Marriage Training Ch. 14

She was still confused by his desire to have her for his wife, especially as she registered the envy of the other young woman scattered around the room. More than one was constantly flicking her eyes over to the man by Vivian's side, but he didn't budge, even to make the rounds and greet them when his stepmother did.

Unfortunately she wasn't able to speak with him as much as she would have liked, to ask questions or get to know him. Not when they were surrounded by others that she was expected to entertain. Conversation was dictated by the social niceties of the ton, talk of the weather, the latest play, etc. She was able to ask very few personal questions, although she did try, and directed several his way until she caught Mrs. Banks looking at her rather severely. Cutting the other guests out of the conversation was not a good example of hostessing, although the Earl didn't seem displeased by it.

In truth, she'd learned more about him during their short private walk than she had with him seated by her side for the rest of the afternoon. And her mind was constantly whirling around that kiss... her very first and it had been so... so... so...

Fortunately none of the young men seemed to mind receiving little more than an absent minded smile when she forgot herself and dwelt on the kiss rather than on the conversation. Of course, Mrs. Banks' sharp eyes caught everything.

******

Returning to the school, triumphant and flush with success, the young women had a boisterous and enjoyable dinner together. Afterwards they wanted to spend more time together, but one of the companions informed them that they would be receiving their lectures as usual; plenty mistakes had still been made that needed to be gone over, even if none of them had been large enough to permanently harm anyone's social standing or reputation. One of the other students twitted Vivian that she would probably be scolded for going off with Lord Cranborne, even if he was her betrothed.

Vivian fervently hoped not, she wasn't sure what else she could have done.

******

Gabriel's carriage ride home was not as comfortable as he might have wished. The afternoon had been something akin to torture, to have Vivian so close and yet be unable to even touch her without breaking the bounds of propriety. Their short walk and the clinging kiss had been risky enough. Despite their engagement, blatant misbehavior would still reflect badly upon her and would damage her reputation, which could have consequences for her younger sisters. Such were the vagaries of the ton.

Because of that he was already feeling temperamental, and his emotional state was not assisted by remembering the way Lord Marchland had been sitting so closely to Vivian when he'd first arrived. Originally he hadn't planned to attend the at-homes that he'd been informed she and the other students would be going to this upcoming week, but after seeing the men surrounding her, he knew he wouldn't be able to stay away. So more torturous afternoons where he would be able to look but not touch. He hated that he had to wait until Monday evening to truly touch her again and that he would have an even longer wait after that to claim her irrevocably. He wanted peace and quiet to think and to plan and to fantasize about the upcoming week.

Instead he got a chattering stepmother who was practically glowing as she praised his future wife. He was glad that Audrey was so excited about her new daughter and that she would be giving his father a favorable report, but he wished that she would ride silently and keep her observations to herself. Of course he could always order her to be quiet, and she would. His father had the same preference in women that Gabriel did, but it would hurt her feelings and that his father would assuredly not tolerate. So he did his best to nod in appropriate places and keep a tight grip on his temper.

Perhaps it was for the best that Audrey was there to distract him, he thought with resignation. After all, a carriage ride with an unrelenting erection - as would have been the result if he'd been able to think about the upcoming week and Vivian's training - was probably not a comfortable way to travel.

******

When Mrs. Banks finally arrived in Vivian's room that evening, her neutral expression didn't give away any of her thoughts. Nervously, Vivian stood and immediately went to her punishment chair to hear the list of transgressions. She was almost eager to hear them, on a day which had been a true test of the lessons that she'd been learning. She also wanted reassurance that she'd done the correct thing by taking a walk with the Earl; part of her wondered if she should confess that wonderful kiss... but she didn't want to. Somehow it seemed like something private, but she didn't want to discover that Mrs. Banks already knew about it and that it would be counted among her transgressions.

After all, a kiss was certainly indiscreet behavior, especially given the venue, even if it was with her intended.

