Hardened

by Ashe Barker

  “Notwithstanding the factors in your favour, North, there can be no escaping the severity of the offences of which you have been convicted, and I have no alternative but to impose a custodial penalty. The verdict of this court therefore is that you will serve a period of two years’ imprisonment…”

  A gasp flitters around the court. Rachel lets out a sob. I am stunned, silent. Jared bows his head, resigned to what’s to come.

  Two years? Two fucking years!

  The judge clears his throat again, then, “…the sentence to be suspended for the period of five years. You are free to go.”

  My jaw drops. Did I hear correctly? I lean forward over the rail at the front of the gallery, looking for clues from our team. Charles is down there, grinning from ear to ear and pumping the hand of our barrister. Beside me Rachel gets to her feet. Tears are streaming down her features as she waves to Jared. I watch, disbelieving, as one of the guards unlocks the gate at the side of the dock and gestures for him to pass. Jared steps down into the body of the court. He stops to speak briefly to Charles and shakes hands with the barrister, then makes for the exit.

  “Come on, we’ll meet him outside.” Rachel grabs my arm and drags me from my seat. I stumble after her, my knees weak with relief.

  At last, it’s over. We can go home.

  * * *

  “Are you sure you don’t want to come back to the barn with us?” Rachel has phoned for a taxi and we are all three now standing on the steps outside the Combined Courts building in Leeds city centre. She shakes her head and checks her watch.

  “It’s after four already. I need to get back. The kids will be back from school and they’ll want to know how it went. Plus, I have a pub to run.”

  A cab pulls up alongside us. Rachel kisses first Jared, then me and she hops inside. She opens the window and leans out. “We’ll see you at the weekend, for Katie’s party. Don’t be late.”

  “We’ll be there,” confirms Jared as the taxi pulls away. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

  I link arms with him as we stroll across the city centre in the direction of the multi-storey car park. “For a while back there I didn’t think you’d be coming home today. Christ, when the judge went on and on about your criminal record…”

  Jared chuckles. “Yeah, he laid it on a bit thick. Still, a suspended sentence, that’s not too bad. It means I have to stay on the straight and narrow for the next few years though.”

  I purse my lips. “Mmm, maybe I need to impose a curfew, make sure you don’t drift back into bad company.”

  A sharp slap to my bum is Jared’s response. “And maybe I need to apply a paddle to your arse to remind you of the proper and respectful way to talk to your dom.”

  My pussy creams, the familiar clenching a promise of delights yet to come. In the months leading up to the trial I never let myself contemplate how much I’d miss this part of our lives, if Jared wasn’t around.

  “Just a paddle, sir?”

  “To start with. I need to teach you some manners.”

  “I’m glad you’re still here. Cote House Barn wouldn’t have been the same without you.”

  “You’d have stayed, though?”

  I moved in with Jared as soon as he was released from the hospital, at first because he needed someone to fetch and carry for him. Then, after he was back on his feet, I stayed because I wanted to. I gave up my flat in London after a few weeks, and colonised one of his spare bedrooms for my jewellery business. Apart from worrying about the pending trial, I’ve never been happier. And now that black cloud has lifted, we can look forward to the future. Together.

  “Yes, sir. I’d have waited for you. Apart from anything else, someone has to feed that dog of yours.”

  He gives a derisive snort. “I seem to remember it was you who came home with a rescue puppy, and let it crap all over my kitchen.”

  “Marlow was a present for you.”

  Jared makes another sound in his throat, then announces, not for the first time, that he hates dogs. I know this not to be true; he adores the three-month-old German Shepherd/Labrador cross though the pup does still make a mess from time to time. Despite his grumbling, he allowed me to keep him, just in case I did end up on my own at Cote House Barn. I’m convinced there’s every chance Marlow will make a fine guard dog, eventually, if he ever grows into his oversized paws and can manage to summon up some semblance of aggression. Until then, I suppose I’ll make do with my ex-jailbird dom.

  I tighten my grip on his elbow. Life could be worse. A whole lot worse.

  “Let’s go home,” suggests Jared. “I have paddle with your name on it.”

