Her hauteur only made his palm itch to turn her over his knee and break her ice princess shell. It was a facade that rarely came out any more, not since they'd spent months together, rebuilding their relationship on his estate. When it did, he had no hesitation about spanking it out of her.
It seemed that she thought her condition would protect her, much as it had protected Eleanor during her own pregnancy. There was a definite air of triumph about her. Taking the wind out of her sails was going to be immensely satisfying.
He spotted Edwin leading Eleanor back to the stables, seated behind her on the horse she'd been using, with his barebacked filly following sedately behind. However, he didn't take any time to watch them, instead he dragged Grace into the house, making one quick stop in the kitchen. It was obvious from the confusion on her face that she had no idea what he might want with peeled ginger root.
"You can't mean to spank me!"
Grace looked both shocked and outraged when he ordered her to strip and turn herself over his knee. Raising his eyebrows, Alex held his position on the chair he was sitting on, and silently lifted his finger, indicating that she'd better hurry. She glared at him.
"But I'm pregnant!"
"So?"
"Edwin loved Eleanor enough not to spank her when she was pregnant!"
"No, Edwin worried about Eleanor's health enough not to want to distress her. She had a difficult pregnancy from the beginning." He smiled smugly. "You, on the other hand, haven't had a single problem. If anything, you're healthier than ever. Besides, he still found ways to discipline her. But I'll be damned if I am going to punish myself by depriving myself of watching you climax for me. So you're getting a spanking."
And a figging, but he wasn't sure that she understood what the finger of ginger was for, even though he was shaping it into a nice, tapered plug. Wesley had been a font for interesting ideas on creative ways to punish a wife, and for all Alex's talk, he wasn't going to be too harsh with Gracie even if she was the picture of glowing health. For putting herself and their unborn child in danger, she deserved a strapping at the very least. Instead, she was going to get a figging and a spanking.
Grace blushed at Alex's comment about watching her climax. It was true. She'd found that her husband loved nothing more than to bring her off with his hands or mouth, just so he could see her orgasm, before sinking into her and watching her cream herself on his cock. Watching her find pleasure aroused him like nothing else.
She knew she was arguing just for argument's sake though - although she had had a flash of insecurity for just a moment. Over the past months, she'd been spanked quite a bit, constantly feeling the need to push at him just to make sure that his feelings were still true. Alex was consistent and firm, which was just what she needed to settle herself back down again. A spanking, some thorough love-making, and Grace's lingering doubts would be laid to rest all over again. Although she hadn't tried to run, ever. She hadn't needed to. Alex dealt with minor transgressions quickly and firmly enough that she felt constantly loved.
The only time he hadn't spanked her, when she thought he would, was when she mouthed off to her father. They'd gone to London for a week and Alex had invited her family over to dinner. It had been wonderful to see her mother and sisters, but her father had been stiffly cold and formal. That hadn't bothered her. But when he'd made a disparaging remark to her younger sister Adeline, because she didn't want to eat one of the jellies, Grace's temper had flared up. She'd been downright rude, but Alex had not only cut her father off from berating her, he hadn't even spanked her afterwards. If anything he'd been proud of her.
The funniest part had been that her father hadn't even been able to show his displeasure by cutting off his business with Alex. He needed her husband too much. At the end of the night, Alex had made it clear that the Duchess and her daughters were welcome at their house any time, in fact, he insisted on it at least once a week when they were in London. Her father had looked like he was choking, but he'd agreed that it was good to keep family ties in place.
Good for business was what he meant. Grace hadn't realized just how much her father needed the deal with Alex to keep his own finances above board. After they'd returned to the estate, she'd kept in touch with her sisters and mother through letters, the first time she'd been able to do so in years.
So no, she didn't really question Alex's love for her most of the time. Little doubts niggled on occasion, but he always laid them to rest. Of course he loved her just as much as Edwin loved Eleanor, and he'd never risk her health or safety. Unlike Eleanor, she hadn't had a single twinge of morning sickness, she wasn't even fatigued. She wasn't showing yet either, not really, although her stomach had become a bit rounded. It would be no hardship to lie over Alex's lap, and she trusted him enough not to spank her so hard that it would be any danger to the baby.
She stripped, watching him with the ginger, wondering what he was doing. Was he going to make her eat it? That seemed a possibility. Cynthia had mentioned Wesley soaping her mouth the last time he'd overheard her cursing. But Grace liked hot food, especially since she'd become pregnant, she'd started craving it. A bit of raw ginger wasn't going to be any real punishment.
Once Alex had her over his lap and it was pushing at her bottom hole, she changed her mind.
"Stop that!" She shrieked.
Alex just grinned at the outraged propriety in her voice. She was more upset about him putting something in her cute, crinkled rosebud at the moment, but in a minute she was going to understand why he was doing it. Holding her firmly in place, he swiftly inserted the thin finger of ginger. He'd notched it, the way Wesley had told him to, and her anus snapped around the notch, leaving just a bit outside.
Grabbing her wrists, he tutted at her. "You brought this upon yourself, Gracie. You should know better than to engage in horse races when you're enceinte. What if you'd been thrown? Or jostled?"
"The only danger to me was you," she snapped back, tightening her muscles and trying to buck. The sudden burn inside of her rear channel, as her muscles clenched, had her gasping. "Ow! Ow! That hurts, make it stop!"
The frantic sound of her voice and her writhing movements had Alex's cock rubbing against her side as she tried to dislodge the ginger root. He could see her bottom working to push it out, making her cry out as it burned even more.
"Just relax, it will burn less the more you relax," he said, making sure that he had a firm hold on his wife and her wrists as he raised his hand. With that advice, he brought his hand down firmly on her backside, careful to catch her full on the cheek without jostling the ginger.
Grace cried out as he began peppering her bottom, going back and forth between the cheeks, making it impossible for her to relax. The ginger was going to work on her insides, her bottom feeling strange with something inside of it, especially something that was burning her sensitive innards! She howled, begged, and pleaded, twisting as Alex spanked her.
Surprisingly, the spanking seemed to help with the ginger, making her burn on the outside and distracting her from the growing furnace between her cheeks. Her legs kicked, churning, as she tried to escape the twin fires, but Alex had an iron grip on her, and his hand just kept coming down with firm, stinging swats. The juices of the ginger were leaking down to her pussy, making it swell and tingle, her natural juices flowing from the combination of the ginger and Alex's domination over her.
No matter how hard he spanked her, she was always aroused at the end of it... but this felt so much more intense. Maybe because her rear aperture was filled, but her pussy wasn't. That didn't stop it from hurting though. Alex spanked her until her bottom was throbbing, feeling just as swollen and hot as her pussy, but for an entirely different reason.
Tears were leaking down her face and onto the floor as she cried out, reduced to incoherent cries and sobs. It hurt, and she was already promising herself inside of her head that she wasn't going to do anything even remotely dangerous for the rest of her pregnancy. She'd almost prefer a strapping over that infernal ginger that burned even hotter every time she clenched around it.
Finishing the spanking with five swats to Grace's sit spots, Alex thought his cock was going to burst. Her bottom was a bright flaming red, and yet even when the spanking stopped she couldn't keep from writhing. The ginger was burning her from the inside out. The effects on her pussy were incredibly arousing, he could see the plump, dark pink lips between her slightly parted legs, ready and waiting for him.
It took him less than a minute to pull his cock from his breeches - he'd already undone them while Grace had disrobed - and pull her up so that she was facing him, straddling his lap. Both of her hands were still behind her back, he held her wrists tightly, which thrust her breasts at him, tempting him with her cherry nipples.