Chapter Sixteen

SO THEN, LORD Harville.’ Jenna put one stockinged foot on the dressing table stool, bending her leg so that her silky slip fell away from her thigh.

‘Don’t call me that,’ said Jason, standing in the shower room doorway, still towel-drying his wet hair. ‘Besides, that’d be Mum, wouldn’t it? She’s the actual oldest direct descendant.’

‘Are you trying to spoil my fun? I feel like getting seduced by a lord, and I’ve got one right in front of me.’ She pouted, shimmying her hips a little.

Jason dropped the towel and grinned.

‘Role play, eh? Well, I could be persuaded. Get over here, peasant, and kneel to your lord.’

The towel around his waist began to show traces of an outline.

‘You want me to kneel?’ Jenna walked slowly over to him, running a provocative finger along her lower lip.

‘You bet I do. But first …’ He held out a hand, preventing her from obeying the order straight away. ‘You’re overdressed.’

‘Overdressed? Really?’ She looked down at herself. She was only wearing the silk slip and stockings, with a suspender belt.

‘Really. This can go.’ He ran a finger beneath one of her shoulder straps.

‘But then I’ll be …’

‘Naked? No you won’t. Not completely. Besides, are you disobeying me? I don’t think you want to do that, peasant.’

‘Why not?’ Jenna was trying to act the trembling ingénue, but she couldn’t quell a spark of mischief.

Jason took her arm, half-turned her, pushed her down by the shoulder blades until her bottom was thrust outwards and landed a loud smack on it.

‘Because that’s why not,’ he said over her indignant squeal. ‘Got it?’

‘Er, I’m not sure,’ said Jenna, wiggling her bottom and enjoying the feel of the cool silk against the warm spot Jason had created.

He sighed.

‘You need more?’

‘I’m just a poor peasant who doesn’t always understand …’

He shook his head and led her by the hand to the bed. Sitting down, he pulled her across his lap and lifted the hem of her black silk slip until her bare bottom was revealed, framed by the suspender straps.

‘Let me know when it starts to sink in,’ he advised. He made a quick and lively start on her, taking full advantage of the way her round cheeks were presented high and defenceless to him.

Jenna wriggled and squirmed, enjoying her role, even if the spanking was pretty brisk and would soon become uncomfortable.

‘Oh, my lord, how could you do this to me?’ she gasped, when she was able to fit words in between ouches and hisses.

‘Are you going to obey me?’ he asked ominously, his hand falling heavier and covering every little inch of exposed skin.

She felt the burn, and imagined how her bottom must look to him, but she didn’t cave. This would end when she couldn’t take any more, and no sooner.

Oh, how good it was to feel his hand hard on her behind once more. Since the fires and their aftermath, life had been fraught, much of it spent in police stations, hospitals, hotels and newsrooms. But now they were in London, renting their own place in St John’s Wood, with nobody else but themselves to please. There was a room at the top of the house with a pitched glass ceiling that made a perfect studio for Jason, and a neat garden at the back for Jenna to sit in and make calls when the autumn weather was mild enough. At last it felt as if her life might be settling down.

But her bottom certainly wasn’t, at this moment in time. Jason had managed to set it on fire all over, and he was clearly waiting for her to concede defeat before he stopped, as smack after smack fell on her overheated rear.

She thought of her old self, before returning to Bledburn, and would have smiled if she hadn’t been so busy yelping. The old Jenna, if she had been sat down in front of a recording of this moment, sent back in time to her LA office, would have been horrified. What the hell is he doing to me? It’s assault! Sexual assault! Get the police for me, Misty.

Worst of all for old-Jenna, a substantial part of her would have been intrigued, excited even, by the scene. And that would have made her react even more negatively.

I won’t be disrespected again by any man, ever.

Yet Jason was not disrespecting her. They were both fully engaged in mutual pleasure. The only reason he was spanking her was because she wanted him to.

She was probably insane, though, she reflected. It was getting really painful now.

She kicked her legs to try and deflect his hand from its task, her face as hot as her backside.

