Birching His Bride (Domestic Discipline 1) (15 page)

"I'm not sure I need
that one." Edwin grinned wickedly.

"I didn't hear
that," Hugh muttered as he picked up the massage oil to examine it, a thoughtful
look on his face.

"It might not be what
you think it's for," countered Wesley, grinning wickedly.  Edwin
raised an eyebrow at him as Hugh looked up, confused.  "Gentlemen,
there's a whole world of pleasure out there that we have missed out on.  Things
that are acceptable in other cities would require us going to some of the
worst, most degenerate dens of iniquity in this city."

"Such as?" 

"Have you ever enjoyed
a woman's bumhole?"

Edwin shook his head and
Hugh just laughed. 

"Are you saying some
woman actually let you put your cock in her arse?" asked Hugh, still
laughing. "You actually expect us to believe that?"

The white flashing grin on
Wesley's face said that he didn't care whether they did or not. "And she
enjoyed it.  The lubrication helps. As do these." He pulled out a
smaller box and opened it, revealing four objects of increasing size. 

"Those are
dilators," said Edwin, reaching out to touch one of the hard rubber
things. "I saw an advertisement for them in the paper, they're to relieve
constipation."

"Which I'm sure they
do, but they're also quite useful for stretching a woman's rosebud to a point
where she can accommodate a man.  They're all the rage in ah... certain
places."

Edwin ran his finger over
the hard rubber of the smallest dilator, it wasn't much thicker than his finger
and he had a sudden vision of Eleanor on her hands and knees, bottom in the air
as he pushed this strange thing inside of that forbidden orifice.  The
image caused a wave of lust that nearly brought him to his knees and he eyed
the box with new interest.  Although he was quite content with things as
they had become while he and Eleanor were in Paris, there could certainly be no
harm in exploring new vistas of sensuality.  

"And if the woman
doesn't like it, and happens to be a willful spoiled brat, they're rather
useful for discipline." Wesley eyed Edwin, but out of respect for Hugh
(who grimaced) didn't go further into specifics.  The image in Edwin's
mind changed to an Eleanor with bright red buns and a plugged anus and he
coughed a little as he tried to get a control of his wayward libido.  

"What are these?"
he asked, hastily opening another little box in order to change the focus of
the conversation.  Inside were what looked like earrings, but with the
kind of screw clamps that he'd seen used by carpenters, only in
miniature. 

"These beauties are to
adorn a woman's nipples," said Wesley, taking them from Edwin and deftly
demonstrating how to adjust the tension of the prongs with the tiny screws.
 Both Hugh and Edwin were utterly fascinated, both imagining them on very
different feminine forms.  "They will pinch, and the tighter they are
the more they pinch and the less time you can leave them on."  Edwin
had to squash the urge to run upstairs and try them out immediately on his
wife. Considering how much she enjoyed being spanked, even if she never
admitted it and claimed only to be doing so because it was his fantasy, he was
sure that adding a little bite to another sensitive part of her body would
result in the same kind of passion.

"What's in this?"
asked Hugh, picking up the smallest, and last, bottle in the box. 

"That, my friend, is a
very powerful aphrodisiac. Three drops with your wine in the evening and make
sure you have the entire night to indulge yourself or you'll regret it."

Both Edwin and Hugh studied
their friend, to see if he was joking, but there wasn't even the slightest hint
of mirth on Wesley's face. A little bit of ruefulness and a hint of nostalgia,
but it was obvious that he wasn't having one over on them.  

The last thing in the box
was a book, which Wesley said was called the Kamasutra and contained over a
hundred sexual positions, all with their own name. Edwin decided that he would
look at it later, in private or with Eleanor, and the men returned to their
seats. 

"I'm surprised you're
in London, actually, although I'm glad to see you," said Edwin to Wesley.
"But I thought you would be out at Hammersby." Hammersby was Wesley's
main estate now, the seat of his earldom and where the rest of his family spent
most of their time. 

