Three weeks later
“A raid is no place for a lady,” Wade told Julianne firmly. Their ship was alongside another and most of the crew was busy looting and pillaging the other ship. While this was the first time she’d seen pirates in action, Julianne was visibly frustrated when Wade demanded that she stay in his cabin instead of seeing the action up close.
“But I’m not a lady,” Julianne had fussed, feeling like he treated her too daintily.
Wade just frowned.
“Want to try again?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. He had not forgotten where she came from. He needed to make sure that she understood exactly what a risk it was to have her on board his ship, especially during a time like this.
Julianne lowered her eyes and looked at her hands. She bit her bottom lip, frustrated and ashamed. Wade knew she was having a hard time submitting to her captain, despite all that he had done for her. She was having a hard time making this work for both of them. Though she had been a stowaway, Julianne hadn’t had to report to anyone during that time. She had been able to make her own choices and set her own rules. Now, she had to do as Wade asked.
And she was having a difficult time getting it right.
She tried his patience constantly, and while he was satisfied with the way she touched him, with the way she melted beneath his body when they made love, on deck she was every bit as feisty as she’d been that first day at Darnial.
“Yes, Captain,” she whispered. “I will stay here until your return.” She kept her eyes down, obviously hoping it would show that she was remorseful, but Wade knew her far too well for that. She had been under his protection for a few weeks now. He knew better than to simply take her at her word.
“Oh, love,” he whispered, watching her. She looked so beautiful with her hair falling into her face as she stared at her lap. She was trying so hard to be submissive to him, to obey, to listen to what he required of her, but he couldn’t risk her safety. Not today.
While Wade often overlooked Julianne’s free spirit, he knew that he couldn’t this time. If he left his cabin and she followed him, she could put the entire crew at risk. He knew that his men had secured most everything from the other ship, but if there was a straggling crewmate who managed to grab Julianne, Wade knew that he would do everything he could to save the girl.
Everything.
Even if it meant losing everything, he would give it all up for her.
That thought alone was enough to scare him. The thought of how he felt around Julianne terrified him. She was everything he had ever wanted in a girl with none of the drama. She wasn’t constantly complaining about her mother or her shoes or fussing that she wanted better dresses.
No, Julianne was much more than that.
She loved to laugh with the men and tell stories of her childhood. She loved to read the many books Wade kept in his cabin. She loved helping Buck in the kitchen when he needed a hand. Most of all, perhaps best of all, Julianne was fiercely loyal to her twin brother, Nelson. She loved him dearly and Wade loved to see that.
No, he couldn’t lose her.
“I need you to understand how serious I am,” Wade said to Julianne. “You cannot, under any circumstances, leave the cabin today.”
He wished, for a brief moment, that he could just lock her up, but he wouldn’t. Having a lock on the outside of anyone’s chambers was a bad idea, but most of all his. If someone wanted to burn his ship, what better way than to lock away the captain? No, he would just have to show Julianne how serious he was when he said she needed to stay.
“Come here,” he said, motioning to her.
Julianne stood and walked over to Wade. She stood right in front of him, still staring at her hands, his boots, anything but his face. She didn’t want to look him in the eyes. Wade wasn’t sure if it was because she was scared of what she might see or scared of what she wouldn’t.
“Look at me,” he commanded. Julianne looked up, her eyes curious and bright. Wade resisted the urge to kiss her, but it was hard. Instead, he stroked her cheek softly, rubbing it, enjoying the feeling of her soft skin beneath his calloused hands.
“Bend over the desk,” he said.
Julianne looked surprised.
“What?” She asked, looking from the desk to Wade and back again.
He growled.
“You know I hate repeating myself, Julianne.”
She frowned slightly, but then listened to what he asked. She leaned over the desk, pressing her upper body completely against the surface. She placed her hands on either side of her head. He could practically hear her thinking out loud. Was he going to fuck her before he left? Was that going to teach her a lesson? Wade and Julianne had gotten to know one another quite well in their time together, but this was something new entirely.