‘You peasants really are slow to catch on, aren’t you?’ said Jason, sounding impressed. His arm must have tired, because he stopped for a moment, rubbing his palm over her smarting globes. ‘Either that or incredibly stubborn. Which one is it?’

‘Stubborn,’ panted Jenna. ‘Very, very stubborn.’

‘I had a feeling you might be. So, then. Are you going to do as you’re told, or do I have to spank you again? I don’t mind, either way. I could do this all night.’

As if to demonstrate, he peppered each cheek with a rapid fire of smacks.

Jenna shrieked, and knew she had had enough this time.

‘Please, no more,’ she pleaded. ‘I will obey you.’

‘Aha, good decision,’ said Jason. ‘I was starting to wonder if you’d gone numb and couldn’t feel it.’

‘Oh, I could feel it. Don’t worry about that.’

He let her get up and she stood, rubbing her behind and eyeing him coyly as he sat in his towel on the edge of the bed.

‘Go on then,’ he prompted, his eyes rapacious as they raked her over.

She loved that light of lust in his eye, and knew she was reflecting it back to him. Jason’s body was one of her favourite sights, certainly on a par with his art in her opinion. There was nothing she preferred to look at.

Clad only in a towel, he sat flexing his wrist as if the spanking had strained it in some way – perhaps it had. She could see how red his palm was and blushed to think that the colour was replicated on her bottom. His broad shoulders, tautly muscled arms and well-defined chest were powerful without being exaggerated. She had never gone for that body-builder look anyway, and Deano was the elegantly wasted type. Compared to him, Jason was certainly well built.

His legs were long, and his hands were an artist’s hands, despite the long years of dossing and time-wasting on the estate – smooth and pale with long fingers. She shivered to think of the talents those fingers had. It wasn’t just paint they brought to life.

As for what lay beneath the towel … well, it was making its presence felt via a tell-tale bulge in the centre of the bunched white fabric. She wouldn’t be leaving the room without taking the whole length of it inside her.

She swallowed and began to remove the silken garment. Slowly, she lowered the shoulder straps, baring her shoulders, then she allowed the lace top of it to unveil her breasts.

Jason smiled crookedly as they came into view, and reached out.

‘Closer,’ he said.

She stepped towards him and he ran his hands over her bared mounds, lowering his face to kiss her nipples, which were tingling with life.

He looked up at her from beneath lowered brows.

‘Who do these belong to?’ he asked.

She wasn’t sure whether he was still playing the wicked lord or not, but the answer would still be the same.

‘You,’ she whispered, breathing deep as he rubbed pleasure into her.

‘Don’t you forget it.’ He worked at her breasts, caressing and stimulating them with fingers, tongue and teeth, until she squirmed so much her slip began to fall further.

Jason noticed and landed another smack on her still smarting bottom.

‘What’s this still doing on?’ he demanded.

Jenna quickly pushed it over her hips and let it fall. Out on display now were her thighs, bare above her stocking tops and lined with black suspender straps. And so was all that lay between her breasts and her stockings.

Her bottom was bare and sore, and her pussy was defencelessly available to him.

He wasted no time in making sure she understood this, putting his hand between her legs and cupping her pussy firmly.

‘Oh, here’s something else that belongs to me,’ he said, moving his hand lazily so that her lips had to open to admit it. ‘I think it’s wet. Why’s that?’

‘I …’ Her throat was dry now, her legs beginning to tremble. She hoped she’d be able to get on to the bed soon.

‘Can’t hear you,’ he said sternly, with another warning tap to her behind.

‘Because I … I want …’

‘What do you want?’

‘Mmm.’ He had found her clit and was making sure she knew it.

‘Look at me, Jenna.’

Her eyes had half-closed and she was looking far away from him, into a dream where only the sensation between her thighs was real.

His sharp order brought her back. She always found it difficult to look at him when he was touching her so intimately, and she kept her eyelids low as she found his dark gaze amidst the blur.

‘Look at me properly,’ he said, and he gave her clit a light pinch.

It was enough to make her flinch and open her eyes wide.

