The Reddington Scandal (12 page)

“Just leave,” she said, without turning.

“I will not leave. Nor will not accept this change in arrangement. You will tell me what happened. Now.”

Even his most authoritative tone did not move her to turn and speak to him.

Exasperated, he cast his eyes about the room, looking for any clue he might find about her behavior.

And then he saw it.

Lying on the dressing table was an opened letter. He could see the feminine scrawl of the writing and smell the perfume on the paper. Dammit.

He didn’t need to know the particulars—who it was from or what it contained. He could guess it was a letter from an old lover and Phoebe had jumped to a false conclusion. He snatched up the letter and read it quickly.

She whirled around at the sound of it and folded her arms over her chest, lifting her chin defiantly.

He held up the letter. “Is this why you’re upset?” When she didn’t answer, he went on. “I have not been with Veronica in at least three years, despite her silly attempts to entice me,” he said. “Read it again,” he said, thrusting the letter under her nose. “Does she claim we have been together recently?” He didn’t wait for her to answer. “No, in fact, she refers to my new wife as a reason for my continued refusal. Should that not comfort you?”

He crumpled the letter and tossed it into the hearth. Flames licked the paper, curling it at the edges before the entire letter caught fire at once and disappeared into ash. He sighed. “Phoebe, letters like this will probably always arrive. They may arrive for years. There is nothing I can do to guarantee you will not read another. You knew when you married me that I’ve had many lovers.”

Phoebe’s lower lip protruded and her eyes were still hard.

He caught her eye and held it. “It does not mean I have been or will be unfaithful to you.”

She cast him a withering look as if she’d expected him to say such a thing, and did not believe a word.

“Sit down,” he suggested, indicating the reading chair. “Will you sit down and hear me out?”

Her gaze was defiant, but he detected an uncertainty—a twitch of her lip, as if tears were hidden just below her bluster.

Darling Phoebe.
He should have told her how much he loved her.

He took her hand and tugged her gently toward the chair, then crouched beside it, looking up into her pinched face.

“I haven’t been with another woman since the day we wed, despite your offer to allow me my freedom.”

The back of her neck lengthened in exaggerated disbelief.

“Phoebe, you are the only woman I want—no, that’s the God’s truth. You are the only woman I’ll have. I promised you my fidelity, and I will keep that promise. I will put it in writing if that helps you to believe. I am yours, and yours alone.”

She bit her lip as a tear spilled down one cheek. She dashed at it with the back of her hand. “I don’t believe you,” she sniffed.

He picked up her hand and kissed the salty moisture on her skin. “I love you. I should have told you sooner, and I apologize. I love you, little dove.”

Her eyes rounded and her pouting lips parted as she stared at him with a doubtful expression.

“It’s true,” he assured her.

Flinging herself at him, she nearly knocked him backward with the force of her embrace, her arms wrapped around his head. He sat back on the floor, pulling her into his lap to cradle her.

“I love you,” he whispered.

She could not seem to speak, burrowing her face deep in his shoulder. After a few minutes, she emerged, blinking shyly at him. “I suppose I jumped to conclusions, didn’t I?”

“Yes,” he answered wryly. “You did.”

“I’m sorry about your room. I—I wasn’t myself. I’m afraid I acted quite like a child.”

“Our room,” he corrected. “And yes, you acted like a very naughty child.”

“I beg your pardon. I never gave into anger or any other emotion when I lived with my family or Reddington. I was the perfect lady in finishing school—I didn’t ask for anything. But you—” She stopped and bit her lip. “You make me feel so much more.” She looked up shyly through her lashes. “I’m not saying that to excuse my behavior.” He heard her swallow. “Are you going to punish me?”

He stroked her hair. The idea of administering real punishment held no satisfaction to him at the moment, but certainly was deserved. “What do you think I should do?”

“Oh, Teddy,” she murmured, pulling away and dropping her eyes. “Are you truly going to make me say it?”

