by Zoe Blake
Charlotte braced herself as he took a step into the room. Asher paused, taking in her wary stance as an animal would when stalking prey. He took another two steps towards the chaise, watching as she slowly circled in the opposite direction. He continued his slow, determined stride…waiting.
Charlotte was forced to emerge from the protective back of the chaise as he crept closer. The second she was no longer protected by the high-backed piece of upholstery, Asher lunged.
Grabbing her by the arms, Asher dragged Charlotte across the lower half of the chaise till she was on her knees pressed against his length. Even with the height of the chaise, her eyes barely reached his shoulders. She could feel all of him pressed against her stomach…all of him.
Asher closed his eyes for a moment and relished in the feel of her finally in his arms. It was like holding a wild bird. He could see her erratic pulse at the base of her throat, thrumming with each heartbeat. Her bright eyes were half-closed and glazed over with what he knew was arousal. Charlotte may think she despised being forced into the marriage and his high-handed manner, but he knew better. It was what she needed most.
Asher grabbed a fistful of her soft, chestnut locks and pulled till her head fell back. Her pink mouth slightly open. Charlotte buried her hands into the lapels of his coat for support. His bold stare never leaving her face. Asher released one of her arms only to seize her silk dressing gown and pull till the fabric rended, exposing one ivory shoulder. Belying the violence he had just done to her garments, he gently stroked her bare skin.
Asher reveled in the satiny warmth under his fingertips. Tracing the outline of her collarbone, he skimmed up her throat till his hand cupped the underside of Charlotte’s jaw.
Charlotte had never felt so intensely drawn to another human being. It was as if she waited for his exhale so that she may inhale. Without forethought or planning, against her will, she was being drawn into the dark promise of his embrace.
“Open your mouth.” His rough command breaking the silence.
It did not even occur to Charlotte to disobey. She parted her soft lips giving in to the feeling of release his protective embrace gave her.
“Wider.” Lust giving his voice an even harsher edge than usual.
The moment she obeyed, his grip on her jaw tightened as his hard mouth crushed down on her vulnerable one. A shocked Charlotte felt his tongue sweep into her open mouth, tasting her. Instinctively her tongue swirled and played with Asher’s as he deepened the kiss. Digging his fingers into the softness of her hair, Asher clutched the back of her head, pulling her even closer. She tasted like chocolate and berries, he thought as he gently bit her bottom lip.
Charlotte felt the scrape of his teeth along the sensitive skin of her bottom lip like a shock to the system. Overwhelmed by the warmth and taste of him, she leaned against his broad chest for support. His mouth left hers for a moment. She inhaled deeply, taking in the earthy masculine scent of him. Musk and tobacco.
Her closed eyes sprang open as she pushed against his strong grip. “It was you!” she accused. Her voice trembling with contempt. “You were in the room!”
“Yes,” he responded curtly. His deep voiced edged with control and sexual tension. He would neither explain himself nor apologize for an examination that was made necessary by her own shameful behavior. One did not stay out without her parents’ permission, go to balls unescorted and drink champagne to excess without consequences.
“How dare you!”
“You will find, little one, when it comes to you, there is very little I won’t dare.” The rich timbre of his voice dripped with arrogance as his gaze took in her swollen lips and the exposed top swell of her breast.
Charlotte struggled in his unrelenting grip. “Let me go!”
“Never.”
Reclaiming her lips, his kiss was punishing and possessive. Charlotte found herself responding to his show of strength. Opening her mouth wider. Feeling his strong hand press against the small of her back, crushing her body against his arousal.
Charlotte’s mind raged against the surrender her body desperately craved. In desperation, she bit down on his tongue, the sickening metallic taste of blood letting her know she hit her mark. Asher reeled his head back at the sudden pain and loosening his grip, just long enough for her to escape.
Feeling safe on the other side of the room, Charlotte unleashed her fury on him. “I will never marry you. Do you hear me, never!”
