Her hand swung up to cover her mouth as her mind whirled with terrible visions, and suddenly Hugh was standing before her, pulling her into the safe, warm circle of his arms and murmuring soothingly. "Relax sweetheart, I'm sure they're fine. They didn’t have very far to go between the houses. Alex and Wesley will find them, and woe betide anyone who sought to molest them. I just wanted to point out the dangers, not distress you so."
He actually sounded rather contrite, and she frowned, realizing that he had exaggerated the danger just a bit. Although he’d still made some good points.
"I'm not sure I'll be able to sleep tonight, if we don't find out what happened to them," she muttered, smacking his chest lightly. Her heart still felt like it was in her throat as her mind raced with all the things that could go wrong, when two ladies stepped out into the night on their own. Of course, they weren’t in London, and Bath was much safer.
"I'm sure I can help you to sleep, wife," Hugh said, and for just a moment she saw the anticipatory glint of passion in his blues eyes. Just as quickly, it faded, to be replaced by a stern look that he pinned her with. Worries about Grace and Cynthia moved to the back of her mind, as worry for her own person rose up to take precedence. "After we finish your spanking."
Hearing that she was receiving a spanking, instead of a harsher punishment, should have been a relief, but it was hard to feel relieved when she knew how much a spanking from Hugh could hurt. A lesser punishment was still bloody painful, as Eleanor would say. Of course she would choose a spanking over a birching or a belting, but Irene would rather not have any punishment at all. But she knew she deserved it.
She didn't regret her actions, or trying to give Grace and Cynthia more time, but she'd known when she made that choice that she would face the consequences later.
Releasing her from his arms, Hugh walked over to the bed and sat down, patting his lap. "Come here, Irene."
Sometimes she wished that he would just drag her. It would be so much easier than having to willingly walk to her own punishment. There was a sharp fluttering in her stomach that increased the closer that she came to him. Stifling a little moan, she lay herself over his lap, her legs hanging down on one side, her upper body across the bed.
The feel of her skirts sliding up her legs, and then Hugh's warm hand on her thigh and bottom, made her shiver. His finger traced little patterns on the creamy flesh of her buttocks, as if inspecting the area that he was about to redden.
"Do you understand why you're being punished, Irene?"
"Yes," she said, her voice tight. She could already feel the tears rising in the back of her eyes, even though he hadn't even started yet. The anticipation was wringing her nerves. At this moment, she wished that he would just get on with it, but she knew that once he started, she would wish that he'd kept stalling. "Because I didn't tell you where Grace and Cynthia had gone."
"I commend loyalty to your friends, but your loyalty must, first and foremost, be to me," he said, still stroking her bottom. His palm felt hot against her skin and she squirmed a bit again. This part felt good, which was only going to make the actual spanking feel even worse by comparison. "I will not tolerate lying to me, not directly and not by omission."
"I'm sorry, Hugh," she said, miserably. She really was too. If she had to do it all over again... well, she wasn't sure what she would do, but she did feel guilty that she had made it seem like she valued her friends over her husband. Not to mention guilty for putting Cynthia and Grace at risk. This was her penance, and she would take it, because she knew she deserved it. "I don't like lying to you."
"I know, sweetheart," he said, his voice softening a bit. "You're normally a very good girl, but that's why I have to put my foot down when you do step out of line." His voice had hardened again by the end of his sentence, and his hand lifted from her bottom and came down with a sharp slap.
Irene jerked, mostly in surprise, and then clutched at the covers as his hand began to come down in earnest, smacking her bottom over and over again.
SLAP! SLAP! SLAP!
The fire built up quickly as his hand peppered her bottom, covering every inch of creamy skin in a bright pink. At first it was easy for Hugh to tell where to land his palm: anywhere that her skin was still white. Once the first blush rose in her cheeks, he had to be a little more focused to make sure he didn't hit the same spots over and over again. He wanted each layer of the spanking to be even, although it did wear his hand out more.
His wife began to pant and then moan as she squirmed on his lap, her soft belly rubbing against the hard ridge of his cock. As her buttocks began to turn a darker pink, her soft cries became more distressed, the sound going straight to his groin as her skin began to feel hot beneath his hand. Holding her firmly in place, he ignored her squirming as she began to plead with him.
"Hugh, I'm sorry, I am, I'm sooooooooorry, I won't do it again, I promise!"
Knowing better than to listen to the words, which were properly contrite but also really just part of trying to get out of her punishment, Hugh kept smacking his hand down on the jiggling flesh of her bottom. Each blow had a ripple effect through the rest of her pink skin that tantalized him, making his balls tighten as he yearned to plow into his wife. Even better, as her legs began to kick, he caught flashes of her pussy with its frame of soft red curls, glistening slightly.
As usual, Irene had become aroused while she was being punished.
She didn't enjoy the discipline, just as he would prefer that he not have to discipline her, but both of them had physical reactions to it that they couldn't deny. It was pure torture for Hugh to have to hold back, waiting to take his pleasure, because his wife had to be soundly spanked before either of them could enjoy themselves. Although, Irene's pleasure was almost a punishment in and of itself, because he knew that she was embarrassed by her reaction to being spanked. Especially since the first time he had done it, she had considered it abuse.
"Huuuugh, pleaaaaaaase, I've learned my lesson! Please, please, please!"
Her buttocks had turned a nice rosy red now, hot to the touch and probably quite painful. In some ways, his wife was lucky that she was the one to speak up and tell them where Grace and Cynthia were. If she hadn't, Hugh probably would have gotten her hairbrush at this point and laid its hard surface down atop her already burning cheeks.
But he had decided that she had done the right thing in the end. He gave her one last resounding smack right in the center of her arse, and then began rubbing the abused flesh. She choked and made little sobbing noises, relaxing in relief as she realized her punishment was over.
"I'm stopping now because you were good in the end," he told her sternly. "That's your reward, otherwise this would have been much worse."
Irene nodded her head to show her understanding, because her throat was too choked up from tears. This hadn't been a particularly hard spanking, truthfully, even though she had wailed and carried on in an embarrassing manner. Of course it had hurt, it was supposed to, but she knew that it could have been so much worse. Unfortunately she'd discovered that her bottom could take quite a bit more punishment than she would have ever thought possible. It always hurt so much more than it looked like it would.
Lifting her up from his lap, Hugh stood her up and pulled off her dress and chemise. Irene moaned a bit as his hands and fingers caressed her breasts, pinching her already erect nipples. It felt like her face flamed as bright as her bottom when his fingers slipped between her legs, coming away covered in her cream. The smirking, rakish grin on her husband’s face at the proof of her body's incomprehensible reaction only made her blush harder.
When he tossed her onto the bed, on her back, she squealed and immediately tried to roll over as her bottom flared with pain at the contact.
"Oh no, wife," Hugh said firmly, reaching out and rolling her back as he finished shucking off his own clothing. His cock was rigidly hard, standing out in front of him. "I want you on your back with your legs spread."