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Tears dripped off the end of Lemuel’s nose. He was shaking.
Matthew lowered the whip. He’d gone too far with his threats. They were good lads, just swimming in the lazy evening sunshine after backbreaking work; it was Dara who had given him grief. More than grief. It was too late, it had happened. He hadn’t wanted them to touch her, not for her sake, but for his. He wanted no man, her husband included, to lay a finger on his sweet girl.
Damnation! He tossed the whip to one side and stormed out of the barn, leaving the men stunned and relieved. He should never have let her stay. She had to go back to her husband before the feelings grew stronger and impossible to contain. He recognised their power, he knew where those thoughts led and how love broke the heart. He was better off alone.
He crossed the threshold of the house and halted. The sight before him was stunning, heart-stopping and conjured a strange feeling of admiration. She was kneeling before the fire, naked, her dusty brown hair swept around her shoulders. Lying across the palms of her hands was one of his belts. She bowed her head and presented it to him.
“Forgive me, Matthew. I was foolish and let my thoughts wander. Please, believe me, I never meant to hurt your feelings by making you think I wanted them. It was only my daydreams, and I should have kept them under control.” She finished her little speech, no doubt prepared while she waited.
Matthew sighed heavily. He changed his mind. He couldn’t possibly let her go, not yet. The time for that would come soon enough. She’d offered him the one thing that he couldn’t resist. His heart ached for her in so many ways, and this was one of them. He yearned to stripe her arse and claim it boldly. Finally, it was time.
He stooped and collected the belt from her. He flexed it, snapping the two sides of the leather together with an almighty crack. She rightly flinched. While with a man he might sweep such an implement back behind his shoulder and land it with the full force of his arm, with her delicate frame, he had to be careful and considered.
Standing over her, ensuring he cast a dark shadow across her pale skin, he contained his natural desire to forgo the spanking and take her immediately. He had his methods, and he knew they worked. “I’m going to do what I said I would. You’ll go over my lap and keep still while I spank you with this belt. Those fine legs of yours will stay down and apart, your hands pressed flat on the floor. You’ll hold that position and keep your tongue still, too. Understood?”
“Yes... Master.” She was gulping air, it seemed, desperately trying to keep her body from turning into jelly.
The words were necessarily harsh. He had over the years determined that lashing with words was as effective as a whip or belt. He admired both her bravery and her trepidation. The combination had dissolved his anger in an instant. However, she must not know of his true feelings. Therefore, he continued his stern lecture.
“You desired those lads, treated them like toys for your pleasure. Do you think that’s suitable conduct for a fine lady?”
“No, Master.” She ringed her hands together. “I was most overcome by their... flesh.”
“Flesh is nought but grass upon a man. You hankered for their loins because you haven’t learnt discipline, and until you do, I shall do it for you.” He picked up the largest of the kitchen chairs and moved it into a space, giving him plenty of room to swing his arm.
“I only thought of myself,” she said tremulously. “I’m thinking of you now, only you.” Her voice softened into a whisper. “How I may serve you with my punishment.”
He suppressed a smile of appreciation. He liked her train of thoughts, they were promising and offered him plenty of scope. She needed to hear what he had in mind, it would do her good to know of his darkest desires, so that she was prepared and willing. If she bolted, he would have to let her go; she wasn’t his, something that continued to trouble him.
He sat on the chair and patted his thigh. “Up and over, lass. While I spank, I’m going to tell you how I shall further your education.”
She crawled to him. It warmed the ache in his balls to see her catlike and demure. She slithered over his lap, slowly and cautiously, watching the hand that held the belt. Her glorious head of hair flopped down into a curtain around her flushed face. She inched her legs apart, and as he requested, she planted her hands flat on the rush matting.
Satisfied she had complied fully with his request, he rested the belt on the arc of her back and proceeded to conduct an examination of her delectable arse. Handling her roughly, which was necessary to continue the illusion of his anger, he prised apart her cheeks and whistled in a low inhale. Her puckered hole was twitching, craving attention and suitably chaste. Previously, in his haste to deliver his spill, he might have poked it at it, but he’d not taken it fully.
“This dainty place will be my pleasure. You’ll pay me back by honouring my wish to claim it wholly. Once I’ve spent my arm on your bottom, you’ll bend over that table. I’ll butter this hole, make it sleek and shiny, then I’ll thrust hard up it. You’ll take it, won’t you?”
Her toes were balanced on the floor, her legs shaking.
“I don’t know,” she said after a considerable pause.
He liked her honesty. “Is it mine to take?”
“Yes,” she said swiftly. “I just don’t know if I can... manage it.”
“Have faith in yourself, I know you can. You might not take pleasure in this first one, but I can tell you, you’ll hanker for it more and more after I work up your appetite. You’ll thank me later. I’m sure that husband of yours will too.” He hadn’t intended to mention him, but Lord Coleman was there, lurking in the shadows of his mind.
“He has shown no interest in any part of
me. What hope have I that he will when I no longer desire him? He’ll only hurt me, now.”
He removed his hand from her soft, quivering flesh. “Hurt you?”
“With his passion, which I will not be able to requite. It is you that I crave now, Master.” She twisted and looked over her shoulder. “Even your punishments do make me lust for you. I wish that it was not so, but it is unfortunately how I feel.”
Minutes earlier, he had marched into the cottage with the intention of dismissing her, and instead, he had allowed her to further her wish to stay, and even if he could not admit it aloud to her, he was overjoyed at her contrite confession. If only there was a way to give her what she wished, but she wasn’t his, a situation that he must honour for her sake, not his. The only means for continuing their peculiar arrangement was to stick to the terms they both had agreed upon when he allowed her to stay—he’d borrowed her. She had to submit fully to him, yield and obey, pleasure his every whim, and do so until she had to return home. If he stood firm, she might see sense and know there was no common future for their pairing. Resigned to his decision, he hardened his heart.
“Aye, I can see the desire burning in them bright eyes of yours and I respect your feelings, lass, but we both know that is not why you are here under my roof. You’re learning, and I’m teaching. In two months’ time, you’ll go back to your husband obedient and artful in ways of pleasuring a man, and you’ll do as you must to honour your vows.” He picked up the belt, doubled it over into a shortened length, and raised it above her arse. “I’m sure his lordship will appreciate my efforts to curb your gluttony for me.”
