Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
B efore Alice could ask him what her infractions were—he’d seen that spark in the perking of her head—he landed the first slap to her buttocks.
“Ow!” she cried out, startled by the sudden strike.
He spanked her by hand, causing the warmth to grow inside and out and her breath left her with every hard connection. The slap sounded harsher than its delivery, as her backside grew tender and more sensitive with each land from his hand.
“We have five and ten more. How do you fare, Alice?”
“I’m,” she sucked in a breath and squirmed. “ Adjusting .”
“Your buttocks are beginning to glow a lovely shade of rose,” Edward’s voice grew rough and husky with a curious hitch. “I’ve never seen a prettier shade before in my life.”
He allowed her to catch her breath and brace herself; was she truly submitting herself to such treatment? He slapped her harder. This time it hurt enough to make her wonder if she could survive twenty more such blows.
Edward caressed her stinging skin. “Alice, this is not mere punishment for you, you need to look inside your heart and release the emotions. Expunge your emotions, Alice.”
Clenching her eyes, she thrashed against his hold as he continued the relentless spanking. Each blow stung more. The heat on her bottom increased until her skin was on fire.
Something was cracking inside her—she just didn’t know what it was.
The moment she lurched forward, Edward slipped the knot on the rope and spun Alice onto his bare chest, and held her as her tears rolled silently down her cheeks.
Her shoulders were back, hands clenched in her lap as she shuddered. Heat settled in that hollow place under Edward’s chest as she wept. Without any logical reason, he wanted to offer her the world, offer her the very thing he said he would never offer any woman.
If she wanted snow from the middle of the eastern desert, he would damned well find it for her.
“There you are, sweetheart,” he murmured. “Let it out.”
Alice tightened her fingers into his side; he didn’t even mind the soft drips down his neck. “You’ve been carrying this load for so long, it is a part of you now.”
“I didn’t think a-anyone would help.” Her words were a shade louder than a breath.
“But I did,” Edward massaged the hairs at the back of her head. “And I will do it again.”
“Th-thank you.” She took it, pressing her face on his shoulder. “Can you tell me what my infractions are?”
“Leaving your house in the middle of the night with no weapon or protector is count one,” his head craned to the window where a jagged fork of lightning carved the skin in two.
“You took an unnamed hackney who you do not know of who could have abducted you, count two. And coming to me in this wicked weather is count three. Those are your infractions.
“You’ll not risk your neck like that again, and if you do something as foolish as this again, there will be more consequences,” he said sternly. “You are far too important.”
“I won’t,” she murmured. “I promise.”
“Tell me, what are you feeling?” He smoothed his hand down her spine. “What are your senses telling you? What do you feel physically first?”
“The mattress,” she began, her face still muzzled in his neck. “It is soft as a cloud. I feel the chilled air above me, it is soothing over my skin.”
“Good,” he rubbed his cheek over her hair. “And what are you feeling in your heart and mind?”
“Relief,” Alice whispered. “It feels like it’s a river flooding through my veins. But before, it was pure despair. All I could think about was that so little of my life was in my control. That I couldn’t help my sister. That I couldn’t fulfill the promise I’d made to our parents, and that Penelope was going to live a half-life.”
“And now?” He brushed his nose across her cheek. “How do you feel about that?”
“It’s… the worry is still there, but it is not cutting me up inside,” she sighed. “I don’t know what will happen from here, but I know I’ve done all I could do. I suppose there is… there might be more to do, but I—I’ll have to see how that goes.”
Her breath skittering over his skin left a path of gooseflesh in its wake. He slid his fingers into her thick hair, softly meeting her lips to his. “It is time for your reward. Get on your back, Alice,” his tone dropped to calm control.
She turned without question and slipping to the edge of the bed, he placed his hands beneath her knees and spread her legs wide. Her back arched, “What are you doing, Ed— Sir ?”
“What I’ve wanted to do for the longest time,” he soothed, his breath hot on her belly. “You trust me. Yes ?”
“Yes,” she breathed, “with my life. But—but what are you doing?”
Sliding the silken gown up further, he nonchalantly whispered, “I am going to give you the wickedest kiss men give women, and lick up every drop when you come for me.”
“Are-are you—”
His fingers dug into her skin as he swept his tongue over her from her core up to her nub. “ Edward! ” Her voice was a strangled cry that was the sweetest he had heard in months.
He licked her again, slowly, leisurely, and alternated between nibbling at her lower lips and lapping at her opening. She let her thighs fall wider; slowly, he took her swollen bud between his lips.
“ Oh my— ” Her legs kept jerking, no matter how firmly he held her limbs.
“Hold still, Alice.” His nose bumped against her most sensitive spot, and she cried out again. His lips drew away and he put firm pressure on her nub with his thumb. “You look beautiful tied to my bed, Alice. I can see that red hemp knotted all around your sweet little body.”