* * *

When Teddy didn’t answer, she twisted her fingers in her lap and whispered, “Spank me.” Her stomach gave a jolt as she spoke. She realized a spanking was what she’d been demanding with her tantrum in his room that afternoon. Like when the light-skirt had visited, she’d lost control of her emotions, and she’d secretly craved Teddy taking up the control for her, to change the way she felt and make things right again. She’d been like the child who purposely acts naughty, just to guarantee a reaction from her nursemaid.

Teddy’s hands stroked lightly up and down her back. “Stand up and take off your clothes.”

The command sent shivers down her spine. “Take them off?” she asked uncertainly.

“Yes. From now on, you will be fully bared to me when you’re punished.”

Her face grew hot to hear that pronouncement. In fact, heat flushed every inch of her skin. He helped her to her feet with his hands at her bottom, then stood and turned her around to assist with the buttons on her dress and the laces of her corset. Then he sat on the edge of the bed, watching. Turning away from him, she dropped the garments to the floor, removing the garters and stockings last.

“Turn around,” he said softly.

She turned around, her fingers wrestling each other in front of her sex.

“Phoebe, there will be times we misunderstand each other. And there will be times you will be hurt by me or angry with me—it will be inevitable. When it happens, I expect you to come to me and speak your mind, so we may solve our problems together.” he said, giving her a stern look that made her insides turn molten. “Otherwise, how do you think our marriage will grow?”

She felt dizzy at the idea that he wanted their marriage to grow. In fact, she was still off-balance as a result of his entire declaration of love and oath of fidelity.

“That will be my first rule in this marriage.”

She raised her eyebrows. His authority was not new, but she could not be quite sure he was serious.

“My second is to forbid tantrums that involve you throwing any object.”

This time she detected humor in his voice and his lips curved slightly at the edges.

She felt her cheeks grow hot. “Yes, my lord,” she said, and curtsied.

A faint smile acknowledged her submission.

“Fetch my razor strap from wherever you flung it in there.”

Her knees went weak at the command. She obeyed, feet feeling clumsy. Awkward in her nudity, it took her some time to concentrate enough to find the leather strap under the mess of feathers and other thrown items. The sound of Teddy’s door opening made her jump upright to find Teddy’s valet halting in the doorway and taking in the sight of her, fully naked, holding the strap so obviously to be used for her punishment. Like any good servant, he immediately lowered his eyes, mumbling “excuse me, my lady,” as he backed out the door and closed it behind him. She stood rooted in utter mortification, imagining he was already informing the entire staff of her impending whipping.

Well, she deserved it. She certainly had treated them to quite a display with her tantrum. She bowed her head and carried the strap back to her room, handing it over with another curtsy.

He took the leather strap and looked up at her, as if considering. She felt her face grow hotter and a bit of moisture dripped on her thigh. Dear Lord, what was that? Was that what Teddy had described as her body preparing for sex? But why would the threat of punishment make her body willing?

“You’ll be bared to me when I punish you. You will accept your punishment without quarrel. If you fight it, I will repeat the same punishment the following day, which will be far worse on a sore bottom.”

She opened her lips, then shut them, not certain if a protest would be considered quarreling.

“You may speak, love.”

Love.
He loved her. The memory of his words filled her with another wave of warmth, this time on the inside. It helped her remember this stern man was the same who had just held her. “But what if the punishment is unfair?”

“You may argue your case, but if I say enough, you will accept my decision.”

Talking about punishment made her feel even more awkward than being punished, and she suddenly longed to be over his knee, receiving whatever it was he thought she deserved, hopefully bringing the return of her husband’s good humor.

She gave another curtsy, bowing her head. “Yes, my lord.”

“You will not reach back and try to cover. If you do, I shall spank the backs of your legs instead, and I promise you will not like that.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Repeat to me the rules of punishment.”

Oh, heavens.

Her insides were pure liquid by now, and her knees barely held her up. Moisture continued to leak from between her legs.

She took a deep breath and willed her voice to be steady. “I will be bared to you. I will not quarrel. I will not reach back and try to cover.”

