Chapter 9

Chapter 9

“C-consequences?” she stammered, her flush letting him know she understood full well what he meant.

“Afraid so, chiquita. The only question is who is going to deal with them. I could tell Master Derek, of course.”

“Oh, please don’t, Angel. He’s seen me in his office enough this month and he might change his mind about the kitchen.”

Angel seriously doubted that. It had been clear that Derek had multiple reasons for sending Heaven to the kitchen, and it wasn’t just to keep her busy. “I could hand you over to Nanny J instead. Or…”

Heaven straightened, looking hopeful. “Or?”

“Or I could deal with it here and now. You are partly under my authority.” Not that he needed any special authority to deal with a Little he caught breaking the rules. Unless she had an issue with it, of course.

She gasped, mouth rounding into an “o” shape, as if it hadn’t occurred to her that Angel might spank her. “Oh, but… can’t you just let me off with a warning? I won’t—”

He snorted. “Were you about to promise not to break any more rules?” One eyebrow went up as he gave her an amused look.

“No.” She gulped, squirming a little. “It would be lying to promise that because I know it’s not true. I was going to promise not to come into the dungeon again though. I was only curious and now I’ve seen it, I don’t have any reason to come back.”

“I can think of a reason actually.”

She frowned. “You can?”

“With proper supervision of course. You did say you wanted to learn more about BDSM, didn’t you?”

“Y-yes. I mean we have the safety classes in school, so I know all the theoretical stuff. I just don’t have any experience. Maybe someday if I get a Daddy or a Dom.”

He’d been hinting pretty strongly that he was interested in at least discussing the possibility of being her Daddy, but he couldn’t tell if she was catching on. Or if she was pretending not to because she wasn’t interested.

“Well, let’s table that discussion for right now and get back to the current issue. You know how rule breaking is dealt with around here, so the question is… am I going to refer the matter, or deal with it myself. Your choice, chica.”

“Oh I-I guess…” But no answer followed.

He waited patiently for almost a minute before shaking his head. “If you don’t make a choice, I’m going to make it for you.”

“You. I choose you, please.” Her cheeks colored as the words burst from her.

Well then. It was what he’d hoped she’d say. “Good. Then let’s take care of this little matter now, so we can get things back on track.”

She looked around nervously. It was a large space and even though they were on an upper level, before they’d taken seats on the loveseat, they’d been able to see over the railing that the room didn’t appear very crowded. Still, there were a few other couples spread out around the dungeon below them. She licked her bottom lip. “Here?”

“Nervous about being punished in public?”

“Kind of… I mean I’ve been spanked in front of other Littles before. Just not…” She looked around again. There was another couple seated at a table across the way just talking. When they’d taken a short look over the rail, they’d seen two couples scening. Neither scene had looked to be punishment. “It feels weird to be punished for Little rules here.”

He thought he understood, at least in part. “I suppose we could find some place a little more private.” He was already considering various options, but the most obvious one, his apartment, wasn’t one he wanted to suggest. Not when they’d only known each other a week.

To his surprise, the suggestion came from her. “What about… um, you live here right? Could we go to your place?”

“I do… and we can if you’re comfortable with that. I have an apartment in employee housing.”

She nibbled her bottom lip and then nodded. “I’d rather go there, please.”

The idea of being punished seemed to make her jittery, which was normal. As they left the main building and headed outside, her hand slipped into his—that was unexpected. She didn’t seem to notice she’d done it until he gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze.

“Sorry, I’m just…” She trailed off with a shrug. “This feels different from getting spanked by Master Derek, or one of the Bigs in the Littles’ Wing. Less… less official?”

“That makes sense.” It felt personal to him too. He’d spanked more than a few Littles since he’d been working at the Ranch. Not once had he ever offered to take one back to his place to do it privately. “But don’t think that means you’ll be getting off easier.”

She made a low sound, close to a whine. “I wouldn’t have done it; except I was upset.”

“And I’m sorry that what I said upset you, but you know the rules, Heaven. And I’m fairly sure you would have worked your way to the dungeon eventually anyway.”