Wesley shuddered. "I
was there long enough to get things in order, but believe me, an escape back to
London was necessary."

"Your mother?"
Edwin guessed, thinking that Lady Spencer had probably taken immediate advantage
of her son's presence to begin encouraging him to do his duty as Earl - which
to a mother's mind always involved marriage.

"Shockingly no,"
Wesley said. "Mother is in Bath with my father's, well I suppose she’s my ward
now.  My brothers on the other hand are both at Hammersby and they are
pestering the daylights out of me.  Matthew wants me to buy him a
commission, he's gone completely army mad, and Vincent wants me to send him to
some school in Italy where he can study art of all things."  Wesley
tossed back the rest of his port in exasperation as both Hugh and Edwin
chuckled and Edwin refilled the glass.  "Of course Father had turned
them down and Mother is completely against Matthew going into the army.
 Vincent claims she was coming around on his desire to travel, if not his
choice of studies.  But they want me to give them permission and funds to
pursue their 'dreams' while she's away dealing with Cynthia, leaving me to face
the music when she finally returns and finds out what I've done."

Both Hugh and Edwin burst
out laughing at the look of resigned consternation on Wesley's face.  They
knew that he would do exactly that in the end, and his brothers probably did
too.  Considering that he had traveled his own path, managing to travel as
he pleased through his own ingenuity and in defiance of his father's wishes, he
would not stifle his brothers now that they were of a similar age as to when
he'd set off.  But he obviously didn't want to be left alone to deal with
his mother's recriminations either.

"Cynthia's your
ward?" Hugh asked. 

"Yes, I haven't
actually met her yet. Mother took her to Bath to slowly introduce her into
Society." He hesitated.  "Matthew said that she's very pretty
but a little wild... apparently Mother thought she might do better away from
the influence of my brothers and in the company of other young ladies."

"I can only imagine
what trouble your brothers might have encouraged her to get into," said
Edwin, grinning. "Can you remember how often we talked Eleanor into doing
things that we were too scared to?"

Hugh laughed. "Like
the time she stole the chocolate tarts that we were supposed to have for
dessert that night?  She would have gotten away with it too if she hadn't
gone back for seconds."

"Which she only did
because Edwin wanted another one," Wesley teased, a smile creeping over
his face as they fell into reminiscing rather than talking about his current
difficulties. 

"And she never told on
us either," Edwin said shaking his head, thinking ruefully about Eleanor's
somewhat misplaced loyalties towards the three of them when they were younger.
 She'd always been tagging along behind them wanting to join in with
whatever they were doing. Perhaps Wesley's ward was experiencing something
similar with his brothers. "How old is your ward?"

"Cynthia? Ah..."

"He doesn't
know!" Hugh chortled.  "What a terrible guardian you are!"

"I've had a rather lot
on my mind," Wesley said in exasperation. "My mother mentioned it to
me but there have been more pressing matters to remember than some schoolgirl
chit's age.  She's close to coming out."

"So she must be
nearing seventeen or eighteen," mused Hugh.  "I wonder if your
mother wasn't worried about a completely different kind of trouble from your
brothers.  Matthew's what, twenty two? And Vincent is nineteen?  And
Matthew said she was pretty."

Wesley frowned,
considering, and Edwin felt a little pang for his friend.  Two years ago
Wesley would have found that kind of situation to be something of a joke, he
would have preferred to think that his brothers were enamored rather than just
leading a young miss into trouble and would have been the first to place wagers
on which of his brothers would steal a kiss from the chit first, or if his
mother would be a stalwart enough chaperon to keep them at bay.  Either
the responsibilities of his position or lessons learned when he traveled had
obviously steadied him and given him a more serious outlook on life; he was
obviously taking the responsibility of a ward more seriously than Edwin would
have guessed. He and Hugh exchanged glances, but Hugh just shrugged and smiled
a little, as if to say that this new more pensive side of Wesley was something
he'd already become acquainted with and was no longer unexpected to him.  