“Good girl.”

“Why are you being punished?”

“For throwing a tantrum instead of coming to you with my anger.”

“Thank you.”

He opened his legs and twisted them toward the bed, patting the knee closest to the bed. “Show me you are sorry.”

She never thought she’d be eager to place herself over his knee, but in this case, it was almost a relief to lie over his lap and hide her face in the bed. The relief did not last, however, as she remembered this was not a spanking with his hand or her slipper; this was a strapping, which he had promised would produce tears. He clamped his free leg over the top of her two legs, effectively pinning her in place. She tensed, waiting for the first stripe, but instead she felt his hand, rubbing a circle over her bottom in a warm caress. The wetness between her legs increased.

Confound it, why did she find this so arousing? It was going to hurt and it was utterly humiliating, yet she could almost drop her pride with Teddy. He had already seen her darkest secret and had not flinched. So what more was it now, to offer her obedience, her submission to him, the man who showed he loved her with both action and word?

A sharp slap brought her out of thought. Teddy began peppering her bottom with rapid smacks, causing her to wiggle under his grasp. He managed her easily, though, with an arm around her waist and his leg holding her legs down. She held her breath, then let it out with a cry, then held it again as the fire began to spread across her vulnerable flesh.

“Oh, Teddy!” she cried.

“Shh,” he said, though his hand continued to rain down on her sorry bottom. “Take your punishment, Phoebe.”

She clenched her cheeks and struggled, fighting the pain and the continuing onslaught.

“When two people are married they must work together,” he said, never stopping the lesson he was meting out with his hand. “Turning your back on me only makes problems worse.”

She thought of what Kitty had said about his father—how much he had stayed away to avoid his mother, and she realized this was an important issue for Teddy. But what he asked of her seemed almost impossible—it seemed she only knew how to pretend a problem didn’t exist, or she completely lost her temper. In her family, they’d swept problems under the rug, covering them up with cheery lies. What if she had told her sister about Reddington? Or complained when Maud made her angry? It seemed absolutely impossible to imagine.

Teddy stopped the spanking and rubbed her smarting cheeks. She remembered how he’d forced her to talk the night the prostitute had come into his bedroom. He’d held her over his knee and spanked, questioning her until she’d admitted what she wanted from him.

“Teddy, what if I cannot?”

“Cannot what, my love?”

“Can’t talk to you when I’m angry?”

He continued stroking her bottom, which was beginning to burn even more now that he’d stopped. He squeezed her cheek and shook it a bit, then slapped it.

“Oh!”

“Well, you will learn, little dove. Even if it’s over my knee.”

She felt tears stinging her eyes and Teddy began to spank with his hand again. It hurt more after the break, and forgetting his rules, she reached back instinctively to cover her bottom.

“No, Phoebe,” he reminded her. The pain of his hand smarting the backs of her thighs caused her to cry out and snatch her hands back, tucking them under her torso so she would not be tempted again.

* * *

He wanted to spank her long enough with his hand first, so he did not have to strap her overly long to produce tears. Dragging out the beginning of the spanking by asking her to take off her own clothing and repeat the rules also helped bring her closer to surrender. Judging from her question, she was thinking about her punishment and what she might have done differently.

He stopped spanking with his hand and picked up the strap. He considered making her count the strokes out loud, but he wanted her thoughts to remain where they were, not fixed on a certain number. He brought the strap down, making a stripe at the top of her bottom, just where the cleft began. She howled in pain and he feared the entire house would know he was chastising his wife. But that could not be helped. He laid the second stripe just below the first, and the third fell right in the center of her bottom, across both cheeks.

Bent over his lap as she was, he could not apply the strap with the full swing of his arm, but even so, the leather was leaving puffy raised marks where it struck. He continued making neat lines down her bottom, the last coming across the backs of her thighs, causing her to moan, “No, no, no, no. I didn’t reach!”

He smiled. “You’re right, little dove, you didn’t. I will sometimes still spank you there to make an impression, but your protest has been heard.”