Claiming His Wife (21 page)

"Us as well," Hugh said, pulling Irene
up.  His voice sounded grimly determined and her insides
quivered.  It had been a while since Hugh had felt she needed
discipline, but she hadn't forgotten how much a spanking hurt.
 Even though she'd eventually spoken up, she knew that would
only gain her the slightest of reprieves, considering her
prevarication.  "Irene and I apparently need to have a very
long... talk."

She gulped, meekly moving with her
husband as he led her purposefully towards the door.
 

Oh she was in so much trouble.
 

Chapter 9

Grimly leading his suddenly submissive
wife to their bedroom, Hugh could only wonder what she had been
thinking.  He'd been glad that she'd made friends with the
others, especially Grace since there had been such friction there;
now he was wondering if his approval had come too swiftly.
 Apparently none of them were a good influence on
her. 

Although at least she and Eleanor had
stayed behind from whatever trouble Cynthia and Grace were getting
into.  

"Why did Grace and Cynthia go out?" he
asked, leading Irene to the bed.  

She looked quite soft and feminine,
like a sweet paragon of virtues in her pale green dress.  The
look she gave him, however, was anything but.  "For private
reasons."

Hugh raised his eyebrow.  It was
obvious that Irene knew she was going to be punished, and yet she
was still defying him?  On the other hand, if she had been
sworn to secrecy by her confederates, then he could understand her
stubbornness a bit.

"Anything that will affect us?" he
asked, mildly.  As much as he wanted his wife to share
everything with him, he also knew that he had to accept there would
be occasions when she was the confidant of other people's secrets.
 It would be unreasonable of him to expect her to disgorge
another's confidence, as he certainly didn't tell her everything
that he, Wesley, Edwin and Alex talked about.  

To her credit, she thought
it over for a brief moment before shaking her head.  "No... It
will only affect Grace and Alex."

His curiosity roused, but he wasn't
going to punish Irene for being a true friend.  Unless he
planned on utterly controlling every aspect of her life, including
her relationships, he couldn't.  And he wasn't that kind of
man.

With her hands twisting together in
front of her, Irene glanced at him and then down at the ground, and
then back at him, obviously nervous.  As she should be.
 Even if he wasn't going to press for why Grace and Cynthia
had left the house, as they weren't his responsibility, he was
still going to discipline his wife for her part in their
machinations.  Not too harshly, because she had stayed where
she had told him she would be.

So had Eleanor, but he doubted that it
was for the same reasons as Irene.  His wife preferred to be
good, which was part of why he loved her.  It was his duty to
ensure she had reason to remain that way and not be tempted or
corrupted by her friends and his sister.

"Very well."  He had to suppress
a smile as Irene relaxed slightly with a long sigh of relief.
 She so badly wanted to please him, to not disappoint him.
 No man could be unaffected by such sweet devotion.  "But
we still have to deal with your own transgressions.  I
understand that you wished to protect your friends, but you did
them no favors by prevaricating.  Have you heard from them
since they left Wesley's house?  How do you know they arrived
safely at their location?  How do you know they remain
safe?"

The questions made Irene
feel suddenly sick.  She'd known from the beginning that
Cynthia's idea was questionable, although her objections had mostly
focused on how easily they could all be caught.  It hadn't
even occurred to her to worry about Grace and Cynthia's safety;
after all, the house Alex had rented wasn't too far from the
Countess'.  Yet, it was nighttime and they had left unescorted
by any male protection, and even if they did reach Alex's house
unmolested, they wouldn't be able to send a servant with a message
for Eleanor and Irene.  Even if the entire mission had been
successful, and the men hadn't found out they'd gone missing, that
would have meant a second trip back through the streets in the
darkness. Obviously Eleanor had been convinced that they were in no
danger, but what if-

Her hand swung up to cover
her mouth as her mind whirled with terrible visions, and suddenly
Hugh was standing before her, pulling her into the safe, warm
circle of his arms and murmuring soothingly.  "Relax
sweetheart, I'm sure they're fine. They didn’t have very far to go
between the houses.  Alex and Wesley will find them, and woe
betide anyone who sought to molest them.  I just wanted to
point out the dangers, not distress you so."

