Chapter 6

It wasn't until he said she was pushing him on purpose that she realized she was doing it. And even then, it took a few minutes for her to admit, if only to herself, that he was right.

She'd gone from worried to annoyed at him, and then it had turned into something else. Tricking him into punishing her by acting badly was a new idea, and she hadn't planned it. It had just happened. When she saw that he didn't like what she was saying, she just… kept going.

Her head had been full of all those old movie scenes lately. The actress would act like a brat and the guy would just grab and spank. It was pretty much always nonconsensual. The woman never wanted it, and when she was younger, seeing things like that had made her mad. How dare he treat her like a child.

But now that she was in a consensual relationship with a Dom and was learning that she could enjoy things like spanking, those scenes had become more attractive. It was weird that she was equal parts excited by the idea of taunting him into it and horrified that she would even want something like that.

She wasn't a fifties housewife. She was a feminist who, until Nick, had been pretty sure that couples should share all decisions equally, right down to what they did in the bedroom. Punishing your girlfriend? What kind of neanderthal would do something like that now?

And what kind of woman would stay in a relationship where she was subject to that level of control?

Of course, it was different with consent. Nick wasn't just assuming he was in charge because he was the man. He was dominating her because she wanted it, and because they both enjoyed it. Logically she knew that, but on an emotional level she really liked the idea of an unexpected punishment—something she couldn't control.

Underneath it all there would still be consent, but she'd learned that there was something seductive about feeling helpless. Was there a word for that? For consenting without consenting directly? Because the idea of that was appealing.

The way her body reacted when he took over entirely was, well, all she could say was it was hot. And somehow, in her head, she'd decided that punishment would make all of that… more intense.

It didn't matter that she was perfectly aware of her safeword, or that he would stop if she used it. She was just sure that punishment would feel more real, and therefore it would heighten everything. Katie had become a bit fixated on the point.

The bratting games, where she teased him until he spanked her, they just weren't the same. There was no annoyance on his part. If anything, he was amused, and it was always obvious how it would end. They both knew it wouldn't be punishment, but foreplay.

It was the real experience she wanted, not the pretend roleplay.

Which made it extra frustrating that he was still holding to his rule about not punishing her until she took the step to submit to him officially. Even when she did something to him directly, he'd retaliate, but so far that had always turned into fun and sexy times too.

She enjoyed herself. There was no denying that, but… it felt like she was missing out on something more real. It was, and she could admit this, equally possible she just didn't like being denied an experience. As much as he assured her she wouldn't like it… she still wanted to feel it firsthand.

Despite all that, when she found herself across his lap some part of her panicked. A tremor ran through her and her inside flipped as she bucked and tried to get off his lap. It wasn't until he reminded her about her safeword that she was able to relax a little.

Knowing that she could stop it, if it was really bad, helped a lot. This wasn't the eighteen-hundreds, and no man was arbitrarily in charge of her. She had chosen this. It went through her mind like a mantra, and it helped.

Katie couldn't help tensing, tightening her ass cheeks as he lifted his hand. She tried to pull into herself, making a smaller target, not that she thought it would help much. There was no way for her to really prepare beyond that, because she wasn't sure what to expect.

"You won't like punishment, Katie. It's not fun," was what he'd said to her, on more than one occasion. She could hear the echoes of his warnings in her head now, and began to regret her choices, before he'd even begun.

His hand landed with a muffled whumpf, smacking down hard enough that she could feel it through the denim skirt. He didn't pause after the first one, or after the first dozen. The usual teasing and rubbing was entirely absent as his arm continued to swing.

Her ass, protected under the skirt, wasn't feeling too much sting, but the heat was building rapidly toward the point of discomfort. No matter how she wiggled or squirmed, Nick had no problem holding her in place, but after a while, she realized that it wasn't the terrible experience she was expecting.

Punishment sounded severe and she'd thought he'd be spanking harder, faster. Maybe he'd use a mean implement to drive the lesson home, but so far, the spanking was just… normal. It was about the way he usually spanked, except he wasn't pausing to excite her.

She stopped clenching and jumping every time his arm swung. The tension went out of her and for a little while she just immersed herself in the sensations. She'd come to enjoy being spanked. The slow methodical rising of warmth, that flooded her whole body made her feel floaty and good, usually.

But not this time. The short breaks for his fingers to play between her thighs were missing. The gentle caresses, and the briskly rubbing hand that eased the sting, those were gone as well. And despite the thick skirt, she was starting to feel the burn.

When he did finally stop, she felt a moment of disappointment. That was it? That was the fearsome punishment that she wouldn't like? It hadn't been much at all.

But the disappointment didn't last, and he wasn't through. He pushed her skirt up to expose the red and white gingham panties she wore underneath. They were cute rather than sexy, but they went with her outfit.

She waited for him to comment on them, to slip his finger under the elastic, to rub his knuckles over the crotch and notice they were damp, because her body had begun reacting as usual. Despite the warnings, she was enjoying his punishment.

It pleased her to note that he was wrong about that.

