Instead of responding, the Earl halted completely, turning on her with such a burning glow in his hazel eyes that she nearly stepped back. Then he tugged her towards him, swooping low, and the next thing she knew Cynthia was upended over his shoulder, all the air knocked from her lungs.
My goodness.
That was... impressive.
She was very aware of the searing heat of his body, the ripple of his back muscles beneath her hands, and the hot clamp of his palm over the back of her thigh. For once, she decided to be meek. After all, she wanted him to spank her, not throttle her, and she instinctively recognized that his temper was probably nearing the throttling point. Besides, if she struggled, he might just "accidentally" drop her - and she really wouldn't be able to blame him.
If he found anything suspicious in her sudden passivity, he didn't voice it.
By the time he reached his study, setting her down so suddenly that she stumbled backwards - her knees hitting something and causing her to tumble down into the sturdy chair that was behind her, she was feeling a bit dizzy from being upside down for so long. It wasn't necessarily a bad sensation, combined with the tingling of her body that came from being in such close contact with him. Excitement fizzed and popped inside of her, making her feel quite bubbly and chipper.
Which she did her best to hide, but from the way he was looking at her with narrowed, eyes, she had a feeling that it was leaking through. Attempting to put a proper look of contriteness on her face, she folded her hands in her lap and looked up at him through her lashes.
"Explain yourself," he said, glaring down at her and crossing his arms over his chest.
Back to this again. Cynthia sighed. "You gave me permission to go shopping."
"I was under the impression that you were going to do so with my mother."
"I never said that."
"Noted. However, in the future, you will not leave this house unaccompanied by either myself or my mother. Or Lady Hyde if she desires your company."
Cynthia brightened at the thought of more time with Eleanor and then she subsided again under the Earl's gimlet eye. "Very well. If you insist." At least she wasn't being confined. And if she really wanted to get out on her own, she absolutely trusted her own ingenuity to see her way.
"I do. Now. Explain what you were doing in the back of the bookstore with that... that..."
"Gentleman?"
"Not the word I was looking for."
But apparently it would do, because the Earl didn't offer another one. He just glared down at her, one long finger tapping against his bicep expectantly.
"I just wanted to visit the bookstore," Cynthia said, smiling brightly. Quite aware that her attitude was grating on him. "Mr. Brandon found me there and we exchanged some pleasantries."
"And some kisses."
"No." Well that was the truth. While she did want a spanking, just to see if it caused her to get all wet and hot again, she found that it was just as enjoyable to verbally poke at the bear.
"But you would have, if I hadn't come along then," he said grimly, the tempo of that one long finger's tapping increasing as he spoke. "Right in the middle of a bookstore where anyone could have come along and seen you. And your maid was outside where she wouldn't have been any use as a chaperone."
"She's not in trouble is she?" Cynthia asked, suddenly worried. After all, she didn't mean to get someone else into trouble with her antics. And, while the Earl couldn't get rid of her as his ward, it was definitely within his power to dismiss the poor maid. "I quite exhausted her with our shopping, she just wanted to sit and rest."
"I'm aware that she's not up to your weight," the Earl said. "And I have no desire to punish her for something so completely out of her control. But rest assured, you will not be given such an opportunity again." The concern for her maid did her credit, he had to admit to himself, even if she was driving him into a frustrated fury.
He'd truly thought that spanking her on the day of his arrival had signaled to her that things would be different now that the head of house had arrived. Instead she seemed completely unaffected. Well... perhaps not entirely unaffected. She'd become immediately docile once she'd realized how very serious he was, and she had kept him from dragging her through the streets, which would have cause quite a bit of gossip. But he wasn't going to tolerate this kind of behavior from her.
Abruptly deciding that he wasn't going to mention any of the information from Edwin's letter, because if he did then Cynthia might not let anything more useful drop to Eleanor, Wesley uncrossed his arms and stepped back. His ward had given him plenty of reason to punish her without bringing that up; and he and his mother would be keeping a very close watch now so she wouldn't have any opportunity to sneak off and meet with any of the bastards.
"Stand up."
Looking at him almost curiously, a gratifying hint of wariness entered her movements as she stood. At least he knew that his looming intimidation wasn't entirely ineffective. With any other young woman, he'd admire the brazen spirit and her obvious sense of humor; he was much less enamored of it in a young woman whose reputation and future was his responsibility.
"Bend over the arm of the chair and lift your skirts."
Even though she knew that he was about to spank her, discipline her, a trembling excitement went through her limbs. Feeling rather breathless, Cynthia turned and placed her upper body over the wide arm of the chair. The leather padding cradled her hips, pushing her bottom high into the air, while her upper body rested on the wide chair. She could feel her nipples hardening as she reached back to grab her skirts and pull them upwards. It wasn't the most efficient position to do so, but catching a glimpse of the Earl's face, she realized that he was rather enjoying the slow bunching of her skirts around her hips and the way her long legs were revealed to him inch by inch.
She realized that he was looking at him as a man looks at a woman, the way most men looked at her. Was that how he'd looked the last time he'd spanked her?