"Did you continue to think about being punished by a man, even whilst hating the way he treated you?"

"Oh!" She bent her head. "I can no' talk about this." She hid her face again.

"Cat, I can feel you getting wet."

She became aware of how she was rocking her cleft against his leg with slow, circular motions of her pelvis. But she couldn't seem to hold herself still.

"What if, instead of the punishment being about correcting some fundamental flaw in your whole being, it was simply a game between two lovers?" He pressed his thigh firmly against her thrusting pelvis.

"A game?" she asked, breathlessly.

"Yes." He slid his hand down the center of her buttocks and into the crevasse. "A game between us."

"What if I hate it?"

"Then, the moment you realize you truly dislike it, you'll tell me to 'halt,' using exactly that word, and we'll stop."

"When?" She heard the increased breathlessness in her voice. Felt the gushing wetness between her legs. Her cleft slid on his leg, frustrating her attempts at building some friction. "When would we do this thing?"

"Now, I should think."

Chapter Twenty-Five.

"Oh..." A wave of excitement quaked through Sunny's loins. "Oh, goodness." Her body began to tremble. "But I haven't been bad, have I?"

"I own you," James said. "I don't need a reason to do what I please with your luscious body, do I? I shall give you whatever I think you need, when I think you need it. Haven't you given me leave to do exactly that?"

"Oh," she gasped. The change in his tone, the sudden shift between them, the truth of what he'd said, it all sent thrills slamming through her. Made her heart pound and her mouth go dry in the most delicious way.

"But we shall also have some rules for you. They will seem quite simple, but you'll find they won't be easy ones for you to abide by."

"Oh goodness." She swallowed hard, trying to think of what those rules might be. "Do you mean rules such as a gentleman gives his mistress? You will mandate a spending limit for me?"

She felt his surprise in the way his body went slightly tense. He chuckled softly. "A spending limit?"

"Yes," she said, feeling foolish.

"I see no reason to set limits on your spending, Cat."

"I like beautiful things."

"And you like expensive foods, wine, clothes...yes, I have noticed."

"I fear I have spent extravagantly in the past. No one said aught about it...well, Grandmother Blayne has teased me. But Frances never questioned my bills. Yet Freddy used to make caustic comments. I think my spending is another failing."

He chuckled softly, then put his mouth against the side of her neck and nipped at her gently. "I've seen your bills. Who do you think has approved such frivolity since Freddy died?"

"Aunt Frances has always taken care of the finances."

"I did not seek to completely usurp her position from Landbrae. She has her pride and scarce little else to comfort herself. I am not totally heartless. However, I have made her approve bills paid from the Blayne account with me. I also had my man of business study the history of her ledgers."

"Oh my." She'd had no idea. She had thought Landbrae and all who lived there beneath his notice all this time.

"I know all about your spending habits." He chuckled again. "Yes, you can be quite extravagant."

A spiral of shame wound through her and she uttered a little moan. It was one thing to find pleasure in searching out and collecting pretty knacks and books and hair accessories and jewelry and all the other things that had given her pleasure. It was another to actually have to face James with such.

"Silk nightgowns in the summer." His voice held a touch of amused incredulousness.

Heat swept over her face. "I-I adore the feel against my skin."

"Indeed." His voice was rich and sensual as his warm breath blew on the hollow beneath her ear.

"I can try to do better. I shall do better." She spoke hastily, wanting to smooth over her past sins. "But I don't think I can give up the silk-"

"Shh," he said.

She didn't know what to say now. "James-"

"I can afford you, Cat." He kissed her neck with heat and passion. "I will have a house built for you, a fine house, and you can fill it with all manner of beautiful things."

His generosity made her feel all the worse. "It is surely wrong to be so extravagant."

"It was wrong for a clergyman's daughter to be self-indulgent?"

"Yes," she said, shame still burning through her, overtaking the sensual excitement she had been feeling.

"Would such self-indulgence be wrong for an earl's cherished mistress?"

"I don't know."

"You're not simply a clergyman's daughter now. You're mine and it is my place, and mine alone, to say if your spending habits are excessive. Up to this point, I haven't considered them so." He paused for a moment. "I think it is good for Britain."

