“What you did put both of us in danger, whether you realize it or not,” he continued as he arranged my clothing to his satisfaction. “Bend over, please.”
I hesitated for no more than an instant before I obeyed his directive. No sooner had I complied than he began to drape my skirts over my back.
“What if it had been a band of men on the road instead of just the one? What if I hadn’t been able to protect you? What would have become of you then?”
I was struck by the sincere concern in his voice. “Would that truly have meant anything to you?” I ventured to ask. “After all, I am only stolen goods. Easily replaced, I’m sure.”
“Is that what you think?” He punctuated the question with a single, stinging slap of his hand to the back of my pantalets that made my legs lash out as I squeaked in protest. “I’m sorry that you think so little of me, my lady, but more’s the pity that you value yourself so lowly.”
“Oh, don’t mistake me,” I replied drily. “I know my value all too well. It is you who seems to be forgetting who I am.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised when my buttocks were struck again, but I mewled in pain just the same.
“I can see that you need this spanking badly, and for more reasons than one. Don’t you worry, my dove, I shall see to it that you get what you need.”
The endearment surprised me and it robbed me of any reply I might have made.
“Don’t be embarrassed if you need to cry out, but I will not accept you fighting me in any way, do you understand?”
Though my ears understood his words, I didn’t know if I could do as he asked. It was all too foreign to me. My bottom was tingling painfully where his hand had fallen, and the knowledge that he intended to do it again had my breath coming in quick little gasps and my heart racing anxiously. “Please, I—” I stood and began to turn, but Antony caught my wrists and with gentle hands he turned me to face the wall once more.
“You have been warned, my dove. It is not a warning I will repeat.” Without another word, he put a hand on my back, encouraging me to bend over, fixing my clothing once more after I’d complied. Only when my pantalets were uncovered did the spanking resume, his hand vigorously meeting my buttocks again and again, each smack measured and hard. After each startling spank rained down on my upturned cheeks, he left his hand in place for a few seconds, as though encouraging the burn to sear through myclothing and burrow into my skin.
Initially, I tried to distract myself with thoughts of something, anything but the punishment I was receiving at his hands, but all too quickly I discovered that there would be no such reprieve from the horrible, stinging pain. I had to endure it as best I could—it would be impossible to ignore it. No sooner than I had accepted this, his hand began landing more vigorously than ever, his hard, heavy palm visiting each buttock in turn and then going back again. The stinging pain became a burning in my seat and the burning became a fire in my flesh that had my feet dancing as though to a merry tune.
“All I require from you, my lady, is obedience. I know it might seem much to ask, but I will have it all the same.” As his hand fell again and again, stoking the heat in my cheeks, I could not think of one reason to ever disobey him. None that seemed worth the price I would pay, in any event. “You will obey me,” he continued, his hand striking hard and true, “or end up with a hot, red bottom. I’m afraid I cannot waver in this.” The next smack that landed made me arch up onto my tip-toes, and the succeeding one on the next cheek made me fall back to the floor once more. “It is for your own good, I assure you, and in return you will have my unfailing love and loyalty.”
Love. I knew quite a bit about loyalty, but no man had ever spoken to me of love.
“Now, my dove, can you give me your word that you will not run again?” His hand stilled on the small of my back, my punishment stopped for the time being.
Something funny was happening in the pit of my stomach, a tightening and simultaneous loosening of knots that left me feeling very odd indeed.Love. The word kept reverberating in my head, radiating throughout my being until I felt dizzy with the implication. It was strange: Antony was not royal-born, nor had he been endowed with titles. Yet, he made my body feel hot and my mind swim beyond reason. It wasn’t a feeling I liked in the least.
“I shall run,” I informed him pertly. “I will run as many times as need be until I find myself home again.” The room went still after I’d spoken and I tensed as I waited for a response.
Antony was silent for several long moments, giving me ample time to regret my words, before he spoke, his voice gruff once more. “Your slipper, if you would be so kind, my lady.”
“My… my what?”
“Your slipper.”
Confused, I slid the leather slipper off my foot and felt him bending behind me to retrieve it. Before I could fathom why he would ask for such a thing, the reason landed sharply on my upturned cheeks. I found myself howling in a most unladylike fashion as it landed once more and then another time still.
“You may run,” he said, using each word as an occasion to apply theslipper to my backside, “but I assure you that I am an excellent trapper. I will find you every time. I will bring you back with me, kicking and screaming if I must, with a red backside as your only reward.”
“You… have… no right,” I choked out, wincing each time the slipper made contact with my pantalets.
“Have you ever heard of spoils of war, my dove? It gives me every right. But moreover, I intend to make you my wife, which means that there will be nothing you can say or do to avoid a sore bottom except to obey.”
* * *
Württemberg Manor
“The Duchess of Württemberg.”
I froze just inside the room as I was announced. I spotted my husband in an instant, bent over a table that was strewn with papers which he seemed to be studying with single-minded intensity.
“Yes?” he called impatiently without looking up. “What is it?”
