An Affair of Honor (Rebel Hearts 2)

egan to throb.

William stopped touching her and silence lengthened.

Although she expected punishment, the first strike of the crop was a shock and she could not contain her cry. Although muffled by the gag, she could have been heard by anyone passing their room. The second strike burned and her eyes filled with tears as she fought her instincts to moan loudly. The third and fourth strikes had her tears falling. She sobbed at the fifth and sixth.

“That’s enough for the first night,” he promised after the seventh strike, despite her not signaling for him to stop. He set his warm hand to the back of her neck. “I love you.”

He threw the crop away onto the bed before her. William removed her gag and released her from the hook. He kept her hands bound, the silk ties wrapped around her body, and laid her gently over the bed.

A smooth, hot caress stroked over her flaming cheeks, and then William hooked his fingers beneath the ties on her legs to part her thighs and entered her from behind.

She arched her back. He always felt so very good when he was impatient to be inside her body. His use of the ties to control her was no detriment to her pleasure.

Her arousal only increased the more he used them.

Matilda held on to the ends of the ribbons of silk bound around her wrist as he began to move. Her bottom stung every time he pressed hard against her skin, but the slide of his cock brought bliss. She would find that perfect moment again where everything ceased to be and there was only her and William. Billy.

His grip on her hips eased and then he touched her between her legs. Matilda closed her eyes, and desire surged through her body as he made love to her roughly and thoroughly, leaving her in no doubt that her gift of complete trust and submission had released his hidden passions. She enjoyed their time together the most when he was on the verge of losing control, as he seemed to be now, until she was sobbing his name and ready to scream.

His hand slid up and covered her throat and then her mouth, muffling her cries of passion as they drove each other crazy.

He turned her head a little so they could see each other. “When are you going to tell me?”

She frowned and his grip on her mouth eased. “Tell you?”

“When are you going to tell me you love me?”

His hands moved to cover her breasts and then down to cover her stomach. He patted her stomach lightly. “And that we’re having a child.”

“There’s no babe.”

“I think there is.” He hovered over her, barely moving against her, but still full and hard inside her trembling body. She wriggled but he caught the ties at her back and held her still. “And about time too.”

It was always hard to think when he was inside her. Harder now that she was restrained as she was. She frowned, concentrating on his lips rather than how her position made her vulnerable and even more aroused by that. “You really do want a child so soon?”

William kissed her cheek. “Getting you big with our child is all I think about lately. Have you not noticed a lessening of your punishments and an increase of ease in your schedule?”

“Yes, but I had thought it simply your growing accustomed to me. I thought, perhaps, you had grown tired of punishing me so often.”

He drew back and thrust deep. “Heaven forbid I ever grow that accustomed to our marriage. I have never been so aware of another person as I am of you and you test my limits every day. Your breasts have been tender to my touch of late. Your waist has thickened too. All things I love, I hasten to add.”

Matilda’s cheeks blazed with embarrassment. She had given the chances of conception absolutely no thought. She had been too wrapped up in her new life, in William’s astonishing love, to think any further than her next punishment. Provoking William in unexpected ways could take hours of planning and effort on her part. But could he be correct about a babe?

If so, they would have to take greater care in bed. William cradled her hips between his hands. “A daughter for you, a son for me. A dozen or one, but I will never get enough of you.”

She blushed. “Or I of you. Of moments like this with you.”

“So what is your answer?”

Matilda struggled to bring her thoughts in order. She had never dreamed of this life but she thrived on it. She thrived with William. He had become the center of her world, and she had accepted she was the center of his. They made a good pair. They made magic together. “I do love you,” she confessed.

“Thank God,” he whispered and drew back to slap her bottom. “I have needed to hear since I met you.”

He slammed back into her, and his thrusts quickened until they both cried out soon after.

Wedged beneath William, Matilda fought for breath. She hadn’t thought he was waiting for her to say it. She’d thought he already knew she loved him.

“Don’t call me Billy again tonight,” William said as he wrapped his arms about her waist and drew her tight against him. He was breathing hard and rough against her ear. “Dear God, that name on your lips drives me insane.”