Rocky Mountain Bride (Rocky Mountain Bride Series Book 2) by Lee Savino Page A

back and started to undo his strap. “Turn around and lean over the bed.”
    “No, please,” she begged. “I’ll never do it again.”
    “Carrie,” he caught her chin, “do you trust me?”
    Her eyes slid to the strap he already had in his other hand, its mean black length doubled and twice as scary.
    But she knew he’d never hurt her beyond what she could endure. “I trust you.”
    “Good. Then submit to your punishment, like a good girl.” He let go of her chin. “Up and over the bed.”
    With a mewling little cry, she obeyed. “Please, sir, I won’t do it again.”
    He caressed her bottom through the nightgown, starting with a few soft strikes to warm her up. “I know you won’t, Carrie. You’ll get twenty with my hand and the rest with my strap.”
    “No,” she groaned.
    After a few more warming slaps, he pulled her nightgown up to her waist. She heard the telltale swish of his strap as he shook it out and lay it on the bed beside her. She didn’t know what was worse, the sharp smacks he gave her with his hand, echoing around the cabin, or the sight of the strap waiting to strap her bottom next.
    When her cheeks were hot and throbbing, Miles took up the lean, black strip of leather. Carrie pressed her face into the blankets and tensed.
    “This punishment is meant to teach you never to be so careless again. If you ever leave the lamp on again while sleeping, I’ll give you ten times as many to make sure you learn.”
    He stood to the side; she felt her knees weaken in anticipation. But nothing could prepare her for the harsh slap of the leather against her bare skin.
    “Oh, no,” she screamed out. The second lash came down hard after the first, and she started thrashing and brought her hands around to cover her bottom.
    “Carrie,” Miles said, then repeated her name when she continued crying. “Put your hands back by your head.”
    “Miles, please. Please,” she sobbed. Slowly, she took her hands away and forced them up.
    “Next time you do that, I’ll add to the total.”
    Her knuckles whitened as she gripped the bed cover, but when the next strike came her arms didn’t move.
    “Good girl. You must learn this lesson tonight. What you did was far too dangerous.”
    “I know, I know,” she wailed. “I’ll never do it again as long as I live.”
    “Good.” He readied himself, then let the strap fall again.
    Carrie felt it bite her skin, stinging like mad. She focused on breathing through the pain. She could do this.
    Then the strap hit a spot it had already marked, and she couldn’t help it; her arms jerked down and covered her bottom before she knew what she was doing.
    “I’ll help you,” Miles said, and gathered her wrists, holding them in the small of her back. She pulled a little to test them, and her arms didn’t budge.
    “Thank you,” she said, voice muffled in the blankets. As the strap rained fire down onto her heated flesh, she wriggled her hips and yowled into the bed, but Miles’ grip held fast.
    “Carrie.”
    She lifted her head, realizing her husband was calling her.
    “Yes, sir?”
    “Repeat after me: I will never sleep with the lamp on again.”
    She obeyed, her voice quavering. Miles let the strap punctuate the end of the sentence, then asked her to repeat it.
    She kicked a little at the last blow, but her hands stayed in his wrists.
    “It’s over now.”
    Carrie let her body sag into the bed, sobbing and wondering if she could ever move again. Then her husband lifted her, helping her onto the bed and setting her on her side. He gave her water, and stroked back her hair while she drank.
    “Come here, dear one.” He gathered her into his lap. She leaned on her side to keep her poor bottom from touching anything.
    He kissed her temple. “You know I must punish you so you don’t put yourself in danger again.”
    She promised him over and over she’d never do it again.
    “I know, I know,” he soothed, and rocked her.
    Clinging to his shirt, she