This was the final insult. He needed to teach his little brat a lesson about not disobeying those who had her best interests in mind. The taste of blood in his mouth. The blood pumping in his veins…and elsewhere. His prey in flight. Asher’s primal instincts roared to life. Leaping over the chaise and crossing the room in two determined strides, she was back in his arms before taking a single step to flee.
Asher leaned in close to whisper seductively into her ear, “Oh, my little Lottie, you’re wrong,” before nipping at her earlobe. The tip of his tongue traced the seam of her tightly closed lips. When she refused to relent, he remembered the doctor’s advice. Reaching past the neckline of her dressing gown, he cupped one full breast. Charlotte moaned at the sensual contact but kept her lips stubbornly closed. Rolling a sensitive nipple between his finger and thumb, Asher harshly squeezed the tip.
As expected, Charlotte cried out. His mouth swooped down bruising her already swollen lips. Her traitorous body quivered as she fought her intense response to his possession but she was powerless against his need.
Asher kept a firm grip on her breast, slowly kneading it as he reached down with his other hand to undo her dressing gown belt. Pulling her arms behind her back, Asher arched Charlotte’s back and leaned down, taking one pink nipple into his mouth. Pulling deep, he gloried at her aroused cry.
So lost in sensation, Charlotte didn’t even feel the silken belt of her gown encircling her wrists until it was too late. Feeling the belt pulled tighter, her outraged gaze clashed with his triumphant one.
“My little one has earned herself a spanking for being a very naughty girl.” The determined glint in his black eyes both frightened and aroused Charlotte.
Dragging her back to the chaise, he sat down, pulling her across his lap. It wasn’t till her stomach pressed against his hard thighs that Charlotte snapped out of it and started to fight and kick, but it was too late. The satin fabric of her dressing gown was flipped to one side, exposing her bare bottom to his unfettered gaze.
Asher stroked the silky smoothness, observing, “This was the view I most desired and was denied during your examination. I wanted to see this pert little bottom fully exposed.”
Charlotte’s outraged shriek was lost on Asher as he continued to admire her creamy flesh. With her head angled slightly downward, her hips were raised forcing her bottom up even higher as if it were begging for the feel of his hand.
“Unhand me! Unhand me this instant!”
“I have a feeling you will need to get used to this position once we are married.”
“I will not marry you!”
Asher pushed his large hand between her thighs and stroked her slick cunny, feeling the ample evidence of her desire for him. “Oh you will marry me before this day is out, little one. I am precisely what you need whether you want to admit it or not.”
“Not!” came her stubbornly childish response.
His response was less vocal but equally intense. With swift assurance, his flat hand landed on the rounded curve of her left bottom cheek. The sharp sting of pain caused Charlotte to call out in indignation. This earned her another slap on the right cheek.
Asher watched Charlotte’s ivory bottom blush a hot, warm pink as he brutally punished it. Starting at the sensitive place where her upper thigh met the curve of her bottom, he spanked his errant bride till her screams subsided into cries and pleas. He watched as with each contact of his hand, her little bottom jiggled and jumped but could not escape his discipline.
Charlotte was choking on her own sobs. Never h
aving suffered such an indignity in her life. Her body shook with both outrage and pain. Her bottom was on fire with prickling stings. The longer the punishment continued, the hotter her skin got till she thought she could bear no more.
“Please stop. Please! I’m sorry.”
“No you are not. You are a spoiled brat who has gotten her way for far too long. Well, it ends today.”
Charlotte cried out further as his hand moved to the top of her cheeks. Peppering the area with burning slaps till her whole lower half felt bruised and swollen.
“I’ll be good! I’ll be good!” she pleaded.
Asher set her on her feet before him. Her beautiful eyes were bright with unshed tears. Her pretty cheeks rosy and wet from crying throughout her punishment.
“Turn around and bend over, displaying your disciplined bottom to me.”
Charlotte just stared at him in horror. Asher made a twirling motion with his finger. Reluctantly she obeyed, not wanting another spanking.
“Bend over and touch your toes.”
