Page 28 of Wild Ever After
Any other reason?
Her breath shuddered out from between her lips and she fought the emotions welling up inside her, thinking back to last night, to the mass of feelings and nerve endings that were tangled, then unraveled with each slap on her ass.
“What do you want me to say?”
“If there was nothing more than it hurt, then I think you’ve got the beginning of the answer you’re looking for about your collar.”
“Over a spanking?”
“Spankings have always been more than just swats for you. That’s why you asked for them to be a daily ritual. But don’t think I minded. I certainly didn’t. Spankings are submission for you, more than anything, other than sex. More than ropes. More than chains and bindings. Spankings are your kink, Bella mine.”
He wasn’t wrong. He could hold her to him with a look, a word, his body far more than if he bound her. And the spankings? They put her in a frame of mind, filled with purpose the way exercise did for most people. Nothing else had ever done for her what a good, solid paddling did.
It was life changing the first time Harry put her over his knees. He said he wanted to try something and asked if she was game. She’d begged for spankings every time they were alone after that.
She’d been a year without them until last night.
The pain and the sting were overshadowed by the cathartic release felt in every cell and drop of blood in her body.
Her head had still been clouded and confusion still held her in its grasp, but the spanking had awoken a part of her that had been asleep for too many months. She hadn’t realized the tension in her muscles until he pulled it out one slap on her flesh after the other.
Harry settled back in the chair and crooked his finger. “Come here, Bella.”
She was torn and shook her head.
“If I have to come get you, you won’t like it as much as if you come to me on your own.”
He was probably right. He’d never harm her, but he’d strip her, he’d put her over his shoulder, he’d take her coffee away.
“Do you care that you broke my heart when you sent me away?”
“Do you care that you broke mine when you wouldn’t come home? When you wouldn’t so much as fucking talk to me? Come. Here.”
On feet that didn’t want to move, Bella shuffled toward him until she stood at his knees.
“How did you sleep?”
She’d slept wonderful, once she’d actually been able to. “Good.”
“Do you hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Show me.” She hesitated and Harry reached for the tie at her waist. He pulled it loose, his eyes locked with hers. “Turn around. Lower the robe. And show me.”
He flipped on the lamp situated behind the chair and waited.
She’d done nothing wrong, but he had a way of making her feel like a child without saying a word. Nothing more than a look, a frown, a stance. His dominance wasn’t loud or flashy and she’d have never spared a glance for anyone like that. No, he was quiet and controlled, confident. That worked for her. He held himself to a higher standard, even back in college when he was nothing more than a fellow student, he had that kind of authoritarian reputation.
She was drawn to him like a moth to a flame and when he sent her away from him, she drifted cold through the days.
She gave him her back and let the robe slide down her shoulders. When the collar was around her waist, he pulled it the rest of the way, down below her bottom cheeks.
“There’s still a great deal of heat coming from your skin,” he said softly. “There will be a little bruising, I’m afraid. Did you miss being spanked?”
“Yes, H — Sir.”
“Was it too much last night?”
