Daring Passion (2 page)

At the same time, he moved a hand to her breast and cupped
its soft weight in his palm, fingers just brushing the sensitive tip. She
stiffened with the shock. She’d never even touched herself in such a way and
had no idea it would feel so terrifying and yet so good. He took care to be
gentle, containing the strength of his big hand, even when he tweaked the
nipple. It sent streaks of fire through her blood.

“My lord,” she sighed and then drew in a deep breath when he
released her mouth. It carried his scent to her, the aroma of the soap he used
earlier, and his unique man-smell, perhaps increased by the excitement she’d
been inducing. It was essential Richard, and it wound its way into her being,
drawing her to him.

He took his hand off her breast for a moment, to plunge it
into her loosened hair, combing through the long strands, winding his fingers
in the gentle curls.

“Your hair is like a waterfall of silk,” he said, digging
his hands deeper into the mass of it. “And your skin is soft and fine as a
baby’s.” He ran a finger down her cheek to illustrate. “Lord D’Auberon is
extraordinarily generous to share one so lovely,” he added.

He kissed her again, hard and deep, stoking the fire burning
deep inside her, before he looked down and stroked along her arms to her chest.

“Your breasts are ripe for a man’s picking and no doubt
taste just as delicious.”

To her unutterable shock, he then dropped his head down and
ran his tongue over one of her nipples. She almost screamed as shards of
pleasure tore through her, turning her bones to liquid. Her legs failed her and
she sank completely onto the bed with him.

She never guessed her body could feel such exquisite,
extraordinary things. He shifted her so she stretched out beside him, her side
tucked tight against him. She wrapped her arms around him, feeling another
surge of possessive delight. Every moment he taught her new things about
herself. His touch worked such amazing magic on her, creating a blaze of need
for something undefined, but surely at least as delightful as the pleasure he’d
already induced.

His mouth closed over her nipple again. His tongue rasped
across it then his lips tightened and sucked gently. Lightning flashed through
her, making her squeal and wiggle and surge toward him. She dug her fingers
into the solid muscle of his back. She heard herself pant but still couldn’t
seem to draw enough air.

With his lips still teasing her breast, he moved a hand
lower, sliding it across her stomach. Heat rose from her skin to meet it, and
flutters of excitement and apprehension roiled below. He moved lower and
stroked her thighs. Ribbons of liquid fire rushed along her skin wherever he
touched. Tension drew her muscles up tight as she waited in an exquisite agony
of expectation and yearning for something more. Moisture seeped from her quim.

His fingers stroked and kneaded the skin of her thighs until
a pressure of need and desire filled her almost to the breaking point. Then his
hands moved up and stroked the soft folds of flesh between her legs. Waves of
pleasure spread from there. She panted and moaned and wondered how her body
could contain so much feeling.

“My lord, I need…” She stopped to draw a breath and groaned
as his fingers worked their way deeper into her hot, moist center, caressing
there until she squealed. The feeling was beyond anything she could have
guessed was possible. “You’re killing me… Surely…”

His lips came down on her mouth again, as his fingers
explored uncharted territory between her legs. She pressed herself to him.

He shifted suddenly, rolling over and positioning himself
above her. She felt his cock pricking her quim, eager to plunder the territory
just charted by his fingers.

A wall-shaking thud made them both freeze. Within moments,
Anne recognized the sound of the door being slammed back against the wall.
Footsteps and voices marched into the room.

Torches also came in. Anne blinked and squinted at the
sudden light. Her sister! She’d forgotten. How could she have so lost herself?
His kisses and touches had transported her, made her lose control and forget
all else. Even the fact that they were doomed to be interrupted.

She looked up at Lord Richard, hovering above her. He met
her eyes. For a moment the shock in his face mirrored the astonishment and
dismay she felt. Then his expression changed. She wondered if her guilt showed,
because there was definitely something angry and accusatory in his gaze. Or
perhaps it was just his reaction to recognizing who she was.

“Lady Anne,” he whispered, so low the small crowd filling
the room wouldn’t hear. “And you said no devilry was afoot. I see naught else
but devilry here.”

