“I’m sure you are,” she said, looking at him with mounting lust spiked with just a hint of wariness. She lowered her gaze to the paddle. He held it up.

“It’s very light. They’re made of willow,” he said huskily. “Touch it.”

She swallowed thickly and ran her fingers over the tool he intended for her punishment. It was lightweight.

“It will sting.” She said her thought out loud, shakily.

“I believe it will, yes. I’ve never used it to this purpose. Be sure and keep me apprised of how it feels,” he said, his small grin a little wicked, walking behind her. She gasped in excitement when he pressed the paddle to her ass and circled it against her buttocks through her gown and underwear. For an erotic moment, she just stood there while he ran the paddle over her prickling flesh softly.

“Drop the gown,” he said thickly after a moment as he slid the paddle over the bottom curve of her cheeks and rubbed, now lasciviously.

She whisked the spaghetti straps of the gown over her shoulders and down over her breasts. The garment pooled around her waist. Ian continued to lewdly rub her ass with the paddle, but helped her, sending his fingers beneath the fabric from the back and pushing the gown over her hips. He lifted the paddle and the silk slipped down her legs, pooling at her ankles. He walked in front of her to the blank stretch of wall.

“Come over here,” he demanded quietly.

She stepped out of the gown and the slippers she’d been wearing and approached him clad only in a pair of sheer lace panties. His gaze was on her breasts, belly, and mons, making her nipples stiffen and her clit swell and ache.

“Put your hands above your head and lean against the wall,” he instructed, stepping aside to give her space, his arm bent, the rim of the paddle resting casually against his shoulder in what looked to be a familiar pose from his cricket days. A whole history of naughty references about Englishmen and spankings flashed through her brain, making her hide a smile. It aroused her, though, the idea of having her bottom smacked by the cricket bat . . . by the idea of having her ass spanked by the sexiest Englishman in existence.

That aroused her very much, she admitted, as she started to take the position, her head turned, gaze glued to Ian. He put his hand on the sensitive side of her ribs and she wondered if he felt the way her heart was pounding.

“No, lovely, don’t bend over yet. Just lean against the wall. Put your feet behind the rest of your body. There. Perfect,” he growled softly next to her ear. When she’d settled, her feet were about two feet away from the baseboard, her hands were above her head, her forearms bracing her weight, her breasts heaving six inches from the wall. She wasn’t bent at the waist, but instead in sort of a vertical slant against the wall.

Ian moved behind her. She couldn’t see him without straining around to look. She knew from experience he wouldn’t like it if she gave in to her curiosity. He always said her eyes undid him. Instead, she stared fixedly at the blank wall and forced air into her lungs.

He slid his fingers beneath the waistband of her underwear and lowered them down over her ass to midthigh. She started to move in order to assist him in removing the garment, but he stopped her.

“No. Spread your thighs wider.”

She did what he said, stopping when Ian said, “There.” When she’d opened her thighs, the lace panties had stretched tight between them. She heard Ian grunt softly in male satisfaction and thought he must have appreciated the image of her lowered panties remaining on her thighs. Lech, she thought, smiling to herself. In fact, the thought of arousing him from such a small thing pleased her inordinately.

She sensed him standing just behind and beside her, her breath hitching when he pressed the cricket paddle to her bare bottom. At the same moment, his other hand caressed the side of her body, skimming her hip, waist, ribs, and breast. She shivered, the power of his stroking hand amplified by the threat of the paddle against her ass. Waiting for the first stroke was always almost unbearably exciting for her.

“We can talk more about your safety in the next several days, but in the meantime,” he said, still caressing her, “promise me you’ll be excessively careful.”

“You were in the car, too. You promise me to be careful.”

He pressed the paddle tighter into her ass cheeks.

“Yes, I promise,” she said shakily.

“Then I promise, too,” he said. He lifted the paddle. Smack. She moaned at the quick flash of pain followed by the familiar burn and prickles of arousal.

“Too much?” he asked, rubbing her ass with his left hand.

“No.”

“It’s a whippy little thing,” Ian said. She bit her lip to cut off a whimper as he continued to soothe her bottom. She knew what he meant. The willow paddle was light and whippy, ideal for making the surface area of skin sting without causing any real harm.

