Chapter 11
Well after her usual bedtime, Rey found herself sitting on the side of the bathtub in her bathroom using the shower massage wand to run warm water over her gouged knees. They were going to be sore for a while judging by the depth of the bruises. She barely felt the discomfort even though the running water was soothing. Her mind was lost in the events of the day.
Alan loved her. He’d told her so, and now she didn’t have a clue what would be next or where they would go from here. She felt happy and excited, but there was also and odd sense that her life had just been suspended in the air.
“What are you still doing up?” Alan’s voice surprised Rey enough that she dropped the shower massage wand dropped letting it clang hard and loud on the porcelain tub
“Yikes! Sorry!” she reacted to the noise. “You scared me,” Rey looked up with a startled blush. She swallowed back the brief nag in her gut that made her feel like she’d been up to something bad and he’d just caught her
“Can’t sleep?” Alan chuckled, moved by the blush and semi worried look her face took on.
“Just sore, and thinking,” Rey admitted.
“Damn you bashed yourself didn’t you!” he crouched down behind her and craned his neck around her torso to examine her battered knees and shins. “Thinking? About what?”
“It’ll heal,” Rey lifted the shower wand back up to her knees and turned the tap dial warmer.
“And?” Alan smiled knowing she evaded half the question.
“What we talked about on the beach,” Rey returned his smile. “I’m having trouble believing it you know.”
Rey’s blush deepened.
“Trouble with what, that I could care about you?” Alan grinned.
“No. I sort of knew that part already, but the love part. I didn’t know that,” she shrugged and turned away, too shy and too insecure to look at him, in case he’d just been playing with her earlier.
“Don’t you dare question it brat,” Alan caught Rey’s chin and tugged her face to look at him.
“I’ll try not to,” she blinked and tried to pull away.
“You have some thinking to do Audrey,” Alan held her gaze.
“About what?” Rey gave him all of her attention.
“Things will get serious now girl. There is a lot at stake,” Alan seemed to be warning her about something. Rey was unsure what he meant.
“You meant it right?” Rey asked, afraid what was starting to seem like reticence might be regret.
“You better know it. But you have some thinking to do Rey,” Alan took the shower wand from her and turned his attention to Rey’s battered knees.
“What kind of thinking?” she bit into what felt a little like bait.
“Can you live with me, in a relationship? It won’t be easy you know,” Alan answered. There was no hesitation or shyness in his voice.
“I want to,” Rey whispered. Her whole body shivered. ‘Please don’t let him be trying to back out,’ she clenched her eyes shut and tensed herself ready for his change of heart.
“So you have some thinking to do,” Alan repeated.
“OK,” Rey agreed relaxing a little she let herself lean into the man who was wrapped around her back.
“You messed yourself up bad Rey,” Alan squeezed her shoulders, and changed the focus from her future to her knees and more immediate concerns. He gently stroked and picked at the raw wounds with the hot running water.
“It’s not so bad,” Rey leaned down to pick at the rough tags and raw skin of her knees with him.
“You won’t do that again will you,” Alan’s question seemed distracted and off hand.
“What? I won’t do what again?” Rey picked and winced when she tugged a short loose piece of dead skin away.
Alan shifted back on his heels and put his hands back up on Rey’s shoulders. “Come out here where you can turn around and face me so can see you and tend these properly.”
Rey obediently stood and stepped out of the tub. She let herself be guided to sit on the commode. The lid was down, and it was like any other chair, except that everything needed to dress rock gouges on knees was handier. Alan was an expert nurse, finding and applying ointment that would sooth and protect the wounds from infection, and then placing a dry dressing that would protect sheets and clothing from whatever oozed out of the wounds as they healed.
When the dressing was done, he pulled Rey upright. She’d been quiet, waiting for him to flesh out what she knew he wanted to say. As she reached her full height and looked up into his eyes, Alan answered her with a deep kiss. Rey returned it.
It was the first time in her life that a kiss took on sexy power. Her newly soothed knees literally buckled. Alan’s hands on her back were soft, yet his arms were firm and strong. His body against her was both supple and firm. His lips were sweet, and when his tongue pushed into her mouth, Rey felt the probe send shock waves deep into her body and settle in her groin. Tentatively she followed Alan’s lead, and let her body mold to his. The embrace thrilled her to her core, and when Alan broke it, Rey felt bewildered and disappointed.
