“I am not begging you,” she said stubbornly.

“Not with your lips. Not yet. But your eyes are telling me a different story. They are telling me the truth.” He smiled, bending his head to lick and then nip each nipple in turn. Heat and raging excitement flooded through Martha’s abdomen. She bit her lip in an attempt to stifle the involuntary moan that was lodged somewhere deep in her throat, but was doing its best to escape. As his mouth closed on hers, and his lips parted hers, she wanted to melt into his strong arms. She didn’t want to think about what it meant to give in to him, she only wanted this moment. Her tongue tentatively met his and joined in the wild action of taste and dance. Fraser’s fingers took hold of her nipple and teased, making her back arch.

Moving his hand lower, he lifted her skirts, one finger finding her hot, tight wetness. Martha could hold it back no longer. A rapturous, treacherous little moan left her lips.

“Did ye say something?” She shook her head. “You didn’t ask me to do this—” he moved the finger, probing deeper, “—some more? You wouldn’t like me to do this?” He dropped his head and licked his way along her collarbone, moving his tongue along to the nape of her neck, swirling it into the sensitive depression there. Then he moved down to her breast and sucked her nipple into his mouth and began to play with it. It was too much. Martha cried out. She reached for his head, twisting her fingers into his hair, trying to coax him to move, to press inside her.

“Say it,” he murmured, his lips continuing to tease her flesh.

“Please, Fraser…” It was little more than a whimper.

“Are you begging me, Martha?” He lifted his head to look into her eyes.

“Yes, I’m begging you. Please,” she said, her voice hoarse with longing. Her breasts and sex felt like he had trailed fingers of molten fire across her flesh. Reason had deserted her. She could no longer remember what their fight was about or why she was trying to resist him.

“First we need to get rid of these clothes.” She murmured a little protest as he pulled her to her feet and helped her to step out of her dress. “Then for the chastisement.”

“The what?” Groggy with lust, Martha shivered slightly at the sudden cold on her naked body.

“On your knees, crabbit one,” Fraser directed her, and with a slightly unreal feeling, Martha obeyed, kneeling on the hard wooden floorboards. “I need your arse on display for what comes next.” He knelt behind her, hauling her hips up against his thighs so that she was forced to support herself on her elbows. She could feel the length of his cock pressing hard up against her with each movement.

“Does that mean you are going to skelp my backside as you have so often threatened?” Martha turned her head to look at him over her shoulder and was scorched by the blazing look in his eyes.

“Would you like that, Martha? Is that how you want to be punished for your disobedience?” He ran his hands over the smooth curves of her buttocks, caressing and massaging the soft flesh. The thought, instead of repelling her as she had expected, made her quiver with sudden excitement. Fraser’s smile deepened at her soft gasp and the blush which heated her face.

He held her buttocks apart, pressing the pad of his thumb hard against the puckered ring of her anus and sending a lightning bolt of shock through her body, before running his fingers lower, between her outer lips and up to her clitoris. He began to circle the tiny nub slowly while caressing her buttocks with his other hand. Then he slapped her. The ringing sound of his palm on her flesh was shockingly loud, and she jerked wildly against him, crying out. One hand maintained the pressure on her clitoris, while the other rained down a flurry of fierce, stinging slaps on one buttock then the other. Moans of mingled hurt and arousal began to escape her. As the slaps became harder, he increased the speed of his circling fingers. Martha felt as though her mind had become unhinged. There was no thought, only sensation. The burning skin of her backside matched the pulsating lust that squeezed her inner walls together hard and tight.

The hand delivering the slaps moved lower so that his palm began to hit her entrance each time. His fingertips flicking against her clitoris increased the exquisite pain. As Martha’s orgasm hit her with relentless fury, Fraser slid two fingers inside her so that he could feel her muscles spasm and grip him.

“Now you’ve taken your punishment, I need to kiss you better.” Cradling her in his arms, he lifted her back onto the bed, laying her on the pillows and gently parting her legs so that he could position himself between them. Martha’s muscles were still fluttering from her orgasm so, when he began to slowly lick every inch of her—back and forth—she was instantly writhing. Holding her open with his fingers, he took his time to anoint her sensitive flesh with his lips and tongue, licking and sucking until she came again, thrusting her hips upward to bring herself closer to his mouth.

Fraser tugged his shirt over his head and removed the rest of his clothing before coming back to join her on the bed. His cock was huge, hard and pulsing. Martha reached out and took the iron-hard velvet length of him in her hand. His indrawn breath was a hiss as she ran her fingers lightly down his shaft.

“Weren’t you going to ask me who I belong to?” she whispered. Kneeling so that she could lean over him, she traced her tongue lightly around the rim of his cock. His back arched off the bed at a near-impossible angle.

“I’m not foolish enough to risk asking that question while my balls are exposed to your teeth.”

“But I belong to you, Fraser.” Sliding her lips slowly over the bulging head of his cock, she exulted in the power she had over him. Lifting her head again, she looked into his eyes. “You have complete power over me. Can’t you tell?”

Groaning, he gripped the back of her neck, pulling her head down as his hips jerked upward. He ground out her name. It sounded very much like a cry of submission. A soft, triumphant smile touched Martha’s lips as she took him into her mouth.

Chapter Fifteen

While the men engaged in increasingly difficult feats of strength, such as tossing large logs known as cabers and pulling carts laden with stones up the hillside, the women tended to the children and gossiped among themselves. Martha was conscious of most of their eyes upon her. She knew what they were thinking. She couldn’t blame them. Their thoughts, after all, echoed her own. What was there about this slight, timid Englishwoman that could drive their proud leader into such a frenzy that he had forgotten his place and betrayed his passion for her in front of the assembled clan folk? A secret smile touched her lips. Whatever it was, it had left her tail end stinging and both of them with dark shadows under their eyes after a wild, sleepless night.

“I’d no look like that, if I were you.” Iona took the seat next to her. “Not unless you want one of these fine, wee lasses who has a yen to be the next lady of Lachlan to scratch your eyes out for you.”

Fraser’s sister had arrived at the castle that morning, her arrival heralding a small whirlwind of excitement among the servants, who clearly adored the former daughter of the house of Lachlan.

“Which of them will it be?” Martha couldn’t resist asking the question. There were so many pretty girls present, and she had observed Fraser behaving with equal courtesy to each of them. She just wanted to be sure the one he chose was worthy of him. That was her only interest in the matter.

Iona snorted. “Din’nae talk daft to me, lass.”

Martha knew it had been presumptuous of her to ask. These were the hard lessons she must learn. She had never expected to be any man’s mistress, reduced to fading into the background when he took a wife. It was doubly hard because they were all of them, despite the gaiety of the gathering and the games, living in the shadow of war. The prince was becoming increasingly restless, and Cumberland, it was said, was prepared to face him at any time. The looming confrontation overshadowed everything else, and none of them could predict what the future would bring.