Page 47

D iana paced the front room nervously. When she’d taken up the riding crop, she hadn’t realized she would need to do more than swat Harrington a few times on the bottom.

Little had she realized how complicated his desires were, and how deeply rooted they were to his inner psyche.

Still, although there were a surprising number of steps, he had given her detailed directions, and she thought she just might be able to pull this off…

She cleared her throat. He had said he would need but a minute to get into position.

Gathering her courage, she opened the bedroom door.

Harrington lay naked atop the counterpane, eyes closed, stroking his erect cock.

Her instinct was to climb on the bed and join him, but she suppressed it. One thing he had emphasized was that the sterner she was with him, the more he would like it.

He had also said that the interlude should commence with her catching him “misbehaving.” It was important that he earn his spanking. She therefore assumed that was how he wanted her to interpret his masturbation.

She narrowed her eyes and made her voice sharp. “Harrington Astley! I specifically told you that I wanted your cock tonight. And yet, here I find you, about to spend without me!”

An expression of purest pleasure washed over his face. “Diana. Oh, my God !”

She ignored him, striding up to the bed. “You leave me no choice but to punish you.” She felt completely ridiculous saying the words, but this was what he had assured her he wanted, so she forced them out. It helped that he groaned, his face a portrait of ecstasy, as she uttered them.

She swatted the outside of his thigh with the crop. “On your hands and knees.”

He complied but gasped, “Not yet. Don’t spank me quite yet. So good, Diana. Draw it out. Please!”

On the one hand, this was reassuring. On the other… draw it out? How on earth was she supposed to do that?

Well, he had been “misbehaving” by touching himself.

Perhaps that was something she could use…

Dropping the crop on the bed, she knelt beside him. Reaching beneath him, she took his cock in her own hand and began stroking up and down. “Is this what you like?”

He groaned in response, head lolling to the side.

An idea occurred to her. “I’ve told you, you’re only allowed to spend inside of me. You’re not allowed to spill on the counterpane.” His cock pulsed in her hand. She stroked him faster. “Don’t come. Don’t come. You’re not allowed to come.”

A dreamy smile washed over his face, as if this ridiculous demand were the nicest thing she could have said to him. “You’re going to make me come.”

“Don’t you dare,” she said, careful to keep her voice strict. “You’re not to spend. You’ll be in so much trouble if you spend.”

“Diana!” He made a strangled sound but didn’t move to stop her from stroking him. “It’s too good! You’re going to bring me off!”

“No. No, no, no.” She timed her strokes to match her words. “Don’t come. You mustn’t come. I will have no choice but to punish you if you?—”

He cut her off with a cry as his body stiffened and his cock pulsed in her hand. Helpless, Harrington shuddered as his seed spilled onto the counterpane. After a moment, his cock, and his body, went limp.

Inspiration struck again. “Oh, dear. Look what a mess you’ve made.”

He turned his head, smiling as if she’d said something wonderful. “You’re not going to punish me for it. Are you?”

She picked up on his cue. “I most certainly am,” she said, climbing off the bed and taking up the riding crop. “Don’t even think of protesting. You know you deserve it.”

He groaned, angling his backside toward her for easy access. She gave him a light swat across the buttocks. “Harder,” he said at once. “You can hit me harder than that.”

She swallowed and tried again. The crop made a sharp snap as it contacted his skin. Harrington moaned, but not in pain.

Encouraged, she swatted him again, and again. The crop left light red marks on his pale skin.

Harrington squirmed in what appeared to be a mixture of pleasure and pain. “Talk to me,” he gasped. “It makes it better when you tell me how naughty I’ve been.”

She spanked him again. “You certainly have been naughty,” she improvised, trying to think of something to say.

She noticed that his staff had thickened again between his thighs.

“And what is this?” She leaned forward and ran the tip of the crop gently up and down his length.

“Why, if I didn’t know better, I would think you were enjoying your spanking! ”

He dropped his head. “God, you’re so good at this!” He glanced at her over his shoulder, his eyes filled with affection. “I knew you would be.”

Relief washed through her. She felt ridiculous, but she was doing this for him, not for her. As long as Harrington seemed to be enjoying it, that was the main thing.

She started to reach for his cock again, but then hesitated, because doing so would require her to put down the whip, and she wasn’t sure that he was ready for his spanking to end.

“What is it?” he asked, sensing her unease.

“I was thinking I should stroke your cock again,” she admitted. “But I also feel like I should spank you some more.”

“Order me to do it,” he suggested eagerly.

Ah. That would work. She made her voice haughty. “Take your cock in your hand, if you like it so much.” She snapped the crop against his bottom. “That’s an order!”

He groaned as he complied. She spanked him twice more. “Look how naughty you’re being, touching yourself when I’ve specifically told you not to!”

This was a patently ridiculous statement, as she had been the one to order him to touch himself.

But, judging by the delighted smile Harrington cast her over his shoulder, it had been the right thing to say.

“So naughty!” she cried, swatting him again with the crop.