“If you run away from me and telling me what you feel again, I will spank you harder than you’ve ever been spanked before,” Alan put a finish on the question he asked earlier.
Rey was still confused by the impact of the kiss. She was also overtired. “But you love me?” she puzzled. “You can’t spank me if you love me?”
“Oh Baby!” Alan shifted, leaned back and smiled. “I may spank you even harder because I love you. All the passion of my love may come to bear if something comes up where you need to be spanked.”
“But you can’t!?” Rey questioned and exclaimed in one voice.
“Honey, I can and I will, and that’s one of the things you have to think over carefully,” Alan gently kissed Rey’s quivering eyelids.
“Why?” Rey shrugged her shoulders inside Alan’s hug, and tried to pull away.
Alan did his best to cuddle and reassure Rey with his body as he spoke. “I’ve seen a lot of hurt between couples I’ve known Rey. My own parents did a lousy job of getting along, seems like yours had trouble too.”
“But we’re not them!” Rey tried to insert her limited observation.
“No, and we aren’t ever going to be either,” Alan nuzzled and held her close.
“What are you getting at Alan?” Rey sighed. She was again afraid he was going to manufacture some excuse not to have to love her.
“If you stay with me Rey, this discipline thing won’t be going away. In fact it will probably become a permanent fixture in our life,” Alan cupped her chin and nudged her face so Rey had no choice but to look into his eyes.
“But Alan?” Rey stammered on her question, but she couldn’t find the right words.
“But what?” he kissed her again, and coaxed her to continue.
“I won’t need you to do that to me always. I’d like to be able to be an adult too you know.” Rey’s answer was quiet and shy.
“No matter, Rey,” Alan took her shoulders and squared her where there was no escaping his eyes. “If you stay with me you will live with my idea of discipline. That might include spanking you when you are being testy, restless or just plain bad. Don’t you notice how well it clears the air now?”
“What about you, when you get testy and restless? Will I spank you?” Rey asked the natural question.
“No, that isn’t how discipline will work in my home Rey. I believe a stable home and marriage needs one leader, and in mine it will be me. It’s not a thing I take lightly either honey. I’d be a major hypocrite and not worthy of your love and respect if I didn’t live up to the same standards as I’d ask for from you. If it should happen that I don’t we can revisit the whole question alright?” Alan hoped what he said made sense, but he wasn’t expecting her to take it all in at once.
Rea’s heart was pounding. Her mind was spinning over the realization of the dream she’d barely dared think about never mind hope to see realized, and the implications of what Alan was telling her now. Deep inside the secret part of her that wanted a strong man who would keep her in line with spanking and discipline was elated, but in the front of her mind was also mild annoyance with the idea. It was one thing to fantasize about living a life with a spanking man, quite another to actually live it. The real life bore almost no resemblance to the fantasy.
Alan watched her expression change as her as her mind wandered over her thoughts.
“Rey, look at me honey,” Alan intruded after what felt like several minutes, but was really less than one. Rey obeyed.
“You can’t decide this now anyway Rey. You need to give it serious thought. In one month, I am going to ask you to marry me. When I do, we’ll talk about this again. Between now and then, you weigh out the pros and cons of living with a man with a firm set of ideas about how a stable home is structured, and what that means to his wife. You already know most of what there is to know, and it seems like you still found a way to love me anyway,” he had to smile when he said the last part.
“What if I want to marry you, but don’t want you to spank me after you do?” Rey asked.
“I won’t change my mind Rey. I believe that spanking is a quick and effective way to keep the air clear and the small stressors in check. From my experience and observations those are the things that erode away and do the most damage to the love and respect most couples start out with. If you can’t live with me being the head of our home and let me use discipline to help keep us stable together then you would be better off with another man.”
Rey started to object, but Alan put his fingers gently to her lips.
“Give it some serious thought Rey. It’s not a small thing I’m asking of you, and I want your eyes wide open. You’re tired, this is all new, I’m tired, and tomorrow is a long day,” he closed the discussion with another deep sensuous kiss.
Alone in her bathroom, Rey sat back down on the commode and tried hard to get hold of a single cohesive thought.
“He practically proposed to me! But only if I let him spank me for the rest of my life! Then he kissed me so all I can do is think about having sex with him, and he doesn’t even know how sick I am that thoughts of spanking turns me on. How can I think about this seriously when all I can do right now is wish he would spank me this minute?”