He paddled her with it again. She whimpered at the burn. Smack, Smack. He paused to soothe her. “Yes, that’s warming you up nicely,” he said, palming a cheek and running his thick forefinger along her crack.

Liquid warmth trickled from her slit. She made a muffled sound of arousal in her throat when he suddenly inserted the paddle between her thighs and pressed it against her sex. Her eyes sprang wide.

“Oh!” she muttered in surprise.

“Good?” he murmured, subtly moving the paddle, stimulating her clit.

“Yes,” she hissed, curling her hands in fists against the wall. She ground her teeth together, her hips shifting, grinding her sex down, riding the bat.

“Hmmm,” Ian growled next to her. She sensed his focus . . . his rising arousal. “I think I’ll just have to take this with me when I go. The ridge in the middle of the back of the bat fits nicely between your lips, doesn’t it?” he asked, referring to the slightly convex shape of the back of the paddle and how it burrowed ideally between her labia.

Her answer was an aroused moan. But then the paddle was gone and landing yet again, biting at the bottom curve of her ass cheeks, the sound of it striking flesh ringing sharply in her ears. He paused, letting her recover from the sting. This time instead of massaging her ass with his hand, he stroked her hip and belly, enlivening her nerves. She shut her eyes tight, her vagina contracting with a pang of lust, when he filled his hand with a breast. He stepped closer, bracketing her hip with his thighs, and pressed his cock against her. He placed the flat end of the paddle on her other hip and pressed, sandwiching her ass between it and his erection. She moaned in a rising fever as he gently pinched an aching nipple, turning it into a tight, hard, exquisitely sensitive point.

He lifted the paddle and spanked her with it several times. She felt his cock jump next to her hip every time he landed a blow.

“Do you remember the first time I paddled you?” he asked roughly, pressing the paddle into her ass cheeks. Her bottom was starting to burn in earnest. Her clit sizzled, plaguing her. She longed to stanch the ache with her hand.

“Yes,” she replied thickly. How could she forget it? She’d been stunned by what he’d said he wanted to do to her . . . shocked that she’d allowed him to do it . . .

Incredibly aroused by the idea of submitting to him sexually.

He finessed her nipple with his fingers, making her grit her teeth in sharp arousal.

“I wanted so much to just to fuck you raw. I nearly did it, too, you were beyond beautiful. I’d never had unprotected sex before that moment, and I nearly gave in. You submitted so sweetly. I couldn’t comprehend your trust in me. I still don’t.”

She clamped her eyes tighter, moved by his rough honesty.

“Some part of me understood you, even then, in the beginning,” she said, her voice shaking with emotion. “You used to make me so nervous, and yet . . . you didn’t. I knew I belonged with you. I knew we belonged. Being with you was like . . . finding home,” she added brokenly.

“Yes,” she heard him say after a pause. “And how I deserved it, I’ve never figured out.”

“You don’t have to figure it out, Ian. Just believe.”

He grunted softly, backing away from her and removing the paddle. She whimpered at the loss of his solid heat, but remained in position, fighting her emotional upheaval, not to mention her curiosity as to what he was doing. She bit her lip at the sound of his zipper lowering, stifling a shaky moan of anticipation. A moment later, she felt his legs brush the back of her calves.

“Brace yourself against the wall and bend over. I didn’t fuck you then, but I certainly will now. Because I can . . . and because you are mine, no matter what happens.”

She swallowed to ease the congestion in her throat at the sound of his stark dominance mixing with the hollow sound of the acceptance of his fate. It seemed ridiculous to deny what he said. Even if he left her for good, part of her would always reside in him, and he would forever be in her heart. Her blood. Her spirit.

She repositioned herself, her hands pressed against the wall, bending at the waist, her panties still stretched tightly between her spread thighs. She felt the hard, tapered head of his penis probe between her thighs, finding her slit. He firmed his hold on her hips.

She cried out when he entered her completely, slapping his pelvis against her ass. He still wore his clothing, having just unfastened his pants and lifted his cock free. She could feel part of his exposed, round testicles along with the fabric of underwear pressing against her outer sex. He paused at the sound of her cry, fully sheathed in her, throbbing at her core.