He actually sounded rather contrite,
and she frowned, realizing that he had exaggerated the danger just
a bit. Although he’d still made some good points.

"I'm not sure I'll be able
to sleep tonight, if we don't find out what happened to them," she
muttered, smacking his chest lightly.  Her heart still felt
like it was in her throat as her mind raced with all the things
that could go wrong, when two ladies stepped out into the night on
their own. Of course, they weren’t in London, and Bath was much
safer.

"I'm sure I can help you to sleep,
wife," Hugh said, and for just a moment she saw the anticipatory
glint of passion in his blues eyes.  Just as quickly, it
faded, to be replaced by a stern look that he pinned her with.
 Worries about Grace and Cynthia moved to the back of her
mind, as worry for her own person rose up to take precedence.
 "After we finish your spanking."

Hearing that she was receiving a
spanking, instead of a harsher punishment, should have been a
relief, but it was hard to feel relieved when she knew how much a
spanking from Hugh could hurt.  A lesser punishment was still
bloody painful, as Eleanor would say.  Of course she would
choose a spanking over a birching or a belting, but Irene would
rather not have any punishment at all.  But she knew she
deserved it. 

She didn't regret her actions, or
trying to give Grace and Cynthia more time, but she'd known when
she made that choice that she would face the consequences later.
 

Releasing her from his arms, Hugh
walked over to the bed and sat down, patting his lap.  "Come
here, Irene."

Sometimes she wished that he would
just drag her.  It would be so much easier than having to
willingly walk to her own punishment.  There was a sharp
fluttering in her stomach that increased the closer that she came
to him.  Stifling a little moan, she lay herself over his lap,
her legs hanging down on one side, her upper body across the bed.
 

The feel of her skirts sliding up her
legs, and then Hugh's warm hand on her thigh and bottom, made her
shiver.  His finger traced little patterns on the creamy flesh
of her buttocks, as if inspecting the area that he was about to
redden.  

"Do you understand why you're being
punished, Irene?"

"Yes," she said, her voice tight.
 She could already feel the tears rising in the back of her
eyes, even though he hadn't even started yet.  The
anticipation was wringing her nerves.  At this moment, she
wished that he would just get on with it, but she knew that once he
started, she would wish that he'd kept stalling.  "Because I
didn't tell you where Grace and Cynthia had gone."

"I commend loyalty to your
friends, but your loyalty must, first and foremost, be to me," he
said, still stroking her bottom.  His palm felt hot against
her skin and she squirmed a bit again.  This part felt good,
which was only going to make the actual spanking feel even worse by
comparison.  "I will not tolerate lying to me, not directly
and not by omission."

"I'm sorry, Hugh," she said,
miserably.  She really was too.  If she had to do it all
over again... well, she wasn't sure what she would do, but she did
feel guilty that she had made it seem like she valued her friends
over her husband.  Not to mention guilty for putting Cynthia
and Grace at risk.  This was her penance, and she would take
it, because she knew she deserved it.  "I don't like lying to
you."

"I know, sweetheart," he said, his
voice softening a bit.  "You're normally a very good girl, but
that's why I have to put my foot down when you do step out of
line."  His voice had hardened again by the end of his
sentence, and his hand lifted from her bottom and came down with a
sharp slap.

Irene jerked, mostly in surprise, and
then clutched at the covers as his hand began to come down in
earnest, smacking her bottom over and over again.

SLAP!  SLAP!
 SLAP!

The fire built up quickly as his hand
peppered her bottom, covering every inch of creamy skin in a bright
pink.  At first it was easy for Hugh to tell where to land his
palm: anywhere that her skin was still white.  Once the first
blush rose in her cheeks, he had to be a little more focused to
make sure he didn't hit the same spots over and over again.
 He wanted each layer of the spanking to be even, although it
did wear his hand out more.  

