Chapter Eleven
Emily
Seven strikes to her bare bottom, and Emily was seriously reconsidering her ridiculous infatuation with Wylder St. Clair.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, landing silently on the floor beneath her head.
After informing her she would be expected to count the blows upon the next occasion of punishment, Wylder enumerated each time his palm landed on bare flesh with frightening calm.
The muscled hardness of his body, his arousal jutting like newly forged iron into the soft skin of her belly, were strange elements she readily accepted.
The thought that the earl found this pleasurable was confusing, but no more bewildering than her own body’s response.
It hurt badly enough that she wept softly with barely audible gasps.
But the sharp sting was also melting into a strange ache of sorts between her legs. It was a building of pressure that must explode somehow, or else she would go mad.
“That’s ten, Emily.” His voice reached through the roaring inside her head. Dazed, she realized one of his hands now rested on the curve of her buttocks while the other kept her bound hands anchored in the small of her back. He was no longer counting out loud and his hand was still.
It’s over? It seemed he had just begun, and yet it also felt like an eternity since she’d placed herself across his lap.
“You did so well, my sweet. And as proud as I am of you, I do hope you learned a valuable lesson from this.”
Something inside Emily came alive in a rush of sensations.
It was an astonishing burst that lit her from the inside out until she was sure she must be glowing.
The unexpected praise, his admiration that she’d taken his punishment without calling out that single word, sent her floating and adrift on a sea of pleasure.
But even as she luxuriated in the experience, her body was alive and aching for more.
More.
“Please,” she whispered, instinctively knowing that she should not move until Wylder gave her permission to do so.
“Poor little minx,” he murmured, a thread of sympathetic amusement in his tone.
“You want more, don’t you? I know that if I touch you between your legs right now, you will be wet for me.
Like creamy honey dripping onto my fingers.
” His fingers squeezed one round globe of her arse.
“Your skin is such a lovely shade of pink. Like the inside petals of a red rose.”
Emily quivered, wishing he would touch her where the ache was the worst. She squirmed a little, which made Wylder heave out an agonized grunt.
“You’re tempting me to forget the rest of your lesson, Emily. Be warned that I will not be swayed by the sight of your pretty arse wiggling in my lap,” he laughed ruefully. “This night is for you.”
“Will you take no pleasure for yourself, then?” she choked out as his fingers suddenly swept across her nether lips. She nearly bucked off his lap. “Oh, God…”
“Be still for me, Emily.” He began tracing the damp folds of her flesh, his thumb finding the button of nerves as he’d done in the Jacobsons’ front parlor only a couple of hours before.
Oh, goodness. This was a thousand times better in Emily’s opinion.
She could feel his body beneath hers as she settled into the caress.
She reveled in his harsh breathing and the groans he couldn’t quite contain every time she moved.
Closing her eyes, she let him build her orgasm to a peak, and when she cried out in helpless satisfaction, Wylder reached over and covered her mouth with his hand.
“Shhh,” he chuckled. “We don’t want anyone to overhear, remember?”
Emily swallowed her whimpers as the waves ebbed and undulated inside her veins. A moment later, she felt a tugging on the cravat still tied around her wrists. She’d forgotten she was still bound.
After pulling the strip of silk free of her hands, Wylder pulled Emily upright, swinging her around so that she was cradled in his lap.
For a long moment, he held her, his hands softly caressing her body.
Her head fell back against his shoulder, and she smiled in contentment as Wylder swiped her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.
“Your tears, little minx, are sweet as wine.” He licked his thumbs before sliding his one hand around the nape of her neck. Sliding his tongue deep into her mouth, he kissed her with languid possessiveness. “Everything about you is fucking delicious. And I’m ready to taste the rest of you.”
*
Emily pulled on the cravat, but it was no use. It held tight, her hands tethered above her head and lashed to the bed’s headboard. Lower down, her feet were similarly tied with the sash of her own robe, rendering her completely immobile.
Wylder watched her test the restraints, his eyes glowing with appreciation for the scandalous sight of her trussed up on her bed. When she met his gaze, his mouth curved into a satisfied smile.
“You are not too uncomfortable?”
“N-no,” she mumbled, still dazed by both the spanking and the orgasm that came after. She’d lain in a complacent stupor as Wylder worked to secure her limbs. Even if she wished to voice a protest now, the words died on her lips, wrangled into submission by her own desire for this man.