  The End

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  More Stormy Night Books by Ashe Barker

  Faith

  Following her husband’s sudden, tragic death, Faith is left widowed after only six months of marriage. She wallows in grief until a neighbour, Ewan, reaches out to her. Although his work takes him away a great deal, Ewan slowly becomes Faith’s rock, helping her heal and encouraging her as she struggles to rebuild her life. As time passes, Faith grows more and more attracted to Ewan, but one thing holds her back: he is a dom, and she is not ready to be a sub.

  Though the idea of kneeling naked at Ewan’s feet excites her in a way she can’t fully understand, Faith fears that his sexual appetites would prove too much for her. But when he discovers that she has been exploring the lifestyle without his knowledge and hiding her activities from him, Ewan issues an ultimatum: either she becomes his submissive, or they go their separate ways. This is just the push Faith needs, and in the end her decision is not a difficult one.

  Ewan quickly proves to be a firm, commanding lover who is more than capable of mastering her completely. He challenges Faith’s boundaries and introduces her to a level of sensuality she never dreamed she could experience, and Faith soon finds herself at peace in a way she has not felt in years. But when fate takes another turn and she learns the truth about her husband’s death, can Faith count on Ewan to be by her side as she adjusts to a new reality yet again?

  The Widow is Mine

  Since her husband’s untimely passing, Lady Natalia has resigned herself to a quiet life as a young widow and perhaps one day as a nun. But her world is turned upside down when her adopted home is conquered and she is taken captive by Duke Stefan of Richtenholst.

  Almost from the moment he sets eyes on her, Stefan cannot imagine allowing Natalia to languish behind the walls of a convent, and he makes no secret of his plans to take her as his bride. The duke is more than ready to compel his new wife’s obedience when it is necessary, but he wants much more than that. Can Stefan ever truly make Natalia his own, claiming her heart as fully as he has claimed her body, or will she forever see herself as no more than the spoils of war?

  Spirit

  When Matthew Logan offers a homeless young woman a bed for a few nights, he expects the girl to eat, sleep, recover from the flu, and then move on. Instead, in no time at all eighteen-year-old Beth Harte has captured his affections completely. Though Matt wants only to protect her and has no intention of sleeping with her, Beth has other ideas, and she proves to be very persuasive.

  But after Beth is attacked by a friend of Matt’s and subsequently learns for the first time that Matt is an experienced dominant, she is unable to separate the man
she is growing to care about from her hateful memories of previous exploitation. Confused and frightened, she runs away.

  Almost six years pass before Matt sees Beth again, and in that time his vulnerable little waif has reinvented herself as an artist. Now she has a stunning proposition for him and his environmental engineering company: to collaborate on a project fusing art and science to promote one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world. But when Matt demands to know what went wrong before, she tells him the truth, both about her childhood and about his friend’s actions.

  Matt is determined to make Beth’s abusers pay for their crimes, but he’s also not about to let her run away from him again. Can Beth bring herself to trust Matt despite her fears and give him the chance to love her and show her the pleasures of being his submissive, or will the wounds of her past keep her from trusting anyone ever again?

  Shared by the Highlanders

  After she becomes lost in a thick mist while hiking near the borders of Scotland, Charlene Kelly is shocked to encounter two men on horseback. To her horror, the pair—both of whom are dressed in Scottish tartans—accost her and won’t let her go. Though the men speak with accents so strong they seem to come from another era, Charlene is able to gather that they believe she is a thieving boy. Unsure what else to do, Charlene plays along.

  When Will Sinclair and Robbie MacBride discover that their captive is in fact a woman—and quite a beautiful one at that—there is only one thing to be done. She must be punished for her deception, and punished thoroughly. A switch applied to her bare bottom does the job well, and soon enough the two men are comforting Charlene as she nurses her bright red, sore backside.

  Upon learning that the highlanders are hand-carrying an important message from Elizabeth of England to the court of Mary, Queen of Scots, it finally dawns on Charlene that she is no longer in her own time. Though she is desperate to find a way home, Will and Robbie are both unlike any man she has ever met, and their unabashed dominance awakens in her a powerful need to submit. Soon enough, she finds herself blushing with shame and quivering with desire as she is taken long and hard by two rugged highlanders at once. But can these hardened warriors keep her safe from the perils of a world far more dangerous than the one she left behind?

  A Scandalous Arrangement

  After a foolish wager costs her brother ownership of the weaving mill in Yorkshire which provides her income, Victoria Wynne is left with no choice but to confront the man who took the bet and seek to dissuade him from claiming his prize. Unfortunately for her, that man turns out to be Adam Luke, an experienced, ambitious entrepreneur who is intent on keeping what he won.

