Lord Will & Her Grace
Sophia Nash

Excerpt

“Ah. So we proceed to the next lesson—kissing,” he whispered.

“I really don’t think—” She was unable to meet his gaze.

            “Ah, but you do my dear. I guarantee the ladies, and gentlemen of London have refined techniques. And since you cannot return to London and reassume the hunt for a husband using the innocent method” —and here he batted his eyelashes and tittered behind his fan— “you must become thoroughly practiced in the arts of a flirtatious coquette.”

            She wasn’t at all sure she had the nerve to actually kiss him. He was far too handsome, far too disinterested in her. She loathed the idea of making a fool of herself.

“Then,” he continued, “you’ll drive the gentlemen all wild with longing and you’ll have your choice of all the hopefuls. And who better to show you than me? For I’m perfectly harmless, by your own words, am I not?” William lifted her chin with his large hand. “And perhaps,” he said, rolling his eyes, “you’ll tempt me to throw off the shackles of my unnatural nature.”

            “All right,” she said quietly, unexpectedly. It wasn’t what she’d meant to say. It was just that the picture he’d presented, that of all the Lord Codfishes of London on their knees and begging for her hand with true desire in their eyes, tantalized her.

Her hand slowly moved the handle of the fan over the dark flesh of his lips.