“Are you trying to scare me? It’s not working.” It’s rather lovely being held by him like this. He smells so good, and I feel weightless in his arms.
“If you take your punishment like a good girl, I’ll think about your offer.”
My eyes widen. “My what?”
“Say, yes, Your Grace.”
He’s holding me, but not forcing me down like he was the other day. “Is this what you do with all the debutantes?”
“I didn’t hear you say, yes, Your Grace.”
“You’re a bully.”
“If I were a bully, I’d just do it. I’m asking you to take your punishment.”
“But if I don’t say yes, then you’ll throw my mother and me out of the Court.”
“I already told you, the Rugovas are required at court. No one’s being thrown out.”
Yet. He already hinted he had the power to ban us, and what then? “Prison really screwed you up, huh?”
“I’ll thank you not to talk about things you know nothing about,” he says, through his teeth.
I watch him carefully, gazing into his hazel eyes. I’ve never been this close to a man before. Is this how they’re supposed to make you feel, small and vulnerable, but safe at the same time?
My question is the softest whisper. “How many times?”
“How many times what?”
“How many times do you…want to spank me?” I feel a blush rage into my cheeks. I must be mad to even think about saying yes.
“Until I feel that you’re sorry for all the trouble you’ve caused me.”
“And if I let you do this, I can be friends with your daughter?”
“I’ll consider it.”
“Promise.”
“No.”
Bastard. I lift my chin. “Fine. Do it. I don’t care.”
Victory suffuses his expression, along with something darker. My heart stops beating all together. “Wait—”
But a moment later, he’s swung my legs around and splayed me face down over his lap. I brace my hands against the arm of the sofa.
“You’ve got a funny way of keeping order in the Court,” I say, as he grasps my satin skirt and pulls it up.
“My Court. My rules.” He hooks his finger into the waistband of my flimsy underwear, pulls it away and snaps it against my skin. “What is that?”
“Ow! It’s a G-string. Haven’t you seen one before?”
The Archduke runs his fingers back and forth under the elastic. “Girls didn’t wear such things in my day.”
His touch is making me light-headed. “We’ve moved on since the days of the dinosaurs roaming the earth.”
Levanter lifts his hand and spanks me lightly. “That’s for being smart.”
I squeal with indignation, though it didn’t actually hurt. I’m trying to keep my voice down because the thought of anyone coming in and seeing me like this is excruciating.
The Archduke lands a blow across my behind that stings like crazy. Then he does it again, the spanks sounding like whip cracks in the large room.
He makes a noise of pleasure like his lower lip is caught between his teeth. Then he really goes for it. There’s a quivering feeling between my thighs that definitely doesn’t belong there. I jerk against his body with every spank, but he holds me in place.
I’m gasping and squirming, with perspiration beading my brow, when he finally takes a rest. My ass is burning hot. The Archduke tugs on my G-string again, and it pulls deliciously tight against my sex.
“There,” he breathes. “That’s much better.” He squeezes handfuls of my heated flesh, his touch quite different now. Possessive. Almost greedy. “I’ve never spanked a woman before. The idea didn’t cross my mind until I saw you naked in my daughter’s bedroom and then it just…came over me.”
My nails are digging into his calves, but to cling on, rather than make him let go. What’s wrong with me? “I assumed you go about hauling anyone who displeases you over your knee.”
“No. You’re just so spankable, Lady Wraye.”
A thrill shoots through my pussy, as if it likes that compliment. “Am I supposed to say thank you?”
I meant to say that sarcastically, but it came out breathy. Archduke Levanter strokes his hand down my inner thigh and up again, and I let out an involuntary moan. He shifts beneath me, and I feel the press of something stiff against my belly.
Archduke Levanter has a hard-on.
“Yes. Say thank you.”
“Piss off.”
I expect him to strike me again, but instead, he gives a deep, dark chuckle, and the vibrations travel through me and settle between my thighs.
“I didn’t think you could laugh.”
His hand stills on my thigh. “I forgot I could,” he murmurs. He strokes me again, absentmindedly, and his fingers brush over my sex through my underwear. I gasp in surprise.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to do…that.”
There’s a significant pause. I stare at the parquet floor, panting lightly. I can feel his eyes on me. Archduke Levanter moves his thumb in one long, electric stroke against my sex. I can feel my own wetness, seeping through my underwear and around it to coat his fingers.