The MacNaughton Bride (9 page)

She would have him back
– eventually.
 
She just
needed to bide her time.

Aislinn
,
meanwhile, was rudely awaked by Jenny, who looked like there was some sort of
an emergency.
 
She sat up, rubbing
her eyes, trying to wipe the sleep from them and not having much success.
 
“What?
 
What is it?
 
Is
everything okay?”

“Yes, my dear, it is,”
Jenny soothed the hair back from her eyes and sat down on the edge of the
bed.
 
She’d already put the small
parcel on the headboard where
Aislinn
could easily
reach it.
 
“I just wanted to let
you know about something I have for you – because – because I think
it might help you on your wedding night.”

Chapter
5

Aislinn
was instantly fully awake.
 
She
didn’t know what went on during a wedding night, but she was certainly curious
about it.
 
Something happened
between a husband and his wife – that apparently couldn’t happen between
unmarried people – that no one would talk to her about.
 
She knew they would sleep together
– and that was a strange enough concept.
 
Besides Jenny occasionally,
Aislinn
had never shared her bed with anyone.
 
Although with the size of this bed, they weren’t very likely to bump
into each other, she thought.

But there was something
else that went on . . . something mysterious and interesting, and
Aislinn
desperately wanted to know what it was, and it
seemed that Jenny might be on the verge of telling her something at least.

“Yes?” she responded
eagerly.

Jenny looked distinctly
uncomfortable at her unabashed interest.
 
“Well, I have something for you… “

“You said that already.”

Her maid’s issued a pained
sigh.
 
“It – well, you need
to – uh, use it – tonight – when he – “

“My husband?”

Anxious nodding.
 
“Yes, Lord
MacNaughton
.
 
When he – you – “
 
She couldn’t finish her thought.
 
It just wouldn’t come out.
 
Finally, she got up and obsessively
straightened her clothes.
 
She knew
she was making a mess of things, but she just couldn’t get anything out.
 
She couldn’t.
 

Instead of telling
Aislinn
what she’d done and why, and the mechanics of using
the thing, Jenny became so flustered that all she could think about was getting
out of this room.
 
She kissed her
young mistress on the top of the head, saying, “Remember, my girl, that I love
you like you were my own daughter,” and scurried to the door as if the hounds
of hell were after her.

Aislinn
was left to puzzle through what had just happened, feeling that she’d missed
something, and no more enlightened about what would happen this evening than
she had been before Jenny made her mysterious visit.
 
She wondered just what it was that Jenny was so flustered
about –
Aislinn
had never seen her so
distraught.

Fully awake now, she threw
back the covers and pulled a worn robe over her slim shoulders, wrapping it
around her waist and heading for the door, intent on visiting
Adelle
, who was as curious as she was about what happened
between married people.
 
But when
she turned down the next hall, heading towards the servant’s stairs, history
repeated itself and she ran headlong into the man who was now her husband.
 

It was in that moment, as
she steadied herself and he reached out to keep her from falling over, that she
vaguely remembered him saying something about staying in bed until he came for
her . . . but she had been so sleepy when he said it, and then Jenny had
awakened her out of a sound sleep with that strange visit – she hadn’t
thought anything about it until just now.

But the way he was looking
down at her, with a somewhat indulgent frown, made a fissure of fear run down
her spine to settle on the part of her body that he had threatened to wreak
vengeance upon if she didn’t behave.
 
Her bottom was suddenly flushed and hot, and he hadn’t even touched it!

Looking down his nose at
her, he asked in a gruff tone, “Didn’t I tell you to stay put until I came to
you, Mrs.
MacNaughton
?”

Aislinn
bit her lip, but looked up at him and batted her eyelashes.
 
“I was?” she asked in her most innocent
voice.

Kell
threw back his head and laughed heartily at her attempt to flirt with him.
 
“Are you trying to wile your way out of
a spanking, lassie?” he asked on a chuckle.

“I’m a married woman.
 
I’m too mature to be spanked.”

That wasn’t going to work
either, and she’d known it the moment the words were out of her mouth. They
should have, because it was true.
 
Grown, married women should not be punished like children, as far as she
was concerned, but apparently her husband felt differently.

She felt herself being
guided back towards her – their – bedroom.
 
“Well, I warned you,
Aislinn
.
 
I’m
sorry to have to do this so early in our relationship, but I’m not about to let
it go, either.
 
That would set a
very bad precedent, and I’m not about to have you thinking that I don’t follow
through when I set a rule.”

Kell
ushered her through the door, pushing gently on her back to propel her
forward.
 
He could feel the heat of
her through her thin gown, and knew he would have to steel himself against his
desires in order to spank her.
 
It
was a thought in the back of his mind to let this go, but he knew that would be
a bad start to their relationship.
 
He wasn’t going to be an ogre by any means, but he would not have a
disobedient wife.
 
Things weren’t
as wild as they used to be in the Highlands – civilization was creeping
even into the rebellious and sometimes violent clans – but he still
needed to know that if he told her to do something, she would do it.
 
It was not improbable that her life
could be forfeit if she got it into her head that she could just ignore any
order he gave her.

Still he didn’t want to
make her frightened of him, either – at any time – but especially
just before they were to come together for the first time as man and wife.
 
She had to be somewhat apprehensive
about that – if she had any idea about what was going to happen.
 
