“I am your husband, Claire, and I expect you to obey me even when we are not in agreement. If you had come straight back to our chambers as I had instructed you to do, your punishment would not have been so severe. But you intentionally hid from me and enlisted the help of Desmona, bringing another into our marriage. That kind of behavior is unacceptable, and I intend to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my lord, I understand.” She sniffled and felt small in his arms. “I am so sorry, and I am ashamed of my actions.”
He pulled her slippers off and reached up her dress to tug her hosen down, and she shifted on his lap to assist with her undressing. Next he removed her headdress and freed her hair from the coif beneath it, and her hair billowed down her back. “Stand up, Claire.”
She rose up with his assistance and her stomach went aflutter as he guided her to the center of the room. Without a word, he began unfastening the laces of her bodice, and soon she stood in nothing but her thin chemise. He removed his sword belt and placed it atop a trunk by the wall. He approached her with his arms crossed while he tapped at his chin, as if he was pondering the nature of her punishment. She shivered as though a sudden chill descended upon her, though the servants had already been in to light the braziers for the night, and the room was actually quite warm.
“You will be completely naked for your punishment, Claire.” He moved behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.
Anticipation twisted her insides and merged with her regret, leaving her a bundle of nerves. He had never punished her while she was completely unclothed before. Yes, he had bared her bottom, but her dress had remained on and given her a sense of decorum. Galien meant to strip away all her modesty, and as her chemise drifted to the floor, she felt truly humbled and repentant. She couldn’t meet his eyes as he led her back to the bed.
He sat down and forced her to stand between his spread legs, and her lower lip quivered as she stood there naked before her clothed lord husband. Her hands flew up to cover her breasts, but he grasped her wrists and pulled her arms straight at her sides, forcing her to remain exposed and vulnerable.
“From now on, Claire, when you require chastisement, I shall strip off your clothes before I thrash you. I think it makes you more amenable to my authority, and I confess I also like to look upon my wife. Keep your hands in place,” he admonished as he stroked her inner thigh.
She trembled and quaked, wishing he’d take her over his knee so she might hide her face in the covers.
“Spread your legs, wife. Good. Now hold this position.”
She summoned all her inner strength to stay still as he probed her quim, tracing his fingers along her entrance and tapping against the nubbin where all her pleasure seemed to originate. He wrapped one arm around her body and held his flattened hand upon her womanly core. Heat gathered and pulsed between her thighs, and she looked down, wondering about his intentions. The sound of a stinging slap filled the room, and she gasped and shut her legs tight and shielded her quim from further punishment.
“Please, my lord,” she begged. “Please don’t spank me there. It isn’t proper.” She tried to escape his hold, but he pinned her hands behind her back and forced her to remain in place, smacking the insides of her thighs until she opened to his liking. “It hurts, my lord.”
“I am your husband and it is my right to punish you as I see fit,” he said, shooting her a stern look. “Keep your legs open, Claire, or you will earn extras.”
She didn’t want to earn extras, especially if those extras consisted of more slaps laid upon her tender nether lips. Squeezing her eyes shut, she endured a quick round of smacks to her quim. She winced and cried out with each blow. Tears coated her face, though they hadn’t been wrought from pain. It hurt, but the humiliation of this particular punishment stung far worse than the slaps raining down upon her lips. Despite herself, pleasure also bloomed beside her discomfort, pulsating with each crack of his fingers across her most sensitive spot, that tender bud he’d swirled his thumb over whilst pounding into her.
He paused and parted her lower lips, delving inside with ease, and to her mortification she realized she had grown wet. A sob burst from her and she longed to slip into a crack in the stone walls and disappear. Never had she known shame so great.
“Over my knee, wife,” he said, withdrawing his hand from her center. He arranged her over one strong thigh and wrapped his other leg atop hers, and she took it as a sign that this punishment was going to be quite severe. Next, he gathered her wrists at her lower back again. Naked and completely restrained over her displeased husband’s lap, she sniffled and waited for the first smack to fall. At least his sword belt still rested atop the trunk, out of reach for the moment.
