“Good girl,” he crooned, but the praise only made me flush harder. “Some wives need constant attention from their husbands,” he remarked, gently patting my bared cheeks. “You’re going to be one of those, aren’t you?”
Without waiting for an answer, Antony went to work, his hand smacking each cheek in quick succession. Remembering that John was asleep, I bit my lip hard to keep from crying out. I’d never been aware of how loud the spanking itself was until that moment, and I found myself wincing each time his palm smacked my flesh.
“I’m sorry,” I moaned. “Please.”
“I know you’re sorry, Cecily. And you don’t know how much it means to me that you came to me and told me what you’d done. But it’s my job to ensure that you don’t let it happen again.”
“I won’t,” I promised, but Antony seemed deaf to my pleas as his hand continued to punish my poor, defenseless arse. As the spanks continued to rain down, I did everything I could to conceal my pain. I muffled my cries into his trousers, and when I began to cry, I did it silently. Antony certainly didn’t make it easy—by the time he finished my flesh felt like it was on fire. I suspected that was due in part to the spanking with the strap I’d gotten earlier.
“On the bed,” he instructed, his voice husky and authoritative. I scampered over the bed and was sliding beneath the covers when he shook his head. “Lie on your stomach.”
I wanted to wail that I’d already been punished, that I’d learned my lesson, but I stayed quiet except for the cries I muffled into the pillow. Antony took his time joining me. I could feel his eyes looking me up and down, drinking in the sight of my bare flesh. I wondered what he saw when he looked at me. Wallace had never seemed too impressed with my voluptuous figure, but somehow Antony made me feel that he only saw the very best in me. It was enough to make a woman still love a husband, even when he’d just set her bottom aflame with the flat of his hand.
When Antony finally joined me on the bed, I turned my head to see him, but he was behind me, looming over me. At first, I feared that he meant to continue the spanking, but then I felt his hand tracing the curve of my buttocks with a feather-light caress. I could feel goose bumps prickle my skin one by one at the gentleness in his touch. Then, when he bent over and kissed my shoulder, I let out a moan that had nothing to do with pain. His lips moved over the nape of my neck, and then to the other shoulder blade. He followed the trail that the goose bumps had left for him, letting his lips taste nearly every inch of my fair skin. With each brush of his lips against my skin, I felt a shiver run through my body until I was nearly humming with the sensation.
On and on his mouth traveled until he reached my hot, punished flesh. I tensed slightly as I waited to see what he would do. I felt the bed shift as he sat up, and to my surprise, one hand gripped my hip, lifting me toward him. The other hand snaked around, and a finger slipped into my quim, testing the wetness.
“What a naughty girl,” he scolded, clucking his tongue reproachfully. “It seems that you haven’t learned your lesson after all.”
“Oh, but I have!” I protested. “Antony, please, I avow it! I truly have!”
“How could you have, when you obviously enjoy your spanking so much?”
I opened my mouth to say that, of course, such a thought was absurd, but before I could speak, I realized that perhaps it wasn’t altogether untrue. I didn’t like the hot, throbbing feeling in my backside at the moment, that much was certain, but I couldn’t deny that the way he was treating me made me feel cherished. If that was what it took, I would endure the spankings.
“Perhaps I should spank you a little more?”
“No, thank you,” I whispered.
“Ah, then whatever shall I do with you, my dove?”
I took a deep breath, summoning my courage before I opened my mouth to reply. “Could you… would you make love to me?”
“Is that what you want, sweeting?”
I was too embarrassed by the fact that I’d spoken such desires aloud to retain speech—all I managed was a nod, but it seemed sufficient to Antony. Only moments later, Antony inserted two fingers into my sex and began to flick them in and out in a way that drove me to insanity. I’d never been touched so before and had never thought that it would have felt so wonderful, but as his fingers moved in and out, I found myself moaning and writhing in the most shameful manner, and caring not at all.
“I can’t wait any longer,” he whispered, moments before he withdrew his hand and turned me to face him. He began by kissing each of my cheeks, then my mouth. When I tilted my head back, eyes closed in pleasure, he kissed my eyelids and the nape of my neck. As he kissed me, I felt his member entermy quim, and I nearly wept then and there for the pure joy of it. Then we were moving together, as one being, as God had intended a husband and wife to be. It was an odd thing, knowing that I’d been married before but had not felt one tenth of that same joy until Antony had found me.
Chapter Seven
Six months later
I could hear them talking outside the door and I knew that Julia had come. “She’s inside,” I heard Antony say, and the anxiety in his voice was undeniable. “Please, take care of her for me.”
“You needn’t worry, Mr. Jennings,” she tried to sooth him. “Cecily is going to be just fine. I’ll see to it.”
Yet, I did not know how she could keep her word. My body felt like it was being ripped in two, and it was all I could do to bite back the screams. When Julia swept into the room, all calm self-possession, I managed to smile.
She went to work at once, kneeling between my knees and checking the baby’s position. I knew we must have a long way to go, because she began to talk about the church service I’d missed and fill me in on the scant gossip there was to hear. She didn’t encourage me to talk, and she herself went silent when the pains came close together.
“Really, Cecily,” she scolded, her fondness for me plain in her voice. “You can scream, if you need to. It won’t do to keep all that pain bottled inside.”
“Antony,” I answered weakly.
“Hmph,” she snorted, spreading my legs the slightest bit so that she could get a better look. “I told him to wait outside.”
“He… he won’t be able to bear it…”
