Free All I Want by Lynsay Sands Page A

had into the kiss. Following his lead, she ran her own handsover his back, enjoying the solid feel of him beneath her fingers. She gasped and lifted further up on her toes when his hands slid up over her rib cage to cup her breasts; then he broke away and trailed his lips over her cheek.
    “I believe you,” he said softly after several heated moments.
    “Aye.” Prudence kissed his ear eagerly when it came within reach.
    “We should stop, else I cannot promise—”
    “Nay.” Prudence moaned, biting his chin at the very suggestion.
    “Nay?”
    “Aye.”
    A chuckle rumbled from his mouth, reverberating against her throat and making her squeeze her legs together in excitement. “Aye or nay?” he asked, sounding both amused and concerned.
    “Oh.” She opened her eyes reluctantly, then stilled as a shadow moved into the periphery of her vision. It wasn’t a very large shadow, really, a darker blotch in the darkness that surrounded them, but it was moving. Dropping, actually, straight for Stephen’s unsuspecting head. A spider! Lowering itself on its silken thread! Knowing she was overreacting, but helpless to do otherwise, she jerked in his arms and opened her mouth to warn him, but suddenly the arachnid dropped the last of the way at lightning speed. Prudence instinctively lifted the fan that had been dangling from her wrist all evening and brought it down atop the spider…and on top of Stephen’s head.
    “What the—” Releasing her at once, Lord Stockton covered the crown of his head and stepped back.
    “A spider,” Prudence blurted, trailing after him as he moved warily away. “Really, my lord. It dropped out of the marble tree and landed on your head. I was just—” She gesturedwith her fan, her expression brightening as she spotted the dark blob that had been the spider on the light-colored fan Ellie had given her.
    “See! I got it.” She thrust the fan out toward him and Stephen stumbled and fell onto a couch to avoid it. “Really, there was a spider on your head.”
    “Pru?”
    Prudence let the fan drop and swung around at that concerned call. Ellie was walking along the balcony, rubbing her arms and peering uncertainly out into the darkness of the snow-covered gardens.
    “Prudence, are you there? Father said he saw you come out here.”
    “Damn,” she said softly and turned back to Stephen. Seeing the way the man was eyeing her as he got back to his feet, she threw her hands up in disgust. The fan, again dangling from her wrist, swung out, neatly clipping him between the legs. Prudence gasped in horror and started toward him as he bent over with a gasp. “Are you—”
    “I am fine!” He held up a hand in self-defense, shuffling back away from her. “Just go. Go.”
    “But—”
    “Pru!”
    Shaking her head in frustration, she turned and hurried outside to find Ellie.
    “You’d better get a look at this, milord.”
    Stephen glanced up from the books he was balancing to find Plunkett in the open door of his office. The doorman’s face looked even more bulldoggish than usual, wrinkled up in concern as it was. “What is it?”
    “There’s a bunch of women out front.”
    Frowning at the vague announcement, Stephen stood and followed the man through the kitchens and out into the gaming room. His expression tightened at the sight of the few patrons seated about the room. Business had dwindled more and more with each of Prudence Prescott’s antics. There had been a slight dip in the number of clients the night after the riot she’d caused, and the numbers had cut in half after her poisoning. Now there was no more than a handful of men in the place. The damned woman had cost him quite a bit of money. If she were here right now, he would probably wring her lovely neck. Or kiss her senseless. Strangely, he rather thought he might enjoy the second option more. As infuriating as her antics had been—and painful, he added as an afterthought—he spent more time imagining licentious pursuits