Rey crawled into bed, and tossed and turned through most of the night. The little sleep she managed was invaded by dreams. In spite of the happiness and excitement that came with knowing Alan wanted her in his life, none of her dreams were pleasant. She gave up before dawn, and made her way down to the kitchen before anyone else in the house stirred.
Mrs. Beatty appreciated finding the coffee already made.
“What a lovely surprise,” the old woman chortled when she bustled into the kitchen and took in the rich aroma of fresh brewed coffee. “What’s got you up before the birds?”
“Just couldn’t sleep Bea,” Rey answered spooning sugar into her cup before tipping the handle on the percolator spout. The brew was not quite through, but Rey wanted the stronger liquid that came with and almost done brew.
“Why not? Didn’t work you hard enough yesterday?” Bea asked copying Rey’s theft from the almost perked pot of coffee.
“Bea? If a man wanted to marry you, but told you - you had to accept him spanking you if you got cranky or testy, what would you do?” Rea cupped her hands around her mug and concentrated on the creamy liquid in it.
“What a question!” the older woman remarked. “Am I to assume that’s the bargain Alan placed on your table?”
Rey shrugged nodded and said nothing.
“I see,” Bea sat down across the table from the pensive young woman. “So now you aren’t so sure?”
“I don’t know Bea. It’s not exactly the kind of thing you read about in the magazines you know?”
“He’s a good catch girl. You could do worse.”
“That’s it? No sage words to guide me in my choice?” Rey snorted an irritated retort. She was feeling the thickness and inertia that came with lack of sleep.
Mrs. Bea shifted her hefty frame in her chair. The irritation Rey’s comment communicated was contagious and evident in the timbre of the old woman’s answer. “Alright missy. Here are my thoughts on what matters in a love match. If I loved the man, the way you do Alan, I wouldn’t be worried so much about what would come should I behave badly on occasion. I’d be thinking about how I could make him happy he wanted me and took me to him. I’d be worried about how I could make my life and his good.”
“But Bea!?” Rey tried to convey both conciliation and explanation in the tone of voice she used. “He’s going into it presuming I’ll be bad!”
“Girl, you just step down from there this minute!” Bea put her mug down and gave Rey a meaningful look. “He’s going into it knowing you’ll be yourself. There’s not a thing wrong with that. There should be more men like that in the world.”
“He’s not perfect, but I have to be or I get spanked?” Rea countered.
“In all the time you’ve been working here with the man, has it come up that he deserved a spanking?”
“No,” Rey turned her attention back to the liquid in the mug she held.
“He’s spanked you hard just the day before yesterday. Did you have it coming or not?”
“”Well?”
“Did you earn it or not?” Bea pre-empted the quavering she heard in Rey’s ‘well.’
“Yeah. I guess….”
“And not a day after that you came in here happy as a clam served up in wine and butter that the man said he loved you. So I’d like to know just what’s the trouble?”
Rey grimaced and shrugged.
“Put your mind on the man missy. Do you want him? Seems to me yesterday, when your backside was still sore you had no questions.”
“What would you do though Bea?” Rey whispered. She knew what she was going to do. No one really needed to convince her. She just needed to exercise her questions and wrap her mind around everything weaving into her reality.
“I’d kick him in the shins, tell him he’s an arrogant bastard and give him my hand and my ass. That’s what.”
Rey laughed. She made a mental note to try and come back to some of her more intimate concerns with the old woman as soon as she found the nerve and the right words. Maybe trusty old Roscoe could help her get a better handle on some of her confused thoughts. Rey smiled with that thought, and made herself a promise to seek out the old man who’d been her trusted ears and sounding board for most of the last two years.
“I may have to do that Bea,” she smiled.
~~~~~~~~~~~oo0000oo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The next few weeks flew by. Ellen and Carolyn went back to their privileged lives on the mainland, and several crops of new guests came and went. Not much changed in the flow of the lives of the people who called “The Spray” home, except that Alan now took Rey’s hand in his every evening so they could enjoy quiet time walking.
The rugged beach was one of their favorite places to trek, but sometimes the roads and the trails back into the sparse bush appealed to them. They talked about many things, and also found comfort in complete silence together. In fact Alan was the first person Rey had ever spent time with, who helped her feel comfortable and relaxed with silence.