“I understand why you became upset this evening, Claire,” he said, cupping her right cheek and giving it an ominous squeeze. “However, I expect you to conduct yourself like a lady. If you raise your voice at me again in my own hall, I will take a birch rod to your bare bottom. Have you ever been birched before?”
“No, my lord.” She’d heard the screams of her brothers taking a birching though, and she had always strived not to land in such trouble as to warrant the use of the birch, and thus as a child she had only received a handful of quick, rather light spankings from her father. Coldness spread through her at the thought of receiving a birching from Galien, and she hoped to never give him cause to mete out a punishment so severe.
“It is a nasty implement, the birch rod. I sincerely hope to never use one on you, Claire.” He moved to rub her left bottom cheek now, and she shuddered over his lap, trembling with a mixture of fear and relief that her spanking was about to begin.
“I intend to spank you fast and hard, Claire, and then this will be over. I want you to be a good girl and take your punishment. You were naughty. And this, sweet Claire, is what happens to naughty wives.”
The first blow landed, and she clenched her arse and reared over his lap, the sharp sting of it taking her breath away. Before she recovered, he rained a second and third smack down. She wiggled and cried out with each hard spank, and still he maintained a rapid pace as he switched from cheek to cheek with each strike.
“Oh, please, my lord!” After a dozen slaps she was ready for her punishment to be over. The pain of his hand cracking steadily down on her smarting flesh continued to take her breath away, and she gasped and tried to turn over on his lap. When that didn’t work, she attempted to slide to the floor, but he tightened his grip on her and kept spanking. Her struggles didn’t slow him a bit. And to think she had asked for this spanking—had told him she was ready to be punished.
Once her escape attempts failed, she pressed her face into the blankets and sobbed. When she remembered her promise to Galien to be good and accept her punishment, she sobbed even harder. How quickly she’d forgotten that promise to submit when faced with the unendurable sting upon her bottom cheeks.
He thrashed the tops of her thighs, as well as the tender area of her lower backside. Her wet face stuck to the blankets, and the intensity of the fire blazing across her skin chased away all other thoughts. There was only the pain and the knowledge of what she’d done to deserve this punishment from her husband. Thwack! Thwack! His hand didn’t seem to tire, and as exhaustion from her struggles and crying fell upon her, she went limp over his lap.
He paused and caressed her throbbing bottom. “The next time you are upset with me, wife, how will you behave differently?”
She sniffled and turned her face to the side, taking in a deep breath before she replied. “I-I will speak with you about it, my lord, in a calm manner.” Hot tears poured from her eyes.
“What else?”
“I will not disrespect you again, not the way I did tonight, my lord, for which I am very sorry.”
“Good girl. We’re almost finished.”
* * *
Galien ceased rubbing Claire’s reddened backside and brought his hand down ten more time
s, rapid blows that tore a howl from her in between her sobs. He then turned her over and enfolded his arms around her, aching to comfort her and needing to feel her close.
“Shh, sweet Claire. It’s over now. You are forgiven.” He tangled his fingers in her hair and stroked the back of her head.
She sat within the circle of his embrace, her face pressed to his chest and her arms wrapped about his waist. Her shoulders heaved under her cries, and he murmured soothing words into her ear in hopes of helping her calm down. Gradually, her sobs turned to sniffles, and soon after that her sniffles faded altogether. Her breathing stabilized and she simply held onto him as the moments passed, and likewise he held onto her. There was nowhere else he wished to be in this instant in time, nowhere but in his chambers with his sweet lady wife.
“I cannot believe I behaved so outrageously in the great hall, Galien.” She peered up at him with red rings around her eyes.
“The matter has been dealt with, Claire. You did wrong and I punished you for it, and then I forgave you, my sweet wife.” He kissed her forehead and let his lips linger upon her soft flesh, inhaling her floral scent and never wishing to release her. Oh, she felt perfect in his arms.
