"If I wanted to put my cock in here, you'd let me wouldn't you?" His voice was a husky whisper as his fingers twisted. "You'd let me take you here, wouldn't you?"
A shudder of ecstasy rippled through her at the forbidden and depraved image that popped into her head. His cock? There? Stretching her open, stuffing her fuller than his fingers ever could? It would hurt... it would hurt so good...
She cried out as her orgasm rippled through her, clamping down on Felix... screamed again as his fingers pulled roughly from her body so that he could thrust harder and faster. His big hands moved up her torso to her breasts, squeezing them both so hard it took her breath away, the lack of air strangely increasing the sensation of ecstasy that was flowing through her. Her elbows caved and her body crashed down onto the bed, pinned between it and the hot, hard thrusting of her husband's cock.
The pleasure was so intense, so relentless that tears sprung to her eyes as Felix groaned and moved above her. She felt wonderfully helpless as she writhed in the throes of rapture, Felix's hard hands and cock wringing every last ounce of pained pleasure from her body, until he finally exploded inside of her in a wave of liquid heat.
Chapter 13
The tea was steeped impeccably to a perfect temperature. Gabrielle's blue silk dress was demure and sophisticated, her hair classically coiffed, and her manners as a hostess were supreme. Her two guests, seated across from her on the small couch, were just as elegantly attired, just as splendidly mannered, and altogether they made a tableau that appeared to be the pinnacle of London society.
Their conversation, however, completely shattered that illusion.
"He spanks you?!" Arabella was aghast, but her expression was one of interested horror, not true horror. "But he's your husband!"
"My husband spanks me constantly," Cynthia Spencer said, a smug little smile curving her full lips. "I drive him to it."
"But... but..." Arabella stuttered, completely at a loss for words.
"Oh dear, she has nothing to say! Do you think we should call for a doctor?" Gabrielle mock-whispered to Cynthia. Both of them laughed as Arabella shook her head.
"I don't understand this at all. Why aren't you angry?" Frowning, she turned her attention to Cynthia. "And what do you mean you drive your husband to it?"
"I like it," Cynthia said succinctly. She gave Arabella a significant look. "This is why I refused to talk to you about it before."
"Wait, he spanks you during that?!"
Laughing again, Gabrielle was so relieved that Cynthia had come with Arabella. They were her first official visitors, and she'd asked Taylor to tell anyone else who arrived that she wasn't at-home. Well, unless any other visitors were family or close friends, of course. If Felix's mother or his cousin Eleanor came by, Gabrielle would enjoy seeing them. She was rather hoping they didn't, however, as she was quite sure it would stunt the conversation that was currently occurring. Felix had reluctantly taken his leave, saying that he was going to see his brothers and murmuring something about females blathering - sounding rather like his father as he'd done so. It had been a pang to separate from him, but her friends were helping to distract her from the strangeness of his absence.
And it was wonderful to be able to talk to someone about... well, all the things she never thought she'd be able to talk about.
Arabella had been full of questions and Cynthia had been full of answers, now that she had Gabrielle to confirm everything she said. The only unmarried one in the group, Arabella had been rather skeptical of Cynthia's description of the marital act until she'd seen Gabrielle nodding her head in agreement. She thought they'd been funning her. Especially when Cynthia, apparently not embarrassed by the conversation as long as she had an ally, began to describe some of the more exotic entertainments she and the Earl of Spencer indulged in.
Like spankings.
For herself, Gabrielle had been both relieved and intrigued to know that she wasn't the only one - and even more so that she wasn't the only one who enjoyed it.
"Felix does too," she said, whispering with great daring, her eyes darting to the door as if she expected him to come through at any moment now that she'd said something.
Arabella's dark brown eyes widened in even greater shock, her cheeks blushing a deep pink that matched the ribbons on her lavender dress. She was wearing the pale colors of a debutante, which made the color in her face seem all the more bright, especially with her creamy complexion and dark brown hair to set it off. Cynthia chortled. Even with her mahogany hair swept back in a complicated coiffure, her deep burgundy dress appropriately modest despite her luxurious curves, there was such a devilish gleam in her hazel eyes that if anyone looked at her face, they would know she was up to mischief. It was part of why Arabella and Gabrielle got along with her so well.
