“No, sir.”
“Truly?”
“Truly—I fear only your hand.”
“As it should be, my dove. When you deserve it I will always endeavor to teach you a memorable lesson. I can promise you that.”
“Why is every promise you make me in regards to a sore bottom?” I should have minded the mulishness in my tone, because Antony responded by three swift, sharp cracks of his hand to my bottom that had me wincing and mewling in pain.
“Because they are the kind of promises that suit you, my lady. Now, remind me why I am punishing you, Cecily.”
“Because… because I disobeyed you,” I whispered.
His hand came down hard on my quivering flesh, bouncing from one cheek to the next as he exacted justice for my sins. Each smack of his hand was firmer than the one before it and the desire to kick my legs and try to escape was nearly irrepressible. It was only his strong arm looped around my waist that kept me from trying.
“What else, Cecily?”
It was hard for me to concentrate on the sound of his voice. Right then, it was hard for me to think of anything other than my aching arse and the tears that I was trying to blink back. “Ah…”
Two hard, resounding swats on each of my cheeks had me gasping and arching my back. “Think hard, if you must.”
“I… I brought attention to myself.”
“It was a dangerous thing to do, was it not, sweeting?”
At that very moment, I began to wonder if I wouldn’t have been safer with the looters than with Antony. I very much doubted my bottom would be in such agony! However, I knew better than to say so aloud. “Y-yes,” I answered, tears beginning to roll down my cheeks.
“All I endeavor to do is to keep you safe, my lady.” With that, the spanking resumed, his hard hand coming down again and again until I thought I could bear it no longer.
“I’ll be good!” I cried out, a sob lodging in my throat. “Please, I beg you! It shan’t happen again!”
“I intend to see to it that you keep that promise, Your Grace.”
I should have told him that no one would ever dare spank a duchess. That I had learned my lesson well, that it hurt too much. I should have told him something, anything to make it stop, but as I cried, words were lost to me, turned instead to piteous moans which only grew in frequency and volume as his hand continued to punish my hot, defenseless cheeks.
And part of me kept my silence because I knew, in truth, that I deserved the punishment I was receiving at his hands. He was right: I could have been raped, or worse. I could bedead, and my baby would have suffered the same fate. That in itself was worthy of receiving a sore bottom. The other part of me said nothing because I realized that Antony was the only man in my life who’d ever cared enough about me to correct me. I knew he would not play me false. He meant what he said—he spanked me because he didn’t want to see anything bad befall me. How humbling it was to be loved like that, especially when I’d done nothing to merit such kindness.
As his hand continued to work its way up and down my hot, aching flesh, something within me broke. Suddenly, the dam of sobs I’d been storing up inside me burst free and I was crying my heart out as though I would never, ever stop. Everything—my marriage to Wallace and the way he’d begun to shun me, being taken from my home—all the things that I’d refused to cry about came pouring out in long, shuddering sobs and piercing wails. It wasn’t until I was spent from crying and was lying limply over Antony’s lap that I even realized he’d stopped spanking me.
“Do you feel better, my lady?” he asked as he helped me sit up.
A mewl of pain escaped my parted lip as my inflamed flesh landed on his hard leg. “I… I believe so. I’m… I’m sorry.”
“Shh, sweeting. Everything is alright now. You were very brave to take such a hard spanking.” He emphasized his words with a kiss pressed to my forehead. “Now, tell me, Cecily—do you still wish to be my wife?”
“What?” I blinked up at him through watery eyes.
“Tell me truly, my dove, for I shall only ask you this once. Do you wish to marry me? If you’re only going to say the vows so that you will have a home, let me assure you that I never would leave you out in the cold. I can arrange a place for you. You’ll have to learn to work to earn your keep, but marriage isn’t something you should enter into because you feel forced to do so.”
If it wouldn’t have been so unladylike, I would have gaped at him. Antony may not have been of noble blood, but I didn’t think I’d ever met a more chivalrous man. It was that, combined with how safe I felt in the shelter of his arms, that allowed me to confess. “I’m afraid of marriage.”
“Afraid? Whatever should you have to fear, Cecily?”
“I… I lied to you, before.” Knowing that I’d just been punished for that very thing, I swallowed hard before I continued. “My marriage to the duke… it was not what I said. He… he did not much care for me, I think.”
“I find that hard to believe,” he murmured, his mouth soft against my ear and his words softer still.
“No, I fear it’s quite true. I caught him in bed with a maid, and he humiliated me for it. He reveled in my humiliation, in fact.”
