He sighed. “You’re right. I have to do something.”
***
Kylie didn’t look up as the door opened. She knew it was Reagan. She always knew when he was near, her heart would quicken and she’d grow warm and tingly. Arousal pooled low in her body, and she had to work hard to keep any reaction from showing.
He barely made any noise as he moved across the rich, plush carpet to where she was curled up in an armchair, watching the flickering fire.
Sitting, he sighed, remaining silent. It was as though they had forgotten how to talk to each other. Things were so awkward between them.
She longed to be back at his friend’s house. Before they had been forced into marriage, he’d talked to her, pushed her, at times made her uncomfortable, but she had always known that he had her best interests at heart.
Now, she had lost almost all hope of getting that Reagan back. This Reagan, her husband, was still kind and caring. But he treated her more like a child than a wife.
Kylie was tired of it. Maybe it was time she stopped waiting around for Reagan to notice her as more than a burden, and prove it, to both of them.
“I want to learn to fight,” she told him, raising her gaze to meet his shocked one.
“I’m sorry?”
“I want to learn how to fight, how to defend myself. I tried to fight Glenys and Daniel, but they easily overpowered me. I don’t want to feel that defenceless again. I want you to teach me how to fight, or help me find someone who will.”
“No way,” he said quickly. “I told you that I would never let anyone harm you again. I am your husband it is up to me to protect you.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s up to me to protect me. You can’t be with me every moment of every day.”
“Are you trying to insult me?” he asked his whole body tense as he rose and paced across the room. “Do you think that I ever leave you unprotected? There are guards everywhere. Whenever you leave the house, at least one guard trails you. You’re not allowed off the grounds without me.”
“Sounds like a prison,” she muttered.
“I promised that nothing would harm you again. I mean to keep that promise. As your husband, I vowed to look after you, to love and cherish you. You insult me by suggesting otherwise.”
“Come on, Reagan, we both know this marriage isn’t real.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’re not really husband and wife. A husband and wife don’t sleep apart. They talk to each other, they share things, and they touch each other. You treat me like I’m a child, Reagan. If you don’t want to be married to me then why the hell don’t we get an annulment?”
“Annulment?” he asked.
“You know, like a divorce. What the hell do you call it here when married people separate?” she asked, as he looked more and more confused.
He sat back, shocked. “You want to leave me?”
“Reagan, you can’t tell me you want to be married to me. You can’t even bring yourself to touch me.”
Standing he paced, running his hand through his hair. “Of course I want to be married to you, how can you say that?”
“Because you were forced to marry me. Because you don’t love me. Because I’m just a burden to you.”
“Don’t love you? Don’t love you?” he yelled.
She gaped at him. She had never heard Reagan yell.
“It has taken all the control I have to keep myself from touching you. I was trying to go slow. I was trying to give you time to get used to being married to me. I was trying to take care of you. Not love you? Everything I have done is because I love you.”
She couldn’t believe this.
“How could you think that I would want you to be so aloof? To sleep apart from me? To treat me like I’m made of glass?”
“I was trying to be sensitive to your needs.”
“Well don’t!” she yelled, surprising them both. “Do you know how depressed I’ve been thinking that you don’t want me? Why didn’t you just ask me what I wanted? Oh no, not Reagan, he thinks he knows what’s best for everyone else. He’d rather take care of his needs himself than have me touch him!”
“You think I don’t want you to touch me? You think I haven’t dreamed about that? I didn’t want to take advantage of you!”
“Instead you’d rather drive me nuts! You-you stupendous idiot!” She stood, placing her hands on her hips, her chest heaving. She had never felt so angry in her life. Yet mixed in with her fury was arousal. She really didn’t know whether she wanted to strangle him or fuck him.
“You are a fucking idiot, Reagan. While you were treating me like spun glass, I was trying to work out why I wasn’t good enough for you. Was I not pretty enough? Not smart enough? Not thin—”
“Stop that right now!” he roared. Grabbing her shoulders he glared down at her fiercely. “I will not put up with you putting yourself down. Stop that immediately, or I will…”
“You’ll what?” she sneered as he trailed off. “Tell me off? Frown at me? Poor little Kylie, we mustn’t upset her or her delicate mind might shatter. Damaged, stupid, crazy Kylie—oomph, what are you doing, Reagan? Reagan?” she screeched as he grabbed her. The room spun crazily before he sat, Kylie held facedown over his lap.
“Reagan, let me go!” She kicked out, trying to fight her way out of his hold.
“Never,” he told her fiercely. “I will not put up with you putting yourself down and you know it. And if my memory serves me correctly, I also owe you a spanking for running off that night before the magistrate arrived. Time to pay the piper, kitten.”
He yanked up her skirts, ripping her undergarments as he pulled them down.
“Put me down, you are not spanking me.” She wriggled desperately, but Reagan held her down easily, grabbing her wrists in one of his hands and securing them in the small of her back. He pulled her skirts up to her waist.
Smack!
Kylie screeched as the first spank landed. He wasn’t holding back. Not one bit.
Smack! Smack!
“Stop it! Stop it! You have no right!”