The subject of what they could be together as a couple came up now and then, as did Alan’s requirement for their relative roles and discipline. He fielded her concerns and questions as best he could, and Rey moved away from each exchange less confused if still unsure. Getting spanked wasn’t really the only issue she needed to wrap her mind around. Living as a wife who accepted her husband as the established leader was another. As each day passed, she began to realize that she already knew most of what she needed to - to make up her mind. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ooo00ooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rey found a few websites that went a long way toward helping her too. Domestic discipline (DD), that’s what he proposed. It had a name. What Alan had in mind for the dynamics of a marriage actually had a name, and there were other people who were actively exploring its possibilities. From what Rey could gather, most of the couples who were willing to open up were those where the woman introduced the idea to their men.
“How brave of them!” Rey shook her head late one evening. “Here it is handed to me on a platter and I’m afraid to say yes. They’re just like me. They dream and fantasize too. Why am I worried?”
But there was still the reality of being punished by the man she wanted to be intimate with in a sexual way, the man she wanted to love and respect her as his equal. Being punished was not sexy. No matter where her fantasies could take her with the idea, Rey knew the truth. Being punished came with feelings of shame, fear that she’d ruined everything and Alan would never look at her the same way again, disgust with herself, and sadness that she’d failed. How could these things be reconciled between a husband and a wife? How could she be his equal if he could and would spank and punish her?
Rey read the thoughts of the women who lived what Alan proposed to her. She longed to ask them for advice, but she was afraid. It helped her that the women were so willing to share, and that some seemed to have hit the same walls she feared, and it was great that many asked most of her questions for her, but there was one she longed to ask. “If your partner had given you a DD ultimatum up front, would you have said yes to marrying him?”
Rey surfed the internet as much as she dared. Her internet time was supposed to be spent expanding and updating the site she’s made for “The Spray” and the connected crafter’s “shed.” Digital pictures of the sweaters, quilts and sundry other crafts the ladies made would have been easy enough for Rey to post on the B&B’s site, but she made a pretense that “some were not quite right,” and since some were made from patterns borrowed over time, it was probably a good idea to run through a copyright and design patent query. All of that gave Rey the ‘smoke screen’ she needed to be on line when Alan thought she should be long finished. Even so, the time she spent on line began to grow, and her excuses began to raise questions and eyebrows.
The day came when Rey stayed too long reading on the spanking story site Bethany’s Woodshed. She was lost in an intense story, and oblivious to her surroundings. Alan’s blustering appearance in the open room behind her startled her. His unexpected arrival made her quickly close the Woodshed’s window and then click into the one she was working on to upload. She felt herself blush hot with the guilt of a child caught with her hand illicitly in the cookie jar.
Alan was surprised to see Rey still sitting at the computer, and didn’t seem to notice her guilty reaction. “You’ve been at that for four hours now. Shut it down and go and get some real work done please.”
“This is real work Alan,” Rey sighed.
“Lazy work you mean. We have too much to do around here to have you spending all day sitting at a desk. Move it along now.”
Rey grumbled quietly, but complied.
A few times before Rey had gotten away with closing out before she could delete her tracks. So this time when she quickly clicked the X on the top right corner of the internet window, and let where she’d been slip her mind.
Later that evening, Alan had some things to do on the internet. He’d forgotten to save the URL to the website he needed so rather than do a search from scratch, he tried using the previous sites visited drop down that his browser offered. www.Herwoodshed.com, three or four blogs and two other links to spanking discussion groups filled the list he expected to be filled with fishing and hunting sites.
“What the?” he grinned. “So this is what you’re up to?”
He never did find the site he needed. Instead he found a trail of links to the thoughts the woman he loved was exploring.
“Well! What do you know?” Alan remarked well after midnight when everyone but him was in bed asleep. He read on the woodshed and the connected domestic discipline forum for hours.
“How did she find this stuff?” he asked himself an hour before dawn.
The next few days were not going to give him a chance to ask. “The Spray” was full, and they had a few quests who were very demanding. Both Rey and Alan gave over to the task of meeting the needs of paying guests.
Rey was the first to crack. A week of shit-for-brains guests pushed her over the edge. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~oo000oo~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Will you just shut up!” Rey screeched for the second time when the woman in front of her insisted for the seventh time that there should be a water shuttle from the dock below “The Spray.” The woman didn’t want to take a ground taxi to the public ferry out to White Island. Why couldn’t “The Spray” invest in all transport its quests might want? She didn’t want to hear Rey’s answer all she wanted to do was spout off.