After a moment’s hesitation, she bent in half and touched her toes. Grateful that her dressing gown had fallen back into place, preserving some modesty if not defeating the purpose of her display.
“Move the dressing gown aside, Charlotte,” he said with rising impatience.
Charlotte, sensing his annoyance, did not hesitate this time to obey. Her face blushed almost as hotly as her bottom as she could feel his steely gaze on that sensitive, formally hidden part of her anatomy.
“Now reach back and spread your cheeks open so I can get a peek at your pink cunny. I want to see the evidence my little one enjoyed her punishment more than she is letting on,” he ordered.
This was too much for Charlotte. She righted herself and turned on him. “I will do no such thing!” Her protestation having more to do with embarrassment at potentially being caught liking the brutal treatment as opposed to false modesty.
Asher grabbed her around the waist and immediately deposited Charlotte’s struggling form across his lap again. Without saying a word, he rained several harsh spanks down on her already bruised bottom. He could feel the heat radiating from her skin with each contact of his hand.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry!” sobbed Charlotte.
“Will you show me your cunny now?” he asked impatiently.
“Yes! Yes! Just stop.”
“Yes what?”
Charlotte struggled to get the scandalous admission out. “Yes, I’ll show you…my…my…my cunny.”
“Good girl.”
Asher once again placed her upright. Without having to be told, Charlotte twisted around and bent in half. Moving her gown aside, she gingerly grasped her burning nether cheeks and pulled them open, slightly.
“Wider,” he ground out.
With a sob, she pulled harder, opening her cheeks further, exposing both her little puckered rosebud and more of her wet cunny. Asher ran his fingers over the seam, teasing her clit by applying just the slightest amount of pressure. Charlotte felt it like a bolt of lightning, causing her to become even more embarrassingly aroused.
“Turn around and face me.”
Once Charlotte was once again facing him, he gave further orders. “On your knees.”
With a slight whimper of fear, Charlotte fell to her knees, crying out when the soles of her feet came in contact with her punished bottom.
“Open your mouth,” he commanded. His intense gaze on her small, pink lips. Charlotte reluctantly obeyed. She had liked his kisses more than she would care to admit, but she knew instinctively he did not intend to kiss her again.
Asher pushed his two fingers, glistening with the proof of her arousal, deep into her mouth. “Suck my fingers. Taste yourself on them.”
The tip of her tongue tentatively swept the underside of his fingers. She was strangely curious.
“Close your lips around my fingers and really suckle them like a good girl.” The sensual command sent a ripple of awareness through Charlotte. She closed her lips over his fingers and drew them deeper into her mouth as she tasted her own musky, sweet essence.
He pulled his fingers free and grasped her by the chin. “You are already mine, little one. The ceremony at the church is a mere formality,” his tone dark and low with determination. Now you have a choice. Marry me in the gown I have provided or marry me stark naked with your red bottom on display for all to see. What will it be?”
Charlotte worried her lower lip. Surprised to see a renewed excitement leap into his eyes.
“I’ll marry you in the gown,” she acquiesced. Her voice hoarse from either crying or arousal, probably both.
“I will send your maid back in. You have till half past the hour to get to the church, or I will come looking for you again.”
With that final warning, he left.
***
The problem with Charlotte was she never truly learned. It was not long after Asher left that her defiant streak once again came to the fore, to her detriment. Despite the abject pleas of her maid, Charlotte chose a different gown other than the one provided by the Duke.
He saw her the moment she crossed into the vestibule of St. Paul’s church. Quickly being ushered into an ante-room to await her walk down the aisle, Asher still caught the flash of sprig green instead of pale pink. With a smile to the waiting esteemed guests already waiting rather impatiently in the pews, Asher stalked down the aisle, no longer hiding the thunderous expression on his face.
Lord Brunswick held up his hands in a gesture of supplication as he saw Lord Asherton’s determined approach.
“She wouldn’t listen. You know how she can be!” he whined.
