Claiming His Wife (10 page)

"I hope you don't think that the mere
act of undressing me is going to make me eager for any kind of
amorous acts between us," Grace said tartly, turning her back on
him to hide the tremor in her hands as she began undoing the
buttons on her dress.  They were small and hard to slip
through the loops, which gave her plenty to do.  Just because
she was about to be naked in front of Alex for the first time in
years, that didn't mean she had to act like a ninny about it.
 If he could be unaffected by it, then so could
she. 

"I live in hope, as they say," he
countered, his voice much closer than it had been before.  She
stiffened. 

"I will never be interested in acting
as your wife again."

"You didn't mind when we were first
married," he said silkily.  "You loved acting as my wife
then."

"I wasn't acting, you
bloody idiot," she snapped back, hating the way her body had
responded to his seductive tone.  It felt like something deep
in her core had pulsed in response to the memories of their
lovemaking.  "And that was before I knew you were a lying
bastard."

She shrieked as she was suddenly spun
around to face him, one hard hand on her bicep, her dress gaping
down the front to show the curves of her breasts as they heaved
inside her corset.  The expression on his face had hardened
again, although his eyes did skim over her exposed bosom, before
returning to her face. 

"What did I tell you about cursing and
insulting me?"  There was suppressed fury in his voice,
carefully controlled.

"Let me go!"  Grace tried to pull
away - she honestly hadn't thought that he'd hear her - and
shrieked again as she was pulled forward.  Alex's hand was
firm but not rough as he took the few steps towards the bed and sat
down.  It took him less than a moment to pull her dress down
and let it drop to the floor, before tipping her over his
lap.

A tremor went through her as she tried
to push herself back up, but his hand splayed across the center of
her back, pressing her down to the bed.  She felt cool air
waft over the skin of her bottom as he yanked down her drawers as
well, leaving her cheeks completely bare.  

"I'm sorry, okay,
I'm
sorry
," she
said, trying to wriggle away.    

This was far worse than in the
carriage when her skirts had been over her head, giving her a
feeling of anonymity and protection, even as Alex had spanked her
exposed arse.  Without her dress on, with her drawers already
fallen around her ankles, she felt horribly exposed.  She
sincerely doubted that this was going to be anything like the
pleasurable spankings that Eleanor had hinted around.
 

The first hard slap to her
bottom only confirmed that and Grace gasped, barely able to draw in
a breath before Alex's hand came down again, just as firmly on her
other cheek.  The swats came hard and fast, so that he landed
four blows on her creamy buttocks before she even had time to
shriek.  They were sharp and stinging, and the damned man was
landing them on the same two spots over and over again. Damn Hugh!
He hadn’t had to show Alex how to do this!

Grace wriggled under his
other hand, crying out as he continued to pepper her bottom,
focusing his discipline on the center of each of her cheeks.
 The two spots felt like they were on fire, smarting and
stinging as he smacked his palm against them over and over again.
 It burned, and she was starting to wish that he would spank
her anywhere else… any other part of her bottom, just to spread out
the punishment. His relentless focus on those two specific spots
was undoing her far faster than the spanking in the carriage
had.

"Please Alex, I'm
sorry
, I won't do it
again, I promise," she begged between cries and sobs.  Her
legs kicked uselessly and she tried to reach back to stop him -
since this time her skirts weren't in her way - but he just paused
to catch her hands and press them down into the small of her back
before resuming the stinging blows.

"No, you won't," he
replied, his voice hard as he did his best to hide his arousal from
his squirming, crying wife.  Not that he took pleasure in her
pain, but there was something gorgeous about the two bright red
splotches on her creamy, quivering bottom.  "I won't tolerate
insults, Grace.  There are other ways to show you're
displeased with me which are much more productive."

Something about the way she cried out
then made him sure that she wanted to yell another insult at him,
but she didn't.  She just squirmed and begged, trying to
placate him with apologies, what Hugh had described as a "spanking
chant;" a series of meaningless pleas and promises that fell from a
woman's mouth to try and stymy her punishment.  Alex had
gotten a much more in depth lecture from all of the men that
afternoon in the library, as they'd compared notes on the kinds of
discipline they'd meted out and what was most effective.

