“Yes, I wanted to have a care for your condition. Forgive me, next time I shall simply pull your gown up and have my way with you.”
“Indeed,” I rejoined, catching his teasing tone. “Do you intend to marry me a second time?”
With a sound somewhere between a growl and a primal yell, Antony lunged for me. In mere moments his mouth seized me and I knew at once that this kiss would be quite different from the other. It was a hard, possessive kiss that stole my breath and left my heart fluttering madly. When Antony pulled away, I could see his face in the light of the candle by the bedside and he looked decidedly unrepentant.
“Wait here,” he commanded, his voice throaty. “I have something that will teach you to mind your tongue.”
I smiled in the darkness, my heart feeling lighter still as he climbed from the bed and padded across the room. I did not know what he was in search of, but it did not matter. The only thing that mattered was the way he looked at me, the way he kissed me—as though he would never get enough of the sight of me, the feel of me. I’d never been loved like that.
“Did you miss me?” he asked upon his return.
“The loneliness was horrid,” I said with a breathy little giggle that made him lean down and kiss me once more. When he sat back up, I saw that he held a black strap in his hand. The sight of it made me gasp. “Husband?”
“Don’t worry, my dove,” he crooned, caressing the side of my face. “You aren’t being chastised tonight. Well, only lightly, at any rate.”
“What is it for?” I asked, awed at the sight of it in the candlelight. It lookedso hard and inflexible, yet somehow pretty as the light shone off the leather.
“You shall see, my lady. Indeed you shall.” With that, he slowly began to lift the hem of my gown. He kept moving it higher until every inch of me, even my breasts, was bared.
My breath hitched in my throat as I waited, my eyes wide with expectation. I flinched when I saw him raise the strap, but I needn’t have bothered. When it flicked my breast it was as light and gentle as a caress.
“Do you like that?”
I could not find my tongue, even if it wouldn’t have been indecent to answer. When he brought it down again, the contact was only the slightest bit harder. To my surprise, the nipple he’d struck became a hardened bud of desire. I writhed in shame to see it, but he only chuckled. The next slap came down on my other breast, and I found myself arching my back and mewling.
With each flick of his wrist he showed my breasts attention—the stinging, teasing kind that somehow led to a moisture developing between my thighs.
“I think youdolike it, lady wife.” His smile was wolfish and so handsome that I squirmed on the bed beneath his eyes, wanting things I didn’t even know how to voice.
“Please.”
“Please what, sweeting? Do you want me to spank your naughty quim next?”
I gasped to hear him say such a thing, at the way his eyes crinkled with pleasure when he said it, and the deliciously naughty way it made me feel. “Antony…”
“I love it when you say my name, Cecily.” He bent down and kissed my lips, gently teasing my bottom lip with his teeth. “Pray say it again.”
“Antony.” The moment the word was out of my mouth, he flicked his wrist and the strap landed with a soft thud on my sex. The feelings it sent coursing throughout my body, so ripe with need, made me shudder.
“Again, my sweet.”
“Antony.”
Down came the strap, its touch feather-light, yet with just enough force to make it sting the tiniest bit. The lady I was raised to be was horrified at how much I enjoyed it. She was further shocked when I spread my legs invitingly. “Antony,” I repeated, just to feel the leather make my whole body tingle once more.
On and on we played our game until his name was nothing more than a moan on my lips. When he finally set the strap down, I was flushed from my hairline down to the very tips of my toes and his breathing was nearly as ragged as my own. I watched in fascination as his hands went to his trousers. When he pulled them down, my eyes were drawn to his member as it sprang out eagerly, long and hard.
“Are you certain, my lady?” he asked in a throaty murmur.
One look at him, at his handsome face and shining eyes, and I knew I could not deny him anything. “I am certain.”
When he entered me, I found that it hurt not at all. I’d been tensing for it, but all I felt was unfettered pleasure at being made one with him. With him inside me, somehow I felt as though I’d been made whole. When he began to move, thrusting slowly in and out, I gave myself to him with abandon, vaguely aware that I had found something I hadn’t even known I’d been missing.
I moved beneath him, wanton in my desire, and he responded to my affection with eagerness, increasing the speed of his thrusts. When I cried out, he smiled down on me and moved faster still. I had no name for what I was feeling, as I’d never felt it before. The only thing I knew for certain was that I felt like my body was being torn apart, yet I loved every moment of it. Tears came to my eyes, and for once, I let them flow down my cheeks, the only true sign I could offer of my joy.
“Oh, sweet Cecily,” my husband murmured as he loomed over me. “You are the most beautiful of women. I am a lucky man indeed.”
“Antony,” I answered, my voice rich with emotion. Instead of the slap of a strap, he buried himself deep within me, enough to make me arch my back and mewl my pleasure. I thought that the joy would never, ever end. Even when we’d spent ourselves, he pulled me close beside him and I closed my eyes feeling, perhaps for the first time in my adult life, wholly and completely loved.