Asher grabbed him by the shoulders and moved him aside. Opening the ante-room door, he spoke in a tone filled with authority. “No one enters this room. No matter what,” he grated out harshly. “No one.”
Asher turned to face Charlotte. Her smug smile faltered when she saw his tight jaw and hooded angry eyes. She became even more nervous when he turned and locked the door.
Her plan to tweak his ire by choosing to show up at the church but on her own terms in her own gown, now did not seem like such a good idea.
Charlotte could not explain the impulse. Sure, she delighted in giving her parents a hard time and ignoring their rules, but any fool could see Lord Asherton was not someone to be trifled with in such a way. So why did she do it?
Charlotte may have fun lying and teasing those around her but she was always honest with herself. She provoked Lord Asherton because it gave her a rush of excitement to do so. Whether it was the spark of anger and then determination that entered his dark, hooded gaze, the authoritative way he talked to her like no other or how he forced her to his will. It gave her a thrill she would deny to him with her dying breath but not to herself.
The truth was Charlotte had not only resigned herself to this marriage but was looking forward to it almost as soon as she was informed…well, at least by the next day or so. She was foolish to think she could be happy with a malleable man who would not challenge or provoke her. Lord Asherton was far more thrilling than champagne or sneaking out to balls.
Asher could read every nuance of emotion as it crossed her face. The pert chin turned up in defiance and the flashing eyes could not hide the high color to her cheeks or her elevated breathing. His little one was poking the bear on purpose. He smiled as he fingered the smooth metal anal plug in his trouser pocket, purchased just for this possibility.
Charlotte watched as he slowly peeled off his coat. She could see the play of muscles through his thin, cambric shirt. Staring at the sprinkling of dark hair on his forearms as he slowly and methodically unhooked his cuffs and rolled up his shirtsleeves.
“Looks like my little one did not learn her lesson about defying me earlier.”
Charlotte took a step back, glancing to each side searching for another exit not blocked by over seventeen stone of raw, angry male.
“There isn’t one,” he said, reading her intenti
ons.
He took another slow, methodical step towards her, in no hurry despite the hundred guests waiting impatiently on the other side of the door. “Bend over that table and lift your skirts.”
Charlotte automatically placed her hands over her still sore bottom in a protective gesture. “Oh, you wouldn’t,” she huffed. “You simply cannot. I’m far too sore.”
“Lottie, I’m not going to ask you again.”
Charlotte spared a moment to appreciate his special name for her. No one had ever called her by the childish endearment before. It had a strange way of making her feel small and protected in a good way.
“Please, I don’t…” She broke off when she saw his sardonic look and raised eyebrow. Knowing further entreaty would be fruitless, she reluctantly moved to the table. Grasping large handfuls of the now hated dress, Charlotte bent and laid her cheek against the smooth, cold wood surface.
She could feel him approach her. Holding her breath, she waited for his touch. The only sound in the room was her labored breathing and the soft swish of silk as he moved the dress further over her lower back. Asher then slowly drew up her petticoats. Letting her feel the glide of the fabric over her sensitive skin. All that covered her punished bottom was a pair of whisper thin pantalettes. He placed a firm hand on one perfectly crafted globe, feeling the heat from her spanking still radiating through the fabric. Charlotte hissed in a pained breath.
Charlotte felt his arousal push against the crease of her bottom as he reached around her waist for the ribbon tie on her pantalettes. The heat coming from his body almost matching her reddened bottom. She sighed as a shiver coursed through her limbs. He straightened and grasped the band around her waist. Pulling it wide so it would not scrape against her sensitive and sore skin, he worked the pantalettes over her hips and let it drop at her slippered feet.
Taking a moment to admire the deep, red blush on her bottom, Asher could not believe his good fortune. Soon she would truly be his but for now she bore his mark.
“You need to be punished for disobeying me,” he stated flatly. A sob escaped Charlotte’s tight lips. Trying her best to prepare for the fresh onslaught of pain, still confused by her mixed emotions. She screwed her eyes tight and waited for the first blow.