Page 36 of Desire and Discipline
Taking a deep breath, she reversed the strike, taking him across the other shoulder with a quick snap that left her feeling breathless. This time, his head tipped back, and he did groan, flexing his muscles and rolling his shoulders before his head fell forward again. It was a movement she recognized, though she could hardly believe she was seeing it.
She’d dismissed the bulge at the front of his breeches as an anomaly, perhaps just due to their surrounds. Certainly not because he was actually aroused by the idea of submitting to her.
The signs were all there, no matter how she tried to dismiss them. He was attracted to her and aroused by her domination of him. She wished she didn’t know because she knew that meant she should stop this madness. Immediately.
But she didn’t truly want to.
Oliver
Had he overplayed his hand by showing his enjoyment of the lick of leather against his skin? His ears strained, listening, trying to figure out what she was doing. Wondering if she was taking her time or if she’d paused because she was going to stop after hearing him moan. He’d thought about trying to stifle it, but the fact was he wanted her to know that he was enjoying himself.
He'd wanted her to be able to hear it.
To see how she’d react.
Because despite her presence here and her willingness to take up his challenge, he was unsure of how she felt about him specifically. And he wanted to know. Now that he knew her preferences, now that he knew she was part of the Society, it was as though the fetters holding him back had finally been released.
Some gentlemen older than him took brides who were much younger than her. It was her presumed innocence that had always held him back. Some spinsters took lovers, but she had never struck him as the type. She’d always held him and every other gentleman that he’d seen her with at arms-length.
And if she had had a lover—or taken one—while in his employ, he would have known about it. He might be the former spymaster to the Crown, but he still had plenty of informants at his fingertips for whatever he might want to know. His employees were under his protection, and if he kept a closer watch on his nurse than he did a footman… well, she was a lady, after all. Not entirely a member of his household, and therefore, she needed extra protection.
That was how he excused it to himself, anyway.
“Was that it?” he asked over his shoulder when the waiting became interminable. Was he deliberately pushing her? Absolutely. If she was having second thoughts, he did not want her to dwell on them for overlong.
She had already shown some reluctance, though he noted it was more due to what she likely thought was proper as opposed to not being attracted to him. If anything, she was fighting her attraction. He did not want her to.
What had felt forbidden had now become pure temptation, and he wanted to give in. All he had to do was convince her to give in with him.
Rather than answering him verbally, the leather snapped against his skin. She must have taken a step back because now only the ends were hitting his skin, which made them far stingier. Which he liked just as much as he had the more thuddy sensation.
He’d missed the feel of the flogger in all its myriad forms.
Knowing it was Diana behind him added a different element to the situation he’d imagined when he’d decided to attend the masquerade this evening. It was far better than how he’d thought his evening would go.
The flogger fell again and again, stinging his skin and lighting him up from the inside out. He groaned more than once, shuddering as he sank into the sensations, the hard bulge of his cock rubbing against the wood in front of him.
Bloody hell.
Closing his eyes, he could picture her in his head, wielding the flogger with all the skill of Artemis with her bow. The longer it went on, the surer he was that she was a very practiced hand. She was not a novice. His cock was rejoicing as much as his fantasies.
“Was that better?” she asked, her voice silky.
A gentle hand swept over his shoulders where she’d been flogging him, caressing the heated, tenderized skin. The sensitive surface tingled as she touched him, making him groan again, but this one, he held back now that he was more aware of her sensitivities. He recognized what she was doing—it was not so much a sensual touch as checking in to see how he was faring.
“Yes, my lady. More, please.” He asked because he wanted it. Because he didn’t want her to stop. Because he’d never asked her for anything before, and he wanted to see if she would indulge him.
There was a pause, a hesitation in her hand, before she removed it. For a moment he did not know what her answer would be, and he held his breath, waiting to find out.
“Very well, then.”
3
Diana
This was madness she should put a stop to right now… but she could not make herself do so because she’d heard the true need in his voice when he’d asked for more. Moreover, she could not recall him ever requesting anything else of her. He’d ordered her to stay on when she would have declared him fully recovered; he had not asked her to stay.
She would have not considered it in his nature.