‘That’s better,’ he said. ‘I like you to look right into my eyes when I’m doing these things to you. I don’t want you to forget who’s doing them. Is that understood?’

‘Yes, sir,’ she said softly, the words coming naturally now.

‘Now spread your legs a little bit wider and keep your eyes on me.’

She complied, moaning a little as he set his fingers to work in earnest, giving her swollen bud all the attention it could handle, and a little more.

‘How’s your bum?’ he asked with a wicked flash of his eyes, letting his free hand stroke her still-hot buttocks. ‘Still sore?’

‘A bit,’ she gasped, trying to keep her knees locked, worried that they might buckle at any moment.

He brushed his fingertips along the parting of her cheeks, making her gasp even more. What was he going to do?

She stumbled forwards slightly at the shock of it, pushing herself further on to his fingers.

‘You want me to do you harder?’ muttered Jason. ‘You’re wet enough. You can’t get enough, can you?’

She shook her head, a mute plea for mercy in her eyes.

He laughed and removed his hands.

‘OK, then. Get on the bed. On your front.’

What a relief to get off her feet. She climbed past him on to the duvet and spread herself gratefully into a starfish position, arms splayed out above her head. She knew that she might as well have her legs apart from the off, because he would only tell her to spread them if she didn’t.

She buried her face in the covers and tried to picture what he must be seeing. He was standing now, at the foot of the bed, looking down at her.

He would see a suppliant body, open to him, with spine low and bottom fiery red. In between her spread thighs, her pussy lips would mirror their parting, showing her swollen clit and her slick opening. Everything gave the same message: all yours.

‘Nice view,’ he said thickly, then, ‘get up on all fours.’

She obeyed, her breasts swaying slightly as she arranged herself in his favourite position.

‘What do you think I’m going to do to you, girl?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Jenna lied, and she got a smack on the thigh for her evasion.

‘Yes, you do. Come on. You must have an idea.’

‘I think you’re going to … get behind me …’

‘Yes? And?’

‘Push yourself into me.’

‘That’s a very polite way of putting it, Jen. Push myself into you. What, all six feet of me, from head to toe, or …?’

‘No, you know what I mean.’

‘I don’t. It sounds like you mean some sort of reverse way of giving birth. I’m not really up for that. I don’t think I’d fit, for a start.’

She giggled at the idea of it, but her cheeks were hot and she knew she’d have to say the words.

‘Your cock,’ she muttered.

‘What was that? Were you calling me a cock?’

‘No,’ she huffed. ‘You’re making this difficult for me on purpose, aren’t you?’

‘Of course I am. You know me. So, go on. What were you saying?’

‘You’re going to push your cock into me.’

‘Ah, right. You might be on to something there. Go on.’

‘Go on?’ She clenched her fists in annoyance, her scalp prickling with embarrassment. ‘I’ve told you what you wanted to hear.’

‘No way, that’s just the start of it. I’m going to push my cock into you, and then?’

‘Oh, for fuck’s sake, all right. And then you’re going to do me, baby, real hard.’

Her overdone impression of a porn star earned her another smack on the thigh.

‘Something tells me you’re not taking this seriously, Jen. And you should, you know. Very seriously. Let’s have that again, but with respect, yeah?’

She took a steadying breath, shut her eyes and let the words pour out.

‘And then you’re going to fuck me hard until I come.’

‘Bingo. Right then. Ready?’

She nodded.

He knelt on the bed at her rear and took some time to tease first, stroking her inner thighs and kissing the warm slopes of her bottom until she wriggled and sighed.

‘Mm, I can’t wait,’ he whispered. ‘You’re going to be so hot and juicy.’

He put a finger inside her to test the ground, and groaned at how easily and slickly it slid in. He added two more and swirled them inside her, while his thumb flicked at her clit.

‘Touch your nipples,’ he commanded. ‘Go on. Stroke them. Give them a pinch if you want.’

She joined in, feathering her fingers as lightly as she could because her nipples felt so absurdly sensitive that every touch bordered on pain.

Jason’s fingers continued to work on her, making her mortifyingly conscious of how incredibly aroused she was. The evidence of it was all over his hand.

