Given to the Highlander by Amelia Smarts and Susannah Shannon – Extended Preview

Lennox entered the room and closed the door behind him. She stood from the bed, and he regarded her, his eyes narrowed and his stance as solid as a statue’s. When he looked into her eyes, his expression softened. “He will live, lass. I can see you carry a great burden of guilt, but don’t bear fear of his death for a minute longer.”

Relief flooded her. “Thank the moon and stars.” She sniffled and turned her gaze to the window. Someone had opened the shutters, and she spotted a bird soaring beneath the clouds. “I’m sure you would cast me out if he died.”

“Never, Marisol,” he said. “I vowed to love and protect you. That’s what I intend to do. Even if the whole clan turned against you, I would remain by your side.”

She turned back to look at him, desperate to believe him. When she looked into his eyes, she knew he spoke the truth. Her gaze lowered, and it was then that she noticed a small wooden paddle in his hand.

“It’s a butter paddle,” Lennox explained. “They use it in the dairy.”

“What do they do with it?”

“I don’t know. I do know what I’m going to do with it.”

Marisol knew too. The thought of wood striking her bottom made her entire body clench. Strangely, she felt a small pulse in the lower half of her body, as though her nether regions were confusing fear with pleasure.

That feeling only grew when Lennox’s stern voice rumbled. “You snuck out, you lied, you disobeyed me.”

There was something exciting about being scolded by this large man, her husband, who’d made her feel such pleasure the day before. The same man who had comforted her at her most vulnerable and guided her through all the strangeness she’d encountered thus far Earthside. Not least of all, he’d just saved her from a terrible fate at the hands of a wild man, the likes of whom she knew nothing about.

She realized in that moment that, even though she did not at all like that she would be punished, she trusted Lennox. He was intent on keeping her safe, so he would not harm her.

“Why did you disobey me and go to the cottage, Marisol?”

Casting forlorn eyes over the beautifully prepared pictures of her parents, she admitted, “I thought I had left my pictures there.”

“All you had to do was tell me.”

“I felt foolish for leaving them, and I wanted to get them right away. They are my only possession, the only thing I have left from my home.”

“While I understand the reason for your impulsiveness, I cannot accept it. You put yourself at great risk, and I must make sure you never disobey me again. Come here.”

Her heart beat a little faster. She could tell he was not planning to go easy on her. She inched away from him until her back hit the wall.

Lennox settled into the chair and pointed the paddle at her. “If I have to chase you, this will be much worse.”

At first, Marisol could not compel her feet to move closer to him. He waited for her. Finally, with her eyes lowered, she crept in his direction until she stood directly in front of him.

“Good girl.”

Staring at the wooden paddle in his hand, she whispered, “I don’t know what to do next.”

Placing a hand under her elbow, he guided her over his strong thighs. Marisol began to panic as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

He must have felt the fear in her body. “It will be alright, lass,” he said. “It’s a punishment, but it will end. Then I will hold you.”

She thought to herself, I don’t want him to hold me, he’s swine.

She was only wearing one layer of skirt. As he lifted it to expose her bare bottom, shame flooded her. It was one thing to be naked for lovemaking. It was quite another to have her bottom presented for punishment. Her thighs were parted slightly, and she wondered what he could see. Her pussy pulsed, awakened at the very thought of his gaze upon it. When he rested his heavy palm on her left cheek, she shuddered, overcome with lust for his touch. She did not want this spanking, but her traitorous body did not care.

“Are you ready?”

“You, you don’t have to do this,” she stammered. “I promise I’ll never disobey you again.”

He let go of her waist and wound his left hand through her long hair close to the base of her neck. He tugged her head back so he could look at her when he said, “Marisol, you do not make the rules. You have earned a spanking. The rest of it is up to me.”

She gave a trembling sigh. “Oh, fine, go ahead, get it over with.”

He released her hair and wrapped his arm around her waist once more. The mighty slap upon her bottom made her immediately rethink that decision. She jumped. Lennox tightened his grip and smacked her again. He spanked one cheek and then the other, moving briskly back and forth. Marisol began to rock in a desperate attempt to avoid his hand, but she was trapped against him. There was no escaping his ministrations.

“You can’t get away from me, lass. Yield and this will be over soon.”

She gritted her teeth to avoid crying out and stiffened her body, determined not to surrender, but as her tender bottom turned hot, it became harder to maintain the facade. Pain, like pleasure, was not something she’d experienced in excess before. It made her feel helpless and small. And, when he lowered his punishing hand to the tender flesh of her upper thighs, it made her feel desperately sorry for her mistake.

Swat after swat layered over her skin, building in intensity with every stroke. “Lennox, I cannot bear it,” she cried out, finally losing her resolve. He cared about her. Would not her plea cause his heart to soften?