“Good. I do not want this to be painful for you, and if you obey my instructions, it won’t be. Do not tug on the restraints as it will undoubtedly leave marks behind that you will not be able to explain. My wish is that you lie completely still as I worship you, Emily. Can you do this for me?”
“Yes, my lord,” Emily breathed, entranced by his possessively tender care. The combination was a fatal blow to her soul. Was he like this with all of his lovers? The thought struck a violently possessive note inside her, one she tried and failed to squelch.
“Then I shall begin. The hour is fast approaching when I must leave you.”
Emily frowned, the reality of his departure intruding on the fantasy created the moment he entered through the balcony doors. “How shall you get away with no one seeing you?”
He chuckled at that, coming closer to the bed and lightly pinching her chin between his forefinger and thumb. “That is hardly your concern, my sweet. You must simply focus on me as I explore your body.”
Leaning over, Wylder pressed a soft kiss to her mouth, but when Emily eagerly responded, he drew back. His gaze raked her body, his fingers trailing from her chin to her throat and then tracing the line of her collarbone. She swallowed hard as goose bumps rose as if to guide his touch.
“You are so damned beautiful, Emily. I have dreamed of this moment for so long, it does not seem real.” He lightly encircled one of her pebbled nipples and Emily moaned.
“I’ve long wondered what color your nipples would be, and the reality is so much better than my imagination.
They are the loveliest shade of coral.” Bending down, he traced his tongue over first one then the other.
Emily’s body tensed with a flood of pleasure, her hands clenching and unclenching as he drew one aching tip into the inferno of his mouth.
As she shuddered beneath the onslaught of his teeth and tongue, Wylder feasted on her breasts, shaping and molding them in his hands, teasing her with little bites and a sucking motion that had her hips tilting higher to the limits of the restraints.
“So sweet,” he murmured. “So responsive to my touch.”
Emily blinked up at him, lost in the sensations as he carefully crawled onto the bed and settled between her open legs.
She wanted her hands free. She wanted to caress the beauty of his masculine form, to commit the hard, angular lines of his chest and abdomen to memory with her fingers and her mouth.
She wanted to rake her hands through the thick wealth of his dark hair and delight in the silk waves as they tumbled over her fingers.
She wanted all those things and more, but blast it, she’d allowed Wylder to restrain her, and he showed little interest in releasing her.
Hovering over her body, Wylder kissed her ribs then her stomach, his mouth soft in its exploration. His hands moved down, framing her hips and grasping the curved lines as he held her steady. Emily moaned again, her lower body lifting in anticipation.
“Wylder? I want to touch you, too. Won’t you let me?”
“Not this time, minx.” He said nothing more as he brushed hot, lush kisses across her lower belly, his fingers slipping beneath her body. Gripping her tender buttocks, he used his tongue to part the tender folds of her vagina then licked her flesh in one scorching hot caress.
“Oh, my God…” Emily gasped, arching into his mouth in shameless, greedy abandon. “Wylder… it feels so good…”
He responded with a low growl of satisfaction, his mouth fastening over her intimate core as he proceeded to devour her.
His tongue swiped and probed, applying pressure then backing off until Emily thought she was slipping over the edge into madness.
Once he had worked her into a frenzy, his wicked tongue lashing at her swollen clit, he slid a finger inside her, stopping just short of full insertion.
The fullness this created, combined with the exquisite torture of his mouth working her clitoris flung Emily into the stars.
When Wylder crooked that finger, rubbing an internal spot with relentless intent, she could not contain the muffled scream that escaped her.
Her body clenched around his digit as she exploded, and Wylder grunted as he lapped up her release and shallowly pumped his finger in and out of her until the orgasm subsided into tremors that racked her body.
Lifting her head from the pillows that propped her up, Emily stared at the man crouched between her thighs in wonderment. What he’d just done to her was the most wonderous experience of her life. She wanted him to do it again.
After a moment, Wylder paused from licking her flesh clean and gave her a wicked grin over the flat plane of her belly.
“That—” Emily struggled to find the right words. “That was amazing.”
“If it felt anything like you taste, then I must agree, little minx.” He licked her again, laughing when her eyes fluttered shut. “And since I’m now hopelessly addicted to your taste, I should warn you that I intend on doing that again.”
“I don’t mind,” she admitted shyly, her breath coming in fast pants for air.
“Not as if you have any say in the matter, bound as you are and at my mercy,” he chuckled low, making sure she watched as he sucked his fingers clean of her juices. “Let’s see if I can make you come again in half the time of your last climax.”