He took her silence to mean he was right. The rest of the walk across the grounds was quiet. He let her reflect on the punishment she had coming, because he was still deciding how he was going to handle it.

His place was on the ground floor, and he gave her a quick tour before he did anything else. He wanted her to see his workroom. “Let me show you something. I think you might appreciate it.”

His apartment was a spacious two-bedroom, and he needed it. The second room was where he planned his creations and made mock-ups of the grander pieces, to see how they’d look. He had aphantasia, so he wasn’t able to picture things in his mind easily.

It was filled with crafting supplies. All neatly organized in bins. And he used a folding banquet table to work on. Right now it held a five-foot long diorama of the Halloween centerpiece.

Heaven gasped. “Oh! Wow, this is going to look amazing. I mean it looks great now, but it will be even better in chocolate.”

“I sure hope so.” He laughed. It was all modeling clay, toothpicks and pipe cleaners, but he needed to see a physical representation before he could create it with chocolate. He envied creatives who could just picture an image in their head and then make it without a reference.

“Anyway, I plan out the basic project here, create a model so I can be sure how everything fits together. Then by the time I get to the kitchen, I have a good idea of where to start.”

“That’s really great,” Heaven said as she turned to him. “I usually just go with rough sketches. Sometimes on the really complicated cakes things don’t work and I have to start over.” She wrinkled her nose. “Nothing like wasting a whole day of work. Happens a lot less than it used to though.”

He loved that they could discuss these things. Sharing a similar background was a big plus, and a good sign that there might be a future for them. Derek really did have a touch for matchmaking and Angel was going to have to let him know how things were going.

Which reminded him. “Feel free to look around, Heaven. I’m going to call over to the Littles’ Wing to let them know you’re with me before they organize a search party. Then… we’ll take care of your punishment.

He went to the kitchen to make the call. Not that there was any special need for privacy, but he wasn’t exactly sure what the protocol was for bringing her back to his apartment. If he was going to get a lecture, he didn’t want Heaven to hear it and think it was her fault.

“Hi, Nanny J? This is Angel. I just wanted to let you know I still have Heaven Leigh, so no one goes looking. We have a little discipline issue to deal with. I’ll escort her back when we’re done.” And to his surprise it was as simple as that.

He hadn’t even had the chance to tell her he had Heaven in his apartment. Nanny J sounded very busy, told him she was making a note and didn’t ask anything further before saying goodbye. For some reason he’d been expecting them to quiz him, maybe ask “Angel who?”, but he’d forgotten how small the Ranch community was.

But with that out of the way, it was time to get down to business. He had to admit, if only to himself, that he was eager to spank Heaven. He’d been picturing it in his mind for days.

She hadn’t left the craft room and instead was poking around with the Halloween mock-up. When he came in, she looked up and waved him over. There was an intense expression on her face, and he went to see what she was looking at.

“Listen, I think this witch is going to need more support, but if we move her over by this tree, we can run a pole up through the trunk and it will mostly be hidden, but she’ll still be totally visible. It will just look like one thick branch is in front of her.”

Angel leaned in, considering the change. It was small enough that it wouldn’t mean reworking much, and she was right. It would give the flying witch more support, which had been a concern. He nodded. “I think you’re right. It does leave a gap over here, but if we—” And then the next half hour was lost to a highly technical discussion.

There was more cross-over between her baking and his chocolate than he would have expected. At least in terms of design. Together they sorted out a slightly different arrangement that was better than his original plan. He straightened, a wide grin on his face. “Nice. I think this is going to be better. Thanks to you.”

She shrugged, dismissing the praise. “You’d be surprised at how much a cake layer can weigh. You get used to judging the amount of support structure you’ll need to keep things from toppling. Seeing it set up like this made it easier to notice the problem.”

“Well, you saved me some time when I went to put it all together at the very least. I appreciate that. These big projects are massively time consuming and having a part break off would have added stress… but it’s not going to save you from the spanking I owe you.”

He could tell she’d completely forgotten her reason for being there. Her bright blue eyes widened, and her lips parted emitting a soft “oh” sound.

“Come on, I think the living room will do.” The bedroom felt a little too personal, and the first time he brought a woman into his bedroom, he preferred it be for a fun reason.

