by Maren Smith
In the end, my need to know for sure conquered me. Swinging my leg over the sill, I climbed out onto the ivy-covered trellis. Victoria’s long skirts nearly tripped me twice and a careless step had me tearing the hem halfway to the bottom, but moving slowly, one rung at a time, I climbed down to the ground. There were only two steps left to go when strong arms suddenly wrapped around my waist and plucked me from the trellis.
“You are a stubborn woman,” Hawkhaven exclaimed crossly. He set me on my feet, but didn’t let me go. His hand locked around my upper arm as he bent to search the ground, squinting a little to see through the darkness. “I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t make me wait out here all night. Where are your things? Did you throw your bag straight down, or give it a toss further out?”
I covered my mouth, my bottom lip and chin beginning to wobble. Biting my lip, I tried hard not to let the tears gathering at my lashes fall. “Would you have?” I finally couldn’t help but ask. Despite all my best efforts, my voice still cracked. “All night?”
In the glow of the house lights, he straightened slowly and turned to look at me. Taking my shoulders in both hands, he shook me. “Yes. Ella, my Ella with the beautiful name, I meant what I said. I always mean what I say.”
“I’m not the scandal you want to avoid?”
He shook his head, though more in wonder at my logic than in denial of it. Raising his eyes to my bedroom window high above, he then looked at me again. “You left your things in your room, didn’t you?”
“I had to be sure,” I whispered.
“You could have saved yourself the spanking and just asked me.”
“But then I wouldn’t be sure. I’d only have your word, and I already had that. I needed to know.”
“I would give half my fortune to understand the working of the female mind,” Hawkhaven said, shaking his head in wonder again. “All right, Ella. You win. Tell me, can peace of mind be bought once a week with a good stout hairbrush, or will a daily dose of the flat of my hand be required?”
I half-laughed at his joke, my hands rubbing at my stomach where, for the first time in days, that awful butterfly sensation had finally stilled. “Thank you for the offer, but I think I am fine now.”
“Wonderful. I’m happy to hear it.” Tucking my hand into the crook of his arm, pinning it there with the warm comfort of his own, he led me back to the house and his waiting study. “Unfortunately—and by unfortunately, I do mean for you—it’s now I who needs to be assured. You see, if I have to spend every night outside your window waiting for you to flee me, you’re going to find yourself attached to a very crabby groom come our wedding day.”
“I didn’t mean to flee—” I protested.
“No, just to test my resolve.” He patted my hand. “As your little bottom is about to learn, sweetheart, there is nothing at all wrong with my resolve. So, we are agreed. A daily dose, it is.”
“What?!” I squeaked. I didn’t mean to, but my legs balked at the threshold of his study. “N-no… I—”
He tsked. “I had no idea you were such a bundle of nerves. Twice a day, then.”
“No!”
“Three times.”
My eyes as wide as saucers, I shot my hands behind me to cover my cringing backside. “No, no! Once is fine! Once is more than fine!”
“Once a day, it is,” he smoothly conceded. He wrapped an arm around my waist, ushering me into his study. “We’ll do it right here. Every morning, straight before breakfast, you with your skirts raised up and your drawers to your ankles. In fact, you may as well not even put them on. After the third day or so, you’ll be too sore to wear them anyway.”
I squeaked again as he pushed me towards the sturdy chair at his desk.
“Consider tonight a practice round,” he said as he took his seat. All smiles, his blue eyes dancing wickedly, he began rolling up his shirtsleeve. “Skirt up and garments down, my love. You’re going to bare your own bottom and lay yourself across my knee. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you’ being the seat of good manners, you’ll keep them firmly in mind as you ask me—in much the same manner that you will ask each and every morning until we’re wed—‘Please, Matthew, put my mind at ease.’ Afterwards, when I have painted your pretty bottom a fiery shade of pink and you are gasping, squirming and writhing upon my knee, before I let you up again, you’ll remember to say, ‘Thank you, sir, for correcting me. I feel much better now.’ Of course, if you don’t feel better, don’t say that part.” He stopped rolling his sleeve to wink at me. “That will be my cue to keep spanking until you do.”
The butterflies were back again, but softer this time. Nervous, but not in a scary way. Warm even. Particularly low down between my legs, as I watched him flex his strong right hand. His eyes roved me, the magnificent blue of them darkening in a way that had me trembling.
“And of course, then,” his smile turned distinctly roguish, “you can plan on enjoying a very late breakfast, because after having feasted my eyes on your hot, squirming bottom, I have every intention of… enjoying you, right here atop my very sturdy desk.” He winked again. “We’ll practice that tonight, too.”
As I said, I don’t know how I came to be singled out, but the Angel of Hawkhaven saved me. Mostly from myself, I know, but I think that still should count.
The End
About the Author
Author Bio and Contact Info:
Maren Smith:
Fortunate enough to live with my Daddy Dom, I am a Little, coffee whore, pain slut, administrator at two of my local BDSM dungeons, resident of the wilds of freakin' Kansas (still don't know how I ended up here) and submissive to the love of my life. An International and USA Bestselling Author, I have penned more than 160 novels, novellas and short stories, and am the author of the Masters of the Castle series.
I also write under the names of Denise Hall, Darla Phelps, and Penny Alley.
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Other titles by Maren Smith
Black Light Series:
Unbroken (Black Light: Valentine’s Roulette, Book 3)
Shameless (Black Light: Roulette Redux, Book 7)
Fearless (Black Light, Book 10)
Determined (Black Light: Celebrity Roulette, Book 12)
The Red Petticoat Saloon Series:
Jade’s Dragon
Warming Emerald
Masters of the Castle Series:
Book 1, Holding Hannah
Book 2, Kaylee’s Keeper
Book 3, Saving Sara
Book 4, Sweet Sinclair
Book 5, Chasing Chelsea
Book 6, Owning O
Book 7, Maddy Mine
Book 8, Seducing Sandy
Witness Protection Program Box Set
Corbin’s Bend:
Last Dance for Cadence (Season 1, Book 8)
Have Paddle, Will Travel (Season 2, Book 7)
A Few Other Titles:
B-Flick
Build-A-Daddy
The Great Prank
Jinxie’s Orchids
Life After Rachel
The Locket
The Mountain Man
Something Has To Give
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