She lowered her head and leaned into his chest again, and he strengthened his hold on her as warmth spread outward from his heart. Claire’s reaction to her punishment pleased him greatly. She had accepted responsibility for her behavior and felt repentant, and after her spanking she wasn’t sulking or trying to escape him. That she sought comfort in his arms after he’d punished her testified to her growing trust in him. His throat tightened with this realization, because her willingness to accept his guidance boded well for their marriage, and above all he wished for their union to be a happy one.
“Do you think Desmona will forgive me for getting her into trouble?”
“Aye, I’m certain she will. I’ve known her since she was a babe, and she has a kind heart. You needn’t worry.”
She drew back and met his eyes, and a blush crept over her face. “Are we going to sleep now, my lord?”
His cock shifted beneath her bottom as if protesting the very idea of sleep. He shook his head as he admired her innocent expression. “No, Claire, we are most certainly not going to sleep.”
Her blush deepened and she tried to lower her gaze, but he caught her chin and held it between two fingers, and a sharp tremor rocked her and caused her to wiggle atop his lap and the hardness encased within his leggings. Longing flared and he leaned down to claim her lips, clutching her face as he kissed her hard and deep, pressing his tongue into her mouth with all the urgency he felt rising within him. The little whimpers and moans she made as he kissed her drove him wild, and his desire spiked hot and dangerous the moment her tongue at last pressed against his.
When he finally broke away, she gasped for air and moved her bottom over his growing cock, and he caught her occasional wince as her sore flesh brushed too hard over his leggings. The state of her arse gave him an idea, and he pushed her off his lap and arranged her on her hands and knees on the bed.
She peeked over her shoulder at him, her long dark locks in complete disarray and her lips swollen and red from his kisses. “My lord?”
He looked from her questioning gaze to her bright red bottom and punished thighs. “Remain in this position, Claire.” Standing up, he worked off his boots, leggings, and tunic while she watched with wide eyes.
“My lord, please. I thought my punishment was over.” She trembled and bit her lip.
He crawled up on the bed behind her. “I’m not going to spank you, Claire,” he said, understanding her misconception with a pang of pity. The last time he’d forced her into this position had been when he’d taken his sword belt to her bottom, on their wedding night no less.
“Then what do you plan to do?” Her eyes remained impossibly wide, making her appear all the more tempting to Galien.
He rested on his knees behind her and grabbed her hips, bringing her center back against his aching cock. “I plan to take you this way, my curious wife.”
“But… but you can’t!”
He chuckled. “I assure you I can.” He dragged his hard cock through the wet folds of her quim, noting that her level of arousal rivaled that of two nights ago in the tent after her whipping. She shuddered and lifted her hips to meet his entrance, even as she uttered another outraged protest.
“My lord, you can’t! Not this way.”
“Claire, I believe you’ve forgotten your place in this marriage,” he said, driving forward into her sweet tight cunt. “Sometimes your place is on your hands and knees, with your red punished arse up in the air, while your husband pounds his cock into your soaking wet quim.”
She cried out with the force of his thrust, and whimpered as he slowly withdrew his length from her tightness, only to trail the tip of his cock through her folds once more, teasing her with shallow plunges and the occasional touch to her nubbin.
“Galien, this is highly improper.”
“Is it?”
Though she still argued, her body surrendered to his ministrations. He pushed into her again and started pounding her hard, and her only response was a pleasurable moan as she lifted her hips to meet his thrusts. For all her hesitance and fighting, she enjoyed this position and the deep drives into her slick quim that it allowed. He pulled her bottom cheeks apart, exposing the pucker of her back entrance as he continued on, fucking her with rapid strokes.
