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He set the brush down and Tallie sighed with relief. However, he then commenced to use his hand to fan the burning flames of her arse.
“P-please, Za—sir, I promise to behave.”
He gave one last swat to her sit spot and halted.
For several moments Tallie lay with her face buried in the bedclothes. Once she had collected herself, she reached back to lower her chemise before standing.
“And just what do you think you are doing?” Zander’s harsh tone halted her movements.
“I-I thought we were finished, s-sir.”
“Not quite. Remain where you are. And reach back and pull your bottom cheeks apart.”
“What?” Tallie reared up from the bed and spun upon him. “Have you gone mad?”
Calm as you please, Zander stood looking at her. “No, I have finally gotten my head on straight and I am determined to do right by you as your guardian. No more of your tart tongue. No more pranks and shenanigans.”
Gobsmacked, Tallie could not take in the change in her guardian. Speechless, she gazed at him, the only man she had ever had any sort of romantic feelings for and against whom she was sure no other man could ever measure up. Why could he not see her for the woman she was? Years ago, she had harbored a girlish crush on him. But she was now a woman of one and twenty years. And still, he considered her nothing more than a silly nothing to be passed off to the first man who had agreed to marry her.
He suddenly appeared to be a stranger. She searched his gaze for some indication of softening or affection for her, but his countenance was benign, verging on indifferent.
Oh, anything but indifference. Anger, disappointment, fury even, but indifference... it crushed her.
“What is that?” she asked, gesturing toward a knobby item he held in his hand. He pulled out a paring knife from his pocket and began to peel it. A vaguely familiar aroma began to waft toward her.
“Ginger,” he said, holding it up for her to see. “It is to assure your good behavior today. I had a feeling you might be up to something so I stopped by the kitchen on my way to check on you.”
Staring at the odd root, Tallie puzzled out his reasoning.
In a flash, she discerned his intentions. A skilled horsewoman, Tallie had spent enough time around the stables to be familiar with the use of ginger for equine management. “No, absolutely not.” She stormed past him toward the door, but he took a firm grasp of her arm and dragged her to the bed.
“You will do as I say, Tallie.”
He pushed her face down into the mattress, yanked her chemise up, then used one hand to spread her cheeks while he used the other to touch the ginger to her bottom hole.
Never in her life had she been humiliated in such a way. She struggled against him and he smacked her arse with his palm. “Settle down.”
Something pressed against the pucker of her arse and she bucked in surprise.
Zander smacked each of her inflamed bottom cheeks. “I said, ‘settle down’ and I meant it. I am not putting up with any more of your foolishness, Tallie. This is for your own good.”
“My own good?” she screeched, pushing up on her forearms and twisting to get a glimpse of him. “Have you gone mad?”
“That’s ‘have you gone mad, sir’ to you, Natalia. And, to answer your question, no, I have not gone mad. If anything, I have finally seen the situation clearly. It is time for you to be wed and learn to take instruction from a man. Starting with me.”
He grabbed her hands and placed them on her bottom. “Since you will not hold still and I only have two hands, you must assist. Now, spread your arse cheeks wide. I want to see your bunghole nice and clear.”
Though she whimpered into the bedclothes, she did as she was told, unwelcome longing building in her nether region. His commanding tone did something to her, something unexpected and presently unwanted. He was the most vexatious man she had ever met.
And his hands upon her satisfied the unsettled feeling that had been coursing through her.
Yet, he was determined to pass her off to another. She sniffled again into the quilt.
“Good girl,” he said, in a tone not quite so harsh, and she felt a mite better, despite the utterly degrading situation.
“I-I am not an errant h-horse, you kn-know,” she said.
“Not right now you are not, but believe me, Natalia, you are like the most spirited filly in the pasture. And there is nothing wrong with that, it is what makes you so appealing. However, you are literally unbroken and in dire need of training. Which is what I intend to do.”