But the walk was not included in the list of mistakes that Mrs. Banks read off of her notebooks. The actual list was quite precise, full of small nuances that were not truly transgressions but were more areas of improvement - such as her obvious focus on Lord Cranborne and her attempts to discover things of a more personal nature when she was directing the conversation among a group. Such was not how a hostess was to engage her guests, and Vivian had known it even as she had done it.

Still, she couldn't regret such behavior, as the Earl had seem pleased by her obvious focus on him, even if the other young men hadn't. And she had found that, almost immediately, she very much wanted to please him. Not just for the sake of her family or the state of her bottom either.

When Mrs. Banks recitation came to an end, Vivian perked up a bit in surprise.

"Mrs. Banks?" she asked hesitantly.

The companion raised an eyebrow at her, surprised by Vivian's hesitation. Several weeks into her training, Vivian had moved seamlessly from recitation to punishment, without interruption. The young woman's usual good behavior meant that she must have some reason for delaying her punishment, although if she was doing so for a frivolous reason then Mrs. Banks would just add to it.

"Yes, Miss Stafford?"

Vivian hesitated, not wanting to earn herself extra punishment, but at the same time wanting to ensure that she understood why she wasn't being punished for her walk with the Earl. "I disobeyed your order to stay in my location during the tea... am I not to be punished for doing so?"

"Are you looking for extra punishment?" Mrs. Banks inquired, rather surprised. After all, that was certainly not how she read Vivian's character, but she wanted to be sure.

"Oh no," Vivian shook her head. "But I did disobey an order... I just don't understand."

She looked so earnest, so determined to ask even though she didn't want to add to her spanking, that Mrs. Banks couldn't help but smile fondly at her. That was just the kind of reaction that Vivian provoked with her sweet submissiveness.

"Any order from your husband will supersede any direction that you've received from another party," Mrs. Banks explained. "Including myself. He wanted to stroll with you and therefore that took precedence over my injunction that you remain in the location you were assigned. Any time your husband issues you a new order, you will not be punished for disobeying another's."

"Oh..."

Mrs. Banks gave Vivian a moment to think that over, knowing that the young woman had become accustomed to think of Mrs. Banks as the one in control. The idea that there was someone atop Mrs. Banks in the line of command would need a moment for Vivian to adjust to. She could see the spark and flare of interest in Vivian's green eyes, the slight curve of her lips as she assigned her future husband his place in the hierarchy. Vivian responded automatically to dominance, and have the Earl be the acknowledged top of the heap only made him more attractive to her, although she wasn't consciously aware of it.

"Will I see him again before the wedding?" she asked, feeling both hopeful and wary. After all, the Earl was an entirely new entity to her and she had been both startled and excited by his appearance and attentions. While she wanted to know him better, he was also a complete unknown to her, which always made her anxious.

"Most assuredly," Mrs. Banks said. She held out her hand to assist Vivian to standing, cutting off any further questions or conversation, and leaving the young woman to assume that she would be seeing her betrothed at next week's at-homes, not in the evenings at her training.

Somehow, being nude in front of Mrs. Banks had regained some of the vulnerability and anxiety that Vivian had originally experienced. She knew it was because now she couldn't help but picture the Earl in her companion's place, helping her to strip out of her dress and then tying her hands behind her back. Would he remain fully clothed, the way Mrs. Banks did? Or would he disrobe as well before tipping her over his lap?

Her bottom high in the air, head tilted to the floor, Vivian's hands twitched in their bonds as she realized exactly how exposed her lower body was. Not just her bottom, but that private area between her legs that she was not allowed to touch. This position made it entirely visible, and for the first time she was truly aware of what that might mean to be so exposed to a man other than a doctor. Vivian shivered as Mrs. Banks lay one hand on her back, remembering the way the Earl's hands had felt - one firmly holding her chin in place as he'd ravished her mouth, the other pressing against her back to hold her close to his hard body.

"I'm going to use the hairbrush this evening, Vivian," said Mrs. Banks, her voice cutting through the younger woman's fantasies. Vivian's only response was a muffled little moan, as if she would have liked to protest but knew better than to attempt it. "You were perfectly aware of how you should have behaved and yet you chose to ignore your duties as a hostess. By now you should have known better."

