Feeling a strange sort of daze descend upon her, Emma hazily understood he was the first man who’d ever undressed her. Her late husband had never done so, not caring to see her undressed when he was claiming his husbandly rights upon her. Emma thought upon those occasions with pursed lips, not wanting to recall the deep feeling of rage and emptiness which had enveloped her whenever her husband had bedded her. Butit was not rage or emptiness that she was feeling now as a commoner’s large, rough hands were doing their work. And she saw only too well she would welcome this commoner’s hands upon her. She found she didn’t fear this man’s hand even if it had spanked her.
At present Master Archer stepped away from her.
“There,” he said savagely. “Milady’s been unlaced. And will milady deign to remove her gown?”
Why was it that she felt the strange need to comply to what this man was asking? Emma belatedly realized that she had indeed heeded him and that she now stood in front of him only in her underdress which must be in a sorry state. She lowered her eyes in sheer embarrassment, feeling her cheeks flush, but then resolving she needed to take a bath, and deciding she would do so in her shift, as she’d heard some ladies did. Wordlessly, she stepped to the tub, clutching the towel and soap to her chest.
“And suddenly she is modest,” Master Archer said in a disdainful voice, yet, to Emma’s relief, he stormed out of the kitchen.
Emma didn’t tarry to step into the tub, deciding to keep her shift on and wash it at the same time as she was washing her body. At last, once she was done bathing, she resolved to stand in front of the hearth to let it dry, thankful it was only early spring and not quite so chilly.
She startled warily when, while she was drying in front of the hearth, she heard Master Archer return to the kitchen. He started at her with raised eyebrows.
“Do all fancy ladies keep on wet garments instead of changing into dry ones?” he tossed in the same mocking tones as before.
Emma understood some of Rowena’s garments must still be in the house and it seemed foolish not to avail herself of them.Yet she’d been loath to go and look for them in the bedchamber, knowing Master Archer would be there.
At present, Master Archer had turned his back upon her and was stepping out of his own garments. Emma looked at him with wide eyes. Soon he was stark naked, and she had occasion to glance upon a lithe, hard body and, when he strode to the tub, upon a long cock already at half-mast. He shook his head with a snort of derision as he caught her gaze on the length of him. Then he paid her no mind as he stepped inside the tub, apparently unconcerned to bathe in the same water as she had.
Emma resolved it was time to head to the bedchamber, but then stopped in her tracks. Where would Master Archer sleep? And would he take her heading to the bedchamber as an invitation to join her there? Emma reasoned however that the child was already sleeping there.
“Don’t go,” Master Archer’s dry voice suddenly called from behind. “We’ve still a matter to deal with.”
Emma paused, and turned to look at him, blushing crimson.
“You mean to bed me, but I am not…”
“Who said I mean to bed you?” Master Archer interrupted her, now rising to his full height to step out of the tub.
Emma found her gaze greedily roaming on the expanse of his wet hard chest and on his muscled arms. And she did not fail but perceive that his long cock was now standing to full attention, in spite of his words.
“You’re staring at it as if you’ve never ever laid eyes or lips on it before,” Master Archer said derisively, not having missed her gaze.
Emma blushed even more fiercely, telling herself she should feel outraged by his talk. Master Archer stepped out of the tub and busied drying himself, and Emma soon caught herself watching him transfixed, unable to understand the strange spell this man was already weaving upon her. She’d deceived herselfhe was unhandsome. His face might be harsh and not according to the canons of beauty, but his body was beautiful by all canons. And his eyes simply arresting when he glanced upon her after he’d slipped into the clean undertunic he’d brought with him.
“There,” he said making his voice light and unconcerned. “All done. Now I can attend to your spanking.”
“What?”
Emma’s quim pulsed dangerously at his words. Clearly, he was mocking her. He could not mean to do what he professed, could he?
She gulped as Master Archer sat himself on a wooden chair patting his lap.
“Milady,” he called mockingly.
Emma strove hard to hate him at this time and she opened her mouth to speak, yet nothing came to mind. She was partly to blame for this man’s unhappiness, wasn’t she? Though she’d not been the one who had driven Rowena to seek a different life for herself.
“What, no protests or words of defiance?” Master Archer called out.
Emma found herself shaking her head, as her eyes fell on his large, long-fingered right hand. An archer’s hand. Rough and calloused, as she’d felt it when he was nursing her bottom. Did he mean to give her a hand spanking? Emma assumed he did, since she could see no implement he meant to use. How would his large hand feel upon her bottom when he spanked her bare?
For a while now,Arthen had expected an outburst from Rowena who, he knew only too well, was not a restrained woman. He had at first expected her to try to deceive him with sweet words andcaresses as she had done in the first year of their marriage, and then to act like a petulant child, blaming him for all which made her discontent in this world and bemoaning the ill fate which had made her a commoner’s wife.
He supposed it had been petty of him to taunt his wife and want to humiliate her, but he had not expected Rowena to take his words so calmly. Yet the woman in front of him seemed to be utterly different from what he’d expected. And the scorching lust he felt for her was far greater than what he’d experienced before she’d run away from him. He did not know what made Rowena appear so changed and so alluring in his eyes, but things were what they were.
The woman in front of him suddenly shook her head at his mocking question.
“No. You are right. I need a spanking,” she told him and her voice did not sound trembling, but level and composed.