He reached underneath her to circle her swollen nub, sliding her moisture over the delicate and engorged bit of flesh while she writhed beneath him in the throes of passion. She’d given up her protests and all resistance, instead giving herself over to her desires, be they proper or not. A cry leapt from her and her head tilted to the side, and she increased the movements of her hips. Her insides clamped down around his cock, and he couldn’t hold back any longer. He followed her into the warm pulsing sensation of a release, and when it ended they collapsed on the bed together, seeking one another out in the aftermath of their bliss.
“I believe I have conquered you yet again, Claire.”
He felt her smile against his chest. “I think I like this… this conquering.”
Chapter Seven
Time passed in a whirl of activity at Minrova, and though Claire had more responsibilities at Galien’s keep than she’d had at Diterich, she enjoyed the constant flow of visitors and goings-on. Desmona, who had indeed forgiven Claire, departed with her brothers not long after Galien’s father was buried, and not long after his aunt and uncle left as well. Only a handful of his cousins remained, many of them knights who helped safeguard the keep and all of Galien’s holdings. With Hohenzollern’s fearful shadow gone, people traveled and traded more freely, and various lords visited from time to time seeking respite from whatever postponed journey they’d decided to finally take.
Galien acted as a fair lord, settling disputes between his subjects with a deftness that she admired. Her respect for him grew each day, and when she accompanied him into the village she noticed children flocked to him. On one notable day, they’d come upon a young girl crying by the well. After discovering the girl’s kitten had gone missing, he enlisted Claire’s help, as well as two knights, to search for the child’s pet. The look in the girl’s eyes as he’d returned the tiny black kitten to her waiting arms had melted Claire’s heart. Though stern and commanding at times, Galien had his gentle moments too, and she smiled and felt warm all over whenever she remembered this day.
The people of Minrova took a liking to Claire and made her feel at home, particularly those in the keep. She shared her mother’s sweet cake recipe with the cook, and after he received many compliments on the cakes, he began consulting her about the meals and smiled when she entered the kitchen. Claire also delighted in helping the younger ladies with their stitching, an art her mother had taught her at an early age. She learned to make precise stitches and create a perfect pattern in her pieces far ahead of her peers, because she learned
the sooner she finished her stitch work, the sooner she could escape and run after her brothers. Now she found the work soothing because it reminded her of her mother, and it passed the hours when she was waiting on Galien to return from his duties.
Her evenings were full of passion with her lord husband. Flutters rose in her stomach when she reminisced about their nighttime activities. Each evening he brought her to their chambers and undressed her, often holding her in his lap while they discussed their day. His hands would play about in her hair, and a dark lustful look would flame in his eyes. She grew to love his roughness as much as his gentleness, craving each side of him and willingly giving herself over to his amorous moods, whether he wished to make tender love to her or smack her arse and then pound into her hard.
She tried her best to please him, and she couldn’t wait to thank Leuthold for arranging their marriage, for she found life with Galien a far better circumstance than being a lonely, fearful widow. The dark cloud that had surrounded her the day she married Diterich had lifted thanks to Galien. She saw the world and all its vivid colors, felt happiness rising and bursting in her heart on a daily basis, and the longer she was married to Galien, the more certain she was of her growing love for him.
Aye, she couldn’t deny it. She loved her husband and suspected he felt the same. After all, he hadn’t wandered into the village to seek company with the tavern whores, nor had he invited any to the keep. She’d kept a watchful eye on him after their fight that stemmed from his conversation with Agnete, and she hadn’t so much as seen him glance in another woman’s direction. After the miserable failure of her first marriage in this regard, she thanked God for blessing her with a loyal husband.
Her peaceful lull was broken one day, however, when she awoke early one morning with a sense of unease. She reached for Galien to discover him missing from their bed, and she slipped on a cloak and ventured to the window. Bright orange flames lit up the darkness in the distance. She gasped and surveyed the horizon, wishing the sun showed more than a thin pink line through the trees. Another fire flared to existence, far enough away from the first one for her to know it hadn’t spread from building to building.
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