The living room furniture wasn’t ideal. He didn’t have any fancy spanking benches in his apartment either, but he’d make do.

She followed him silently. She hadn’t protested or even argued the punishment much. There was no Little stomping her feet or whining either. He wondered if it was acceptance, or a fear that he might turn the situation over to Derek.

She needn’t have worried. Angel was past the point where he might have let someone else deal with her. “Since this is the first time I’ve spanked you, I’m going to stick with my hand, and let you keep your panties up—providing you behave.” There was a warning in his tone as he settled down in the middle of his sofa.

She shot him a grateful look. “Thank you, Angel.” She was embarrassed. The way she shifted from one foot to the other, her hands twisting in the hem of her T-shirt, and the bright red flush that covered her face all made it clear.

It was an important part of punishment, that embarrassment. For some Littles a bit of humiliation added to the excitement of the scene. For others it made the discipline more effective. He had a feeling Heaven was the latter.

He shook his head. “Not during punishment, chica. Sir will do when you’re in trouble.” He was so tempted to add “unless some other appropriate title comes to you” but he didn’t. He’d love to hear her call him Daddy, but it was too soon to even hint at that.

“Yes, Sir. Sorry.”

Because it was their first time together, he took a moment to touch base with her. “I’ve skimmed your file, Heaven, but are there any limits you need me to be aware of? Or anything we need to talk about before I spank you?” He would have given it more attention if he’d realized he was going to end up feeling things for her.

She looked down at her feet and shook her head. When he cleared his throat, she quickly corrected herself. “I mean, no, Sir. Nothing that would come up right now, I don’t think.”

“You’ve had the safety classes, so you’re clear on safewords?”

“Yes Sir. Red, yellow, green.”

“Good girl. Make sure you use them if you need them. Even if you just need a break or some reassurance. I know you have triggers, and I don’t want to trip another one today.”

She looked up, blinking. “Another one?”

“Your name. Remember earlier?” One eyebrow went up in question.

“Oh. I… guess I didn’t think of that as a trigger. I thought triggers were just…” She waved an arm, “being scared of canes or something.”

He frowned. Well, that did explain the name issue not being mentioned as a trigger in her file. It should be and he made a mental note to mention it to Derek. “No, Heaven. A trigger is anything that causes fear or emotional upset. It doesn’t have to be related to kinks. From what I saw, the way you reacted to the name issue… I’d say that’s a trigger. A big one.”

Her mouth opened as if to say something and then she closed it again, looking thoughtful as she considered it. “I… guess that makes sense,” she said finally. “But no, nothing else like that. Nothing that would come up now anyway.”

As eager as he was to move into the spanking, he had to ask one question. “Heaven, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but I’m curious. If your middle name is such a problem, why haven’t you dropped it entirely? In a place like this… where people often use middle names during punishment… it seems like trouble waiting to happen. Especially since both pronunciations are common.”

“Well, the thing is… Leigh isn’t my middle name. Sarah is. My whole first name is Heaven Leigh. I know it’s… yeah.” She sighed. “They realllly wanted to hype the holy vibe and it’s a lot. But Heaven Leigh is who I am, and until I moved out, I was never called just Heaven. People do now, and I don’t mind, but I still feel like Heaven Leigh.”

She took a deep breath and let it out through her nose. “Besides, Heaven Sarah just doesn’t… mesh well.” She grinned as she added the last part.

“No, no it doesn’t.” He laughed and shook his head. “So do you prefer Heaven or Heaven Leigh?” He was careful to pronounce the second half correctly.

“Honestly either. Just as long as… well, you know.”

He got it. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. He nodded. “Okay, now let’s get this spanking out of the way. Jeans down to your knees, Heaven.”

The moment he gave the order, she tensed. The relaxed humor between them vanished. Her hands went to the button of her jeans but stopped there, fluttering uselessly. When her glance flicked to the door, he wondered if she was going to make a run for it.

If she did, he wouldn’t chase her. He would, however, report it to Derek. Since that was something he’d rather not do, he fixed her with a look. “Heaven, pants down. Now,” he said, in a stern tone he rarely used.