Money or the lack of it, and alliances, or the lack of them, or just plain logistics and practicality made no difference to some quests. Few could see beyond their narrow point of view. But Rey let the reality of that escape her. Instead of just listening to the woman say what she had to say so she would get it off her mind, Rey engaged in an argument with her, and found herself telling the woman what an idiot she was.
The interchange ended with Rey stomping off to get away from the woman, leaving the irate guest no alternative but to find and then tell Alan every officious nuance of her exchange with his “listless, lazy and rude” employee.
Some of what was reported to him wasn’t especially upsetting, but if what the woman said about Rey’s behavior and language was true, he was certainly disappointed. In his mind Alan acknowledged that he might have been tempted to say some of the things Rey had, but he smiled and left the guest with a promise that her concerns were appreciated and would be acted upon.
“Thank you very much for sharing your concerns Mrs. White. When we go through the budget for next year we’ll take your suggestion for a guest shuttle to the table for discussion. I apologize for Rey’s behavior. I assure you I’ll have a talk with her and she will likely want to offer her own apologies in person before the day is out.”
The woman smiled and seemed to appreciate Alan’s charming approach.
Things stood there for the next few hours. Alan had a number of things to get through, and Rey was busy with errands in town as well as the chores in the guest rooms and laundry.
“Audrey!” Alan called upstairs shortly after 3PM after being accosted by Mrs. White and her milk toast husband for the third time. They wondered when they could expect an apology from the snip of a housekeeper, and were apparently not going to be content to wait for it to come on a timeline Alan would have preferred.
Rey already had an idea what he wanted when she heard Alan call her. The tone of his voice, and the fact that he used her proper name confirmed it. She knew if she didn’t answer that he would climb the stairs and come look for her, so rather than engage in an exchange of calls up and down the stairs that would be heard by all the guests, she said nothing and waited. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~oo000oo~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Audrey? Where the hell are you?” Alan called again, this time from the top of the stairs.
“In here,” she answered from her room.
“You know that you’ve got Mrs. White all in a snit and crawling up my back to deal with you?” he sighed, as he entered her room.
“Yes I do. She’s a crone,” Rey snapped a petulant answer.
“She’s a paying guest Rey, no matter what you think of her you should treat her with respect,” Alan’s answer was firm.
“It’s not my fault OK!” she answered defensively.
“Tell me about it,” Alan motioned for her to sit beside him on the bed.
Rey huffed and resisted. “There’s nothing to talk about. The woman is insufferable. She went on and on about pointless things and wouldn’t even listen when I tried to explain why her demands weren’t practical or reasonable.”
“Why did you even have the conversation with her at all Rey? When people present ideas no matter how odd or impractical, all we need to do is listen politely say thank you for the input and let it go at that.”
“Sure that’s easy for you to say now. You weren’t there with her in your face harping on it.”
“No, I got my own personal experience thanks to you, and even though the woman had a full head of steam, it was a simple matter to hear her out,” Alan set his jaw firm.
“So? If it was so easy Mr. Perfect, then why did you come in here complaining she was crawling up your back?” Rey’s retort was defensive and edged with irritation.
“I don’t like your attitude Rey,” Alan didn’t bite on Rey’s question.
“Tough. It’s mine and you’re stuck with it. That woman made me mad and if you think I’m going to kiss up to obnoxious creeps just because they paid for a room, then you can fly a kite. They have to earn it just like everyone else. Their money doesn’t give them the right to be creeps,” she hissed.
“I’ll make this clear to you young lady,” Alan stood up and loomed over her. “I know I’ve earned respect.”
“Yeah well,” Rey grumbled and turned away toward the window. “You came up here to crawl up my back because that old crone crawled up yours. I guess I’m entitled be a little aggravated.”
“No you’re not. You’re entitled to get your attitude under control and since you seem to be having trouble with that, I’m going to deem you entitled to some firmly applied help. So, you just march yourself out to the crafters’ shed and we’ll get that done.”
Rey felt the surge of adrenaline pulse through her igniting tingles of panic in her fingers and her groin. “That’s not fair Alan! She set me off and I just told her so. You can’t make me let people walk over me!”
“No I can’t, and I don’t intend to. I’m going to give you a reminder that your attitude stinks right now, and the worst of it has nothing to do with Mrs. White. Now get your butt down stars and out to the shed, or would you rather I turn you over my knee right here where everyone can here?” Alan’s voice was calm but firm.
“No Alan,” Rey backed away. “You can’t do this! I should be allowed to get mad when people treat me badly. It’s not fair to spank me for that.”