“Please, my lord,” she started, but her words were drowned
out by her father’s exclamation when he recognized her.

“Anne! So this is where you are.” Her father raked a furious
look over her, noting the way she hid her nakedness beneath Richard’s body.
“What cursed folly is this?” He turned his fierce, angry gaze on his guest.

“And you, my lord,” he said, his voice booming to fill the
room. “This is how you repay my hospitality? You could not wait for the
betrothal to be completed, but had to seduce my daughter beforehand?”

Lord Richard didn’t answer. He looked at Anne again, and she
saw the tiniest of smiles crook the corner of his handsome mouth. He yanked the
sheet up to cover them both then calmly turned to her father.

“My Lord D’Auberon, if you would do us the favor of handing
up your daughter’s dressing gown, there on the floor, ‘twould behoove us both.
And if one of you would fetch my robe, over on the hook, we can discuss this
more civilly when we are all decently covered.”

Her father bent down, picked up her robe and tossed it at
her. Anger burned in his dark eyes, promising retribution. Meanwhile someone
else fetched Lord Richard’s wrap. He had the courtesy to help her into the robe
while the sheet yet shielded her from prying eyes, then she held the sheet in
place to protect him while he covered himself also. He helped her to her feet
with a firm hand on her arm. She regretted it when he released her after they
were both upright. The support had been welcome.

Her father paced furiously up and down the room. Her mother
and sisters, with a gaggle of servants behind them, gathered to one side,
watching in distress and talking quietly among themselves.

Her father stopped, facing them from a short distance away
when she and Richard were both upright. The chill of the floor worked its way
into Anne’s feet and through the rest of her body. Hard to believe she’d been
so hot just moments before.

“I can scarce credit what my own eyes see here,” her father
said, looking at Lord Richard. “That a guest in my house should betray me in so
loathsome a way. Were you anyone other than who you are, sir, I should have a
whip fetched and flog you bloody before tossing you out the door. That a lord
should dishonor his station thus disgusts and shames me.”

Lord D’Auberon turned and paced up and down the room in
agitation again. “I know not what do or say in this instance. Perhaps we should
have that whip after all. Lord or no, you’ve taken what you’ve no right to and
dishonored us all in the process.”

Anne kept waiting for Richard to defend himself, to tell
everyone what had really happened. But he remained mute as her father raged on.
She finally realized Richard would not betray what she’d done. It both warmed
and shamed her.

Her father asked, “Have you nothing to say, sir?” At the end
of his patience he added, “Can you give me any reason why I shouldn’t have you
taken to the dungeon?”

When Richard maintained his stubborn silence, Anne could
finally stand it no longer.

“Papa, nay,” she said. “Lord Richard is an honorable man who
keeps silent for my sake. None of this was his doing. ’Twas mine, entirely. I
came to him without his knowledge or consent, lying to him about who I was and
why I came. I set about to seduce him.”

Her father swung toward her, his eyes widening in shock as
she made her confession. When she finished, he continued to stare at her. His
fists clenched and his entire body shook with fury, but for a moment he seemed
incapable of speech.

After a couple of hard, rapid breaths, he finally asked her,
“Why, daughter? You knew you were intended for him. He came hither to work out
the details of the betrothal. Could you not wait a few more weeks to take up
your wifely duties to him?”

“Would it have happened?” she asked. “You’ve been
‘discussing’ it for three days and yet have no agreement. Lord Richard has
conceded much, I’m told, yet you yield naught, refusing to waver from your
demands. I’ve reached the point of despairing that any agreement could be
achieved. Surely Lord Richard’s patience is sore tried and I’d not have blamed
him did he surrender the notion and seek a bride with a more reasonable
father.”

Now everyone in the room stared at her with varying degrees
of astonishment. Even Lord Richard looked surprised, though he smiled, too, as
though she amused him.

Her father glared at her for a moment, then shook his head
slowly. “Anne, my dear, did it not occur to you that my hesitations were for
your benefit? That I sought only to show how much I valued you? I’d not let you
go without ensuring, to the best of my ability, your future security and
happiness. I wanted to assure myself Lord Richard would know he gained a lady
he should take pride and joy in.”

