“Andyouwere supposed to stay away from my outbuilding,” Cassian replied. “What are you doing here, Cecilia?”
She turned. “I was curious.”
“Andbreaking a rule,” he noted, taking a step forward—and she took a step back.
She could hardly believe this was happening. For a terrifying moment, Cecilia feared his next move. Just how badly had she erred?
With another step forward—and her retreat—her back was on the rough wall while he caged her in; she did not like the wicked gleam in his eye. “You broke my rule.”
“Why—why are you looking at me that way?” she asked.
His lids lowered. “With any truancy, my father would make sure I was punished. I am thinking I need to do the same with you.”
Her eyes widened in disbelief. “What—? Are you mad?”
“I think I have already addressed that,” Cassian said as he glanced into the broken slat she’d been looking through.
Her heart hammered against her ribs while her vision was overtaken by his mystic grey eyes. “What do you mean?”
“Given your many trespasses, I think you need a spanking.”
Cecilia blinked. Then blinked again. Surely, he was jesting. No one on earth could ever think such a thing was a fitting punishment. Spankings were for children, not for ladies and surely not for a married woman like herself. “You mean to spank me? I am not five years old.”
“I can and I will,” Cassian remarked.
She searched his eyes—and nothing inside them told her he was jesting. There was no twitch in his jaw, no flicker in his visage—nothing to tell he did not mean his threat.
He could notpossiblymean it.
She shivered.
Seeing the smirk on his lips, she realized that he’d misread the cause of her shiver.
“You broke a rule,” Cassian repeated. He lifted one hand and lightly cupped her cheek.
Shock scattered her thoughts, and her hands flew up in automatic defense to rest on a solid wall of warmth and vitality. A tremor ran through her at the feel of his thumb so close to her lips.
“You’re still not spanking me,” she whispered.
“Oh, I will,” he tilted his head. “But first, the first of your punishments.”
Without a warning, he dragged her up against his body, trapped her hands above her head on the gritty wall, and almost violently caught her mouth with his. There was no hesitancy or patience in the way he kissed her.
And, strangely—Cecilia would not have it any other way.
She gasped, and his tongue swept inside, and a small noise of shocked pleasure tore from her throat. The passionate kiss broke, but only for a moment to allow her to drag in a ragged breath.
Already, her senses were sizzling, and all the scandal of being kissed so hedonistically out in the open made her stomach turn on itself— but even with that, all the pent-up need she had convinced herself she did not have, burst through her in a rebellious and chaotic desire.
“Bloody hell,” Cassian muttered.
His hand slid up the back of her neck, and he angled her head before he took her mouth again, their tongues tangling wildly. Her skin pricked with wicked heat, and her heart pounded a terrifying tempo.
When he did release her lips from his drugging kisses, the warning bells in her heart were drowned under a hot slide of arousal.
Cassian smirked, “Yes, you willenjoythat spanking.”
“Hullo, neighbor! Is that you, I see?” A male voice shouted.