THWACK!

The flat wood smacked against Vivian's bottom, hard and stinging, and she yelped even as she wondered if that's what a man's hand would feel like. The Earl's hands were so much larger than Mrs. Banks', his muscles stronger, perhaps a spanking from him truly would feel like the flat of a hairbrush against her cheeks.

SMACK!

The meaty thunks were immediately followed by Vivian's whimpers as each one was a little bit more harsh, a little bit more severe. The first few swats had been firm, but they had also been to warm up Vivian's skin. As the creamy surface began to take on a pinker hue, Mrs. Banks felt able to swing the brush with more gusto, knowing that the pert little bottom in front of her was ready for it. Dark red bloomed and faded after each strike, turning the overall color a deeper pink as the spanking went on.

THWACK! CRACK!

Vivian's legs kicked out for the first time as she let out a strangled cry, flaming pain shooting through her and straight into her tingling core as the brush landed against her sensitive sit-spot.

SMACK!

It landed on the sit-spot of her opposite cheek and Vivian's feet kicked again, her body wriggling as flashes of pink and copper were revealed between her legs. Her tears finally overfilled her eyes and began to trickle down her cheeks, and yet her insides seemed to pulse in time with the tempo of her spanking, the wetness between her legs becoming slicker even as she cried out with the stinging burn of her bottom cheeks.

Every smack made her hotter and hotter, both in pain and pleasure, as she lost herself in the fantasy of the Earl, his dark eyes burning into hers, his hands handling her body easily. Her bottom moved up and down, as if to meet the hairbrush as it descended, the front of her womanhood rubbing against Mrs. Banks' thigh in a way that sent trickles of pleasure threading their way through the spanking.

It hurt. There was no way to keep it from doing so, nor would Mrs. Banks have wanted it to - this was punishment after all - but it also aroused Vivian to a fever pitch. Not only did she naturally respond to having another's dominance exerted over her, but her body was now trained so that it expected pleasure to follow such an ordeal and it prepared itself for that, despite her pain and tears.

When the brush finally laid its last imprint on Vivian's reddened cheeks, Mrs. Banks tucked it swiftly into her pocket before putting Vivian on her knees. The watery green eyes and tear tracks over her cheeks made her look particularly vulnerable as Mrs. Banks held out her fingers for Vivian to suckle. Smiling approvingly, the companion watched as the younger woman relaxed, taking comfort from her after-punishment routine.

Nudging her foot between Vivian's naked thighs, Mrs. Banks pushed them apart a bit. "Spread your legs further Vivian."

The position made her look almost lewd, with her breasts thrust out by the binding of her wrists behind her, pink nipples tightly ruched, thighs spread enough to show off the damp copper curls between her legs. She sniffled, licking and suckling at Mrs. Banks' fingers as they moved in and out of her mouth. The companion rather thought that Vivian would make the transition well on Monday, although she might be taken aback to be presented with the Earl's cock rather than his fingers.

Vivian was kept on her knees for a while, rather dazed after her spanking as she usually was, nearly mindless from the anticipation of pleasure that was to come. Hopeful, now that she knew that pleasure didn't necessarily follow punishment. Anxious that this might be one of those evenings.

She needn't have worried. Mrs. Banks was pleased with her student, especially because she'd been able to see how pleased the Earl was with her. Once Vivian was off of her knees and laid out on the bed, Mrs. Banks took some time to fondle the young woman's breasts, sharply pinching the pink, budded nipples until Vivian was practically writhing from the need that had grown between her legs. Then fingers slipped down into that slick aperture, rubbing and teasing and probing. One, two, slid inside of her, giving her the delicious sensation of being stretched as other, clever fingers plucked at the little pleasure bud that was so swollen and achy.

Vivian climaxed with a scream, her hands fisted in the bedsheets, as she saw the Earl's dark eyes in her mind, his hungry look, and the feel of his body pressed against hers.