"I knew it!" Cynthia crowed, clapping her hands together happily. "Welcome to the group of spanked wives... perhaps we should actually form one. We could be quite a merry little club."
"A club?" Gabrielle and Arabella exchanged looks of surprise.
"Oh yes. Eleanor likes it too, so does Grace although she doesn't like to talk about it," Cynthia explained with a wave of her hand. "Irene does her best to avoid being spanked, but it still happens whenever we rope her into some mischief and are caught. Actually, Eleanor and Grace don't particularly enjoy the actual disciplinary spankings, I don't think." She raised her eyebrow, looking at Gabrielle, who flushed. Cynthia laughed with delight. "I knew you'd be more like me... the harder the better."
"Really?" Gabrielle asked with relief, thankful to have found such a kindred spirit in Cynthia. She ignored Arabella, whose mouth was hanging open so wide she'd best be careful or she'd be catching flies. "You too?"
"Oh yes!" Cynthia leaned in conspiratorially, her hazel eyes sparking gold with interest. "Has he ever used the strap?"
"No!" Gabrielle shook her head in immediate denial. "He's only ever used his hand." Although, now that Cynthia had said it, Gabrielle's imagination fired. The Marquess of Dunbury had used the paddle and she'd hated it, it had hurt so much... but would it feel different if it was wielded by Felix? His hand was hard enough, but what if he used something harder? Harsher? A shiver went through her. The smug look on Cynthia's face caught her attention and fired her competitive spirit. She leaned back in towards other woman. "He did put ginger in my bottom though - it burned horribly but... I liked it."
"You did?! But it's so... humiliating!" Cynthia blurted the words out and then clapped her hand over her mouth. It was the first time Gabrielle had ever seen the brazen woman blush. Arabella looked ready to faint.
Gabrielle blushed now too, looking at her unmarried friend. "Perhaps we shouldn't be talking about this..."
"Don't you dare stop!" Arabella gulped, obviously steeling herself. "I have no mother to tell me about relations between a man and a woman, and can you imagine Isaac or Benedict attempting it? They'd leave everything out and I'd be completely ignorant!"
Especially since she hadn't even believed Cynthia and Gabrielle when they'd first told her exactly how a man and woman coupled. While she'd spent some time in the country, her brothers had obviously kept her far away from any of the breeding animals.
"Well, I must admit it's lovely to have someone to talk to about this again," Cynthia said, grinning. "Eleanor and Edwin have gone back to the Manse to spend time with their son and Edwin's parents, Irene's in the country in confinement with Hugh, and Grace doesn't like to say much about bedroom activities even though we all know she and Alex are fucking like bunnies." Cynthia rolled her eyes.
"Cynthia!" Arabella admonished. "You shouldn't use that word!"
"You didn't even know what that word meant before I told you."
"Even so! What if someone heard you using it?"
"Then I'd get a spanking."
"Or maybe some ginger up your... your..." Arabella's feisty spirit seemed to fade as she couldn't quite get the word out.
"Bottom?" Gabrielle asked, her tone innocent. "It's
really not that bad... well it is, but it isn't."
Cynthia shuddered. "Has he put um, anything else there?"
"No, but..." Gabrielle glanced at Arabella, almost not wanting to say, but if anyone would be able to tell her what it was like, she was sure it was Cynthia. "He said he wants to take me there."
"Ouch..." Cynthia said making a face as Arabella gasped. "Wesley does that sometimes when I've been particularly bad. He knows I don't like it. I think that makes him like it even more."
"Does it hurt that badly?" Gabrielle asked, nerves fluttering in her stomach even as something hot and heavy coiled in her lower belly. Part of her wanted Cynthia to say yes.
"It can, if he doesn't ah, stretch you first," Cynthia said. Her lips quirked. "Wesley uses these little rubber stopper things-"
"Okay, stop!" Arabella put her hands over her ears. "I don't think I want to hear about this!"