Anne looked at her father. “So you tell yourself, Father.
Yet my understanding of the situation differed. It seemed to me I had to do something
or risk my future being compromised.”

“And now I have no choice but to concede all if I’m to
preserve your reputation,” her father answered bitterly. He turned to one of
the servants and said, “Fetch William the Scribe. We’ll have that betrothal agreement
written and sealed tonight.” He looked at Richard. “I presume you will do the
honorable thing by my daughter, my lord?”

Richard looked at her. Anne wondered if he’d be so angry
about her forwardness or concerned about her loose morals he’d repudiate her.
That was one of the risks she knew she took in embarking on this course. She
returned his stare, trying to find an answer in his eyes.

Finally the man’s mouth twisted into an ironically amused
smile. “Since it appears I’ve compromised your daughter, Lord D’Auberon, I
believe honor demands I accept her as my wife. You’ll find me not so
unreasonable as you suppose, however. Let us have the betrothal agreement.”

An hour later, William the Scribe finished preparing the
betrothal agreement. Lord Richard hadn’t lied. Though he need not have, he
acceded to several of her father’s demands for promises of alliance and aid.
Anne’s father signed it and then Lord Richard put his name to it also.

Once that was done, her father pushed back his chair and rose.
He turned to face Anne where she stood with her mother. His glare made her
shake in fear.

He glanced at her mother. “Madam,” he said, addressing his
wife, “have a rod fetched immediately.” He looked back to Anne. “You will
attend us in our chambers, young lady, to take your punishment for this
escapade. You may have gained your object, but you will pay a price for it.”

Anne drew a deep breath and nodded, trying to steel herself
to walk bravely from the room. Her father had a heavy hand with the rod, as
she’d learned from painful experience. She would comfort herself with the
knowledge she’d protected Lord Richard from a much more severe penalty, and
she’d succeeded in forcing the betrothal.

As she turned, Lord Richard spoke up, addressing her father.
“A moment, if you will, my lord. By virtue of this agreement, the Lady Anne is
now my responsibility. I request you leave her to me this night, and allow me
to administer what punishment I feel is right.”

He looked at Anne’s mother. “Lady D’Auberon, I beg you make
the arrangements for the ceremony to be held as soon as the banns can be
called.”

When no one moved, he added, “You may trust I do not approve
of Lady Anne’s actions, and I shall administer appropriate punishment. But she
belongs to me now, and I guard and care for what’s mine.”

Anne’s mother broke the deadlock by saying to her husband,
“It’s appropriate, my lord, that Lord Richard take Anne in hand. Perhaps he’ll
have more success in taming her willful nature than we’ve had.”

Her father still balked, however. “She does not become his
by law and in God’s sight until the marriage ceremony. ’Til that’s concluded,
she’s our responsibility.”

“It’s all but done, both in law and God’s sight,” her mother
argued. “We can do naught with regard to Anne without his approval. He is bound
to her now. Let him see to her.”

“Oh, very well,” her father agreed. He turned to Anne and
said, “I give you into your husband’s keeping. I hope you’ll offer him more
loyalty and duty than you’ve shown us.”

Anne thought the last was unfair. She had been dutiful and
loyal, up to the point where she felt she had to protect her own future. She’d
rarely been as willful as her mother claimed, either.

Her mother came to her and kissed her. “Regard not your
father’s words overmuch,” she said. “His pride has been flicked on the raw so
he says more than he means. In a day or two he’ll see things in a more
reasonable light.” Then she turned and left, herding the servants and the rest
of her family before her. Her older sister, Juliana, threw her a wink before
departing on the arm of her husband. Mary, her younger sister, smiled and
nodded.

Then all departed. At Richard’s request one of the servants
placed a burning torch in a bracket before he left.

Anne turned to face her husband-to-be. Fear resurfaced as
she looked at him.