He supposed that he should be thankful
Grace wasn't like Cynthia.  Unlike Wesley, he didn't feel
confident enough to wield a strap or a cane.  Edwin's creative
use of a spoon sounded much more his style.  

Deciding that Grace had
probably had enough, he gave the bright red spots on her ass two
more sharp slaps each, holding her in place as she bucked in
response, and then he settled his hand down over one of her heated
cheeks.  Sensing that her punishment was finally over, Grace
slumped across his lap, sniffling, although she'd finally stopped
squirming.  Which was surprising, he'd thought the moment he'd
finish that he'd have to hold on to her to keep her from running.
 

Remembering another suggestion the
other men had made, he let his hand begin to slip down to the plump
lips between his wife's legs. 

"Alex!  NO, STOP!"  Grace
squealed, bucking again.  Which only made her cunny press
against his fingers, and he knew immediately why she'd wanted him
to stop. 

The others had been right.
 She was wet.  Her pussy had creamed as he'd spanked her.
 Despite her protests and pleas, some part of her had liked
everything he'd just done to her - hell,
loved
it, from the feel of her.
 

"Well, well, well, what do
we have here?" he murmured, dipping his finger into her soft folds
and swirling his finger again.  It was torture for his cock,
to know that her heated quim was so close, yet quite sure that he
wouldn't be burying himself in heaven tonight.  Grace moaned
in humiliation, hanging her head as much as she could in her
current position as she tried to close her legs and force his hand
out.  She wanted to keep fighting, but at the same time, she
didn’t want to incite him back into spanking her. Worse, she didn’t
want him to stop what he was doing. It felt so good, so right, to
be touched by him.

He let his finger slide further,
finding the swollen pleasure pearl and rubbing against the
sensitive bud while she gasped and writhed.  

"Alex,
please
."  The husky, throaty
plea made his cock throb even harder, and he knew he was already
seconds away from cumming.  Months of abstinence combined with
Grace over his lap, slick and ready for him, her bottom red from a
spanking, had done that to him.  

"Please what?  Are you ready to
beg for me Grace?  If you want me in your bed, all you have to
do is ask."

She shuddered, and he
swore he could hear her teeth grinding together, right before she
made a sound like a little growl. Even though she was aroused and
had been right on the point of begging, his reminder had her pride
rearing back up with a vengeance.  Drawing a small circle
around her clit with his forefinger, he slid his thumb into her wet
hole as he tormented her a little bit more, feeling the tightness
of her inner muscles clamping down on him.  She gasped, but
she still didn’t say yes, she still held herself back.

Then he sighed, letting his
disappointment fill his voice.  "I suppose not.  Very
well, Gracie."

With great reluctance,
Alex pulled his hand away from the soft heaven between his wife's
legs and released her wrists.  It took a moment, and then
Grace pushed up and away, both of her hands in front of her
mons
as if to cover
herself from him, since her drawers were pooled around her ankles.
 The red heat in her cheeks wasn't only from embarrassment, he
would wager his title on that.  

As she stared at him,
breathing heavily and looking like a chaotic mix of confusion,
anger, embarrassment and passionate arousal, Grace's mouth opened
and closed several times.  Very deliberately, Alex brought his
thumb to his mouth, making sure that she could see her juices
coating the digit, and then he sucked it between his lips.
 The sweet, musky taste of her exploded on his tongue and he
felt the ache of it all the way into his kidneys as his cock and
balls tightened even further.

"You still taste
delicious, Gracie," he said, after pulling his thumb back out of
his mouth.  He wasn't at all averse to showing her how much he
desired her.  Especially because right now he was sure that
she desired him too.  Her pretty pink lips made a small 'o' of
shock as she blinked, completely stunned.  Alex grinned at
her, feeling so much like his old self that even his aching cock
didn't bother him.  "Turn around, sweetheart, and I'll undo
your corset so that you can go to sleep."