"It's too much for her pure little mind," Gabrielle said, keeping her expression serious as Cynthia chortled and Arabella glared at her.
"My mind is not pure, but it can only take in so much at once!"
"Maybe we should talk about mouths instead," Cynthia mused, tapping one finger on her chin. "That's still informative but not quite so unusual."
"Mouths?!"
******
It turned out that Felix's father had also escaped to the house on Jermyn Street, which Felix used to share with Walter, and which Walter apparently now shared with Thomas. Thomas usually stayed in Hood House when he was in residence, but had fled the premises with the arrival of their parents, or - more accurately - his mother and her friends and their daughters. As the heir to the Viscountancy, Thomas looked positively hunted.
"She's sending me lists - actual lists! - of females and the events they'll be attending," Thomas complained, pacing back and forth across the study. The piles of papers that were haphazardly placed on a nearby table would actual rise slightly before settling back down every time he passed, as he was pacing at a rather good clip.
Walter refused to allow anyone to clean the study, saying that they would disturb his organization system, which meant that a bit of dust rose as well. Eyeing one particularly precariously perched pile, Walter stood and went over to shove it more securely onto the table.
"Sorry," Thomas muttered as he passed by again, before turning to shoot Felix a baleful look. "This is all your fault you know."
"Don't blame your brother for having the good sense to be the first married," Felix's father said, surprising all three of his sons. Normally he stayed well out of their bickering - in fact, normally he didn't say very much at all if it wasn't on the subject of the estates, hunting, or one of the areas of history he was particularly interested in. "Your mother was already sending you a list every six months. You could have been married well before him."
"Yes, but now she's sending them every other day," Thomas griped, his dark eyes flashing as he resumed his pacing. Felix could only watch in amusement, secure in his own matrimony, but feeling some small sympathy for his older brothers. He could only imagine that without Gabrielle to keep her occupied, his mother had probably embarked on an all-out assault on his brothers.
"Well now she'll be spending her time ensuring Gabrielle's place in the ton," Felix said. "Perhaps she'll be distracted enough to forget your sadly unwedded state."
Walter snorted. Slumped back in his armchair, a snifter of brandy dangling from his fingers, he looked every bit the dissolute rake that he was. People were always rather surprised to discover that he was also a bit bookish; he was just as happy to spend his night in with a new book as he was out carousing about town. Although, apparently last night had been a night for carousing, going by the dark circles under his eyes and his general air of dishevelment.
"You took the only woman I could ever be interested in marrying," Walter said dramatically, putting his hand over his heart. "I couldn't possibly be interested in any woman now that I know Gabrielle is forever out of my reach."
"Don't you forget it either," Felix said, ignoring his brother's attempt to get a rise out of him.
"Perhaps if you were quicker on the draw," their father observed.
"Like a good brother, I was trying to keep from putting any undue pressure on Thomas," Walter said. Felix rolled his eyes.
"I'm nowhere near ready for marriage," Thomas said with a derisive sniff. "I doubt I will be any time soon either. The ladies on the lists mother keeps sending me..." He shook his head.
"Yes, yes, we know, you won't marry until you find the perfect woman," Walter mocked. He started ticking points off on his fingers. "She must be beautiful, well-mannered, of a social standing not too far from our own-"
"She must be good with children, an accomplished hostess, intelligent but not a blue-stocking," Felix continued.
"An excellent rider but not a hoyden, a tasteful dresser but also fashionable, a witty conversationalist but not so much that she makes you look bad-"
"She must be cultured, she must excel at, well, everything-"
Their father chimed in, "And able to put up with you."
All three of them dissolved into laughter while Thomas glowered. "I don't see what's so funny about having standards. Gabrielle met all of Felix's - if she was a better rider and a bit more experienced within the ton-"
"But that's just it," Felix pointed out, grinning, and feeling rather smug that he had managed to marry a woman so close to fulfilling Thomas' rather lengthy list of attributes. "She doesn't meet every one of your insane demands, and, while they're good qualities, they don't encompass the most important parts of a marriage. Besides, you've neglected to list any bad qualities that you would be willing to endure."
