waist is small, I will grant you that, but it only emphasizes your big hips.”

Prudence peeked around the corner of the desk at her mother. Prudence had always thought her mother beautiful, but then again, she’d had few opportunities to compare her mother to other women.

“The only reason I entered your bed was to beget an heir,” her father continued, “and you couldn’t even give me that! Now you want me to give up a woman I do find attractive to be with a woman who excites me not at all? I think I have had enough of this farce of a marriage.”

Mama was sobbing harder than Prudence had ever heard her do so before. With a mournful cry, her mother turned and ran from the room. A moment later, Prudence heard a door slam, and her father let out a deep sigh. He sat heavily in a nearby chair.

“Damn it, Evelyn. I didn’t want it to go that far,” he said softly.

Her mother hadn’t run to her room, as Prudence had thought; instead, she had rushed out the front door on the coldest winter night on record. A search party had been dispatched, but had to be called off due to the blinding storm that night. Her mother’s body had been found early the next morning near the road leading to town.

Prudence shook off the memory of the dark night, which had changed her life so dramatically. It still haunted her, especially when she looked in the mirror. She shared her father’s unusual changing shade of blue-green eyes and slight up-tilt at the corners, but other than that she was the perfect image of her mother. The woman her father found so unattractive, so useless.

And now, twenty years after her mother’s death, she too faced marrying a man who didn’t really want her. Oh, he said he found her attractive – even beautiful – but that would change as soon as they went out in society and he was able to compare her to the truly beautiful women it hosted.

“Why do you fight the idea so, Pru?” he asked earnestly, reaching out to trace her jaw with his fingertips.

“I am not cut out to be a countess,” she admitted, shoving the past back into the neat little box where it belonged. “I am not beautiful and vivacious, nor am I socially inclined. I would make a horrible wife, and you would come to resent having to marry me. I-I don’t think I could live with that.”

Kolton blanched, his face registering shock. “I don’t know which untruth to address first,” he said slowly.