by Quin Perin
The guys at the gym did razz him about his knees, and also about his smile, but his smile only made the blowjob scenario all the more likely, and they were too hetero to handle listening to him brag about what they thought they could make fun of him for.
Jake wished the bruises really were from going down on Eduardo. He hadn’t seen Eduardo’s cock, hadn’t even felt it fully hard yet, only some chubbiness that suggested Eduardo was into men or at least into dominating men. But Eduardo hadn’t made it sexual between them last night, and though Jake had appreciated that in the heat of punishment, he hoped things would go differently tonight if he didn’t give Eduardo any reason to punish him.
But the day got away from him, his attitude slipping as people were their usual asshole selves. He hated his job doing “security” for a college campus, which mostly involved responding to complaints about students congregating where they weren’t supposed to and mediating low speed accidents in parking lots. Fill out this paperwork, show me your insurance card, how fast were you going when it happened?
The job had nothing to do with what he’d learned in the Marines, which was cyber security, not parking lot security, but he hadn’t figured out how to turn his knowledge and experience into a civilian job yet. It was one of the things on his to-do list—taking his résumé to the VA center for some guidance—but it didn’t get done again today.
By the time his lunch break rolled around, the last thing he wanted to do was schlep over there and listen to a runty kid in a shirt and tie drone on about actionable bullet points or whatever-the-fuck, so instead he went to the pond and watched children feed ducks shit ducks weren’t supposed to eat. The résumé would wait until tomorrow. It’d waited this long.
He ate a hotdog for lunch—definitely not on the diet plan—and then, getting anxious as his day kept sliding more and more off-kilter, had words with his boss when he got sent out on another noise disturbance call.
He came within a few words of getting fired, and wouldn’t have cared if he did, before stomping off to do a half-assed job of clearing the kids out of the quad. If the professors were so in love with the sound of their own fucking voices, they could close their fucking windows, but he got the frisbee-throwing kids relocated closer to the dorms and went back to the office to clock out.
According to the list, he was supposed to do his grocery shopping now—pick up a healthy variety of food he’d be able to use to make meals for the week—but fuck if he was in the mood for fighting some mama with a brood of snot-nosed children over a box of cereal, so he swung through a drive-thru on his way home and ate french fries with one hand while flipping people off with the other.
By the time he was on Eduardo’s doorstep, a sheaf of papers clutched in his hand, he knew he’d fucked up. The low-level voice that’d been telling him all day that he wanted to fuck up so he could get his ass beat good and proper again had given way to a more anxious voice that wondered if Eduardo would take one look at his not-done to-do list and send him away.
Why would Eduardo want a shitty sub like him? Why would anyone? He’d been given a few simple tasks, all of which were designed to help him, and he’d pretty much totally failed at them. And now he wouldn’t get to suck Eduardo’s cock. He should’ve been good. He should’ve. Why did he always have to ruin everything?
Eduardo opened his front door just as Jake had about talked himself into turning around and leaving, and Jake automatically shifted into confrontation mode. He handed the papers to Eduardo, not even caring if Eduardo liked what was on them or not, just standing silent and sulky in the foyer while Eduardo whistled for Earl.
He couldn’t be mad at Earl, so he bent down to give him a proper greeting, enjoying the warm solidness of his body. Earl seemed to be telling him that he’d been there too—that he knew how hard it was to be a good boy. He licked up over Jake’s face with a tongue wet enough to make him laugh.
“That’s enough,” Eduardo said. “Go to your bed, Earl.”
Jake straightened reluctantly as Earl trotted off in immediate compliance. Eduardo was watching him, so he stripped, making quick and tidy work of it. It was too late to bring a completed to-do list, but he could at least not antagonize his Dom further. Eduardo tsked at the sight of his knees, bending down to survey them more closely and then shaking his head in disapproval.
“I shouldn’t be indulgent, but you can remain on your feet today. We have enough to get through as it is.”