Surprisingly, she didn't argue with
him, she just turned and he was treated to the sight of the hem of
her chemise hovering over her spanked bottom.  The sheer
material did nothing to hide the bright red splotches from his
gaze.  It was quite erotic.  

Very quickly, Alex undid his wife's
corset.  Knowing that he wasn't going to find relief with her
tonight, he wanted to touch her as little as possible right now.
 He had no desire to torture himself any further.

The unlacing of her corset should have
made it easier for Grace to breathe, but she still felt utterly
breathless.  Her bottom was throbbing on its fiery surface,
but that was nothing compared to the hot, pulsing need between her
legs.  Part of her wanted to throw herself at Alex and just
sate the need.  If she thought she could give her body to him
without endangering the walls around her heart, she would… but she
wasn’t sure of her defenses at the moment. 

Alex’s gentle hands as he unlaced her,
the way he’d aroused her after punishing her, had her completely
off-kilter.  When he turned her to face him again, she found
that she couldn’t look up at him.  The hard shell that she’d
cultivated over the years, that she’d clung to the past few days
she’d spent in his presence, felt like it was crumbling around
her. 

“You took your punishment very well,
but no more insults, Gracie.  I won't tolerate it,” Alex
murmured, pressing his lips against her forehead.  His hands
were gentle on her shoulders, sliding over the thin fabric of her
chemise.  “Next time I’ll use a hairbrush.”

She shivered, wondering how he could
sound so threatening and so tender at the same time.  The spot
on her forehead where he'd kissed her felt feverish.  Part of
her wished that he would hold her again, comfortingly, the way he
had after he'd spanked her in the carriage.  

Instead, he released her and walked
over to her dresser, pulling out one of her nightgowns.  Grace
let him dress her like a doll.  Everything felt surreal, as if
she was dreaming rather than being awake.  Except that her
bottom hurt too much for this to be a dream.  

"Grace..."  Alex's voice was
deep, seductive.  "Tell me you want me."  She looked up
into his glowing eyes, and for one horrifying moment she felt
herself weaken.  The shock of it made her jerk away and she
shook her head, clutching her arms, thankful for the covering of
her nightgown.

Whipping around, she fled to the other
side of the bed and practically threw herself under the covers.
 She didn't trust her voice right now.  Why being spanked
lowered her defenses so much, she didn't know.  She would have
thought that it would make her even more determined against him,
but for some reason it made her feel almost cared about.  Of
course, his behavior after punishing her might have something to do
with that too.  While she didn't like the spanking, and she
was shocked at her arousal even after hearing Cynthia's brazen
report, she did like the comfort and praise he gave her afterwards.
 Somehow she felt closer to him.

Which was just idiocy on her
part. 

Closing her eyes, she
tried to even her breathing, hoping to force herself into sleep
before Alex finished with his nightly ablations and joined her in
the bed.  

Glancing over at the lump
of sheets that covered his wife, Alex stifled a sigh.  She was
on her side, he could tell, probably protecting her bottom from any
further stimulation.  Part of him had hoped that she'd relent
and let them at least join together physically.  A woman who
was well satisfied in bed was halfway to being well-satisfied with
her life.  He wanted to connect with her again, and the best
way he knew how was physically.  Even when he'd been younger
and less cynical, he'd always had trouble expressing himself in
words.  

His cock was still
throbbing painfully, and as he stripped down he could see that it
was a dark, angry red color.
He'd seen
plenty of women naked before his marriage, and in the years after
it, but none of them ever caused the same kind of reaction that
Grace did.  That pale, creamy skin made him want to search out
all of her sensitive pink parts with his tongue.  Hours could
be spent, worshiping her from head to toe, discovering what spots
made her whimper and what spots made her moan.  Helping her
change her clothes had been torture, but well worth it, just to see
her bared to him again.  
Glancing
over his shoulder to make sure Grace was still facing away from
him, he picked up one of his handkerchiefs.  Gritting his
teeth, he faced away from her, leaning one hand against the vanity
as he wrapped the handkerchief around the turgid rod and began to
pump his hand.