Claiming His Wife (Domestic Discipline 4)

"In public we will present a united front."

SMACK!

"And there will definitely be no more men," he said fiercely, allowing his emotions to bleed through.

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

Grace was howling, crying, kicking. He could feel the heat emanating off of her bottom through the thin fabric of her pantaloons, and just barely see a pink glow. This wasn't a particularly hard spanking, but it was certainly more than she'd ever experienced. He knew that her father had never employed any means of discipline; Grace had said he tended to ignore his daughters unless he wanted something from them.

"There will be no more women for me, either."

"Alex, stop, please! Owwww, Alex stop!"

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"Do you agree?"

"Stop, pleeeeeeeeease, it hurts, Alex, stop!"

"I need you to agree to my terms, Grace."

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"I agree! I agree!"

Immediately, Alex stopped spanking her. He could feel the sobs that were wracking her frame, and he suddenly realized that he'd never seen her cry. The need to soothe her was almost overwhelming. Lifting her up, he sat her on his lap, letting her squirm and wriggle as much as needed to be comfortable sitting on his thighs when her bottom was probably burning. Digging a handkerchief out of his pocket, he wiped at her tears, cradling her with his other arm as he murmured about how pleased he was that she'd agreed.

Ignoring his aching erection wasn't pleasant, but it was worth it just to have her in his arms again.

******

Confusion swamped Grace as her tears overwhelmed her. The spanking had hurt, it surely had, but it shouldn't be making her feel like this. The skin of her bottom burned, sparks flaring as she tried to find a comfortable way to sit on Alex's hard thighs.

She shouldn't be enjoying having his arms around her, she really shouldn't, but it felt so good to be held and comforted while she cried. It was not something she had much experience with. Crying had never done any good when she was growing up, mostly it got her banished back to the nursery where her father wouldn't have to look at her tears, and so she'd soon learned not to. The last time she'd really cried had been the night she'd left Alex, and even those tears had dried fairly quickly, because she'd been well aware how useless they were.

So why was she crying now like her heart was broken? The tears weren't slowing, if anything they were increasing as he held her against him.

Her emotions were jumbled, jangling inside of her, like too many church bells rioting inside her head. While she knew that she should be furious with Alex, and she still was, she couldn't help but crave being held and comforted. Even though he was the one who had caused her distress, both in the past and today. The very idea that he thought he could spank her into compliance should have enraged her.

It would, she was sure it would, as soon as she managed to stop crying.

Some small part of her, some tiny remnant of her heart that he hadn't managed to crush yet, was pulsing with hope. That's what angered her the most. He'd sounded like he cared while he was spanking her. Not the edict that they would present a respectable face to the public, which was what she'd expected of him, but when he said there would be no more men. It was the way he'd said it. Like it tormented him to know that she'd had other lovers, like it had hurt him as much as his first affairs had torn at her. Stupid, really, to think that it might be true. She knew how he really felt about women, how he felt about her.

One woman is as good as another.

But then why track her down like this? Why spank her? Why not just negotiate for whatever it was he wanted from her? Even if he didn't want the scandal of divorce - which she didn't understand, since she'd made herself a much greater scandal than a divorce would be - she would have expected him to come at her with a very different agreement. One which wo

uld allow him to keep his mistresses, and her to continue on with her affairs, as long as she bore his heir and became discreet. In other words, as long as they acted like the rest of the unhappily married couples in the ton.

Grace could have said no to that. It would have been easy. She didn't want any part of marriage to a man who had no emotions for her. She wanted her freedom. But this? The rawness in his voice when he'd said there would be no more women for him had made it sound like a promise. A vow. She wanted to believe him, which made her furious at herself.

Her tears were finally starting to slow and she tried to push away from him, but his arms tightened.

"Stay... just stay still, Grace. Let me hold you for a while." The hoarseness in his voice made him sound almost desperate. Unless, of course, she was imagining things that weren't there, the way she had when they'd first married. But his arms weren't loosening.

She was so tired of fighting. Not just today. It felt like she'd been struggling against impossible odds for years. The welcome numbness of exhaustion enveloped her, and she slumped against him, letting him hold her because it was easier than continuing to fight.

******