Jake swallowed, his bravado gone. How many things had he left unchecked? Three? Would that mean thirty swats? That was nothing after yesterday. He just needed to remain calm and not add to the number—grit his teeth and let Eduardo do it.
In Eduardo’s living room, he got into a familiar position—on his knees between Eduardo’s legs. Eduardo held him there for what felt like a long time, the scent of his groin rising into Jake’s nose, giving him a feeling of settled security. He’d been bad today. He’d been bad, but Eduardo hadn’t sent him away. Eduardo would make him better, and he’d be forgiven. Like yesterday.
He took a deep inhale and pushed into the bulge in front of his nose. Eduardo’s hand was light on his scalp, scratching soothingly over his hairline.
“You did a good job on the kink list,” Eduardo said. “I’m pleased with that.”
Already Jake wanted to cry for the loss of what he could’ve had.
“And I see you completed the items you said were easy for you to handle—a healthy breakfast, working out. But then we get to these other items. Tell me what happened there.”
Jake told him. In too much detail. About feeling like there wasn’t any point in working on his résumé, about how being pissed at his boss had derailed him from going to the grocery store, about the way the whole day had unwound before his eyes.
“It started here, didn’t it?” Eduardo pointed to the spot on the to-do list where Jake should’ve done his mindfulness exercises.
“I was running late. I meant to get to it later, but—”
“Then it started here.” Eduardo put his finger all the way at the top of the list, before there was any writing at all. “Sounds like you need to wake up half an hour earlier to make sure there’s time for this. We’ll make a new list for tomorrow, and you’ll do better. For today, looks like you owe me …” Eduardo ran through the calculations in his head as he tugged on his glove “… forty.”
“Forty?” Jake regretted the question almost as fast as he’d gotten it out. Watch it go up to fifty now. But Eduardo actually answered him.
“Ten for each unfinished task, plus ten for talking back to your supervisor, though perhaps you deserve more than ten for that. Sounds like there were multiple instances.”
Jake kept wisely silent, which seemed to placate Eduardo into sticking to his original decree. Forty it was.
Jake crawled up onto the sofa, the position familiar now after the amount of time he’d spent in it yesterday. Forty was more than thirty, and his ass smarted from yesterday’s spanking, but he could do this—could keep calm and get through it without adding to his punishment.
The first set of ten was a warmup. Yesterday he’d thought it wasn’t, but that was because he hadn’t known how hard Eduardo could go or how much simple swats to the fleshy part of his buttocks could hurt. The very first smack was a good reminder—awakening last night’s pain for a reprise—but it wasn’t until the second set that the wallops really got fierce.
Jake tensed with the growing urge to revolt. Who did this? Lay like a child and allowed another man to hit him? Accepted the increasing sting of heat, listened to the slap of leather against flesh, and felt the reverberation echo through him? Who believed he deserved such a thing?
Well, he did deserve it. He’d known the rules, and he’d broken them, and they’d only been for his own good, but fuck. Fuck this. He was a fucking adult. Eduardo didn’t own him. If Eduardo thought he could—
It was over. He’d done it. He’d taken his punishment. Hadn’t yelled, hadn’t resi
sted, hadn’t cried.
But he didn’t exactly feel relief either. What he felt was balled up—furious and ready to explode, taut with anger, his whole body aching with it, worse than the fire in his ass. Eduardo’s hand rubbing over the fire pissed him off. He didn’t need to be soothed, and it wasn’t fucking soothing anyway. It hurt, the fucker.
Jake gritted his teeth, clamping down hard. He was so close to being done with this, to having suffered his punishment successfully. He wished he felt better for it, that there’d been the catharsis he’d experienced yesterday even if it had broken him down to nothing more than pain and tears. At least there’d been a release.
Eduardo stood him up with a stern look. “Since you aren’t yet repentant, I’m going to assign some corner time.”
“Who says I’m not repentant?” What the fuck did that mean, repentant? He’d taken his punishment.