She writhed beneath him, twisting the bedsheets in with trembling fingers. “It all feels beyond wicked!”
“It should.” He blew a cool breath of air over her damp flesh. “You taste amazing. Like honey and spice. Having you is going to be my favorite dessert.”
He pushed her legs back, licking and suckling at the peak of her sensation; his tongue circled her opening… then thrust inside. In response, she rocked her hips into his thrusts, pulling at her bindings frantically, but when Edward scraped his teeth over her inflamed flesh; she was gone.
Her neck arched; her body shattered around him. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her face and seeing her bliss, ignited his; a jagged spark of lust shot to his erection, making it throb against the taut ridges of his trousers. A low groan interrupted his heavy breathing.
“Edward?”
He looked up. “Don’t mind me. You are utterly beautiful when you are brought to crisis. I almost embarrassed myself just looking at you.” His chest brushed her breasts a moment before his lips whispered across her cheek.
He was so aroused when she faced his voice, in all her despoiled primness and awakened sensuality, that he feared spilling in his trousers like an untried lad.
Rejoining her in the bed, he drew her back onto his chest; the rain now flowing steadily against the windowpane. “You did so well, Alice. I am delightfully surprised that you took a spanking so well.”
“I don’t want Benedict,” Alice admitted indolently. “I—I can’t see a life with him.”
He cocked a brow to her. “And why is that?”
“I swear to you that I never got involved with Benedict on false purposes, but… as we grew closer, I began to see him as a way out,” Alice sounded tortured. “I took him as a path to give my sister a better life and for me to leave the hateful house I had lived in for so long.
“That night in the maze, when you asked me if I loved your brother, I truly did not have an answer for you, because I didn’t know what I wanted,” she craned her head up to him.
But instead of the languid, redolent look he expected to come from her, she looked anguished. “I want you, but I know I cannot have you. Not—not the way I would want it to be.”
Her words rammed right up against the iron-clad barrier that had no marriage chiseled hard into its surface. No, marriage was not for him. Not anymore.
But… is a grudge against your father that much of an impetus to tread the road of life alone? Wouldn’t it be much happier with someone?
Edward ground his teeth and forced his thoughts away. If he traveled down the dark hallways of what-ifs, he would be lost to them.
In a hoarse voice, he continued, “I want you to let go of fear and worry, Alice. I want to give you the rest you sorely deserve. I want you to trust me to give you everything you need—”
“ But you cannot .”
“Only temporarily,” he stroked her hair away and kissed her forehead. “Only temporarily, sweetheart.”
“Alice?” Uncle Richard blinked over that morning’s edition of the Times. “Will you be joining us?”
“Yes, Uncle, I shall.” She unwrapped her cloak. “I took an early morning walk as I had a lot on my mind. You know I am an early riser.”
“Oh,” Richard shook out the paper. “Well, have some tea. I had a long night myself. Your aunt, bless her soul, kept waxing poetic on how well off you will be as a wife to a Marquess, soon-to-be Duke.”
She could only give him a weak smile, “I hope Aunt is not putting the cart before the horse, uncle.”
“No, no,” he uttered. “She is simply overjoyed at you elevating your station and taking us with you. Especially dear Eliza. You know that girl is brimming with anxiety to meet a good man of the ton.”
“After the many ones she rejected,” Alice murmured absently, “I would be lying if I told you I am shocked.”
The crinkle of paper drew her attention from the cup of tea she was preparing, and she found her uncle’s eyes wavering over her. “Why would you say such a thing, Alice?”
She found herself unable to sidestep the truth that everyone in the house was gleefully ignoring. “Uncle, Eliza has had many suitors pass through these doors and not one of them has she accepted. Why do you think that is?”
He frowned and dropped another square of sugar in his tea. “From what the missus has told me, it is because nary one of them was a good fit for dear Eliza. You know how frail she is and how she should be attended to.”
Of course that was his answer. The man was as hen-picked as a bag of corn kernels in front of a chicken coop.
“No, Uncle, it is because she wants more than anyone can offer her, and wants everyone else’s too,” Alice said tiredly. “Your daughter is selfish and spoiled rotten with expectations she ought not to have about a lord. At this point, I believe she could be given a prince sitting atop a pile of gold and jewels and she will want the king on the throne. The last two Lords she courted had first taken an interest in Penelope, but then had their attentions snatched by her out of jealousy, only to be tossed aside a few weeks later, then wanting nothing to do with our family for how they overheard her speaking of them to her friends.”
He dropped his paper, aghast. “Alice! What a horrible thing to accuse of your poor cousin!”
Emboldened, she shook her head. “Yet we all know it to be true. Why are we never allowed to say anything about it? No one will ever be enough for Eliza and until you open your eyes and see that and address it, she will never change, nor will Penelope ever have a chance at a match. Lord knows it was a miracle for myself to find someone that she wasn’t nipping at their heels to steal.”