He paused for a moment, and she allowed herself the tiniest sigh of relief. She thought that perhaps in his love for her, he’d decided to show her mercy, but that thought was short-lived. Apparently, he had only paused to pick up the paddle.

The first whap of it against her scalded flesh made her yelp. She curled her hands into fists and willed herself to suffer as stoically as possible.

Lennox brought the small paddle down in crisp smacks over and over. Marisol locked her ankles, determined not to kick. Anger joined her pain as he continued to punish her.

“You brutish swine!” she cried out. “I will never speak to you again.”

He paused again, but it was only to scold her. “Those are not words of contrition, and that is all I will accept. Let me assure ye, lass, I can outlast ye. Your backside will tire of this long before my arm does.”

He dropped the paddle. With an inescapable flurry of strong handprints, he resumed spanking her, much harder and much faster.

A sob caught in her throat. No longer concerned with modesty or stoicism, she kicked her legs, knowing she was putting everything on display—her throbbing pussy, certainly, and possibly even the rosette of her back hole. She guessed her face was as flushed as her punished bottom.

“P-please,” she said, her voice quiet against the sound of Lennox’s firm palm meeting her bottom again and again. “I am sorry.” She meant it. Though ashamed to be enduring such a humiliating punishment, she knew she deserved it. It hadn’t been made a secret that she was expected to obey her new husband, and at the first chance to prove herself an obedient wife, she had defied his wishes. Worse, she had put everyone in danger.

Finally, he stopped. His fingers now as light as feathers, he traced over the skin of her punished bottom and thighs.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated. “Forgive me.”

“I have already forgiven you, dove. But you must obey me from now on, for your own safety. What do you think the Despoilers would have wanted you for?”

The possibilities were horrible. “I didn’t know they even existed,” she sniffled, feeling marginally sorry for herself. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

He squeezed each cheek, gently but possessively. “I would have in time. I plan to tell you everything I know that can help you. This world is new to you, and you must trust me to keep you safe.”

Marisol nodded. His punishing hand now felt soothing as it caressed her skin. The burning sensation during the punishment transformed into a dull ache. She moaned and arched her back, curving her bottom into his hand.

He chuckled and lowered his touch to her thigh. His hand was so large that she felt it span nearly around it, and when he pulled her leg toward him, opening her most private areas to his view, she could only sigh. She still felt the niggling of embarrassment, but that only seemed to fuel her arousal.

“Touch me,” she said, and her voice sounded as though she begged for her life.

“I just punished you, lass, and you want now to receive pleasure from me?”

“Yes. I can’t explain it, but I do.”

He didn’t need any further encouragement. His fingers brushed her pussy, and her legs shook in response. His touch electrified her, sending sparks out her fingertips and toes.

“Naughty lass,” he growled. “You’re slick with desire after your spanking.” He entered her with two fingers and spread them apart, stretching her channel and making her groan with need.

“No,” she whimpered. “It can’t be. I hated that spanking. It hurt.”

He moved a finger to her clit and swirled around it. “Your body tells the truth,” his voice rumbled. “A big part of you likes to be dominated. There’s no shame in it.”

She didn’t have the wherewithal to reflect on that, now that his thumb was hooked in her vagina, applying pressure to a spot that caused her entire body to tremble, and his finger was vibrating over her clit.

When he leaned over and growled in her ear, “Come for me, lass,” she could only obey. Pleasure exploded within her, causing her toes to flex and her body to rock and grind against his thighs. He continued to fondle her pussy as the wave of her orgasm continued, and he only released her when she collapsed limply over him. Her bottom and pussy were sore and spent.

He swatted her rump, none too gently, causing a blaze of fire that made her squeal. “Up you go,” he said.

She climbed off his lap, lowered her skirts, and hoisted herself onto the bed, where she lay on her belly and gazed at him as he washed his hands using the basin on their dresser. The skirt of her dress rested lightly on her scorched bottom, but every shift she made caused the material to scrape against her punished skin like sandpaper, igniting the burn and reminding her that she had been well thrashed.

She couldn’t believe he’d actually thought the spanking had aroused her. It had hurt worse than anything else she’d experienced. Surely her body hadn’t responded in that way to his painful ministrations. She thought about his palm striking each cheek and then the paddle making the spanking impossibly more punishing. To her great amazement, the very thought caused a stirring low in her belly, even though she’d just orgasmed. How was it possible that the memory of something so embarrassing and painful was turning her on?

A sudden knock on the door interrupted her reverie. Lennox dried his hands and strode across the room. He exchanged a few words with the interloper and then said over his shoulder, “I’ll be back, dove.” With that, he was gone.