“That attitude says you’re not repentant. Go stand in the corner, nose into the wall, hands on the small of your back. I’m going to set the timer for fifteen minutes. Let’s see what that does.”
Stand in the corner. Sure. Hands on the small of his back. Like parade rest. No big deal.
Except he was fucking naked with his fucking red ass hanging out. Eduardo had spanked his ass like he was a misbehaving child and now he was standing in the corner like a misbehaving child. What the fuck kind of game was this?
How long had it been so far? There was no way that hadn’t been fifteen minutes.
He twisted his head around to try to find a clock, and Eduardo said, “Every time you break position, I’m starting the timer over,” and fuck no, they weren’t playing that game. He knew how this came out. It was yesterday all over again. Soon he’d have racked up a couple of hours of corner time because he was about to go fucking ballistic.
“Listen—” he said, ignoring the turn-around gesture Eduardo made. “Don’t even start this—”
“Come here.”
That was more like it. A blowjob or something. Treat him like an adult.
But no. He hadn’t been summoned over to give a blowjob. Rather Eduardo guided him down onto his lap and gave him ten more sharp slaps with his gloved hand, then dismissed him to the corner again.
Jake didn’t go. Of course he didn’t. He continued to rebel, earning more punishment ten or twenty smacks at a time, until he’d taken even more than he had yesterday, until his ass was so tender that every smack made him dance away from it. Tears flowed freely down his face, snot choking up his nose, as he begged Eduardo to please not.
Eduardo put him on his feet again. He could barely stay there, dizzy with trying to breathe through his stuffed nose, the world blurry around him through his tears.
“Corner time,” Eduardo said patiently, as he had after every round. “Fifteen minutes.”
This time, Jake made his way to the corner. It was nice in the corner. Quiet. Why had he been so resistant to it? The backs of his hands brushed the top of his red ass, reminding him to be grateful it wasn’t getting redder. His breathing settled, though he continued to cry. He was here because he’d been bad. And unrepentant. He’d put both Eduardo and himself through hell.
A warm, soft weight settled on his feet, and he looked down to see Earl curled around them, his head on his paws in a sad tableau as if to say that he knew how it felt to have made Eduardo mad. Jake expected Eduardo to send Earl back to his bed, but no command issued from behind him, and the two of them finished up Jake’s time in the corner together.
When Eduardo called Jake over to him, he crawled there, not minding his knees, to bury his face between Eduardo’s thighs, tears starting to fall again as Eduardo’s hand stroked over his head.
“I’m sorry,” he gushed, tears coming hard now. “I’m sorry.”
“There you go,” Eduardo said gently. “That’s all I was asking for, hmm? A little repentance. But you’re good now, big guy. All forgiven. Come on up on the couch with me. I’ve got some treats for you.”
Jake crawled onto the couch, not sure how to go about it. He was too big for cuddles, but he wanted them badly. Eduardo reclined back against the arm of the couch and steered Jake into his chest, and Jake managed to curl up with only his ass hanging off the deep cushion. Eduardo covered him with a throw, and that was nice—cozy and warm—but he accepted the sippy cup Eduardo handed him with a suspicious eye.
“Just so I don’t end up with juice all over my couch. It’s hard to drink lying down, but I want you here for a bit.”
Jake wanted to be there too, so he sipped from his sippy cup and ate the treats Eduardo fed him—baby carrots and chunks of hard cheese, all approved items from his nutritional plan. Eduardo gave him kisses on the cheek and the top of his head, and Jake felt like a perfectly cared-for child until he started to feel like a man again.
His cock perked up, distending the throw he’d been wrapped in, and he squirmed against Eduardo in a more intentional way, trying to convey that he’d like to move this relationship forward, but Eduardo sat him up and brought out that damned notepad again. Jake huddled with the blanket wrapped around him, sullenly answering Eduardo’s questions about what he needed to do tomorrow.
Didn’t Eduardo want him? Eduardo never even got hard while spanking him, not full-hard anyway. Jake was used to scenes ending in one of two ways: with sex or with him storming out. If he actually managed to finish a scene, there was a supposed to be a reward. And this wasn’t it.