"Good for Britain?" His response was so unexpected, it left her not knowing what to say.

"Honest, hardworking craftsmen need the trade, do they not?"

"I suppose they do."

"I am happy to do my part for Britain." His hand pressed a little deeper between her buttocks. "No, you're an adult woman and I am a wealthy man; I don't think our rules need be about your spending habits or any other such petty matter."

"I can no' imagine what your rules will be."

"They will be about your body and my ownership of it."

"Oh." She couldn't imagine that either, except..."You mean I should no' notice other men and I should no' touch myself and-"

"Surely, you cannot help if you notice other men. You're a sensual, warm woman. I can't expect to prevent you from noticing other men unless I blindfold you."

He said that so matter-of-factly and, strangely enough, it made her feel at ease. A deep relaxation like she'd not known in years. An acceptance of her nature.

He knew her sexual nature.

He still accepted her.

"As for you touching yourself, I think for now, I shall be liberal about that. You've been shamed too much over that."

"But I..." An intense feeling of shame swept her, cutting off her words.

He raised up, pulling her with him and propping himself up on the pillows. He put his hand under her chin, forcing her to look at him. "No, don't close your eyes."

She took a deep breath and struggled to obey him.

"You want me to control that part of your life? Your private pleasures with yourself?"

"No-" She was breathing harder now. "I mean I-I..."

"The idea intrigues you?"

She laughed softly, unable to speak.

"Catriona, if you want to try it, it is all right. I could set a rule that you may only come when you are with me. Nothing will be set in stone. If you don't like it, we can negotiate things. We can change or cease anything."

Be honest, always be honest with him.

He was staring at her so intently now, she felt sure he could see into her very soul. That it was impossible to keep secrets from him.

She sighed. "Yes, yes I do want that."

"You want what?"

"That...what we just spoke of."

"Say that you want me to control when and how you come."

"I can no' say that!" She was trembling.

"If you want that from me, then say it." His tone was firm, brooking no refusal.

"I-I...want you to control when...and h-how I come." Her throat had threatened to close up several times and by the end she had been whispering. Speaking so bluntly of such intimate acts was too intense.

But they were doing more than simply speaking.

She was giving him control over the most intimate part of her life.

She'd tried to give another man control over that before and she had failed to comply, and that man had unleashed a horror upon her.

Would she fail this time?

Would James fail her?

She hoped not.

"Catriona, this will be different from how it was with Meeker. I am no doctor hiding behind some mad theory that it will cure all your physical and mental ills. I will do it for your pleasure." He paused. "And mine."

"Yours?" Nothing could have startled her more. "What...I mean how would it give you pleasure?"

"I am aroused by such things, such games."

"Games?"

"It's a game between lovers. Not all that uncommon."

Not all that uncommon. That reassured her. "I still don't completely understand how it would arouse you."

"It would please me greatly to control you, to dominate you in that way. Sexually, I want to be your entire world."

The way he'd said that made her catch her breath. She had not fully guessed at his capacity for such passionate desires. She had never thought of him as particularly playful, either.

He caressed her arm with the backs of his fingers. "If you are truly aroused by the game as well, there is no reason we shouldn't play. But we must be careful to communicate clearly with each other. We must proceed with care not to trigger all this shaming associated with Freddie and then Meeker."

She needed this; something in her hungered for it. She didn't understand it but she couldn't deny herself the possibility of finally getting what she wanted most of all.

She studied the line of James' strong jaw. He radiated strength, purpose. She wanted that strength and purpose wrapped around her. Controlling her. Goodness, had she ever admitted that so frankly to herself?

Yes, she wanted it and she was willing to put herself into his hands to find it.

"Thank you," he said, his expression serious.

"For what?"

"For trusting me with that. I know it couldn't be an easy thing to admit."

"Yes, but it makes no sense. I shouldn't want that. I think I don't, but then I feel deep inside that I do."

He studied her eyes. "You're afraid of yourself, of your own passions."

"I suppose I am."

"Put all your trust in me. Trust me to be your guide and your master of what is and is not appropriate, and do not worry any further about your nature or your drives."

"It is no' going to be easy."