Chapter 21 #2
“Be quiet, Lilian,” Cecily told her. “I was explaining to your father that you made a mistake. You overheard Mary and me talking yesterday about how your father deserved some punishment, and you began suggesting outlandish ideas for such punishment. I believed you had forgotten this, but you had not.”
Lilian blinked, seeming surprised. Cecily had the terrible feeling that the little girl had been expecting some kind of praise, at least from her.
Oh, the poor little creature!
“Let me get the facts straight here. Lilian, you put eggs in our shoes?” Nathaniel demanded.
“Yes, I did,” the child declared, pushing out her lower lip stubbornly. “I wish I’d put spiders on your pillow too, and worms in your washbasin, and…”
Nathaniel’s face darkened further, and Cecily knew he was close to another outburst. Meanwhile, Lilian only glared at him provokingly, eager for even this kind of attention.
“Miss Osborne, take Lilian back to the nursery. There will be no outdoor play today,” Cecily ordered, praying that Nathaniel would not overrule her.
While he still seemed to be seething, and his deep blue eyes were now fixed intently on her, he let his daughter and governess retreat.
Despite complaining about unfairness, Lilian thankfully made no objection either and let her governess remove her from the scene.
“You may all go, except for my wife,” Nathaniel growled once the child was out of earshot. “Rogers, take my shoes and my brother’s and do what you can with them. Cecily, come with me now.”
Swallowing but keeping her head up, Cecily followed him into his study. One way or another, this was not going to be an easy conversation.
* * *
“Lilian only wanted your attention,” Cecily blurted out as soon as the study door closed, deciding to take an offensive rather than defensive approach. “You must not rise to her pranks. It will be punishment enough for her to stay indoors on a day like this.”
“Rise to her pranks? Am I not entitled to be angry when I find my shoes filled with eggs? Would you have me smile and walk around in them?”
She could see that Nathaniel was still very displeased, but the worst of his temper was spent.
“You might calm down for an hour and then go and talk to her about why this was wrong,” she returned. “I understand why you’re angry, but Lilian is a child, and you are not. These things sometimes happen in a house with children. They overhear and misunderstand.”
“You wanted to teach me a lesson, did you?” Nathaniel demanded. “Wasn’t that what my daughter overheard and misunderstood?”
“Yes, maybe I did say that I thought you should be taught a lesson,” Cecily admitted, her emotions also running high but thankfully under control.
“In any case, the important thing here is that the idea came from me and not from Lilian. Aren’t you going to even ask me what lesson I thought you should be taught? ”
His midnight-blue eyes were very intent upon her as he contemplated what she had said.
“No, but I have another question for you, Cecily,” he said slowly, his expression inscrutable. “If you are saying that all of this was actually your fault, isn’t it you who should be punished instead of Lilian?”
“If you like,” she answered, more lightly than the situation warranted.
At least poor Lilian was out of this conversation for now. It really would be far better to speak to her once everyone was calm and she’d had time to reflect on her actions.
“If I were going to spank anyone, for example, should it be you?” Nathaniel suggested, folding his arms and holding Cecily’s gaze.
“I beg your pardon?” she sputtered, her color rising and her heart skipping a beat. “Did you say spank?”
Nathaniel nodded.
For a moment, Cecily thought she saw the twitch of a smile at the corner of his mouth, but then it vanished.
“Since you are willing to take the punishment for this,” he said, apparently taking her silence for agreement, “go to my desk and bend over, Cecily.”
What was happening?
Cecily’s mind and heart were both caught in a whirlwind of confusion, shock, and strange curiosity.
Although Nathaniel’s hair was still tousled and his clothes as rumpled as ever, his face was very calm now, and there was neither anger nor threat in his stance. However, there was a strange authority that, in this moment, made her long to submit.
“You heard me, Cecily,” he prompted. “Only last week you stood at the altar and promised me your obedience. I want you bent over my desk this minute.”
No words came to her lips as her heart raced in her chest and her blood rushed in her veins. Despite her confusion, it seemed her body did know obedience.
Approaching the wooden desk, she stood before it breathless and bent forward.
“That’s right. Now, grip the wood with your hands,” Nathaniel instructed. “You are going to be spanked, Cecily. Not hard, but just the way you deserve. Do you understand?”
No, she understood nothing, but still she nodded.
Behind her, she sensed Nathaniel’s presence. His hands stroked her buttocks slowly and then slid downward before lifting her skirts and tossing them up over her hips.
Good God, he had her bare to the waist in his study! What if anyone came in or passed by the window?
Such questions were evidently not at the forefront of his mind right now.
Cecily whimpered as she felt the warmth of his hands on her bare buttocks, caressing rather than striking as he bent over and whispered in her ear, “Spread your legs a little wider, Cecily, and hold on tight.”
She did as she was bidden and then stood several moments in tense, agonizing anticipation, lewdly displayed before her husband and waiting for what would come next.
“Ah!” she cried out at the smack of his palm against her sex, swiftly followed by two more smacks. “Oh! Ooh!”
“How lovely you look like this, Cecily,” Nathaniel told her unexpectedly, his voice breathless and rough.
She was unable to reply, overwhelmed by the volley of spanks landing on her plump, naked flesh.
After the first salvo of quick strikes, Nathaniel spanked her more slowly, more rhythmically, and more deliberately. Cecily realized that she was now panting and crying out in exactly the same way as she had done in his bedroom with his head between her thighs.
“Good girl,” he crooned, pausing to caress her heated skin. “You are so perfect, Cecily.”
She cried out his name as his fingers suddenly dipped down to her slit and explored her wetness.
“Obedience deserves to be rewarded, don’t you think?” he whispered in her ear, once more pressing against her back.
Could he take her right here and now, like this? Would he? Cecily knew she would welcome it if he did. But that was apparently not what he had in mind.
His fingers parted and explored her before finding the swollen bud at the apex of her sex. He nuzzled her neck while his other hand cupped her breasts.
Before long, Cecily came undone with a long wail of pleasure, grinding her sex against his hand and her bottom against the throbbing shaft in his trousers.
Nathaniel nuzzled her neck again as the throbbing ecstasy in her core and belly dispersed through her whole body in waves.
“Oh, Nathaniel,” Cecily moaned, lost in sensation and unable to put together most of the questions she wished to ask him. “Nathaniel…”
“Did you enjoy it?” he asked, kissing her cheek and lips gently as she rested her head on the desk.
“You know I did,” she murmured. “When you touch me as you do, I can hide nothing.”
“I didn’t hurt you?”
“No, I trust you.”
It was true, despite everything. At least physically. Her body seemed to trust him completely, and her mind had learned that he was a man of his word. Only her heart held her back now from complete surrender.
“You are perfect, Cecily,” Nathaniel breathed, kissing her hair and gently fondling her breast.
“When are you going to take me?” she blurted out and then blushed at her eagerness. Although it was surely ridiculous for any woman to blush while so entangled with a man.
“Soon enough,” Nathaniel promised her with a growl of barely restrained lust.