“So very, very naughty! Don’t spend. You mustn’t spend. You know you’re not allowed to spend…”

She was starting to feel like she was getting the hang of it.

Harrington certainly seemed to be enjoying her attempts, clumsy as they felt.

She carried on spanking him, telling him all the while what a very naughty boy he was being, until he gasped, “I can be good! Really, I can. Let me make it up to you.”

This was the next phase that he had told her about. When he was ready for the spanking to end, he would offer to make it up to her.

She had a feeling she knew what his method of choice was going to be and felt a damp pulse between her legs at the prospect. But she lifted her chin and tried to sound aloof. “I should like to know how you think you can make up for your abominable misbehavior.”

A soft smile graced his face. He sat up, wincing slightly as his bottom touched the soft surface of the bed. He was already drawing up her skirts. “Let me show you.”

He knelt at her feet, crawling beneath her skirts as he pushed her thighs apart. She must have enjoyed tormenting him more than she’d realized, because when his tongue found her little pearl, she was ready for him.

She knotted her fingers in his hair, not troubling to be gentle as her breath came hard.

“That’s it, Diana,” he breathed against her thigh. “You taste so good. Let me give you some tongue.”

He proceeded to do just that, driving her over the edge in a matter of minutes.

He scooped her into his arms, laying her out on the bed and stripping her naked. “If you think you’re forgiven,” she began.

“Not yet,” he said, smiling as he stroked his hands up and down her arms. “But there’s more I can do for you. Let me show you how good I can be.”

He proceeded to stroke every inch of her body. He kneaded her shoulders. He caressed the length of each finger. He rubbed her feet with firm strokes.

It was relaxing and arousing in equal measures, and when he came to her breasts, he made no pretense of “massaging” her there, instead suckling a nipple into his mouth and titillating her until she was squirming on the bed.

“Harrington!” she gasped, spreading her thighs wide and trying to push his head down where she needed it most.

He grinned. “Oh, do you need a more… intimate massage?”

She tossed her head against the pillow. “You know I do!”

“As my lady commands,” he said in a husky voice, lowering his head between her trembling thighs.

He suckled her until she came again, then insisted on doing it once more. She was, by then, exquisitely sensitive, and it was almost too good, but he went slowly and managed to tease her into a third peak.

Dizzy and disoriented with pleasure, she remembered the final thing he had told her to do. He had said this was the most important step of all—to praise him lavishly after he had “atoned” for his misbehavior. “Good. So very good.”

His head popped up. His brown eyes were bright. “Could you possibly be referring to me?”

“Yes. You’ve more than made up for your previous transgressions. In fact…” She reached for him, opening her thighs suggestively, and made her voice husky. “I would say that you’ve earned a reward for being so very, very good.”

He made a sound of delight as he climbed on top of her. She kissed his neck as he aligned himself with her entrance. “Good,” she murmured between kisses. “So very good to me. Go ahead. Take your pleasure.”

She continued to utter words of praise as he pumped into her, a look of bliss on his face.

As it had when he’d first told her about this part, her heart squeezed at the thought that this was the thing he longed for most of all—to be told that he was good, that he deserved to feel this pleasure, that he was worthy .

He was all those things, even if he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it.

But she was going to convince him. Someday soon.

She would make it her personal mission.

And so, she stroked his back, whispering all the while how wonderful he was, how good he had made her feel, and how much she loved him. It didn’t take long for his motions to become frantic.

“That’s it, Harrington.” She pressed a kiss against his ear. “Come inside me. I want you to feel as much pleasure as you gave me.”

He was pounding against her then. “Diana,” he gasped. “I’m… I’m almost…”

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him tightly. “Come inside me. That’s an order.”

He cried out as he came, his body first going stiff and then being wracked by shudders. Diana clung to him, whispering soothing words as his crisis passed.

She stroked his back as his breathing grew less ragged. When he lifted his head, his expression was content. “Thank you,” he said, kissing her on the lips.

He climbed off her, rolling them both onto their sides and pulling her against him.

“There’s no need to thank me,” she replied, snuggling into his chest. “I enjoyed making you feel good.”

He shook his head. “I can’t believe?—”

Quick as a snake, she brought her hand up and covered his mouth. “None of that.”

Comprehension flared in his eyes, and she removed her hand.

“I’m sorry. You’re right, of course. It’s probably going to take me a while.

But I am going to do my darndest to get it through my thick skull that you do, in fact, want me.

” His voice turned gruff. “And I promise, Diana, I will never turn away from you again.” He laughed.

“You’ve done it now. You’re stuck with me for the duration. ”

She hugged him tight. “Good.”

They fell into a companionable silence. After a moment, Diana yawned. “Now, we just have to figure out what to do about my brother.”

Harrington didn’t respond right away, and she wondered if he had fallen asleep. But when she glanced up, she found his eyes fixed upon the ceiling. “I have a few thoughts on that.” He looked at her, and his brown eyes contained a burgeoning resolve. “I think it’s time I faced my demons.”