“Alice!” Richard’s tone dropped. “You are passing your place. It seems that because you are being courted by a Marquess, you are now somehow critical of your cousin. Eliza is simply unfortunate in nuptial matters as you once were.”
“Do you really think so, Uncle, or is that what she has told you?” Alice asked, taking her cup. When no answer came forward, she shook her head, “Please, excuse me.”
Entering her room, she rested the cup on a table and sunk into a chair; Alice found herself exceedingly tired of so many things, especially the hypocrisy in her home. It felt absolutely liberating to have let so many cares drop from her shoulders; Edward had redirected something inside her that finally— finally —felt right.
Settling her tea on her end table near her bed, she undid her cloak and laid it over a chair.
The worry she had carried for so long was tying her up in knots no longer, and while she had not come to a decision in regards to what to do with Penelope’s condition, she could at least allow herself time to breathe.
“Alice?” Penelope stuck her head in the doorway. “May I come in?”
“Sure,” she sighed, her brows lowering. “Are you all right?”
Her sister closed the door, “I am. But I came to your room last night and never saw you. Where did you go?”
Before she replied, she asked, “Why did you come to see me?”
“I felt ill,” Penelope grimaced while pressing a hand to her belly. “I wanted to ask you if you think…” She blew out a long breath. “…I’ve heard talk, whispers really, of a mixture of herbs that can end an unwanted situation… if you get my meaning.”
Alice blinked, then blinked again, then her heart swooped in dismay. “Penelope, I—I don’t think that is the best course of action.”
Her sister slumped into a lone chair, her expression defeated. With her eyes on the floor, she admitted, “I don’t know what to do.”
Reaching over, Alice held Penelope’s hands tightly, “I… don’t know yet, Penelope, but we will think of something.”
Ducking her head, Penelope picked at the sheets, “Lord Brampton, he’s nice.”
“That he is,” Alice sighed.
“I—I wish Rutledge was like that,” Penelope murmured. “But he’s not. I now realize the qualities of a man I should desire. He’s kind and protective.”
“He’s handsome too,” Alice smiled, teasing her sister, knowing it would make her blush.
“He is. I hope—” Penelope scrambled up and clapping a hand over her mouth, darted out of the room with Alice following her in a panic.
She got to the washing room as Penelope emptied her stomach in a pail, the bilious a pale yellow but pungent.
Alarmed, Alice held her sister’s hair back while she kept throwing a look over her shoulder, afraid that her uncle would be alerted to the sound and would come to investigate.
Hands shaking, she lurched again, nausea clearly rolling over Penelope in waves, sweat beading on her skin. Finally, she stepped away from the bowl and rested her head on her arm.
A flood of sympathy washed through Alice’s heart at seeing her sister’s suffering. She filled a glass of water and held it out to Penelope while a flicker of something at the edge of her vision had her turning.
Eliza wrinkled her nose, “Is she contagious?”
“No, Eliza,” Alice said flatly. “You will not contract what she has.”
Her cousin’s narrow gaze flickered from her to Penelope. “What does she have? I heard her losing her accounts last night too.”
“An upset stomach,” Alice lied.
“The lamb pie I had last night for supper did not sit well with me,” Penelope croaked. “And I didn’t have anything this morning yet.”
“Well,” Eliza pattered her bonnet and swanned off. “Just keep her away from me. I cannot afford to get ill.”
Dismissing her cousin with a roll of her eyes, Alice turned to Penelope, only for Eliza to pivot on her feet, “And I heard what you told Father. Don’t think I didn’t.”
Notching her head up, Alice dared her cousin to rebut her words. “Was anything I said out of place or incorrect?”
“It was all rude,” Eliza said stiffly. “So yes, it was all out of place. Years ago, when Mother generously agreed to take you into our home, I thought it would be wonderful to have another girl my age with us so I could finally have some company. Now I know you only came here to stab me in the back.”
Holding her gaze, Alice replied, “I know it is hard for you to hear the truth, Eliza, but nothing I said was a lie and you know it. You have been picking lords and throwing them away as if they were scraps of paper, and none of them are ever good enough for you.”
Blistering anger twisted Eliza’s face into a mask of hatred before it vanished in a moment, and she looked as expressionless as a porcelain doll.
She sniffed. “Well, I guess you have no standards then. Good luck with that Marquess of yours. Something tells me he will go the same way Lord Rutledge did. Do not disturb me, I am busy.” Pivoting on her heels, she strode away.
Turning to a quiet Penelope, Alice rubbed her forehead. “I think you might need some weak tea. Come on.”
“You still haven’t told me where you were,” Penelope whispered.
“That—” Alice looked over her shoulder to make sure no one was in earshot, “—is for another time.”