Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86167 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
“Good evening,” she said, trying not to sound shy.
“Good evening, darling. How are you?”
“I’m well, thank you.” She slid him a sideways look. “Feeling very well and…brave.”
“Brave?” He nodded, lying back next to her. “Excellent.”
“I’m quite strong, you know.”
“Yes, I do know. But I’m wondering: why do you feel the need to tell me this now?”
Stop blushing, you silly girl. If you were truly brave, you would not be blushing like this.
She touched her cheeks, trying to rub the heat away. “It’s just…just something I spoke about with Rosalind. You know, she and Marlow have been married for some time.”
“Yes. Happily married.”
“Mmm. And she had some advice for me. Well, I might have asked her for advice. I don’t remember. But in the course of our conversation, I might have told her you were, you know, too big to…”
He moved closer. “To make love to you completely?”
“Yes, that.”
“Hmm. You ‘might have’ told her that?”
“I did tell her that,” she confessed. “It was only that she asked how we were rubbing along, you know, in private bedroom matters, as close lady friends might do.”
“Indeed.”
“And I’m sorry if it was a breach of your privacy to tell her how…” Her eyes strayed down to his outsized cock. “How big you are. Perhaps too big to go any further with things, as we have not gone further with things this whole time we’ve been married… But she said you probably were not too big. That perhaps you were only afraid of hurting me, but that I probably wouldn’t be hurt. And even if I was…” Her words came out in a rush. “I don’t think it would be the end of the world if it hurt a little. Does it hurt as much as a spanking? As much as my spanking today?”
“Come here, Elizabeth. Let’s have a look at the damage from that spanking.”
He upended her, eliciting a small shriek as her sleeping gown was swept up, revealing her naked bottom. It took all her will to be still as he investigated her, stroking a hand across her sore buttocks. She was his wife. He had a right to study her, to handle her in this intimate way, but it still felt scary.
Oh, she was not brave at all.
“You’re hardly bruised,” he said when his assessment was finished. “So, if necessary, I can spank you harder next time.”
She met his gaze as he righted her. What he saw there made him chuckle.
“Of course I won’t, darling, unless it’s deserved.”
Elizabeth took small comfort in this reassurance. She wished to leave this topic, to sink down with him in the soft, fragrant bed linens and enjoy his caresses. Perhaps they might even attempt the “afterward” Rosalind spoke of. I can be brave. I must be brave.
“Did you feel a bit sullen after I paddled you today?” he asked, lying back. “You haven’t been your usual effusive self.”
“I don’t know if I was sullen, so much as upset. I still feel…” She waved her hands about, unable to describe the turmoil lingering inside her. “I was very upset,” she said, dropping her hands. “Being spanked by you when you are truly angry is not the same as being spanked by you at lessons.”
“That’s true.”
“Or being spanked when I mean to be comforted, as at Cairwyn.”
He took her restless hands and held them. “But I think your switching at Cairwyn probably hurt more than what I did to you today.”
She thought about that, surprised. Had it hurt more? In truth, the switch had felt excruciating.
“I don’t understand it all. I am… I am trying to understand about…” She sighed. “When I told Rosalind that you’d paddled me, she said you were only being protective, that husbands are sometimes that way.”
“Wise Rosalind.”
“So, I did not sulk long after I cried to her.”
“You cried to her?”
“I felt emotional, August, and I hadn’t seen her in a long while. Well, longer than we’re used to. At any rate, she said that after Marlow punishes her, they use intimacies to reconnect. Marital intimacies, I suppose. And…”
He gave her fingers a light squeeze. “You would like to reconnect with me?”
“Yes. Perhaps. If you wish it. As I said, I’m feeling brave.” She lifted her chin, trying to seem ready for anything.
August considered her a moment, his expression difficult to read. Then, he released her hands and pulled her beneath him, coming over her with his solid body. One of his legs pressed between hers, spreading her thighs. Elizabeth tensed, steeling herself for a joining she was determined to endure.
But he did not shove inside her. He waited, still studying her face, her lips. Her eyes.
“I know how brave you are,” he said, running his thumb’s edge along her jawline. “But if I hurt you…”
His expression tautened, his gaze intent with a hunger she couldn’t name. A hunger she wished he would teach her. She lifted her face to his, hoping for a kiss and getting it. He tasted faintly of sweetness, of after-dinner port.