The Scoundrel and the Debutante (The Cabot Sisters #3)

Prudence was enthralled. She was breathless and giddy, and desperately wanting all that he would do to her, would show her.

As he reached her, Prudence put her arms around his neck. Roan wrapped her legs around his waist and his arms around her back. They bobbed in the water like that. He supported her weight and kept his gaze on hers, as if he were trying to determine what to do with her. But Prudence could feel his cock against her, a sensation that electrified her.

“Well, Prudence?” he asked as his gaze slid to her mouth, his expression reminding her of a man who had not eaten all day and was seeing a morsel before him. “What have you to say for yourself? Now your adventure has become mine.”

She smiled.

“I wouldn’t smile like that were I you, a virginal debutante with no notion of how it stokes fire in a man,” he said gruffly. “I don’t dip my toes in risky waters. I dive in, even when I can’t see the bottom.”

A delightful little shiver ran up her spine. “Is there any other way to take a risk?”

Roan made a noise that sounded almost like a growl. “Risks have consequences, you little hellion. Are you prepared for the consequences?” he asked, trying to sound stern.

Prudence wished he would touch her like he had last night, his hands on her breasts and between her legs. “Kiss me,” she commanded him.

Roan frowned at her and pushed a strand of wet hair from her neck. “I’m very serious, Prudence. Are you prepared for the consequences of this? Of your adventure? Of this swim? If you’re not, then by God, I beg you to tell me now, before I lose any control I might muster. Tell me now so I can take myself back to shore and away from the temptation of you. Say it now, this instant. Say, ‘Go away, Roan.’”

What he asked was fair, but Prudence had known her answer before he’d ever removed his boots. “I am prepared for the consequences,” she said. “Quite.” She kissed his mouth.

With a groan, he closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to hers. “You were supposed to say no. You were supposed to slap me, push me away. I am astonishingly powerless when it comes to you.” He slid his hand roughly over her head. “You intrigue me, Prudence. You’re beautiful, you’re clever. You are everything a man could want. But...” He winced. “I don’t know what to do with you.”

“You will see me to Himple,” she said. “And then think of me fondly in the years to come.” It hurt her to say it, but what choice was there?

Roan grimaced as if that were too painful for him, too.

“Neither of us is free,” she said. “But at this moment, I am in a pond in the middle of nowhere, feeling things I’ve never felt before and may never feel again. I haven’t asked you for any consideration, Roan, and I don’t expect any. You asked me if I was prepared for the consequences, and I said yes. I am not a fool—I understand what that means.”

“Ah, Prudence.” He looked in her eyes, almost as if he was searching for something—a doubt, perhaps? A moment he might convince her otherwise? He would not find it—she was two and twenty. She might die a spinster, but she would not die an innocent one.

He must have understood it, because in the next breath, he was kissing her. He was cupping her jaw, his fingers splayed in her wet hair, and he was kissing her.

And Prudence was kissing him back, her hands on his bare chest, her fingers riding over the hard planes of it, then down to his waist and hips. She felt the same heat in her as she’d felt last night, a desire that flared quickly and burned brightly, licking at her, spreading as if it was fanned by a gale wind. Prudence wanted to touch every inch of him, from the soft lobes of his ears, to the muscles in his back, to the ripples in his abdomen, to his hips.

He pushed her chemise from her shoulders, down to her waist, then moved his mouth to her breasts. The sensation of his teeth and tongue on her was exquisite. She felt scorched and unquenchable as he moved his hands and mouth on her body. How would she ever return to being Prudence? How would she ever live knowing that this sort of desire existed in the world?

She took his earlobe in her mouth, teased it with her tongue. She nuzzled his neck as her fingers drifted across his nipples, arousing them to stiffness. He groaned with satisfaction, a sound that was astoundingly erotic to her ears.

With his hand, he found her sex, stroking her, dipping inside her. His touch and his desire for her pushed her beyond yearning. He was propelling her into an unbearable place of being, where she could expire with pleasure.