CSS - apply padding to inline element across two lines

Inline elements do not support padding and margin well, so make it block or inline-block (which is not cross browser) Why are you making it inline btw?

If you're okay with the effect only being visible in WebKit/Blink browsers, you should use

-webkit-box-decoration-break: clone;
box-decoration-break: clone;

Which does exactly what you want, like here: http://jsfiddle.net/Cnuzh/13/