He was incredibly handsome as he stood, tall and straight,
regarding her with an expression she couldn’t read. Long, black hair surrounded
his face. The torchlight threw his cheekbones into high relief and emphasized
the strong line of his jaw. Dark whiskers shadowed his lower cheeks and chin.
The possessive light she’d noted before in his deep blue eyes shone more wicked
and forceful now.

Would he truly punish her, as he’d told her parents? And if
so, how?

She drew a deep breath. “Lord Richard,” she said, “I’m truly
honored to be chosen for your wife. And I do apologize for any inconvenience or
discomfort my actions might have caused you. It was never my intention to cause
you harm or embarrassment.”

One eyebrow arched. “Nay? Yet it seems to me you plotted
deliberately to do just that, to cause me considerable embarrassment. Please do
not lie to me. Ever.”

“I would not, my lord. ’Twas not my primary goal to
embarrass you. I do regret it was necessary to bring about the result I
desired. Had I known of any other way to accomplish this, I would have done
it.”

His mouth crooked into a wry grin. She badly wanted to kiss
the lips that curved so pleasingly, but she awaited his next move.

“You apologize very prettily, my Lady Anne,” he said. “I had
hoped from my observation of you that you’d prove a gracious and honorable lady
for my demesne.”

The words stabbed her to her very heart. “And now you see
the truth of what I am, my lord,” she admitted. “I regret the disappointment
I’ve caused you.”

His arched black eyebrows rose and a glint shone in his
eyes.

“Nay, lady, you’ve caused me no disappointment. In truth, I
find I may have gained more even than I had hoped for. Your honor was apparent
when you refused to let me take the blame for your actions, though you knew it
would cost you punishment. You’ve shown more strength of will and resolve than
I’d guessed was there, and though in this case your actions were ill-advised, I
consider that a virtue.”

Anne started to relax. “I’m not truly as willful as my
father would have it, my lord. In this case, though, it appeared my future
might be in grave jeopardy did I not act.”

“Ah, yes, this case,” he said. The smile faded from his face
and his eyes measured her. “Come here.”

Her heartbeat speeded up and breath caught in her throat.
She dared not disobey him, however, and she walked closer, pacing with him as
he backed up until he sat on the bed. She stopped a couple of feet away.

“A good start,” he said. “Perhaps you’ll prove a dutiful
wife after all.”

“I know my obligations, my lord, and I try to meet them as
well as possible.”

“It pleases my heart and eases my mind to hear that.” He
took her hand and drew her closer, until she stood between his spread knees. He
reached for the sash holding her robe closed and pulled it loose. Then he
pushed the fabric from her shoulders and let it slide to the floor once more.

Though hot color rose to flood her face, she shivered with a
combination of chill and fear. She’d felt no shame in her nakedness earlier in
the dark, but with the torchlight showing every rounded curve and private
recess, embarrassment washed over her.

“A shame to waste such beauty in darkness,” he said, after
studying her for a moment with hotly gleaming eyes.

He reached up and placed his hands on either side of her
face. She waited for him to lean forward and kiss her, but instead his palms
brushed along the sides of her throat, then down her chest. They paused over
her breasts. He rubbed softly, rousing pleasurable tingles that felt like small
starbursts set off in her nipples. She drew a harsh breath as the sparkling
feel spread down into her belly and set off a quiver between her legs. Moisture
gathered there then slipped down her thigh.

His hands traveled lower, palms flat against her stomach and
abdomen. Index fingers delved into her bellybutton in passing. When the edge of
his hands rested in the creases of her thighs, he rotated his wrists until his
fingers rested over the outer lips of her quim.

She had to lean forward to rest her hands on his shoulder,
lest she fall over. Waves of fire washed up and down her skin, from toes to
ears. He drew apart the puffy outer folds of flesh between her legs and stroked
what he found within.

Anne couldn’t contain a long groan. She was burning up,
fired to a glow to equal the torch’s, fueled by the play of his fingers over
the recesses of her slit. She almost screamed when he found the entrance and
pushed a finger into her body. She clutched at his shoulders and wiggled
against the intruding digit.

He leaned forward and pressed his mouth to her stomach. His
tongue dipped into her navel and licked.

