by Livia Grant
“Not even a little bit. You see, it’s never easy once your heart gets involved.”
She wanted to believe him. Oh how she wanted to believe. He held her tighter then, anger flashing hot. “Dammit, I don’t know what it’s going to take to convince you, Em! All I know is that I can’t bear the thought of another man touching this…” He moved his right hand to her left boob before moving to squeeze her butt, “Or this…” His hand moved lower still. “And well, especially not this…” Charlie cupped her pussy through the petticoats she wore that night.
“This is mine, Emelie. I feel it. I know you do too. I’m so sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry other men hurt you before we met. But it’s in the past. All I can do now is promise it won’t ever happen again.”
They sat in silence, Charlie letting her contemplate his words. She finally asked quietly. “I have one more question.”
“Anything. Ask away, and remember, Jewel told you I can’t lie.”
She was afraid to ask the question burning in her heart, but she knew she’d never rest unless she had the answer. She pinned him with a stare and asked. “Have you ever followed one of the gems upstairs like you did me tonight?”
“Not once. You’re the only one I couldn’t stand the thought of working upstairs.”
Her heart started to fill with hope.
“All right, I was wrong. I have another question.”
His chuckle helped her start to relax enough to ask her question. “Can’t we call things even and start all over again. No harm done?”
His smile was gone in an instant. “No harm done? Seriously? I can think of a man who’s on his way home with a sore jaw after getting punched. What do you think he’d say about no harm? And what about Jewel? You think she’s ready to forgive and forget your lie?” She kept silent and he kept adding on. “Opal stopped by my room crying that she’d contributed to ruining my happiness, and the other gems all feel terrible, too. I heard Sapphire even asked Gabe to punish her because she felt so guilty for trying to make a joke at dinner that hurt you. I believe there’s plenty of harm to go around.”
Emelie melted into his arms, enjoying a moment of closeness as he held her close. She wanted so badly to believe him, yet maybe it was best if he stayed angry with her. Then he wouldn’t be as upset when she had to leave.
Her heart was heavy as she contemplated the consequences of killing the gunslinger. It seemed worse now. She knew his name. Willard Wheeler. Maybe she should tell Charlie? No, then he could be called an accomplice. If she loved him, she needed to protect him.
“It’s time to get this nasty punishment over. Let’s wipe the slate clean so we can start over.”
An odd excitement fluttered in her tummy—a strange cocktail of dread and arousal. Memories of her first spanking over Charlie’s knee brought back equal measures of shame and security. The thought of losing control like that again had her fidgeting and she couldn’t help but smile realizing he was becoming aroused as well.
She ground herself against his growing erection, teasing him. “I’m not sure how I feel about you getting hard every time you think about spanking me. That’s not fair. I don’t think you’re supposed to like it.”
He swatted her ass. “You may not like your punishments, but I promise you, you’re definitely going to love what comes after.”
“Promises. Promises.”
She watched as his smile faded, replaced with a determined glare that took her breath away. She could feel the atmosphere of the room shifting and had to fight the urge to beg him to change his mind.
Charlie deposited her feet on the floor, opening his legs and pulling her to stand before him. She fidgeted, unable to stand still. He grasped her hips, holding her tight.
She’d taken a great interest in the buttons on his shirt. “Look at me, Emelie.”
She raised her gaze to meet his. “I want you out of that outfit—now. More importantly, you will never, and I do mean never, put red petticoats on again. Is that understood?”
“Yes.”
He raised his eyebrow.
“I mean, yes, sir.”
“Good girl. Now turn around and let me help you with this scandalous corset.” With each lace he loosened, Emelie could breath easier. Relief to be out of the outfit warred with dread of the coming discipline.
When she stood before him in her thin chemise and drawers, she said a quick prayer he’d let her retain the small dignity their cover provided. It didn’t work.
