Daring Passion Read Online Free Page B

side. With barely a pause, he whacked there again and again,
until Anne was in a screeching, squealing frenzy. Tears dripped from her eyes,
burning as fiercely as her bottom. She began to sob between slaps.
    The fire he was rousing grew into a flaming torment, so hot
and aching it turned her whole being into liquid heat. She yelled almost
continuously now, inchoate protests and mournful pleas, until she broke down in
exhausted, hopeless tears.
    He ignored those, too, continuing the relentless spanking.
Somewhere deep inside she knew she deserved it, but she still felt chagrined
and humiliated to find herself in this position, with nearly unbearable pain
making her behave in a most undignified way.
    She had no strength or will left to argue or plead with him.
She sobbed continuously but could only manage a few mild yelps when he slapped
several more hard strikes on her derriere.
    She was so sunk in pain and misery, it took her a while to
notice that he had stopped. Sobs wracked her body with shuddering intensity.
    He raised her torso, flipped her over, sat her gently on his
knees and pulled her against his chest. Anne hesitated for a moment, torn
between anger and acceptance, before she wrapped her arms around him, turning
her face into the warm skin revealed in the open V of his robe. Tears soaked
into the fabric and smeared on her face. His fingers combed into her hair and
smoothed along her scalp.
    “Hush,” he said, stroking her back with one hand and her
hair with the other. “It’s over now.”
    “You’ve a…hard hand, my…lord,” she said, between shuddering
breaths. “My bottom will…be smarting for some…time.”
    “Aye,” he admitted. “I regret we had to start our
relationship this way, and I hope I’ll not have to repeat the lesson again
soon.”
    “You must be…very angry with me.”
    He tipped her face up with a finger under her chin, forcing
her to meet his eyes. She didn’t see the anger or disappointment she expected
on his face. The glint in his eyes looked more like humor or pride. “I’d much
rather care for you in more pleasant ways. Such as this.” He leaned down and
pressed his lips to hers.
    His mouth was hot and damp, and the touch made her lips
tingle. It spread down her body, setting her shivering in his hold. He released
her mouth but tightened the arm he’d wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her
closer against him. She breathed in the smell of him, as the hair on his chest
tickled her cheek.
    “Do you hate me?” she asked. “My behavior was perhaps not
exactly fitting for a lady of my station. Of any station, in truth.”
    He dipped his head to kiss her lips again. When he pulled
back, he said, “Nay, Anne, I don’t hate you. In truth, I admire your courage in
acting to get what you want, and flattered that I should be the object of such
maneuvering. I’ve wanted you for wife since first I laid eyes on you. I saw you
in the garden with your lady mother, several years past, the sun in your hair
turning it to liquid fire, your slender shape as graceful and lovely as the
plants surrounding you. I vowed then you’d belong to no other but myself.”
    He ran his fingers into the hair on either side of her face,
combing the wild, loose strands back behind her ears. He kissed her forehead,
temples and cheeks. He nibbled gently on her earlobe. She shivered again when
he trailed a line of hot kisses along the side of her neck, down to her
shoulder.
    He shifted, moving himself and her backward onto the bed
until he could lie full-length with her beside him. Her bottom stung briefly as
it pressed against the bed linen.
    An odd thing was happening. The sting in her derriere was sending
a sort of heat and excitement through her to settle in her core at the slit
between her legs. Her quim started to throb as need, roused earlier and then
doused, woke again. The fire in her bottom stoked the flames of her desire.
    His mouth came down on her breast, teasing the tip with his
tongue,