“I do not understand why you are doing this,” Cat continued to protest as Andrew easily thwarted each of her attempts to pull her nightgown down and cover her bottom.
“Because you were dismissive of me in your introduction to Munro, when seconds before that we had been kissing each other,” Andrew explained grimly. “It is not behavior I am willing to accept from you, now or in the future,” he warned. “Especially so when I believe that dismissal served to further convince Munro you are receptive to his marriage proposal.”
“But I have already told you I am not!” she protested.
His mouth tightened. “Munro’s daring to come to your bedchamber just now tells us that he is still under the illusion you will one day become his wife.”
“I didna mean to be disrespectful toward you, Andrew. I was just— I did not expect— You and I were kissing, which was unsettling enough,” she acknowledged with a blush on her cheeks. “I was further unsettled by Mrs. Munro’s interruption telling me of Alec’s arrival.”
He nodded. “I can understand that. But it is not something I can let you think might be allowed to happen a second time,” he added sternly.
“I wilna,” she assured.
“A good spanking will ensure that you don’t.”
Cat’s efforts to pull down her nightgown ceased, as did all her movements, for several long and stunned seconds.
Until she turned to look at him over her shoulder, her cheeks flushed and her eyes glittering. With excitement or anger Andrew was unsure. “Did you say you intend to spank me?”
“I did,” he confirmed calmly. “Not with violence,” he assured. “But in the hope the memory of it will serve to remind you that, as your lover, I will not accept being dismissed or shown disrespect by you under any circumstances.”
“You are not my lover!” Cat’s renewed struggles to free herself were to no avail as Andrew continued to easily hold her in place.
“I intend to rectify that omission as soon as I have spanked your arse until it is red and sore enough to be a reminder whenever you sit down for the next several days not to disrespect me again,” he told her lightly.
“I— I am a woman grown!” she protested. “You cannot spank me—” She broke off her complaining to instead let out an outraged screech as his hand landed painfully on one of her bottom cheeks and then the other.
Andrew’s palm stung pleasurably from the contact with that bared flesh, so much so that he did it again, and then again. One side and then the other, until both cheeks were hot and glowing a rosy red.
And his cock was rock hard and leaking inside his drawers.
He placed his hand on Cat’s heated flesh as he leaned forward to speak close to her ear. “Do you think you will remember not to be disrespectful toward me in future, little Cat?”
Her face was livid with temper when she again turned to glare at him. “I doubt I shall be able to sit down for a week, not just days!”
His fingers tightened, digging into the painful globe of her bottom, before he lifted that hand and administered another smack. “Unfortunately, that did not answer my question.”
“Andrew, please. You’re hurting me,” she choked emotionally.
Andrew did not doubt that for a moment. But he also knew from the heat of Cat’s body, and the way he could now breathe in the perfume of the slick juices between her thighs every time he filled his lungs, that she had also become extremely physically aroused by the spanking. Which had been his intention all along.
He knew from watching Cat with Malcolm that she was a tactile woman, always cuddling the boy or placing a reassuring hand on Malcolm’s arm or shoulder. It stood to reason that those touches also comforted Cat.
Andrew’s idea of being tactile might not be what she was used to, but her response was unmistakable.
“Is that all I’m doing to you, little Cat?” he prompted gruffly.
“Yes!” Her tone was defiant as she deliberately pressed her thighs together.
Andrew kept a restraining arm across her back as his other hand now caressed down the damp crease of her arse before pushing her thighs apart again so that his fingers might stroke where he could see her juices glistening wetly on the red plumpness of her pussy lips.
Cat’s whole body tensed. “Andrew…?”
He lifted his wet hand to his lips and slowly licked them clean, savoring every taste of her salty and sweet juices. “Your arousal tastes delicious. The evidence of which unfortunately means”—he paused for effect—“that you now deserve another spanking for having lied to me.”
“No—”
“But not”—his fingers resumed their stroking between her thighs—“until after I have pleasured you with my fingers and given you some relief from the sexual tension under which you currently appear to be suffering.”
Cat’s emotions were in turmoil. Not just her emotions. Her whole body was alight with a sensitivity that caused Andrew’s outrageous words and his slightest touch to send hot rivers of arousal coursing through her body.
How she came to be lying half naked across Andrew’s thighs in the first place, she had no idea.
Nor, as he now pushed first one finger inside the heat of her channel, quickly followed by another, and began to thrust them in and out of her slickness, did she care about anything else but having him continue to pleasure her.
Her inward acceptance of his lovemaking came at the exact same moment that Andrew chose to cease those intimate caresses. “Please,” she heard herself almost beg.
Her arousal was now such that Cat felt as if she was chasing some hitherto unknown plateau of pleasure. A pleasure she now wanted as badly as she wished to continue breathing.
Andrew’s fingers stilled as he leaned forward. “Please what, little Cat?” He spoke so close to her