He sat back on the bed, leaving her standing a few feet in front of him. He took his time examining her from head to toe, his expression never betraying his thoughts. She felt as if she were on display and found herself wishing it were over.
“From this day forward, you will be naked for any punishment you receive.”
“Naked! You said on the bare. That’s bad enough. You can’t seriously…”
She didn’t finish the sentence. He’d reached out and spun her around, delivering three fast volleys to her bottom. It was over before she had time to react. He simply turned her back to face him while the heat on her bottom ignited. She thought she saw a smile threatening as he watched her wiggle her bottom in an ill-guided attempt to lessen the sting.
“Let’s try this again. Take your underthings off, Emelie. Prepare for your punishment.” His voice was so damn confident and it brought funny flutters to her girlie parts.
She wanted to argue back—to tell him he didn’t have the right, but in an unexplainable way, she was thrilled he wanted the responsibility.
Her hands moved to the hem of her chemise, lifting it slowly over her head to expose her round globes. She was self-conscious, knowing her skin was so pale that it made her nipples standout like raspberries surrounded by rosy areoles. With Charlie seated on the edge of the bed, her pebbled tips protruded only inches from his face.
It was naughty of her, yet she couldn’t resist leaning in a tad closer as if she were losing her balance. His strong hands gripped her hips, as she fell forward, his warm mouth consuming her left tit.
The tip was ultra sensitive. The swish of his tongue circling her bud warmed her before she felt his teeth clamp down, pinching hard enough to send shock waves of rivaling pleasure and pain warring through her body. The longer he dominated her breast, the wobblier she felt on her feet.
Charlie tore his mouth away from her as if he suddenly realized she’d duped him into the distraction. He’d sucked her so hard that she felt tender and when she looked down, her nipple glistened in the lamp light of the room.
“That was being a bad girl distracting me like that.”
“I don’t know what you mean? You’re the one who demanded I get naked.”
Her sound reasoning was not making an impression on her disciplinarian.
“Indeed I did, and yet there you stand, still in your drawers.”
As she reached for the drawstring that would lead to her downfall, she took comfort in knowing he’d seen it all before. The cotton fell down her legs, landing in a heap around her bare feet.
He gawked freely up and down, taking in every nuance of her body as his chocolate brown eyes turned shades darker, devouring the small thatch of blonde hair she kept neatly trimmed.
“I know you are afraid of belts. One day, not tonight, I want you to tell me every sordid reason why that is so I can better understand and try to help you overcome your fear.”
“Why would I do that? So you can belt me at some time in the future?” Her retort came out sassy even to her own ears.
“If you keep up with that mouth, it will be sooner rather than later, young lady.”
“Yes, sir.” She clearly had a death wish.
“For tonight, I’m going to use your hairbrush to deliver your lesson.”
“Wait! You aren’t going to use your hand again?”
“It didn’t seem to do the trick last time. Congratulations, you’ve graduated from my hand to the brush.”
“Oh, no. Please use your hand. I promise, I�
�ll be good.”
“Yes, I’m certain you will be after we’re done tonight. Go collect your hair brush.” When she stood rooted to her spot, he added a stern, “Now.”
The order startled her, helping her move. She extricated herself from the tangle of clothes, hoping he’d change his mind and knowing he wouldn’t. Oh how she wished she hadn’t moved her belongings to her new room. Worse yet, the dresser was all the way across the room. She was acutely aware of being on display as she walked to retrieve the large paddle brush. The second her fingers wrapped around the wood handle, her bottom cheeks clenched as if they were dreading what was coming.
The walk back to Charlie was even worse. This time she could see the power in his gaze as he examined her from head to toe as she made her way back to her disciplinarian.
Once she was within his reach, he held out his palm and she handed over the implement of doom, unable to look him in the eyes.
“Assume the position, Emelie.”
