Free To Tame A Countess (Properly Spanked Book 2) by Annabel Joseph Page A

alone?” he asked, in a great show of patience. “It’s not as if we’ll be in one another’s pockets. You’ll have plenty of private time to do anything you want.”
    Josephine thought a moment, watching the candle’s flickering shadows on the walls. “But you’ll expect me to do public things too, like go to dinner parties, and attend balls, and go about in society.”
    “Well, yes, but you’ve been doing those things already, haven’t you?”
    “Only because Lord and Lady Baxter thought I should. But I’m bad at them. I don’t like to be among people.”
    “We can’t live as hermits,” Lord Warren said with his crooked smile. “I’ll ask you to do those things sometimes, those dinners and balls, but I also understand you’re not at ease in society. I don’t expect you to be a glittering pillar of the
ton
from the start.”
    “I don’t even know what that means. I would rather have had my cottage.” Her throat felt tight and hot. She stared out the window and thought of her private, peaceful abode, the dream she would never now have. “I don’t know anything about anything, which you will discover shortly. You’ll come to wish you’d left me in those woods.”
    She knew she sounded whiny and overdramatic. She couldn’t bear to look at him, though she could sense his steady regard.
    “I would never have left you in the woods,” he said after a moment. “And lonely cottages aren’t the paradise you envision.”
    “How do you know? Have you ever lived in one?”
    “Don’t snap at me, if you please.”
    “I’m not snapping. I’m only explaining my side of things. Not that it matters, since no one of the male persuasion will listen to me, or the female persuasion either. No one listens to my plans or opinions. I don’t know why I even bother to talk.”
    He tilted her face to his with a frown. “You sound as if you’re feeling very cross and sorry for yourself because you’ve been made to do something you didn’t want to. Do you know what’s good for fixing surly dispositions?”
    “No,” she said in an extremely surly fashion. “I’m sure I don’t.”
    Before she knew what he was about, he had lifted her and tossed her across his lap. She tried in vain to hold down her skirts; they were soon bunched up about her waist, along with her petticoats. He gave her two sharp, stinging spanks on either side of her bottom. The sound echoed off the walls as she threw an arm back to shield herself.
    “Please don’t spank me again,” she cried.
    “Are you finished being peevish?”
    “Yes!”
    “Answer
Yes, my lord
when you’re being scolded. It sounds much prettier. Look up at me and say it.”
    She couldn’t meet his eyes, not while she was in this ignominious position. Her shoulders trembled, and she tensed, fearing he would hit her again.
    “Look at me, Josephine,” he said.
    She twisted to look up at him, and finally managed to meet his cool, blue gaze.
    “Good. Now say it like you mean it.
Yes, my lord
.”
    She forced out the words he demanded. “Yes, my lord.”
    “Because if you don’t mean it, then you’ll require more spanking, which I’m only too happy to provide.”
    “I don’t want to be spanked anymore,” she said in as apologetic a voice as she could muster.
Just as I don’t want to be married to you.
How many spankings were in her future, considering all the things that were wrong with her? She couldn’t bear to think about it. His palm still rested on her backside like a threat. His other arm held her fast across his lap so she couldn’t move. “Will you let me up please? My lord?”
    “In a moment.” His voice sounded rough. Josephine tried to stop shivering, and stayed as still as she could while dangling over his thighs. She didn’t want to anger him when she was trapped in this position—for whenever he was angry, her posterior seemed to pay the price.
    *** *** ***
     
    Warren knew he ought to release her. She was scared. She trembled beneath