When she thought she would melt or die, he suddenly stopped.
He withdrew his fingers, then moved his hands up to her waist. He looked up at
her.

“You have much to learn yet, my Lady Anne, but it seems
you’re like to be an apt pupil.” One corner of his mouth twisted into a brief
smile. “There are other lessons you must learn as well. At first they may seem
less pleasant, yet I think you’ll find something of comfort in them in the
end.”

His hands tugged her toward closer, but instead of being
pulled into his arms as she expected, he tucked her down and flipped her over
and across his knees, so that she ended up draped across them, bottom up, hands
on the floor to support her.

“My lord!” she said, startled and fearful.

“I promised your parents I’d take care of punishing you for
the attempt to seduce me tonight. I keep my promises.”

Before she could draw in enough air to protest, a large hand
slapped down hard on one side of her naked derriere. The sting made her squeal
and wiggle in an effort to escape. His arm came down around her waist, holding
her in place, then another hard slap set the other cheek burning.

“Ohhh…ow!” she protested. “My lord! Please! That hurts.”

“Of course it hurts. Punishment is supposed to hurt.”

He whacked several times in rapid succession. Anne groaned
and begged him to stop. Tears gathered in her eyes. She thought she’d die from
the humiliation of it. She wished he’d let her take her father’s beating with
the rod. At least that was an adult’s punishment. She felt like a small child
turned over a parent’s lap. Only this was her future husband, which made it far
worse.

He ignored her pleas, and smacked smartly down again and
again, alternating sides. She moaned and yelped, kicked and wriggled, trying to
get him to stop the assault on her derriere. She struggled to roll away or jump
up from his lap. His hold on her was too firm for her to get away.

The strikes kept coming. His large hand could deliver a
solid wallop that covered most of the curve of one cheek. Her bottom grew hot
and sore and began to throb. Anne squealed at each blow and screeched on
particularly hard ones. She could hardly bear it as each slap sent waves of
pain shooting through her. Her derriere must be fiery red and felt swollen to
twice its normal size.

“Stop! Please stop, my lord,” she begged, as it went on and
on, and the fire in her bottom grew to a blazing torment. “Please! I’ve had
enough. I can’t bear any more.” She was starting to fear he’d keep on until she
fainted or died with the pain.

“Your bottom’s barely a nice shade of red,” Lord Richard
replied. “And we’ll stop when I decide you’ve been adequately punished.” With
that he spanked down hard again. Anne screeched.

“Please, I’m sorry. I’m very sorry—yeooow!” The word ended
in a scream when he smacked sharply, his hand striking the most tender skin
right at the joint between her bottom and her thighs. Then he spanked the same
spot on the other side. With barely a pause, he whacked there again and again,
until Anne was in a screeching, squealing frenzy. Tears dripped from her eyes,
burning as fiercely as her bottom. She began to sob between slaps.

The fire he was rousing grew into a flaming torment, so hot
and aching it turned her whole being into liquid heat. She yelled almost
continuously now, inchoate protests and mournful pleas, until she broke down in
exhausted, hopeless tears.

He ignored those, too, continuing the relentless spanking.
Somewhere deep inside she knew she deserved it, but she still felt chagrined
and humiliated to find herself in this position, with nearly unbearable pain
making her behave in a most undignified way.

She had no strength or will left to argue or plead with him.
She sobbed continuously but could only manage a few mild yelps when he slapped
several more hard strikes on her derriere.

She was so sunk in pain and misery, it took her a while to
notice that he had stopped. Sobs wracked her body with shuddering intensity.

He raised her torso, flipped her over, sat her gently on his
knees and pulled her against his chest. Anne hesitated for a moment, torn
between anger and acceptance, before she wrapped her arms around him, turning
her face into the warm skin revealed in the open V of his robe. Tears soaked
into the fabric and smeared on her face. His fingers combed into her hair and
smoothed along her scalp.

“Hush,” he said, stroking her back with one hand and her
hair with the other. “It’s over now.”