She missed his terms of endearment. She hesitated as long as she dared before leaning forward, angling to Charlie’s left side to rest her torso on the bedspread. Her body was tense with dread. She reached for a small decorative pillow, hugging it close for moral support. Charlie reached back to place the wooden brush next to her on the bed, directly in front of her line-of-sight as if to show her what would come next.
It did not bode well that he took the time to trap her legs between his own in a scissor grip from the start. His left arm draped across the small of her back as he pulled her tight against him.
The spanking started without preamble. Unlike last time, Charlie didn’t start out slow. On the contrary, he went to town with his open palm, peppering her buttocks from top to bottom with a steady volley of spanks.
Emelie buried her face in the pillow, determined not to embarrass herself this time by sobbing or begging for mercy. She clenched her mouth closed, refusing to cry out, taking her medicine as it were. His slaps were fast and furious yet rhythmic and controlled.
What started as a slow burn quickly turned into a blazing inferno across her behind under his constant chastisement. It was inevitable that whimpers would begin to escape into the pillow. It took all her self-control to keep from reaching back to block his hand from connecting with her tender ass, gritting her teeth so hard her jaw started to ache from the effort of not crying out. Still, as he moved lower to where her butt connected with thighs, Emelie couldn’t stop from trying to wiggle away. She rocked and squirmed to no avail. Only when she emitted her first forlorn cry did the spanking halt.
As soon as she realized he’d stopped, she let her body sag with relief across his lap, burying her face deeper into the pillow trying to hide the onset of her tears from Charlie.
The feel of his punishing hands now softly massaging her sore bottom brought jolts of a new kind of heat. Considering her history with men and punishments, she should hate what he’d done to her, yet, in her heart, she knew Charlie would never hurt her. Not like Albert had. Sure, he’d hurt her emotionally by not telling her about bath time with the gems. He’d even punished her, but if it meant sharing the intimate connection she currently felt for the man slipping a finger between her bottom cheeks to stroke past her rosebud to slide through her wet folds, she’d learn to accept it.
Embarrassed shame coursed through her at her obvious sexual arousal, yet it made her want more. She wanted him to take her. Her legs fell open as he loosened his grip around her ever so slightly.
“Charlie… please.”
Three fast smacks to her now exposed pussy had her head rearing up off the bed. “Owie!”
“What’s my name right now?”
How did he expect her to think at a moment like this?
“Sir. I’m sorry, sir.”
“Why are you being punished tonight, young lady?”
“Because I lied.”
“And…”
“And… I don’t know.”
“And you put yourself in danger by coming upstairs with a strange man.”
Emelie didn’t say anything to that. There wasn’t much point considering he spoke facts.
“Let’s roast this little bottom so we can move on to more fun activities.”
Maybe it was selective memory—or just plain avoidance, but she truly had forgotten she’d retrieved her paddle brush until the very second it connected with her right butt cheek with a heavy thud. She gulped for air as she fought down panic.
The implement was ten times worse than Charlie’s hand—unyielding and unforgiving. She grit her teeth, but it couldn’t stop her from pushing up with her arms, arching her back in a feeble try to wrestle away from the pain. The tears started immediately. The blasted paddle fell as steady as his hand had before, but he’d slowed down, only pelting her rosy red caboose every five seconds. A mere thirty seconds into her paddling felt like a lifetime.
Panic rose in her throat, unable to be contained as warbling sobs consumed her. She fought him then, reaching back with her right hand to cover herself. He was ready for it, snatching her arm behind her back and holding it out of the way uncomfortably. The sadistic bastard didn’t even miss a beat.
He waled on her ass again and again in what felt like a never-ending effort to punish her. It was in her vulnerable position that the first inkling of true awareness came to her. As much as she hated the discomfort of the ongoing wallop of the brush against her bottom, there was no denying the growing intimacy she felt with Charlie. With each hard crack, she felt her fear and guilt falling away, leaving behind a raw vulnerability in its wake.