His wife began to pant and then moan
as she squirmed on his lap, her soft belly rubbing against the hard
ridge of his cock.  As her buttocks began to turn a darker
pink, her soft cries became more distressed, the sound going
straight to his groin as her skin began to feel hot beneath his
hand.  Holding her firmly in place, he ignored her squirming
as she began to plead with him.

"Hugh, I'm sorry, I am, I'm
sooooooooorry, I won't do it again, I promise!"

Knowing better than to listen to the
words, which were properly contrite but also really just part of
trying to get out of her punishment, Hugh kept smacking his hand
down on the jiggling flesh of her bottom.  Each blow had a
ripple effect through the rest of her pink skin that tantalized
him, making his balls tighten as he yearned to plow into his wife.
 Even better, as her legs began to kick, he caught flashes of
her pussy with its frame of soft red curls, glistening slightly.
 

As usual, Irene had become aroused
while she was being punished. 

She didn't enjoy the discipline, just
as he would prefer that he not have to discipline her, but both of
them had physical reactions to it that they couldn't deny.  It
was pure torture for Hugh to have to hold back, waiting to take his
pleasure, because his wife had to be soundly spanked before either
of them could enjoy themselves.  Although, Irene's pleasure
was almost a punishment in and of itself, because he knew that she
was embarrassed by her reaction to being spanked.  Especially
since the first time he had done it, she had considered it
abuse. 

"Huuuugh, pleaaaaaaase, I've learned
my lesson!  Please, please, please!"

Her buttocks had turned a nice rosy
red now, hot to the touch and probably quite painful.  In some
ways, his wife was lucky that she was the one to speak up and tell
them where Grace and Cynthia were.  If she hadn't, Hugh
probably would have gotten her hairbrush at this point and laid its
hard surface down atop her already burning cheeks. 

But he had decided that she had done
the right thing in the end.  He gave her one last resounding
smack right in the center of her arse, and then began rubbing the
abused flesh.  She choked and made little sobbing noises,
relaxing in relief as she realized her punishment was over.
 

"I'm stopping now because you were
good in the end," he told her sternly.  "That's your reward,
otherwise this would have been much worse."

Irene nodded her head to show her
understanding, because her throat was too choked up from tears.
 This hadn't been a particularly hard spanking, truthfully,
even though she had wailed and carried on in an embarrassing
manner.  Of course it had hurt, it was supposed to, but she
knew that it could have been so much worse.  Unfortunately
she'd discovered that her bottom could take quite a bit more
punishment than she would have ever thought possible.  It
always hurt so much more than it looked like it would.
 

Lifting her up from his
lap, Hugh stood her up and pulled off her dress and chemise.
 Irene moaned a bit as his hands and fingers caressed her
breasts, pinching her already erect nipples.  It felt like her
face flamed as bright as her bottom when his fingers slipped
between her legs, coming away covered in her cream.  The
smirking, rakish grin on her husband’s face at the proof of her
body's incomprehensible reaction only made her blush harder.
 

When he tossed her onto the bed, on
her back, she squealed and immediately tried to roll over as her
bottom flared with pain at the contact.  

"Oh no, wife," Hugh said firmly,
reaching out and rolling her back as he finished shucking off his
own clothing.  His cock was rigidly hard, standing out in
front of him.  "I want you on your back with your legs
spread."

The aggressive, almost crude words
made Irene shiver.  She was enamored of Hugh as a gentleman,
but when he became demanding and coarse in bed, she almost liked
that even more.  The fiery pain in her bottom made her moan as
it came back in contact with the bed, her weight pressing down on
it.  Planting her feet on the bed, she kept her thighs spread
wide, blushing at the open and vulnerable picture she must make,
but doing it anyway to keep as much space between the bed and her
bottom as possible.