Punishing His Ward (12 page)

"Explain yourself," he said, glaring
down at her and crossing his arms over his chest.

Back to this again.  Cynthia
sighed.  "You gave me permission to go shopping."

"I was under the impression that you
were going to do so with my mother."

"I never said that."

"Noted.  However, in the future,
you will not leave this house unaccompanied by either myself or my
mother.  Or Lady Hyde if she desires your company."

Cynthia brightened at the thought of
more time with Eleanor and then she subsided again under the Earl's
gimlet eye.  "Very well.  If you insist."  At least
she wasn't being confined.  And if she really wanted to get
out on her own, she absolutely trusted her own ingenuity to see her
way.

"I do.  Now.  Explain what
you were doing in the back of the bookstore with that...
that..."

"Gentleman?"

"Not the word I was looking
for." 

But apparently it would do, because the
Earl didn't offer another one.  He just glared down at her,
one long finger tapping against his bicep expectantly.
 

"I just wanted to visit the bookstore,"
Cynthia said, smiling brightly.  Quite aware that her attitude
was grating on him.  "Mr. Brandon found me there and we
exchanged some pleasantries."

"And some kisses."

"No."  Well that was the truth.
 While she did want a spanking, just to see if it caused her
to get all wet and hot again, she found that it was just as
enjoyable to verbally poke at the bear.  

"But you would have, if I
hadn't come along then," he said grimly, the tempo of that one long
finger's tapping increasing as he spoke.  "Right in the middle
of a bookstore where anyone could have come along and seen you.
 And your maid was
outside
 where she wouldn't have
been any use as a chaperone
.
"

"She's not in trouble is she?" Cynthia
asked, suddenly worried.  After all, she didn't mean to get
someone else into trouble with her antics.  And, while the
Earl couldn't get rid of her as his ward, it was definitely within
his power to dismiss the poor maid.  "I quite exhausted her
with our shopping, she just wanted to sit and rest."

"I'm aware that she's not up to your
weight," the Earl said.  "And I have no desire to punish her
for something so completely out of her control.  But rest
assured, you will not be given such an opportunity again."
 The concern for her maid did her credit, he had to admit to
himself, even if she was driving him into a frustrated fury.
 

He'd truly thought that spanking her on
the day of his arrival had signaled to her that things would be
different now that the head of house had arrived.  Instead she
seemed completely unaffected.  Well... perhaps not entirely
unaffected.  She'd become immediately docile once she'd
realized how very serious he was, and she had kept him from
dragging her through the streets, which would have cause quite a
bit of gossip.  But he wasn't going to tolerate this kind of
behavior from her.

Abruptly deciding that he wasn't going
to mention any of the information from Edwin's letter, because if
he did then Cynthia might not let anything more useful drop to
Eleanor, Wesley uncrossed his arms and stepped back.  His ward
had given him plenty of reason to punish her without bringing that
up; and he and his mother would be keeping a very close watch now
so she wouldn't have any opportunity to sneak off and meet with any
of the bastards.

"Stand up."

Looking at him almost curiously, a
gratifying hint of wariness entered her movements as she stood.
 At least he knew that his looming intimidation wasn't
entirely ineffective.  With any other young woman, he'd admire
the brazen spirit and her obvious sense of humor; he was much less
enamored of it in a young woman whose reputation and future was his
responsibility. 

"Bend over the arm of the chair and
lift your skirts."

Even though she knew that he was about
to spank her, discipline her, a trembling excitement went through
her limbs.  Feeling rather breathless, Cynthia turned and
placed her upper body over the wide arm of the chair.  The
leather padding cradled her hips, pushing her bottom high into the
air, while her upper body rested on the wide chair.  She could
feel her nipples hardening as she reached back to grab her skirts
and pull them upwards.  It wasn't the most efficient position
to do so, but catching a glimpse of the Earl's face, she realized
that he was rather enjoying the slow bunching of her skirts around
her hips and the way her long legs were revealed to him inch by
inch.

She realized that he was looking at him
as a man looks at a woman, the way most men looked at her.
 Was that how he'd looked the last time he'd spanked
her?

And this position was so much more
revealing than being over his lap.  Cynthia's breath came in
short pants as she realized how much of her lower body, her secret
areas were exposed to his gaze by this position.  With her
legs spread to maintain her balance, she could feel the cool air
coming in through her split drawers and wafting across the heated
inner lips of her womanhood.  It was quite exciting to be so
exposed to her trenchant guardian's eyes, to watch his face and see
that his gaze so intent upon the upturned curve of her buttocks and
the pink flesh between them.

A surprising amount of
apprehension settled in her belly, despite the fact that she wanted
this.  Now that she was in position, offering up her buttocks
for his chastisement, memories of how very much that first spanking
had
hurt
 were suddenly bubbling up.  Somehow she hadn't
thought about that part of it when she'd been remembering; she'd
just thought about the incredibly intense pleasure that had
followed when she'd rubbed herself.

The sudden touch of his hand brushing
against her flesh, just barely skimming it as he parted the split
in her drawers and drew them to each side, brought her back to the
present.  Biting her lower lip against the anxiety that was
coiling inside of her, Cynthia tried not to squirm.

Seeing that creamy expanse of skin and
the pouting pink lips of her pussy, lined with darling dark curls
of hair, Wesley's cock came to immediate attention.  Somehow,
up until then, his anger had overridden his desires and he'd
managed to keep his physical response in check; but having her so
submissively, vulnerably proffered up to him was his undoing.
 Fortunately, as she was already bent over with her face
firmly pressed against the leather seat of the chair, there was no
way she could know of his response.