Cuddles and treats, sure. A promise that they’d see each other again tomorrow, great. But was this all of it—just him being bad and Eduardo punishing him for it?
They’d see about that. Tomorrow he wouldn’t be bad, and then he’d find out.
Four
Jake went home with a to-do list for the next day very much like the one he’d carried home the night before. The only new item on it was to set his alarm a half hour early, which he promptly did. He didn’t have any trouble getting up early the next morning because he fell asleep early. Early and hard—drained by all that crying and the roller coaster of emotions.
He woke up energized, his ass tender but his knees improving, and cruised through breakfast and a workout with enough time to find a quiet corner on the mats and do his mindfulness exercises. They were a combination of meditation and slow stretches, and they helped. He knew they did. It wasn’t like he never did them, just not routinely enough, and every time he did he swore he’d make a better habit of it because there was no question his day went better for it.
The morning passed in a blur, and he walked over to the career center at lunchtime almost without thinking about it. The counselor they assigned him was pleased with the work he’d done on his résumé so far. Jake wasn’t incompetent, just uncertain, and the harder he worked on his résumé, the more he became convinced it was all a pile of dog shit and that no one would ever hire him.
But the counselor said it wasn’t dog shit at all—in nicer terms than that—and helped him polish it to perfection. He left her office with a red-marked copy of his résumé and a list of job openings that matched his skillset, a whistle on his lips and a swing in his stride.
The afternoon was a little rougher, but he bit his tongue when it wanted to get sassy and managed to end his workday without having told a single person off. The drive-thru called like a siren, but he was so close to checking off every item on his list that he kept his eyes and his steering wheel resolutely pointed straight ahead and drove right on by it to the grocery store where he stuck to his shopping list until he hit the prepared food aisle.
It had been a long day. And that plastic-wrapped Styrofoam package had the same chicken and broccoli he’d been planning to cook and would only take three minutes in the microwave and not get any pans dirty. Before he could go to Eduardo’s, he still had to put away the groceries and take a shower. There was probably time to make dinner too, but…
The package went into the cart and then, later, into his mouth, where it wasn’t as yummy as it’d looked. But it had
the required nutrients and got him over to Eduardo’s on time, spit-shined and smiling.
Eduardo greeted him with a smile to match his own, then took his checked-off to do-list from him and whistled for Earl, who came bounding in with sharp-eared enthusiasm. They were pals now, Jake figured, after Earl had kept him company last night, so he got down on the ground and let Earl slobber all over him, playing with him as long as Eduardo let them get away with it.
When Eduardo sent Earl off to his bed, Jake stripped and dropped to his knees. They were good enough today for him to manage, and Eduardo gave his hair a ruffle of approval before heading for the living room with Jake following on all fours at his heel. It felt like the beginning of a routine—a routine Jake was finally not fucking up.
He snuffled right up into Eduardo’s crotch, a happy sigh coming out of him unbidden. He loved being here, and for once there was nothing to dread about what would happen next.
“Good boy,” Eduardo said as he looked over Jake’s to-do list. “Look at you getting everything checked off. Tell me about the rest of your day. How was work?”
Jake went over his day, pleased and proud to have Eduardo listening to him with such attention, until he got to that bit at the end where he’d eaten the prepared meal. Would he be punished for that? He looked up at Eduardo with anxious eyes, waiting for his judgement.
“Well.” Eduardo scratched behind Jake’s ears thoughtfully. “This seems like the sort of thing you can use your own judgement on. If you get into a habit of it every day, I might have to set some guidelines, but spending an extra couple of dollars for prepared food once or twice a week isn’t going to break you. I’m pleased with you for being honest about it, though. Anything else you need to tell me?”
He’d been good. Good. Eduardo had said so, had read off every item on his to-do list and praised him for accomplishing it, and the one thing Jake had worried about had turned out to be nothing at all. He shook his head, unable to come up with any other infraction.