As many times as Albert had beaten her and degraded her, she’d only felt anger and betrayal. From his fist connecting with her face to his humiliating words meant to degrade her, Emelie had learned to associate physical chastisement with numbing fear. Pain at Albert’s hand had come in a fit of rage, over quickly as if to add insult to the injury that she hadn’t even been worth the time it took to do more than beat her down.
In contrast, the longer Charlie spent peppering her entire ass and upper thighs, pulling her closer against him, it felt as if he were marking her as his own—leaving his stamp of ownership not only on her bottom, but also throughout every nook and cranny of her body. From her pulsing clit that wanted to be touched to her pounding heart, she wanted him to consume her.
The combination of the burning pain and the passionate feelings overwhelmed her, bringing sobs of release as she collapsed, limp across his lap, submitting to her punishment with a torrent of tears.
“That’s my girl. I want you to know this is hurting me every bit as much as it is hurting you, darlin, but I want the job of taking care of you so that means I need to do what is demanded in order to keep you safe.”
She heard his words through the continued punishment, choosing to focus on him calling her his girl and darlin and praying he meant it when he said he wanted to take care of her.
When her sobs slowed to resigned whimpers, the spanking finally stopped. She felt the heavy brush falling to the bed near her head. The inferno burned deep across her backside and sit-spots, carrying the heat deeper than the surface skin and lighting a fire within her core. Her ass wiggled across Charlie’s lap, wanting him to lay his hands on her skin to rub in comfort, or better, slip lower to brush that bundle of nerves that could send her to the moon and back.
Instead, Charlie stood, carrying her with him until he could situate her on her own two wobbly feet. She so wanted to collapse into his arms, but he held her bare arms to steady her until she found her equilibrium.
Emelie was self-conscious. She had to appear a mess with puffy, bloodshot eyes and running nose. She tried to pull away to hide herself, but instead he reached into his pocket, retrieving a handkerchief, and dabbing at the tears on her cheeks before holding the cloth to her nose.
“Blow for me, Em.”
She did as she was told, trying not to die of embarrassment at the loud noise of her blowing her nose in a very unladylike manner. She coul
dn’t look him in the eye.
His finger went to her chin, gently lifting her face until she had no choice but to stare into his beautiful brown eyes, full of an emotion she couldn’t put her finger on.
“Let’s move you to the corner so we can be done with your punishment and move on to more fun pastimes, shall we?”
She’d forgotten about the corner. It would have been so easy to simply nod and yet she couldn’t. The looks he continued to give her had her body flooding with emotions, one of which she knew corner time would not help. Reaching to place her hand on his chest, she took a deep breath.
“Charlie… um, sir, before you put me in the corner, please give me a… a whipping.”
His eyes widened in surprise and as he began to shake his head, she rushed to continue. “You asked me why I am so afraid of the belt and I realized that it wasn’t the implement… it was the man wielding it. Albert didn’t punish me… he beat me. I know that you… you only punish me when I’ve been naughty. You say that punishment rids me of the guilt and yet even as much as my bottom burns right now, it isn’t… isn’t enough… not this time.” She paused and felt her face heat even as she shocked herself feeling her lips curl into a soft smile. “Besides, I don’t believe I could ever look Miss Jewel in the eyes again if we don’t do what she insisted.” When she saw his eyes darken and his own smile, she knew without his telling her that he was proud of her. With his nod, she dropped her hand from his chest and her eyes to his waist to see the object of her previous fear. Though it didn’t cause instant panic, she couldn’t suppress a slight tremble.
“May I just ask one more thing, sir?”
“Em, you may ask whatever you need,” Charlie said, reaching out a finger to run it down her cheek before lifting her chin up again.
“Please don’t… don’t hit my back too… too hard…”
His eyes widened instantly as he pulled her into his arms. “Never. Emelie, trust in that I will never strike your back or…”
Lifting her hand to cup his cheek, she stopped him. “I do, Charlie, I trust you with my very life.”