“Hands, darling,” he said, and she took a breath before obeying.
Gideon took a moment to scrape his nails over the flushed and warm skin which made her whimper and rub against his thigh. He loosened the vise of his legs. “And spread your legs.”
Once she’d complied, he held her fast, a single hand gripping both her wrists and his thighs clamped around hers. Before he started spanking her again, he slipped a finger through the folds of her sex and found her wet. Yes, his little girl was soaked, and when he drew his finger back to slide into her pussy, she made a plaintive little moan.
“Please, Daddy.”
“Please what?” he asked, pushing a second finger inside her and settling the pad of his thumb against her asshole in the way he knew mortified and excited her.
“May I come, please?” she asked hopefully, and he laughed.
“Oh, no, darling. Not yet. Not any time soon even. That was very good gin.”
He commenced spanking her again and enjoyed the fruitless way she struggled. Not that she was really trying to get away—she wouldn’t dare—but just enough to let him know it hurt. Well, it ought to. He was teaching her a lesson, one he didn’t intend for her to forget.
Gideon spanked her until his palm was ringing and prickly with heat. Plum’s bottom was red and he would imagine throbbing by the time he gave into her pleas to stop, please. He didn’t let her go but kept her still as he rubbed her sore and scarlet bottom.
“You’re not finished yet. You’re going to have some corner time to think about what you’ve done while I clean up the mess you made. Can you stand?”
She nodded and he helped her to her feet. Her face had a lovely flush, the same shade as her backside, and though she looked contrite she hadn’t cried. She hadn’t gotten mouthy and spit curses at him either—she must be feeling very mild today.
Plum rolled her lips between her teeth as she looked up at him through her lashes. “I know my punishment isn’t over, but may I have a hug?”
Oh, sweet girl. And very soft and docile today indeed.
“Of course, darling. Of course you may.”
She walked into the space he made with his arms and wrapped her arms around him. It felt good to have her small, strong body pressed against him and he didn’t hesitate to return the embrace, rubbing her back and laying his cheek on her hair.
Plum could be stubborn and bratty but at the end of the day, she was just as sweet as her namesake. He didn’t want her to get too relaxed, though, it would be harder for her to take the rest of her punishment if she did. And while he was a bit of a sadist, he wouldn’t make this any harder on her than he’d originally planned. That would be enough.
So after a few minutes, he gently pried her off of him and left her standing there, a pretty shade of pink on both her upper and lower cheeks.
From a drawer, he pulled a pair of clamps and returned to her, jingling them in his hand. From the way her eyes went wide, she had some sense of what he’d retrieved.
“Hands behind your head. That’s a good girl.”
Gideon put the necklace the clamps were attached to around her neck, fastening the clasp and kissing Plum’s warm cheek. She didn’t complain when he removed the rings from around her nipples, nor did she make a peep when he pinched and rolled and tugged them. Not that they needed it; they were already hard like sweet cherrystones from the rings.
Plum only inhaled, gaspy little breaths when he fastened the clamps onto her sensitive flesh and she let him lead her to the corner of his room that had been left empty precisely for this purpose. Not Plum specifically, but it may as well have been for her. They were so well matched in so many ways, it did seem some days as if God had thrown her straight into his lap.
And why not? Had he not been a good and faithful servant? He’d like to think so, although humility had never been one of his strong suits, so perhaps it was a given he would believe that.
He steered her into the corner, tapped her elbows slightly closer to the walls. “I want you close, but you may not rest. If I find you with your elbows against the wall when I return, your earlier spanking will feel like a sweet game of pat-a-cake. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
“Good. Now don’t move an inch. I’ll be back when I’m finished cleaning up.”
Chapter Four
Plum felt as though she was back where she’d started from—sore and impatient—but now with a throbbing backside and clamped nipples as well. Surely the punishment fit the crime by now? But Gideon had said no, they weren’t finished. How much more did he expect her to endure?
Although hewascleaning up the mess she’d made so she supposed she perhaps owed him a bit more contrition.
She strained to hear any sound of him but the man was quiet. Probably all that time spent wandering around churches, damn him. But not, like, literally. Was it extra mean to damn a priest to hell? Though she didn’t know much about religion at all, and definitely not the Episcopal church, she was certain down to the marrow in her bones that Gideon was a good priest.
He was a good man, a kind man, and a fair one—he must be if she thought so even when he’d spanked her to tears on multiple occasions and this evening would probably add to the tally.