‘You’re ready,’ he said. ‘Getting into it, now, eh?’

He laughed as she hitched a breath and bore down on him, trying to get him to rub harder on her clit as she felt her orgasm build.

But he wasn’t playing that game.

He withdrew his fingers and took hold of her hair instead, holding it in a tight ponytail while he sheathed his cock swiftly inside her in a single breath-taking stroke.

She never failed to feel that fluttering of delight every time she took him deep inside. It was something she would never, ever tire of. He was so perfectly made for her.

‘Oh … yes,’ she breathed.

He wrapped her hair around his fist until it was like a short leash. He knew she loved to have her hair pulled during sex – at first, he’d been unsure, too gentle, but now he had found out the way she wanted it, and he did it with consummate skill.

His other hand reached underneath her to play with her breasts.

‘Who’s ready?’ he asked, taking a moment to enjoy the connection before getting down to it.

‘I am … m’ready,’ said Jenna, her head high as he pulled at her hair.

‘Good.’

What a wild, hard ride it was. She yelped and clung to the headboard and kicked her feet as Jason plunged remorselessly in and out of her. They were perfect together now. Each knew the other’s limits and each knew exactly how far they could go. Jenna had let Jason get that little bit rougher, take that little bit more licence, as their emotional bond had deepened. The more she trusted him, the more he could do to her. She had no fear when she was with him.

He grabbed at her breasts, his fingertips pressing into the soft skin until she felt the pressure become almost unbearable. And then he stopped, knowing that she was on the edge of pleasure and pain.

Instead, he turned his attention to her bottom, running a fingertip along the crease of her buttocks, a little deeper each time until it found the hidden pucker. He pushed a knuckle against it, not hard enough to breach the muscle, but just hard enough for her to be aware of it and to sense that extra exquisite stimulation in tandem with his thrusts.

Feeling opened and owned, she shut her eyes and concentrated on the slow unfurling in her core, floating in her submission and using it to unlock her orgasm.

He knew it was coming; she could tell because he gave her hair an extra-hard tug, so that her scalp flooded with tingling and her endorphins set off in the mad race to climax.

He pushed his knuckle, ever so slightly, but enough to tip her over the edge so that she bucked and howled, losing control of her body and trying to slump. But he held her too tightly and she couldn’t. She had to let him pound into her, even if her bones were melting, because he had her head and wouldn’t let it go.

His own orgasm followed swiftly and the pair of them fell forwards, Jason’s right hand still wrapped in her hair, his left between her parted bottom cheeks.

Jenna waited till their breathing had levelled and the afterglow had kicked in before stroking Jason’s cheek and kissing his eyelids open.

‘So, then, my lord,’ she whispered.

‘Mm hmm,’ he replied, still in a post-coital haze that made him look half-drugged.

‘Was that to your satisfaction?’

He chuckled and kissed her lips.

‘Fucking right it was.’

She huddled closer to him, looking dreamily at the ceiling.

‘Do you think we’ll ever get bored of this?’

‘Of what? Sex? Do me a favour.’

‘Not just sex. Me and you. What we make each other feel.’

He seemed to snap out of his inertia at that, propping himself up to stare at her.

‘Not a chance. Why? Do you think you will?’

She shook her head.

‘I can’t imagine ever … I mean …’

She struggled to put her thoughts into words. Ever since that fateful night at the cottage and its aftermath, Jason’s mood had stabilised so quickly that it was as if the chip on his shoulder had been sanded off. There had been no more mention of their relative financial or social status, no sulks, no vows to pay everything back and more. He had seemed to accept that life was about more than keeping score and being on top.

The result was the most wonderful few months of Jenna’s life. At last, a real loving partnership where she was adored, respected and cared for. And, she hoped, she provided the same for him.

‘What?’ he said, when she lapsed into incoherence.

‘I mean, I want to be with you forever.’

She held her breath. Was that too much? Would he laugh her off or suddenly scare at the thought of such commitment?

He took her hand and kissed it.

‘I’m glad you said that,’ he said. ‘’Cos I feel exactly the same.’