Chapter Twelve
Caroline
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“HOME, SWEET HOME.” Harper swung the front door open and gestured for me to go inside. “For the next week, at least.”
“Thank you for sorting this out, Sir.”
Stepping up to the threshold beside him, I stretched to my tiptoes to skim a kiss on his stubbled chin. Days of unkempt growth had softened the bristles, and pressing my lips against them, I had the sudden desire to find out how they’d feel between my legs.
“You’re welcome.” Tossing the bag inside the hallway, he snaked an arm around my waist. “Honestly, it was more luck than skill. Fabian was in the right place at the right time.”
“I’m fairly sure luck is about opportunity meeting preparation, Sir. Fabian might have provided the opportunity, but you had the money ready.”
“I think you’re being kind.” His palm lowered to squeeze my ass.
“I’m allowed to be kind to the man who saved me.” I threw my arms around his neck as his face lowered to kiss me, my eyes fluttering closed as our lips collided.
In the protracted chaos of the last few hours when we’d discovered we might not have anywhere to stay, there had been no time for real intimacy, but in that moment, we both ceded to its urgency.
We might not have been on our honeymoon, but we were in love, and for the first time, we were free. Those miracles deserved to be honored.
He groaned as I drew away, my palms brushing along the front of his sweater. I wanted him rid of it, needed to see that spectacular body he was hiding beneath his clothes. “I’ve missed you, Sir.”
“I hope it goes without saying that I missed you, too, little girl.” His hand splayed across my backside, reminding me of all the delightful times he’d weaponized that same palm to bring me to heel.
Heat bloomed at the apex of my thighs at the memories, goading me for a reprise.
“Let’s take a look around this place, and then we need to go shopping.
We have no food, and we’ve both run out of clothes. ”
“Very sensible, Sir.” I pressed a kiss on his sweater-covered chest between my palms. “I submit to your will.”
My tone was intentionally sardonic as I met his eyes.
“You’re begging me for a spanking, aren’t you?” His lips curled at the idea.
“Maybe.” Nervous butterflies unfurled in my belly, taunting me to keep pushing until I got what I wanted. I did want the spanking. It had been too long since I’d surrendered to his palm, and I knew how much the submission turned us both on.
“Maybe?” he repeated drolly. “We might have lied to Fabian, but you’re not allowed to lie to me.”
“Okay.” I yielded immediately, my heart rate accelerating as I succumbed. “You’re right. I do need a spanking, Sir.”
“Before we go shopping?” Reaching for me, he tucked the loose strands of my hair behind my ears.
“If there’s time, Sir.”
His lips twitched. “There’s always time to give my little girl what she needs.”
His voice had lowered to that deeper tone I recognized, the one that spoke directly to my clit.
“In which case, yes, please, Sir.”
My tummy was in excited knots as he ushered me inside and closed the door. I barely even stopped to look around the house we were staying in as he swept me into his arms and carried me into the room at the end of the hall.
“Get your clothes off.” Placing me gently on my feet, he scanned the area, which appeared to be the lounge. There was one large, cream sofa, and a coffee table, alongside an enormous flat-screen television. “I’ll find a way to heat the place.”
“I’m fine, Sir,” I reassured him as I tugged at the hem of my sweater.
“I hope you haven’t forgotten how to be my obedient girl.” He shot me a warning look. “Because that’s who I need you to be right now, and if that’s a struggle, this could get tough for your pretty backside.”
“I haven’t,” I vowed as he strode into the hall and discovered the house’s thermostat. I watched as he fiddled with the controls. “I might be a little out of practice, though.”
It had only been two days since I was his prisoner, but the small house in Zurich felt like a million miles from Fortorus.
While I had enough emotional trauma to employ a counsellor for years, the simmering excitement inside me assured me that the moment was a new dawn for us—the first truly consensual spanking I’d ever received.
“Then you’d better remember fast, little girl.” Returning to the doorway, he was every inch my foreboding tormentor as he folded his arms across his chest. “There will be consequences, otherwise.”
I swore my clitoris throbbed at the mere mention of the ‘c’ word. There had been times I’d loathed his consequences, but in the end, he’d always made me ‘feel it’ in the best possible ways.
“The heating is on.” He pushed the door closed behind him with his foot as I shuffled out of my underwear. “And you are just as fucking gorgeous as I remembered.”
My lips twisted at the praise. It had only been a few hours since he’d last seen me naked, but I always appreciated how much he clearly adored what he saw.
“Where do you want me, Sir?”
Drawing my hands to the small of my back, I was suddenly self-conscious. Silly, really, to be uncomfortable around a man who’d already witnessed me at my lowest possible ebb and had still fallen in love with me, but standing there, the growing silence felt strangely stilted.
One cocked eyebrow was the only answer to my question, and acting on instinct, I knelt at the gesture. Oddly, as soon as my knees hit the soft carpet below, a sense of serenity washed over me, confirming that it was the right choice.
“That’s more like it.” His tone was a fraction softer as he headed toward me, his shoes appearing in my peripheral vision like a mirage in the desert. “You seem much happier down there.”
“I am, Sir.”
I smiled as his hand reached for me, his fingers smoothing back the tangled mop of my hair.
Funny how I used to spend so much time obsessing about its length and style.
Since Fortorus, my only concern had been avoiding the plague that was headlice.