He pushed up her skirts and petticoats until they were resting over her hips. Somehow, he and the crew had managed to procure her some decent, feminine clothing. She didn’t have to wear pants anymore, and although Wade loved the way Julianne looked in his trousers, his cock twitched at the sight of her in a skirt: so feminine, so lovely.
He let out a soft sigh of appreciation as he looked at her. If she was embarrassed, she didn’t show it. He’d been with her enough times to know that she was comfortable with her body and with her sexuality: something most women were not.
Julianne bit her lip. She let out a soft moan at Wade’s touch. His hands freely roamed her, rubbing from her ass to her thighs to her womanhood, then back again. It only took a few moments before she was wet with need. Soon her thighs were slick with her juices, and that’s when Wade stopped touching her.
She turned her head and opened her mouth to protest, but before she could get out a sound, he placed a hand on her upper back, holding her down.
“Close your eyes, love,” he told her softly.
Julianne shivered, as she should. Her eyes went wide instead of closed, and Wade could see a million emotions rushing through them: fear, anxiety, nervousness, terror.
And she should feel nervous.
Wade was a pirate.
He was not a lover or a husband. He had been once, long ago, but that had not been his fate. He had lost his wife, his family, and he had no intention of taking another. He enjoyed Julianne’s company far more than he ought to, but he was not her toy.
He was not a prize to be kept.
He was the captain, and his word was gold.
It would serve her right to remember that.
“I want you to remember,” Wade told her. “I care about your safety, Julianne, and that I will never harm you without good cause.”
“But-” She tried to speak again, but his hand left her body and hit her with a loud slap. Surprised and caught off guard, Julianne’s mouth fell open. No words came out.
Then he spanked her other cheek.
Wade enjoyed spanking women, especially for pleasure, especially as a precursor to fucking, but today he did it for more than that. Today he did it to show Julianne what she meant to him. He couldn’t have her running around, thinking that her actions didn’t matter. She couldn’t simply roam the ship today. She needed to stay put and she needed to understand exactly how serious he was about it.
He swatted her again and again, keeping a steady pace until she was wriggling beneath his touch. Julianne made several muffled noises, several moans, until she began to cry softly.
Good.
She was learning.
He didn’t hit her hard enough to hurt her. No, Wade was not interested in beating his woman. Instead, he slapped her lightly, but smartly, so that she felt the sting, followed by pleasure.
Her ass began to turn a nice soft pink color, and after each slap, he slipped his hand between her legs. She moaned and lifted her hips, trying to meet his touch, trying to get him to rub her clit, to give her the release that she needed, but it wasn’t quite time for that.
Not just yet.
“I know, love,” he whispered. “I know what you need.”
**
Julianne moaned, crushed beneath the weight of her emotions. She had never been spanked before: not by a man, not by her father. She had run away from Gunthry as a way to escape Vince Fiddick: her evil betrothed. Somehow, she knew that if he had been slapping her, she would not have enjoyed this quite so much.
The fact that Julianne found peace and pleasure in Wade spanking her made her feel dirty. She wasn’t sure that this was how a young woman who had gone through training to be a wife and a lady should act, but it didn’t matter. Right now, she had surrendered herself to Wade. She had given herself to him. She trusted him wholly, completely, and he had not let her down.
He spanked her again, and then he stopped.
“Stand up,” he commanded, and Julianne did as she was told. She slid off the desk and stood in front of him, still holding her skirts up.
“I need you to stay here,” he said for the millionth time. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, Captain,” she murmured, maintaining eye contact.
At this, he grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close, crushing his lips against hers. At the same time, his opposite hand reached forward and gently stroked her soft folds before finding their way to that special spot. When he pressed his thumb softly across her clit, Julianne melted into his arms with a harsh moan.
His lips never left hers.
When her orgasm was complete, he lifted her and carried her exhausted body to the bed and laid her down.
“Stay here,” he whispered, kissing her on the forehead.
Then he was gone.