"I suppose I'll have
to check into that too," Wesley muttered. He sighed and rubbed at his
forehead.  

Out of the three of them,
Edwin knew that Wesley had been the least prepared to take up the reigns of the
Earldom.  Hugh's father had begun handing over certain responsibilities to
Hugh when he was only twenty four, making sure that he was familiar with every
inch of the estate and the duties that came with it.  Because Edwin's
parents abhorred the city, his father had begun sending Edwin in to take care
of business as soon as it became feasible, knowing that Edwin rather enjoyed
time in London.  In contrast, Wesley's father had been a rather
overbearing man who had difficulty giving up any kind of control, basically
demanding that Wesley learn the knowledge without every taking an actual hand
in running things.  For someone of Wesley's active nature that had been
paramount to torture and he'd left rather than stayed and learn under his
father's looming tutelage. 

"Your mother seems to
have it well enough in hand, if she's taken the chit to Bath," Edwin said
consolingly. "And it might not be the case anyhow."

"I hope not. Matthew
didn't seem as though he was pining for her and neither did Vincent."
Wesley mused a bit more and then relaxed, his familiar grin spreading across
his face as he looked back at Edwin. "Enough about me.  How's married
life? I have to admit, I always thought Hugh would be wearing the ball and
chain before either of us."

Hugh sputtered a little and
shot Wesley a look, but there wasn't much he could say in his defense. He had
been the first of them to start noticing girls as something more than a
nuisance and he'd certainly been the most romantically inclined.  Neither
Edwin nor Wesley had ever been inclined to remember things like a girl's
birthday or her favorite color, and although they'd certainly used flowers and
such as gifts neither had taken any particular notice of what kind or color of
flowers they were sending.  In fact the only woman that Edwin had ever
paid such attention to was Eleanor and that was because... well because she was
Eleanor.  She'd always been a breed apart to him.

 "Ha, look at
that smile," laughed Wesley and Edwin started a bit with surprise,
realizing that he hadn't actually answered his friend. "You look like a
cat that got into the cream."

"No details
please," muttered Hugh.  Lounging in the armchair like a blonde
Adonis, nothing in his manner gave away any discomfort that they were
discussing his sister and Edwin's relations with her, but that didn't mean that
he would remain so amiable if Edwin started spouting off things he didn't want
to hear.

"Well then that should
answer your question," Edwin retorted.  "Married life is quite
agreeing with me at the moment, although at first I'd had my doubts."

"Hugh said Eleanor
wasn't exactly thrilled with the arrangements at the beginning."
 Wesley chuckled, but his tone was questioning.  As it should be,
they'd all known Eleanor long enough to know that she didn't like anyone
arranging her life.  

"I think she's settled
down now," said Edwin.  He grinned suddenly. "A few spankings
and a trip to Paris did wonders for her attitude.  We had a marvelous
time.  I think she's realized that being married to me isn't so bad after
all."  Although he hadn't quite meant to his voice took on a rather
salacious and masculinely smug tone that any other rake would recognize, much
less his friends. 

“You spank her?”

“Of course,” said Edwin. “I
had to birch her before we left for Paris… she held a dinner and purposefully
chose a menu that practically ensured I didn’t want to eat a bite of it.”

Wesley burst out laughing.
“God, who would have thought she’d do something like that? Ingenious, although
I can barely imagine Nell doing such a thing. I’m sorry I missed that.”

“I wish I had.” Edwin was
smiling though, he was no longer angry over the incident and he could certainly
see the humor in it.  Even admire her ingenuity a little now that it was past
and she’d been duly disciplined for it.  He knew that she ended up truly
regretting it.  “After that I decided we should go on our honeymoon
immediately, take some time to get to know each other again.  I haven’t had to
spank her since.  Although,” his tone dropped conspiritally, “that doesn’t mean
that I haven’t.”