  Upon meeting her, Adam is enchanted by Victoria’s beauty and charm as well as her nerve and self-reliance. Adam is a man of singular tastes, and when Victoria asks to manage the mill in return for a share of the profits, he offers her a bold proposal of his own. She will continue to run the mill as she has for years, but in return for a substantially larger portion of the profits she will also serve at his beck and call behind closed doors, submitting to him in any way he desires.

  Wanting to earn enough money to buy back the mill as quickly as possible—and with some part of her shamefully aroused by the thought of kneeling naked at Adam’s feet—Victoria accepts his terms. But submission initially proves difficult for a woman used to running her own affairs, and soon enough she finds herself bare-bottomed over his knee for a firm lesson in obedience.

  Adam’s plans for Victoria run much deeper than just an occasional spanking. She will be stripped naked, bound, and teased until she is aching for release, and then at last he will take her long and hard. As Adam continues to train her, teaching her to yield to his mastery while bringing her more pleasure than she ever thought possible, Victoria cannot help falling for him. But can a lifelong bond truly emerge from such a scandalous arrangement?

  Her Noble Lords

  After eighteen-year-old Linnet Routh is kidnapped from her home in Wellesworth castle by Ralf, the powerful, handsome Earl of Egremont, and his identical twin brother Piers, it quickly becomes clear to her that the seasoned warriors have mistaken her for someone else. Convinced that she is Lady Eleanor, a noblewoman who was promised in marriage to Ralf yet has refused to wed him, the brothers bring Linnet to a church with plans to compel her to speak her vows.

  Linnet attempts to steal a horse from Piers and make her escape, but when she is caught her efforts end up earning her a thorough, humiliating bare-bottom spanking. Though terribly embarrassed by the manner of her chastisement, she cannot help becoming helplessly—and shamefully—aroused by the punishment.

  When the brothers recognize the truth of Linnet’s claims at last, she expects to be cast aside as a mere commoner. To her surprise, however, they instead offer to make her their shared bride, and despite her misgivings about the idea Linnet agrees to the union. As they each take their turn to claim her, the pleasure of their dominant lovemaking leaves her yearning to be taken long and hard by both of them at once, and soon a passionate romance has grown between Linnet and her noble lords. But when tragedy strikes will it bring a permanent end to their newfound happiness?

  The Highwayman’s Lady

  After the death of her mother, twenty-year-old Imogen Bennett faces the prospect of being coerced into marriage by a scheming relative, but fate intervenes when a masked highwayman accosts her on the road. Desperate to escape the unwanted wedding, Imogen pleads with the mysterious, handsome rogue to rescue her.

  Alistair Graham is a proud Scotsman who rebelled against British rule, and since the defeat of the highlanders at Culloden he has taken to robbing rich Englishmen travelling through Scottish lands. He is no gentleman, but he is certainly not a man who would ignore a young woman’s pleas for help, and he agrees to do what he can to assist the beautiful girl he has waylaid.

  Though Alistair warns her that he expects a woman’s complete obedience both in bed and out of it, Imogen cannot help being drawn to him, and she soon finds herself longing for him to take her hard and thoroughly. When he claims her, Alistair’s mastery of her virgin body leaves Imogen utterly spent yet still aching for more, but after her shock at her own wantonness leads her to speak disrespectfully to him he bares her bottom and punishes her soundly.

  A highwayman is no suitable match for a lady, however, and Alistair fears that her association with him can only put them both in danger, so he makes her promise that she’ll tell no one about what took place between them and then ensures that she is delivered safely to the home of her honourable cousin in Kirkleven. Yet despite her best efforts to put Alistair out of her mind forever, in her heart Imogen knows she will always belong to the man who rescued her, mastered her, and made her his. But will her highwayman ever return to reclaim his lady?

  Ashe Barker Links

  You can find author interviews, excerpts of upcoming books, and general thoughts from Ashe Barker via her blog, her Twitter and Facebook pages, and her Goodreads profile, using the following links:

  http://www.ashebarker.com/

  https://twitter.com/ashebarker

  https://www.facebook.com/ashe.barker.9

  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7143377.Ashe_Barker