Dark Blue: Study in Seduction, Book 1 by Natasha Bond

his palm rested against her flesh, his touch light and almost tender. It might as well have been molten for the fire it shot through her insides. Her clit almost exploded. Oh help, she could come right now without him even doing anything.
    There was a brief, agonising moment when he withdrew his hand, and she panicked, torn in half by fear of the punishment and fear of being set free. Then he spoke in gentle, almost reverent tones. “Don’t move or move your hands until I say you can. If you want to move your hands, tell me, and I’ll give you time to compose yourself.”
    What the hell did he mean by that? Why would she need to compose herself ?
    Great Tom chimed, and she realised exactly what he intended in the same moment as his hand made contact with her backside. The loud smack was echoed by a fiery sting in her butt cheek. Oh hell, it was much harder than she’d expected. Not brutal but definitely not pretending.
    “Ow!” She swore to herself she would not gasp again, that she wouldn’t make a sound, but oh, it stung like crazy, and ouch, here it came again. It wasn’t terribly painful, yet the slaps kept coming, on and on, first one cheek then the other, in time with the striking of the bell. She squashed down a little “oof” and squirmed as each smack landed. She dared not cry out too loudly, as someone would surely hear her, if they hadn’t already heard the spanks. They were rhythmic and almost musical, starting to be too uncomfortable to bear anymore, and she couldn’t contain her gasps and “oofs” any longer. Her bottom already felt red hot, and still he went on spanking her. Suddenly, full realisation hit her as hard as his palm across her tender cheeks.
    The clock, it chimed every night at nine, but not nine times, oh no; it chimed on Oxford time: one hundred and bloody one times.
    “No. You can’t!” Her hands flew from the desk. She snapped round to find Alex looking at her and bloody smiling again.
    “I didn’t say you could move. I haven’t finished.”
    “I’m not taking a hundred and one of these!”
    His expression was indulgent, not disappointed, yet he obviously expected her to fail this test. “Perhaps not this evening, no, but we’ll build up to it.”
    “Build up to them? My backside’s burning already. It hurts!”
    “Pain is a perception. It’s psychological, and I’m not spanking you that hard. They’re just glancing blows. They won’t do you any lasting harm, even though I’ll admit they probably do smart a bit.” S mart a bit? How could he be so cool about it when her behind was on fire? “I know it can’t be that awful. I can tell. It’s pretty obvious.”
    He was right. She was so wet the juices trickled down her legs. Each slap sent a quiver of fire from her bottom to her clit and connected deep inside her brain too.
    “Hands back on the desk, please, and we’ll try and get to twenty-one, shall we?”
    Twenty-one… She must have had twenty-one already! “How many have I had?” she asked through gritted teeth.
    “About fourteen.”
    “About? Aren’t you counting?”
    “Fifteen, actually. You stood up during the last one, so it will have to be repeated. Now the bell is still striking, there’s still time. Focus on the chimes, and you’ll cope.”
    She bent over, curling her fingers in a delicious agony of fear and anticipation. It’s not really hurting, she told herself. She was just being a wuss. She vowed she would not move or make a sound, so she clamped her lips together, determined not to even twitch.
    Her next gasp morphed into a yowl as he cracked his palm down.
    “Ow, ow, oww!”
    He rained down three strokes with metronomic precision, each sharper and harder than the last one. Then it dawned on her, through the sizzling in her butt and the wonder that she could allow this at all, that Alex must have done this before. He was too skilled to be a novice, surely? Her heart plummeted, the adrenaline that was keeping her upright and coping