Instead, he began to spank again. The panties were made of a much thinner fabric, and the brief style didn't cover much in back. With each swat, at least part of his hand was landing on bare flesh, and that burned, but even the covered part was feeling the fire.

It was just enough sting to excite, and she could feel her arousal soaking the cotton. He'd know in an instant she was turned on—if he checked. He didn't.

A few dozen spanks covered her ass and she found herself lifting and arching her back, trying to draw his attention to her weeping pussy. Nick seemed oblivious, and the spanking continued, slowly the swats grew harder and the pace picked up until her body was fighting itself.

"Nick, pleaseeeeee." She drew out the word in a whine, hating that she sounded so needy, but she was.

"Please what?"

"Please, touch me."

"I am touching you, Katie. Can't you feel it?" His hand swept down in an extra hard smack right across the lowest part of her cheeks.

She yelped. "Not like that," she blurted.

"How do you want me to touch you?"

"Touch me nice… finger me. You know what I mean." She sounded frustrated, because she was.

"Nope. Trying to manipulate me into punishing you doesn't put me in any kind of mood to be nice, or make you feel good today, Katiegirl. I don't think you'll be coming tonight."

Her mouth dropped open and hung there for a long few moments. Oh. Right. Punishment. She could have cried. "I'm sorry, Nick. I won't do that again."

"You can do it as much as you want. You just won't like the results. You're lucky I'm not giving you a real punishment. Just the scene you asked for—minus the part I'm not in the mood for."

Her head jerked up and she half-twisted around so she could see him. "This isn't punishment?"

Nick snorted. "Not even close." His hand continued to rise and fall without stopping. "Did you really think this was what punishment was like?"

The answer to that was no, not really. That did explain why it didn't seem any worse. She wasn't having as much fun, without his fingers doing their usual teasing, but the spanking itself? He'd done worse for foreplay.

It did have more bite without the sensual touching, but maybe that wasn't enough to make it punishment. A feeling of disappointment rolled through her. She'd been fine with just thinking she was getting the experience. After all, she had nothing to compare it to.

"That was mean. You said this was punishment," she muttered, keeping her voice low, but not so low he wouldn't hear her.

"Nope. I said you were trying to earn a spanking, so I was giving you one." Maybe the comment annoyed him because he switched his aim to target her thighs more. Suddenly his palm was sweeping down in stinging swats that peppered the top of her legs, until they began to kick up with frantic motions. "But I guess you can consider it a kind of punishment. Just not the type you were after."

"Nick! Ow! Stop!"

"I don't think I will," he retorted. "Might be time to get rid of these picnic drawers though." He paused just long enough to sweep her panties down to her knees.

The suddenness of it caught her by surprise. She gasped and her hand flew back to cover her bare ass. She realized what he'd said a second later. "What the hell are picnic drawers?" The question burst from her.

He chuckled as he snapped the side of her panties against her leg. "Your underwear looks like a picnic blanket."

Well, she couldn't argue that since she'd seen plenty of gingham picnic blankets, but they were still cute. She huffed. "Jerk."

"Maybe, but I'm a jerk who isn't done with your backside yet." He gripped her wrist and moved her hand up out of his way, pinning it to her back so she couldn't move it again.

The action made her feel trapped, helpless, but in an exciting way and her clit pulsed. Knowing she wasn't getting a real punishment was frustrating, but knowing it wasn't even going to lead to sex after was worse.

She groaned and let her head drop down. This had all been a mistake, and not at all how she'd pictured their date going.

Nick's work-roughened hand began to move again and now it was landing without even the little protection her panties had provided. The heat and sting began to escalate immediately. Her arousal still provided a little cushion against the pain, but knowing it wouldn't lead anywhere almost made her wish it would go away.

Almost.

Holding still was impossible, not that she tried. Her arm might have been trapped but her feet weren't, and she kicked them dramatically with every smack. She wasn't being quiet either, although she tried not to yell too loud. The last thing she wanted was a neighbor coming over to check.

The worst part was she knew he'd spanked her harder plenty of times, and she'd enjoyed it. She felt like a wimp, but being turned on wasn't enough to carry her through the pain. By now she was usually close to coming.

Normally the spanks would be balanced with all kinds of sexual attention. His fingers would be playing with her clit, or working in and out of her, driving her closer with each thrust. She'd be wild with excitement. Every spank would push her closer to the edge.

But she was getting none of that today. Instead she had a low level of arousal that was more annoying than helpful, and the spanking seemed to go on forever.

Whenever she got too wild with the struggling, he'd shift to a more painful spot and before long the back of her thighs were starting to feel as though she'd been sitting on concrete in the middle of summer. He'd even landed a few swats on her inner thighs, when she spread her legs to encourage a nicer kind of touch.

And her body seemed to act without conscious decision. By now it was pretty clear that Nick wasn't going to slip his fingers between her folds to excite her, but her hips kept lifting. Her backside kept pushing out hopefully, and it left her tender spots vulnerable.

So it shouldn't have been a surprise when suddenly he was spanking up between her legs, fingers slapping her delicate pussy lips. She jerked, yelping in surprise before the pain even reached her. "Nick!"

