‘Probably wise.’

Jeremy stepped back into Alice’s peripheral vision, presumably to give Ethan room for manoeuvre. His expression was perfectly sober, but a glance down told her that he hadn’t been exaggerating about the erection – it tented his smart jeans and made her wish he had just stuck it inside her, like he’d threatened to.

She didn’t have too much time to think about being fucked by Jeremy, though, as she heard a small whooping noise – the sound of the wooden ruler rushing through the air – then the slap of it hitting her arse. Just as the thought that it hadn’t hurt was about to cross her mind, the pain hit. A sharp, stinging sensation raced in a diagonal stripe across her right cheek. Much to her pride, she didn’t yell or scream. She just pulled in a sharp breath and screwed her eyes shut, breathing in and out slowly and steadily, trying to work her way through the pain.

She’d just about dealt with it when the next blow came, this time on her left cheek. Gripping her hands tightly around the edge of the desk she was bent over, she watched as the knuckles turned white, determined to let nothing but the most negligible of noises pass her lips. Again, as the white-hot fire burned through her nerve endings, she sucked in a breath and bit her bottom lip. She would not cry out. She would not.

Given her relative silence, it seemed Ethan thought he wasn’t hitting her hard enough. Or fast enough. After the searing agony of the second blow had dulled into a more manageable ache, he started to spank her more rapidly and with increased force. Alice was incredibly glad that neither of the men had asked her to count the strokes, because there was no way she’d have been able to. The pain was just too much.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

By the time the blows ceased, Alice was collapsed onto the desk, her upper body crushed against it, with silent tears running down her face. But she hadn’t screamed, or yelled. Granted, she’d almost clawed holes in the desk, and bitten her lip until it bled, but still, she’d kept quiet. And for that, she was incredibly proud of herself.

Jeremy handed the ruler to Ethan, who stroked his big hand over her exposed skin once more. It took all of Alice’s willpower not to clench her fleshy cheeks. She may be nervous, but she sure as hell wasn’t going to let them know that.

Both men were right behind her now, and one of them let out a low whistle. From the words that were spoken next, she gathered it was Jeremy. ‘That’s quite a sight, isn’t it, comrade? Our Alice bent over, arse in the air, slit on display. She looks …’ He seemed lost for words now; a rare occurrence.

‘Beautiful,’ Ethan supplied. ‘She looks beautiful, mate. My cock is rock hard already, and all I’ve done is stroke her bum.’

Her face grew hot. The two men were examining her, and far from finding her lacking, they thought she was beautiful. And Ethan had admitted to having a hard-on caused by the sight of her naked arse and pussy.

Jeremy laughed. ‘And you’re not the only one. I’m tempted to stick my cock inside her cunt right here and now. Never mind the spanking!’

‘In that case, I’d better get on with it, hadn’t I?’