“I have every right,” he told her, spanking her steadily. “I’m your husband. You obey me. I am never going to put up with you talking about yourself that way.”
“Screw you!” She was too angry to think properly, so furious at him that she was almost seeing red.
A loud knocking on the door made Reagan pause. “Go away,” he called out.
“Reagan,” Risa called out urgently. “What’s going on? Is Kylie all right?”
“This is private, Risa. Leave us alone.”
“Let us in, Reagan,” Alia demanded. “We want to make sure Kylie is okay, we heard her cry out.”
“Do not let them in,” Kylie hissed, glaring over her shoulder at him. No way did she want her friends seeing her like this.
“Alia! Risa! What are you doing?”
Kylie sagged in relief as she heard Ian’s voice. He would make her friends leave.
She didn’t appreciate their interference. Yeah, she was mad as hell at Reagan, but she was actually glad that he was spanking her. Because it meant he had stopped seeing her as breakable. They needed to air things out between them.
There was some furious whispering then another knock on the door.
“What?” Reagan snapped. “We’re busy.”
“The girls are worried about Kylie. They want to check up on her.”
Reagan cursed then tipped her up onto her feet.
“Reagan,” she said, grabbing his arm as he stood.
He sent her a stern look that had her knees trembling and a surge of lust overtaking her body. Damn, she could not resist him when he was like this. Domineering, take-charge.
“Get yourself into the corner while I take care of this.”
Her jaw dropped. “You cannot be serious.”
He just pointed at the corner.
Muttering under her breath, Kylie stomped over to the corner and rested her nose agai
nst the wall.
“Skirts up, undergarments down,” he commanded.
“Jerk!” she replied, but did as he’d ordered, the air actually feeling good against her heated buttocks even as her cheeks burned with embarrassment. God, he wouldn’t let them see her like this, would he?
Reagan had no intention of allowing anyone to see Kylie in such a vulnerable state. That was for his eyes only. But she didn’t need to know that right at this moment.
What a brat she’d become.
He let a smile slip free now that she couldn’t see him. He was actually pleased at her show of temper. He now realized that he had handled this all wrong. Instead of giving her space and time he should have been ravaging her and declaring his love.
He swung the door open slightly then stepped through it. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stood in front of the closed door, his legs braced. No way were they getting through.
“What do you want?” he asked rudely.
Alia drew herself up to her full height. “We want to see Kylie. Let us in.”
“Tell me, Alia, do I come banging on your door, demanding to see my brother when he’s disciplining you?”
Her cheeks turned a deep, dark red and she glanced away.
Reagan turned to Risa. “And Risa, do I barge into the study while Ben’s blistering your butt?”
“No, but that’s different.”
“How?” he asked silkily.
Risa swallowed heavily, but squared her shoulders, obviously determined to stick up for her friend. It would have been admirable, if he wasn’t mad at the interruption. He glared at Ian who just shrugged.
“Because it’s Kylie,” Risa insisted. “She’s fragile and she’s already been so hurt.”
“We don’t want to see her being harmed again,” Alia insisted.
“And you seriously think I would harm her?” he said incredulously. “I didn’t realize the two of you had such a low opinion of me.”
“It’s not that. We heard you hurting her. She was screaming,” Risa said.
“She was being a disobedient brat and putting herself down, you can’t tell me Ben wouldn’t have put you over his knee for the same thing.”
“It’s different—” Risa began.
“No, it isn’t,” Reagan said sharply. “Kylie is my wife, she is my responsibility. I love her and I will do what I think is best for her, without any interference.”
“Hear, hear,” Ben said loudly from where he stood down the hall. “I couldn’t agree more, I’m just glad to finally hear you say it. Now, are you going to go fetch your wife or are you going to allow her to run around the gardens all night? The guards have her surrounded, but she keeps trying to duck away.”
“What are you talking about? She’s right here.” Reagan swung open the door, coming to an abrupt halt as he saw the corner where Kylie had been standing was empty. The curtains in front of the large double doors had been pushed open.
She wouldn’t have.
He rushed to the doors, opening them to step out onto the balcony. In the lamp-lit gardens he could just make out a small figure, dodging the hold of one of the burly guards.
“How the hell did she get down there?”
He glanced over the balcony. It was too far to jump. Ben walked over to one side. “I’d say she climbed down the trellis.”
“Little brat, she’s not going to sit for a week,” he growled as he swung a leg over the side and grabbed hold of the trellis. What had she been thinking? The trellis was old and could easily have broken, sending her plunging to the ground.
Ian and Ben both nodded in agreement with his statement while Risa looked on anxiously. Alia, on the other hand scowled at him. “You’d better not hurt her.”
He raised his head, pausing on his descent. “Alia, I love her. I would never harm her. Nor will I allow her to put herself in harm’s way.” He started his climb down. He jumped the last few feet, and then turned to see his wife swirl out of the reach of another guard. Damn, she was fast.
“Kylie,” he roared. “You are in big trouble, young lady.”
She paused, looking behind her. “Call off the goon squad.”
Goon? What was a goon? He shook his head, it didn’t matter. “Come here now and they’ll leave you be.”