"Granted, Gabrielle could be a bit sharp at first, but she mellowed very nicely, especially towards us," Thomas said. "Unless you're saying she changed once you two went away."
"Gabrielle was delightful," Felix's father said stoutly, before Felix could answer. "But your brother has the right of it. You might find a woman with every single one of those qualities, but unless you care for her, it won't matter a whit."
Thomas waved his hand. "If she can meet all my qualifications than why wouldn't I fall in love with her?"
Shaking his head, Felix could only hope that when Thomas fell in love, it would be with a woman that challenged every single one of his notions about marriage. Although he'd never been quite up to Felix or Walter's reputation when it came to the ladies, he'd become even stodgier over the years. He needed a woman who would shake him up a bit.
"I hope you end up with a more scandalous woman that Felix," Walter said, teasing both of them at once. Thomas growled, but the comment made Felix become more serious.
"Is there any lingering scandal?" He'd been reassured by the letters that his brothers, Manchester, and Philip had sent him, but perhaps they'd left something out.
His father shook his head. "Ignore Walter, there's not even a breath of it, or your mother would be up in arms. Any whispers were completely squashed by our arrival in town and her excitement to extol Gabrielle's virtues to her friends."
"There weren't very many whispers left anyway," Thomas said, a bit defensively. "Lady Hyde, Lady Spencer, the Dowager-Countess Spencer, and Manchester were very effective in helping us damp down the scandal."
"Helped along by a couple of eloping fools," Walter muttered.
Well that was a relief. Felix sank back into his chair, grinning as Thomas resumed his pacing, the reminder of the scandalous elopement turning him back to his original topic of complaining about their mother's machinations. Walter seemed amused as well, but as the second son he likely wasn't getting a list every other day. Just weekly.
It was rather nice to know he'd neatly avoided that little bit of motherly interference in his life.
******
When Felix arrived back home, Gabrielle felt a bit of relief, even if it did cut off her conversation with Cynthia and Arabella. They immediately moved to more appropriate conversation topics
for young ladies, so that when he peeked his head into the parlor, it was to hear an animated discussion about the current fashions for flounces. She covered her smile when he gave her a wave, made a face, and immediately retreated.
She was sure that he wouldn't have approved of their earlier conversation - especially since it included things Arabella definitely shouldn't have any knowledge of - but she didn't feel guilty at all. Conversations with her friends were something he shouldn't have any control over and she was unwilling to give it to him. Still, some part of her couldn't help but wonder what he might do if she confessed... apparently Cynthia's predilection towards actively courting a spanking was already rubbing off on her.
After Cynthia and Arabella took their leave, Gabrielle went in search of her husband. Unlike his parents' manor house, this residence was much smaller, so he wasn't very difficult to find. All she had to do was follow the sound of billiard balls woodenly clacking against each other.
Hugging the doorway, she watched her husband bending over the table, focused intently on the placement of the balls in front of him and the stick in his hands. His movements were purposeful, confident. Very like the way he did everything in life. He'd shed his jacket, and his cravat was loosened, giving him an appearance of slight dishevelment that Gabrielle found very attractive.
He struck, and the balls zoomed around the table, until one of them disappeared into the netted basket in the corner. Then he looked up at her, dark eyes pleased.
"Hello there."
"Hello." She felt strange, a little awkward with him in this new place. "Are you staying in for supper tonight?"
"Yes. I don't plan on eating elsewhere unless we're invited to a dinner." He set the end of the stick down, leaning on it as he watched her. "I'm looking forward to hearing about your day."
She smiled back at him, almost shyly. "And I yours."
"Were Cynthia and Arabella your only callers today?"
"Yes, although I told Taylor I wasn't at-home to anyone who wasn't a close friend or family."
Felix nodded, looking thoughtful. "Did you have a nice visit with them?"
Gabrielle's Discipline (Bridal Discipline Book 3) Page 19