It was hard to determine just what a
woman knew about nowadays, but he felt it was safest to assume that she didn’t
know a thing and go from there.

He brought her over to the
end of the bed and sat down, keeping her in place in front of him by holding
onto her hands.
 
They were growing
colder by the minute, and he looked up at her to see that she was chewing on
her lip.
 
“Let’s get you out of
this,” he said, reaching up to slip the robe off her shoulders.
 
Aislinn
tried
to step back, but
Kell
caught her and tugged her
back.
 
“It’s all right.
 
I’m your husband, remember?
 
I’m going to see you wearing a lot less
than this.”

Her eyes widened.
 
What could he mean by that?
 
She didn’t intend to let him see her in
the all together under any circumstances!
 
There were some times that a lady just had to draw the line, and as she
saw it, that was one of them.

But it wasn’t more than a
second before she found herself devoid of her bloomers and draped over his hard
as a rock legs, making an intimate inventory of the
Aubusson
carpet that was all too close to her nose.
 
“Let me up this instant!” she shrieked, struggling with all
her might.

Kell
was unexpectedly impressed by her strength.
 
She was a tiny little thing, but she could wiggle and twist
so violently that he almost lost her several times – almost.
 
He always managed to bring her back
into place, but ended up having to trap both of her slender legs between his to
keep them from rearing up and knocking him in the head, as well as catching her
far arm that was whacking and digging away at his calf and locking it down at
the small of her back with the fingers of his left hand around her wrist.
 

“Damn you!
 
Let me go!”

“Language, Mrs.
MacNaughton
,” he
tsked
his tongue
against his teeth.
 
It was
astonishing to hear vulgarities coming from such a tiny thing.
 
But he wasn’t about to tolerate that,
either.
 
“I won’t have you
swearing.
 
You’ve got a spanking
coming for getting up when I told you expressly not to.
 
And that’s exactly what you’re going to
get.
 
Plus an extra couple of extra
hard whacks at the end so that you’ll think twice before using bad language
again.”

He took just a few seconds
and laid his palm over the crest of those beautiful mounds.
 
She was as gorgeous of bottom as she
was of face.
 
His palm covered
generous flesh that was as fine and soft as any velvet he’d ever touched.
 
She was perfect – and she was
his.
 
To discipline, but even more
importantly, to love.
 
And, if he
let himself think about it, he knew he was already most of the way in love with
his intriguing, passionate little wife.

Thankfully, he didn’t like
to explore such things.
 
They were
unimportant.
 
It wasn’t necessary
that he love his wife.
 
Just that
he beget an heir with her, which was a task
Kell
knew
he was going to enjoy enormously.

But there was a task at
hand right now, and he wanted to get it over with so that they could get on
with the begetting.
 
He wasn’t
going to be too hard on her this first time – just enough to let her know
she didn’t want this to happen again, and adjust her behavior accordingly.

He brought his hand down on
her bottom once, too softly.
 
The
second time was too hard.
 
He
didn’t hit his stride until the third swat, which was just right – crisp
and hard, leaving a pinkish blush on her
nates
that
contrasted beautifully with the rest of her creamy skin, and elicited a hoarse
howl from the recipient that meant he knew meant he was getting through to
her.
 
His smacks took on a terrible
rhythm as he proceeded to make that pale landscape a sharp shade of red, all
the way down her thighs and over every cringing inch of her writhing bottom.

Aislinn
had wiggled and struggled so hard before he started spanking her that she was
badly equipped to deal with the actual event.
 
And he’d locked her down so tightly that she could barely
move except for a few protest wiggles that didn’t help her avoid even one
slap.
 
To her deep embarrassment,
she began to wail not long after he’d started, although whenever the thought
popped into her head to beg him to stop she forced her jaws together
stubbornly, despite how completely the words crowded her throat.

Throughout the entire
episode,
Aislinn
fervently wished she could reach to
bite his thigh, but she was too far over it, and the bed defended his legs from
her chomping teeth.
 
Eventually,
hot, wet tears overwhelmed her as he set fire to her rear.
 
It seemed like he was never going to
stop, and that thought made her burst out with a wail that both surprised and embarrassed
her.
 
She’d never been driven out
of control by anyone or anything.
 
She was always the one who took care of people – most importantly
Adelle
. She was the strong one, the one in control, and she
liked it that way.

Yet here she was, over her
husband’s lap getting a spanking like she was a bratty child – and there
was nothing she could do about it except endure it, reduced to sobbing and
yowling, knowing that no one would help her or save her from this.

Or from him.

Kell
drove home more of a lesson with this spanking than he had intended.
 
Aislinn
had
never met the immovable object.
 
She’d always been able to maneuver her way around people and
situations.
 
Her father was easy
– he was rarely sober and sleeping it off much of the time. She’d had
free rein to do as she pleased.
 
Her Uncle was easy, because he was so interested in getting rid of her.

But this man, who was
making mincemeat of her nether parts, wasn’t going to let her do as she
pleased.
 
He would expect that she
would do as he told her, and this was the consequence for not doing so.
 
And she wasn’t sure how much of this
she could tolerate.
 
She might well
have found her match – found the one person in this world who could truly
curb her behavior.
 
The thought was
extremely disturbing, only because she knew she wasn’t willing to give up that
much control over her life . . . and her well being.