“Uh-uh, no way.” Instead, she backed away from him, right into the arms of a waiting guard. Reagan stepped quickly forward and took her from the guard, nodding his thanks.
“Let me go, let me go,” she screeched, kicking out at them both before Reagan scooped her up, placing her over his shoulder as he turned for the house. She pounded her fists down against his back. He placed a heavy arm across her thighs to stop her from kicking him.
“Put me down, you rat bastard, you ass-swipe, jerkwad,” she screeched.
Reagan smacked his hand down on the tempting target of her ass. “Quiet down,” he growled, giving her bottom another heavy slap, “unless you want me to give you a bare-bottomed spanking right here and now.”
They’d just entered the house and he could see his sister-in-laws peeking out of the sitting at him. Just as Alia took a step out, confrontation written all over her face, Ben and Ian came down the stairs.
“Risa, back in the sitting room, now.”
“You, too, Alia,” Ian demanded.
“But he’s going to hurt her,” Alia snapped back.
“Oh for God’s sake,” Kylie said. “He’s going to spank me, Alia, just like Ian does to you. Do I ever interfere in that?”
“This is different, you’re fragile. You didn’t want to marry Reagan, you were forced to.”
“Of course I wanted to marry Reagan,” Kylie yelled as Reagan turned, starting for the stairs. “I love the stupid bastard.”
Reagan reached the turn in the stairs that would take them out of sight.
“And I am not fucking fragile,” she screamed.
Reagan let a smile slip free.
Chapter Twelve
Reagan slammed the bedroom door shut behind them, locking it shut. He slipped Kylie down off his shoulder, retaining hold of one wrist. Pulling her closer, he grabbed her hair, using it like a rope to tug her head back.
“You’ve been very naughty, kitten.”
“I wanted to go for a walk, I needed some fresh air.”
He raised his eyebrows. “So instead of asking me to take you outside, you instead risk your neck by climbing down trellis which could well have been rotten and weak, to wander around in the dark, on your own?”
“I was never on my own. Ben has his little spies everywhere.”
“Just as well when there is a foolish little girl like you around.”
“I am not a child.”
“Oh no, you’re not,” he agreed. “You are all woman. And right now you’re about to answer for your foolish actions. I am never going to stand by while you risk your health or safety, Kylie. I am never going to let you put yourself down. Do you understand me? You are going to learn to run to me, not away from me. You are going to learn to talk to me.”
“And what about you? Are you going to start talking to me? Maybe if you had told me that you loved me earlier I wouldn’t be an emotional wreck right now.”
“You’re right, I should have.”
The tension left her as she watched him incredulously. He let go of her wrists, cupping her face between his palms. Leaning in, he kissed the tip of her nose. “I should have told you how adorable I think your little nose is, how beautiful your eyes are, especially when you smile, they light up. I should have told you how much I longed to kiss your full lips.”
He drunk from her lips, licking the seam before slipping his tongue inside to play, his cock throbbed, pressing insistently against his pants as he kissed her with all the passion he’d been holding inside him.
“I should have told you that my heart swells with love each time I see you, that I want to laugh when you laugh and cry when you cry. I love you so much, kitten. I couldn’t bear not to have you in my life.”
<
br /> Tears dripped down her cheeks. He brushed them away with his thumbs.
“I hope those are happy tears?” he asked.
“Yes, oh God, I never thought this would happen. I never thought I would find someone like you.”
“Well, you have. I’m yours, kitten. Forever. You’re not getting rid of me.”
She swept her arms around him, holding him tight. “I don’t ever want to get rid of you.”
“Good.” He held her for a long moment, reveling in the soft feel of her in his arms. She fit him perfectly.
Then he stepped back and looked at her. “Now, strip.”
Her breath coming in sharp pants, Kylie slowly reached behind her to undo the buttons on her dress. Reagan turned her, undoing the buttons himself and helping push off her dress. Once she was dressed only in her undergarments, he turned her to face him once more.
“All of it,” he growled.
Blushing, she pulled off the rest of her undergarments.
He walked around her, just looking his full.
“You are so beautiful you make me breathless.”
She grinned at him. He cupped her chin. “But before I can ravage this body, we have some discipline to take care of, don’t we?”
Her whole face dropped.
He kissed her lips. “Don’t look so sad, I promise to kiss it all better. First, though, I have something I want to do. Go lie on the bed on your back.”
Moving over to the dresser, he grabbed his shaving equipment, some soap and water. Then placing a towel over his arm, he moved back to her.
“Knees bent, feet flat on the bed,” he demanded. “Butt up.” He pushed the towel beneath her ass then pressed her back down so her hips lay flat on the bed.
“Reagan? What are you doing?”
“I’m going to shave you.”
She sat up. “No way.”
He grinned. “Oh yes. Now lay back down and let your legs drop open. Don’t move.”
She seemed to barely breathe as he slowly and carefully shaved the hair from her pussy. When she was finally bare, he sat and just studied her folds for a long moment before leaning in and placing a kiss on the top of her sensitive nub.
Set Free: Kylie's Story (Rayshod) Page 10