"You will not leave the house again
without one of the chaperones I've described."

Smack!  Smack!  

Cynthia gasped at the sudden assault,
her creamy skin immediately showing pink and then fading as his
hand landed and retreated.  The way her flesh jiggled was more
than a little enticing.

"You will not meet with any gentleman
in private."  

Smack!  Smack!

The next blows landed below the first,
one to each cheek.  He had started at the very top curve of
her sweet cheeks and he was going to make his way down to the
bottom of each mound before coming back up again.  At
least.

Smack!  Smack!

"If a man attempts to speak with you in
private you will immediately search out your chaperone."

Just thinking about that bloody bastard
in the shop, leaning in, ready to kiss her, had Wesley's ire
jumping again.

SMACK!  SMACK!

The blows that he landed on the
undercurve of her buttocks were swiftly followed by two slaps
directly on her sit spots.  Cynthia cried out, her bottom
wagging up and down as she danced to avoid the burn.

"Stand still," he ordered, smacking the
insides of her thighs as her legs began to come together.
 Immediately she planted her heels back on the
ground.

SMACK!  SMACK!  SMACK!
 SMACK!

Pinkened flesh jiggled as he worked his
way back up those ample hillocks again, his cock throbbing as he
watched every ripple of her body; he spanked her hard enough to
leave an imprint of his hand on her soft flesh and make it jig and
bounce.  The first row of slaps down her buttocks had been a
warm-up, to pink her skin and make her ready for the real
spanking.

He hadn't started out with
a certain amount in mind, he was quite ready to continue until her
bottom was burning a bright cherry red.  She certainly
wouldn't be sitting comfortably in Bath's Assembly rooms tonight.
 There was no point in forbidding the outing, as he, his
mother, as well as Edwin and Eleanor would be there to watch over
her; besides, he needed to inspect the field of suitors for a
husband for her.  But he was determined that she wouldn't be
able to sit without remembering his warnings and why she
must
 be on her best
behavior.

It appeared that the previous spanking
hadn't made quite the impression he'd thought.  He was
determined that this one would. 

Cynthia's tears were falling quite
freely now as she struggled to maintain her pose, her fingers
clutching at the edges of the seat padding to keep from reaching
back and covering her bottom.  Glory be, it hurt so much more
than she'd remembered!  And yet with every whack of the Earl's
palm against her flesh, her insides clenched and quivered and she
could feel the front of her woman's mound pressing against the arm
of the chair and making her tingle.  

Obviously there was something very
wrong with her body that it could become so horribly
confused. 

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she cried out,
finding the words that had ended the spanking last time.  "I
won't do it again!"

"Correct, this time I will make
absolutely sure you won't."

SMACK!  SMACK!  SMACK!
 SMACK!

Squealing, Cynthia tried
to rear up as the Earl's hand came down even harder.  To her
horror, his free hand immediately pressed down on the small of her
back, easily holding her pinned like a bug as he continued the
assault on her bottom.  It was
burning
, and every stinging swat bit
into her deeper as he continued spanking her. 

When she tried to reach back, to stop
him, he just grasped her wrists in his long fingers and used her
own hands to help hold her down!  Sobbing, Cynthia kicked out
uselessly, not caring anymore what the Earl might think.  But
there was no stopping his assault on her flaming posterier; the
spanks came swift and sure, peppering her bottom even further now
that he sensed his point was truly being made. 

She'd never felt so completely
helpless, so incredibly out of control in her life.  It
sparked something deep inside her, some craving, that had never
been awoken or fulfilled.  There was no stopping the man, not
with words or by struggling; she was pinned and bared to him in the
most primal way.  If he wanted to, he could touch every inch
of her woman parts, he could spank her bottom raw, he could do
whatever he wanted to her. 

It was intensely arousing,
even as the awful burn of the spanking flayed her.  Somehow
she hadn't expected this.  Last time, he hadn't been nearly
this brutal even though he'd turned her bottom bright red; this
time he was pushing her far beyond that point, to where her garbled
promises and pleas actually felt sincere.  She would agree to
anything just to make him
stop
.

Looking down at the cherry
red, dancing bottom in front of him, Wesley felt his cock throb in
response.  He'd already known that it had been too long since
he'd had a woman, but it had particularly been too long since he'd
been with a woman who enjoyed the same exotic inclinations he
preferred.  The ladies of the
ton
 were willing to be seduced,
but most were not very inventive and most were unwilling to try
anything new. 

Turning his ward's bottom from a lovely
cream to this flaming red was the closest he'd come to satisfying
his more improper desires.  If he could keep her bent over and
use the slick oils he'd brought back from India to lubricate the
winking little pink hole between those swollen, red cheeks and then
shove his cock it, taking her in the most base and perverted way
possible, then his desires would be completely satisfied.
 Unfortunately, so far he hadn't found a woman in England that
was willing to go beyond a certain point with him.
 

Hell, if he could find an accommodating
widow, he'd probably marry her on the spot.  Eventually, he'd
probably marry some young miss who was more enamored of his title
than his person, beget an heir and a spare on her, and have a
mistress for his... games.  Since it was doubtful any sweet
young miss would be willing to even try the decadent perversions he
favored.  

With an inward sigh, Wesley landed two
more hard smacks on Cynthia's sit-spots, startling himself when his
fingertips came away wet.  Stepping back, he brought his
fingers to his nose, wondering if he had pushed her too far, if she
had wet herself... but the musky scent of aroused woman filled his
nostrils.  Just like the time before, only this spanking had
been much more thorough and he truly hadn’t expected her to have
this kind of response today.