"Yes, darlin?" He sounded amused.

"Not there!"

"Why not? You kept inviting me in. I figured that was what you wanted." He laughed when her thighs clamped down, trapping his hand between them.

"It wasn't. That wasn't what I wanted at all." There was a bite to her words. The frustration and irritation kept building.

"No?" He couldn't manage a swing, not with the way her legs held his hand in place, but he was able to do something else.

The pain shot through her, and her hips bucked up. "That hurts!" It took her a second to realize that he'd flicked her clit, hard.

"Of course it does. It was supposed to hurt. Now, if I were you, I'd relax your legs… otherwise I'll just keep doing this…" He flicked her again.

The burn was intense enough to bring tears to her eyes instantly. It was also… oddly kind of exciting. She wasn't sure why, because it hurt like anything, but there was something about the intimacy of being hit ‘there' that caused a sudden gush of wetness to coat his hand.

He noticed. "Or maybe you like that? Do you want your clit spanked, darlin'? Maybe I should spread you open, tie you down, and get out my quirt. My aim is really good with that."

He'd used the quirt on her before. The little whip, with its split tail, had left pretty V-shaped marks all over her back, ass, and thighs. She'd enjoyed the experience but couldn't imagine having that intensity directed between her legs. "No, no, thank you."

The way the words rushed out of her so fast made him chuckle. "Didn't think so. So relax and let me get back to spanking that cute butt of yours."

She huffed a little but stopped holding his hand hostage. There was a moment of cringing embarrassment when he wiped his wet hand on her ass cheek, but that was replaced with a searing sting when he spanked his broad palm down on the damp spot. "Using my own arousal against me is mean," she muttered.

"It could be worse, Katie. Trust me, it could be so much worse."

There was a threat to the words that made her swallow hard. "How? You already said I don't even get to come tonight." She regretted asking as soon as the question emerged.

"Well, for one thing… I could go ahead and use my fingers to get you all excited… over… and over again, but with no release. I don't think you'd like that much."

She definitely wouldn't.

"And just so we're clear, I'm not the one in trouble. So, there's no reason for me to have to go without just because you do. There's still one hole of yours I haven't claimed yet, maybe tonight would be a good time for that—if you want to keep complaining about how mean I'm being."

It took her a second for the point to hit home, but then she got it. He was talking about her ass. They hadn't done anal yet, not really. Toys, like the vibrating egg, were getting her used to it, but Nick said she wasn't ready for the real thing yet.

She'd loved what they'd done so far though. The more he got her used to having her ass filled, the more interested she was to finally have him take her back there. They'd been building up to the full experience… but this wasn't how she wanted it to happen.

Maybe it was an idle threat—probably it was, because he'd said he was waiting so the first time would be good for her, but just in case, "I take it back," she assured him. "I take it back. You're not being mean."

The noncommittal ‘hmm' didn't do much to reassure her, but he put his focus back on making her butt red and sore and that was enough of a distraction. She hadn't realized how much the touching and caressing changed the tone of a spanking. Without those aspects, she was really regretting getting herself in this situation and more than ready for it to be over.

By the time he was done, she was making all kinds of noise, most of it pained whining. Her feet drummed frantically against the floor, and it was taking all her effort to keep them down, so he didn't make good on any mean threats.

She knew, logically, that he'd spanked her much harder at other times, but somehow this one felt more… thorough. There was a throbbing at the center of each cheek and her thighs were prickly and sore. The pulsing between her thighs, however, had dwindled away as the spanking went on without any encouragement.

Those last few swats had really been felt without even the slight cushion of arousal, and once he let her up, both hands flew back to rub the scalded skin vigorously. It helped with the surface sting a bit, but not with the deep-down heat that had sunk in and settled.

She'd be feeling that for a while. "This wasn't how I expected today to go," she said with a sigh.

"Wasn't on my schedule either, Katiegirl, but sometimes plans have to change. Seemed like you needed this more. Is punishment really something you want that much?" He sat back and held out his arms.

Sitting was the last thing she wanted to do, but she did want his comfort, so she eased herself down into his lap, being careful to put the weight on the outside of her thigh. She got comfortable, with her head on his shoulder, before she answered. "It wasn't real punishment though. You said it wasn't."

He stroked her tousled hair. "That's not how I dole out punishment spankings, no. And if it was a real punishment, you'd probably be doing some assignments for me next. But I imagine you're feeling punished enough right now."

She pouted, burrowing against his chest. "I like it better when you're doing the nice touching at the same time."

His chest rumbled as he laughed. "I bet you do. And you know what? I do too." His arms wrapped around her and tightened as he dropped a kiss on her forehead. He held her like that for a few minutes and she enjoyed the strong weight of his arms around her.

Once she'd settle and relaxed, he said, "As much as I'd love to cuddle you all day… we did have plans. You feeling up to going out? Or do you want to stay in?"

Katie thought about it for a second, heaved a deep sigh and nodded. She sat up with a wince and eased herself off his lap. "I need a few minutes and then I'll be ready."

"I'll be waiting."

She turned and headed toward the short hall that led to the two small bedrooms and bathroom.