“You’ve a…hard hand, my…lord,” she said, between shuddering
breaths. “My bottom will…be smarting for some…time.”

“Aye,” he admitted. “I regret we had to start our
relationship this way, and I hope I’ll not have to repeat the lesson again
soon.”

“You must be…very angry with me.”

He tipped her face up with a finger under her chin, forcing
her to meet his eyes. She didn’t see the anger or disappointment she expected
on his face. The glint in his eyes looked more like humor or pride. “I’d much
rather care for you in more pleasant ways. Such as this.” He leaned down and
pressed his lips to hers.

His mouth was hot and damp, and the touch made her lips
tingle. It spread down her body, setting her shivering in his hold. He released
her mouth but tightened the arm he’d wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her
closer against him. She breathed in the smell of him, as the hair on his chest
tickled her cheek.

“Do you hate me?” she asked. “My behavior was perhaps not
exactly fitting for a lady of my station. Of any station, in truth.”

He dipped his head to kiss her lips again. When he pulled
back, he said, “Nay, Anne, I don’t hate you. In truth, I admire your courage in
acting to get what you want, and flattered that I should be the object of such
maneuvering. I’ve wanted you for wife since first I laid eyes on you. I saw you
in the garden with your lady mother, several years past, the sun in your hair
turning it to liquid fire, your slender shape as graceful and lovely as the
plants surrounding you. I vowed then you’d belong to no other but myself.”

He ran his fingers into the hair on either side of her face,
combing the wild, loose strands back behind her ears. He kissed her forehead,
temples and cheeks. He nibbled gently on her earlobe. She shivered again when
he trailed a line of hot kisses along the side of her neck, down to her
shoulder.

He shifted, moving himself and her backward onto the bed
until he could lie full-length with her beside him. Her bottom stung briefly as
it pressed against the bed linen.

An odd thing was happening. The sting in her derriere was sending
a sort of heat and excitement through her to settle in her core at the slit
between her legs. Her quim started to throb as need, roused earlier and then
doused, woke again. The fire in her bottom stoked the flames of her desire.

His mouth came down on her breast, teasing the tip with his
tongue, scraping his teeth lightly over it. A storm of wanting and yearning
brewed inside her. She wrapped an arm around him and held tight. He drew first
one nipple, then the other, into his mouth and sucked on each until she could
no longer lie still on the bed.

His hand skimmed down over her belly to the triangle below.
Fingers dipped into the soft, sensitive flesh between her legs again, stroking
carefully. He lifted his head to watch her, gauging her reaction to his
caresses. He smiled to see her pleasure. When he found the sensitive bud in her
slit and saw how she reacted to his touch there, he stroked harder and faster,
making her moan and gasp. One of his fingers moved down farther and worked its
way deep into her tunnel. As he caressed the center of her pleasure, he moved
the finger in and out. Tension drew her body into a tight coil, winding it
tighter and tighter as he stroked.

When he lowered his head and took her nipple into his mouth
again, the flood of sensation sucked her up higher, higher, higher. She felt
squeezed, pressed, stretched, melted, pulled into a vortex. She floated on
clouds of pleasure while straining for something more, some ultimate goal she
could only guess at. Her back arched, legs drew up, fingers dug into his back
as the pressure grew and grew…until something suddenly changed.

She was sprung out of the tension into a wild, surging ride.
Waves of pleasure and joy crashed over her as her body spasmed repeatedly. He
continued fingering her quim while she bucked and gasped. Nothing had ever
moved her to such dizzying heights as that tide of released passion. She
floated with it, aware of her body in a new and remarkable way. Even more
astonishing, she realized the fierce spanking he’d administered earlier had
contributed to the glory of the climax. It lasted for an endless time that was
still too short.

Richard held and stroked her while it wore down, until she
sighed and relaxed again beneath him. When she opened her eyes, he watched her
with proud, possessive tenderness.

She tightened her hold on him. A surge of love for the man
made her pull his face down so she could kiss him again. As he pressed her to
him, she felt his hard cock throbbing against her, and wondered that he’d
ignored his own obvious need to attend to her pleasure.