As a free woman, who knew what I’d choose to do with the long mane.
“Good.” His digits tightened. “Tell me what you need, little girl.”
Of course he’s going to make me say it.
I bit back my chuckle. The more ignominy I’d endured, the harder Harper had always got, but things had changed. The humiliation still aroused me, but kneeling there for him, the choice to submit was mine. I could kneel or I could stand, just as I could ask for the spanking or choose to get dressed.
The sudden sense of liberation surged through me, forcing me to lift my face to his insistent gaze.
“Please will you spank me, Sir?” There was little embarrassment anymore as he tugged my head gently backward.
“I love how brazen you’ve become, sweetheart.”
Chest rising and falling, I leaned into his hand to reduce the pressure at my scalp. “Thank you, Sir.”
I liked it, too. I’d never known myself so sexually bold before.
“I will spank you, and you will take everything I’ve got to give.” His thumb stroked the side of my temple.
“Yes, Sir.”
That was precisely what I craved. His authority over me, the way it had been in those early days when his word was quite literally my law.
I didn’t miss the oppression, but I missed that sense of belonging to him.
Whatever our new life had to offer, I didn’t want to lose the scintillating power dynamic between us.
“Let’s start over the arm of the sofa.” He motioned to the couch behind me. “On your feet.” His grip softened as I rose on shaky legs and headed to the arm of the sofa. “Good girl.” Releasing my hair, he swatted my ass cheeks twice as I folded over the cool leather. “Legs apart, little girl.”
Settling my head on the cushion, I shuffled my thighs wider, the sense of anticipation building inside of me.
How long had it been since I’d last felt the weight of his palm in any meaningful way? How long since he’d tanned my backside so thoroughly that it tingled when I tried to sit down?
The answer to both of my questions was clear: too long.
“Do you still want that spanking, Caroline?”
His voice thundered over me, but I only smiled into the leather. I loved the fact that, after all we’d been through, he sought the additional confirmation. Sprawled over the leather, I was silently elated.
“Yes, please, Sir.” My hands settled at either side of my face in a show of surrender. Whatever happened next, I wouldn’t try to wriggle away or stop him. I’d just press myself into the leather and—
The intensity of the first smack sliced through the end of the sentence in my mind, forcing my lips to part.
Jeez, I hadn’t been expecting him to start so vigorously.
“You’re right, little girl.” His hand withdrew, landing another three strikes to what felt like the identical place. “It really has been too long.”
I blinked at the ferocity of the strikes, trying to process the pain I was experiencing. “Y-yes, Sir.”
“And if you’re out of practice, as you put it, then it really is down to me to make sure you’re kept up to date with the discipline you need.”
His palm maintained its relentless rhythm, the fast succession of swats switching to my other cheek as he went on.
“Yes, Sir.” I rose onto my tiptoes, trying to offer a different part of my ass for his attention, but he only adjusted his aim to compensate.
“Stay still, please.”
I paused at his sterner tone, unwilling to do anything that might provoke further retribution while I was naked and upturned over Fabian’s sofa.
That was what I’d longed for, after all.
I’d asked to be spanked by Harper, so I could hardly bemoan the reality once he delivered it.
But God, the hurt was harder to manage than I remembered, as though my brain had filtered out all the pain, leaving my memories with only the red-hot recollections of my previous surrender.
Maybe that was how I coped. Perhaps, in the anguish of Fortorus, the light he offered was so crucial that, in the end, I forgave all the hurt and humiliation.
No, the voice in my mind assured me. I learnt to love those things there.
“Why do you deserve to be spanked, little girl?” His booming question commanded my focus back to the present.
Deserve to be spanked?
I wasn’t aware that the crashing of his palm onto my vulnerable flesh was something I merited. I thought I was there because I’d asked to be.
“I... I don’t know why, Sir.” I flinched at the latest volley of strikes, which seemed to pepper my backside from every possible angle.
“You don’t know why?” He sounded incredulous at the concept. “Do you not think answering back and delaying after a command to strip warrants punishment?”
Did it? His spanks were coming so hard and fast that I was finding it difficult to concentrate.
“I didn’t mean to delay, Sir.” Ultimately, that was all I could offer. “I just—”
“You just have an answer for everything, young lady.” His aim lowered that time, presumably intending to wallop my exposed sex.
I yelped at the contact, but my back arched of its own accord, wordlessly seeking more of the same.
“And I don’t mind those answers.” Suddenly, he was there with me, his body folding over mine until one of his hands caught in my hair and his words vibrated into my ear. “You know I don’t, baby, but you must understand that there will be consequences for them.”
Fisting my hair, he yanked my head back and exposed my breasts to the lounge air. “I will love and nurture you, but every time you deserve it, my palm will be right here waiting.”
The palm in question shifted to my right breast, his fingers cradling the mound before trailing a hot line to my beading nipple.
“Because you need this, don’t you, Caroline?”
My eyes fell closed at the exquisite sensation. I could sense my nipple lengthening between his fingers, and I heard the guttural moan escape my throat, although I hadn’t ordered the sound.
“Don’t you?” He pinched the bud cruelly, the intense pain awakening me from the lulling pleasure.
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl.” He nuzzled my nape as, releasing my breast, the heat of his body drew away. “Get your ass in the air. I can’t wait to have you.”