“You can get mad Rey, and I think you know it,” Alan tipped his head toward the door and pointed to it to add emphasis. “What you can’t do is yell at guests, not even rude and obnoxious guests and call them equally rude names. What you can’t do is speak to me with the kind of disrespect you just did when all I came in here to do was listen to your side and talk over what happened. No get going.”
“No,” Rey crossed her arms over her chest in defiance.
“Alright have it your way,” Alan stepped toward her.
“No Alan!” Rey shifted quickly and evaded his grasp.
“Yes Rey! You have only two choices here. Spanked in this room or spanked in the shed. You’d best decide in the next two seconds or I will.” Alan shook his head and placed his hands firmly on his hips.
“Goddamn you!” Rey clenched her teeth in a defiant curse, and pushed past him out the door. Alan could hear her angry muttering as she stomped down the stairs and headed through the kitchen.
“I should just quit this stupid outfit that’s what. Here I am giving serious thought to marrying a hard assed man who can’t even try and see my side of things. The whole world is just full of shit that’s what!”
Alan followed Rey as far as the kitchen where he stopped to watch her make her way down the path to the crafters’ shed. Her compliance through temper made him smile. “I hope she keeps that spirit,” he chuckled to Mrs. Beatty and then moved to fish the walnut spatula out of the drawer.
Bea returned his chuckle. “I expect she will boy, no matter how often you use that on her. Bet you’ll still have to chase her to the woodshed when she’s seventy five.”
Alan answered with a belly laugh. “I certainly hope so Bea! I surely do.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ooo00ooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Come over here and pull down your pants Rey,” Alan wasted no time when he entered the shed. He moved to pull out a chair and turn it so there was plenty of room for what he had planned.
“And if I say no?” Rey countered, not quite willing to submit fully right off the bat. This was going to be the first time he spanked her since hey put the question of becoming a couple on the table, and the first time since she’d begun to study the whole idea of domestic discipline. She had some things she wanted to work out this time.
“That isn’t an option right now Rey. You’re here, you’ve consented to the basic rules, the spanking will happen. After it you can think about your options and review your position. If you don’t like it, then you can take steps to change it,” Alan’s answer was matter of fact.
“I don’t even get a say?” she pushed.
“You had your say when we put this agreement on the table, and you accepted it.”
“That was before. Now we’re talking about more than my job and staying here to work under your rules and you know it Alan,” Rey turned her face up with an expectant expression.
“Yes we are Rey, so where do we stand?” Alan nodded letting her take the lead.
“If I let you do this to me now, and we get married, I want to know that you’ll listen to me when I think it isn’t fair, and I get to say no if I’m really serious about my side,” she answered.
“We’ll talk about why before hand every time. You’ll never be dealt with for something you don’t first understand. But you need to understand this now Rey, if I make the decision that you deserve a spanking after we have a discussion about it that is how it will be.”
“But that’s not fair Alan! If I have a reason and it’s a good one you have to listen to me too!”
“Hear me out Rey alright?” Alan put his hand up and gestured for her attention.
“Fine, talk,” Rey grumbled.
“In all the time you’ve known me, have you ever been spanked that you didn’t have it coming?” he asked.
“No, but there were other ways I might have listened and still gotten better,” she answered.
“Well spanking is my way. It works, it’s quick, and I doubt I’ll spend much time on alternatives that may or may not deliver results. Aside from that, I’ve never been unfair to you yet have I?”
“No.”
“So, as long as I pledge to remain fair, it is a matter of respect for me as the head of our home that you agree to let me decide what is needed when you are not in a position to do it for yourself. It’s the little bad moments, fits of temper and flares of disrespect that I think need to be dealt with fast and firm. Those things undermine partnerships slow and steady when they don’t get dealt with. And Rey, honey, when you are riled up and in a mood, you are not able to be objective about what you need. So that’s my call. You have to respect it, or it won’t work.”
“But what if you’re wrong Alan?” Rey insisted.
“Have I been yet?”
“Stop it Alan! What if you are!?” Rey was becoming exasperated. She needed an answer, and it felt like he was evading it.
“We’ll talk about fair and unfair and if I will make mistakes when this is out of the way. Alright?” he understood her need to have the conversation, but right then, there was a real issue on the table. “There is nothing unfair about this.”
“Well I don’t agree,” Rey grumbled again.
