this morning, you can be damn sure
that I am going to teach you something tonight.”
There was something so menacingly enticing
about his words that she went still.
He laughed again. Even with the thread of
cruelty through it, she thought that she could become accustomed to
how sweet it sounded in her ear. That was before he slid his hand
over her rear.
There was no longer any pain at all on her
rear, but he didn't seem intent on smacking her again. Instead, he
squeezed her round buttock gently, making her purr with
pleasure.
Still keeping the skirt between their skin,
he went between her legs. After a little bit of careful
exploration, his silk-clad fingers found their way between the
folds of her drawers.
She moaned to feel him through the soft
fabric. There might as well have been nothing between them, and to
her humiliation, she realized that she was soaking the fabric
around his fingers. She couldn't help it. Every touch of this man's
fingers made her want more, and she couldn't do anything but
thrash.
When he withdrew his fingers, his laugh was a
little more hoarse.
She could tell that she affected him as
strongly as he affected her, and there was something entrancing
about it. He could do things to her, he could make her sigh and cry
and moan, but even as he did, she was holding him in thrall. It was
a power of a sort, but before she could think anymore about it, he
pulled back.
“Take your clothes off. You won't like what
happens if you make me do it, miss.”
She knelt up, not looking at him. As she
undid her corset, something occurred to her.
“Marigold,” she said stiffly. “My name is
Marigold Morgan,” she supplied archly. For a moment, she thought
that he was going to laugh at her again. For some reason, that
would have hurt worse than the spanking she'd received. She braced
herself in anticipation of it, but his answer was gentle.
“Marigold,” he echoed. “It's a fine name. I
am glad to know it.”
There was something almost courtly about his
behavior, as if they had been introduced at some fine lady's party
or a church picnic, and it almost made Marigold laugh. He had just
learned her name, he was even being sweet about, and right now, she
was shimmying her drawers and her stockings down and folding them
across the single chair in the room.
She started to turn to him to see what he
wanted next, but he kept her turned from him.
“You have no idea what kind of effect you
have on me, Marigold,” he said softly. “You drive me out of my head
and you make me want... well, never mind what I want.”
Before she could question him further, she
found herself pressed down hard on the mattress again. She couldn't
predict this man at all. Perhaps that should have frightened her,
but it only served to thrill her instead.
“I think I should be very afraid of you,” he
growled. “I think a good man has a great deal to fear from a woman
as beautiful as you, don't you think?” He held her down with a knee
pressed to the small of her back and reached for a few lengths of
rope that were hanging on the wall close to the bed.
She moaned softly as he wrapped a few loops
of rope around her wrist and hauled her arm out flat. Before she
could struggle up, he had tied that arm flat to the bed by lashing
it to one of the posts then he straddled her and repeated the
process with each of her other three limbs until she was roped to
the bed. He stuffed a pillow under her hips, lifting her rear up in
the air, and then he stepped back.
“Now that's just beautiful,” he said.
“What, a helpless woman?” she retorted.
Instead of being angry, he only laughed.
“Careful, Marigold,” he said, saying her name
with surprising love. “I can rope you down like a calf, and I can
gag you, too.”
Before she could think of a response to make
to that, his hand was tangled in her hair, massaging her scalp
roughly before trailing down her back. She had never understood
before that her back could be so sensitive,