“Then this is a perfect example of how you are not yet in a position where you’re willing to see that there are better ways to handle your temper and attitude, and I am,” Alan’s answer was infused with wry humor that Rey was not ready to appreciate. “Get over here now bare your bottom and bend over my knee.”
“Damn it Alan!” Rey held back.
“Rey, you are asking for more than you originally had coming. Get over here now and stop this bull.” Alan was beginning to have trouble controlling his own level of aggravation.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this! I’m crazy as a loon!” she slapped her hands on her thighs and relented. “We’re both crazy!” she added as she pushed her jeans and panties down off her hips and bent down across Alan’s lap.
“No Rey, you’re not crazy, and neither am I. What we are, is two people who have found a simple effective way to deal with the negative interpersonal issues that could cause stress and undermine our relationship. In a few minutes you’re going to agree with me, this whole business will be over with, and we’ll have a clean slate. What’s crazy about that?”
He finished his soliloquy, punctuated it with a solid spank and followed that with the steady cadence of a sound and very firm spanking.
The first spank made Rey yelp. She tried to hold onto her stubborn resistance, but the combined effect of pain, embarrassment and the knowledge Alan was right eroded her resolve quickly. Rey let go and let her self cry and howl the way her body and soul needed to. If she was going to have to live with the more or less regular catharsis of spankings, she may as well let them take her there properly.
Rey pleaded with Alan to stop after a few minutes, but he held to the course and even seemed to increase the tempo.
“Please!” she cried after several more minutes.
“Please?” Alan spanked harder.
“Please stop. It hurts too much! I’m sorry!” Rey begged.
“Sorry for what?” he brought the spatula down harder to punctuate the last word.
“For being rude to Mrs. White and being snotty to you! Please!” Rey’s sobs were convincing, but Alan held out and ignored them.
“And?” he delivered six rapid spanks and stopped waiting for an answer.
“What!” Rey squirmed and kicked to try and get away.
“And is this spanking fair?”
Rey kicked harder and her sobs wracked deeper. She couldn’t answer.
“Tell me Rey,” Alan underlined his demand by resuming the spanking.
“Ow! Please! Ow!” Rey
“Answer the question sweetheart. That’s how you end this. Show me you get the message.”
“Ok! Please stop! I get it. This is fair! I asked for it. Please!”
Alan barely understood half of what Rey said her inconsolable sobs and hiccups broke it up. He used her body and the way it seemed to become boneless to appreciate her allocution.
He stopped the spanking, lifted Rey up and pulled her around to curl up in his lap.
“Tell me how you feel now Rey?” he asked after letting her sob and sniffle into his shirt for a few minutes.
“Tired,” she hiccupped.
“Mad?” he nuzzled her hair with his chin.
“No.”
“Angry?”
“No.”
“Hurt and abused?”
“No, just tired and relieved,” she whispered.
“Relieved it’s over?” Alan pulled her tighter against him.
“Yes. That you didn’t let me get away with it too,” Rey was surprised by her own answer. For the first time the secret part of her took over and gave voice to something she was afraid to feel and think.
“Does that mean you’re on my page with discipline after all?” Alan hugged and stroked her gently.
“Yes,” Rey pushed her face into his chest.
“You can live with it?”
“Yes please?”
“That’s my girl.”
They rocked and cuddled together for more than half an hour. Rey agreed to apologize to Mrs. White so that the woman would move on and stop chewing her bone. Even though she felt she might coke on it, Rey decided to keep her renewed and enhanced comfort with her own life in the front of her mind. If it hadn’t been for her fight with the idiot woman Rey might not have been able to come to a place where she knew for sure that Alan’s plan for a life with domestic discipline was right for her.
“So? Are you learning anything on those web sites you visit?” Alan waited until Rey was completely relaxed in his arms to bring up his discovery.
“You know!” Rey startled and stiffened.
“Yes, so? Are you?” Alan couldn’t help the small laugh that was prompted by Rey’s surprise.
“Am I what?” Rey recovered from her surprise and relaxed happy that Alan wasn’t mad about her surfing to spanking sites.
“Are you learning about yourself?” he squeezed her tight to him.
“Yes,” Rey blushed and cringed against him.
“Good,” his answer was matter of fact.
“So it’s OK?” Rey tugged and leaned back within Alan’s embrace.
“Of course it is,” he smiled indulgently and then leaned down to take her mouth in a deep sweet kiss.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ooo00ooo~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A week later after a quiet tender evening alone, Alan asked Rey to marry him. She said yes. |
