Tears sprang to his eyes, not because the hand striking his bottom hurt as such. It smarted certainly, but the protective presence of jeans and briefs kept the smart from progressing to pain. It was the swiftness of action and David’s silent intensity that startled him. He was in deep trouble, and for more than the words just spoken.
David kept the spanking brief, deeming his modus operandi just as disciplinary as the actual smacks and sufficient for the verbal offence. He returned Lin to his feet. “I warned you this morning about continuing to snipe and bitch on that subject.”
Getting up from the chair he grasped Lin's elbow, marching him out of the kitchen and down the hall towards the snug. Ushering him into the room he pointed towards the designated punishment corner. "Get over there."
Lin, flushed of face, stared at David in tear-misted puzzlement, opening his mouth to question. He didn't get chance.
“Do as you're told, boy!”
This was the David you didn’t argue with. Lin hastened to obey. Standing in position he put his hands behind his back, his mind in a whirl. What the fuck had he done to put David in such a hard mood?
Closing the snug door, David solved Lin’s puzzlement. “Jeff dropped by while you were sleeping. He saw you on the beach this morning.”
Lin swallowed hard. Damn Jeff Tonkin and his bloody big gob.
David wasted no time in getting to the point. “What the fucking hell were you playing at? Is one near death experience in a week not enough for you? Jeff said there was another big rock fall not minutes after you left. You could have been under it.”
“Lucky I left when I did then. God must love me after all.” Lin had cause to regret his levity. David's voice lashed over him like a winter sea.
“Keep your smart remarks behind your teeth. I’m well out of humour with you and not just because you seem to think you’re exempt from obeying the warnings issued by the health and safety authority.”
Perching on the arm of the sofa David folded his arms, studying Lin's back, keeping him waiting for a few moments before speaking again. “Leaving aside your failure to obey civic authority, let’s concentrate on your failure to obey an authority closer to home, mine. With that in mind, answer this, are you allowed on the seawall?”
“I just…”
David halted the excuse in its tracks. “I'm not interested in justification. I want a straight answer. Are you allowed on the seawall?”
“No.”
“Thank you. We discussed the reasons why in some detail on Thursday. Was there anything about the discussion you didn’t understand?”
“For God’s sake, David,” said Lin waspishly. “I’m neither an imbecile or a child. Of course I understood.”
“Yet you still felt moved to disobey me?”
“I didn’t intend to.” Lin turned round, but was motioned to face the wall again. He scowled at the vanilla paintwork. "It just happened.”
“Nothing just happens, Lin, not of its own accord. There has to be an impetus. You chose to ignore a specific instruction of mine, yet again. It's becoming a habit and not one I intend to allow to continue by any means.”
Lin’s buttocks and anal muscle constricted at the chill and dangerous timbre of David's voice. The wall in front of him wavered. “I just found myself there. I couldn’t help it.”
“I don’t accept that for a moment, it’s an abjuration of responsibility.” David stood up, walking across to where Lin was standing, repeating the mantra, “are you allowed to go on the seawall?”
Lin closed his eyes, acutely aware of David’s proximity. How could a man who was a respectable five foot eleven suddenly seem like a colossal six foot six? “No.” His voice came out just above a whisper.
“No, and yet, despite my instructions, and quite apart from the advice of the local council, you strolled across the sand, shimmied under the rope cordoning off the area and did exactly that.”
Lin shook his head. “I didn’t, not in full. I only stood on the lower steps. I couldn’t go any further. I…” He fell silent, not sure whether confessing his reaction would make matters better or worse.
Turning Lin round, David placed his hands on his shoulders, saying sternly, “you had what we anticipated you would have, a panic attack.” His tone softened. “How bad was it?”
“Pretty bad," said Lin truthfully. "I would probably have been sick if I'd had anything in my stomach to bring up.” He risked a look at David's face, hoping to see sympathy tempering austerity. Sympathy was there, but if anything it seemed to be in partnership with austerity, lending it weight. He slipped his arms around David's body, squeezing him. “I’m okay, and like I said, I didn’t actually go onto the wall.”
David returned the hug, but remained on subject. “You're splitting hairs. I told you not to go anywhere near it, which includes the steps leading up to it. The wretched construction is a bogeyman. It engenders bad feelings in you at the best of times. After what happened on Wednesday we both knew those feelings would likely be worse, as proven by your reaction this morning.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“An obvious statement if ever there was.” David shook his head. “I made plain I didn’t want you stressing yourself. Apart from anything else you’re mindless when you’re locked into panic. Anything could have happened and you wouldn’t have been equipped to deal with it. How did I say we would handle it?”
“You said when the time was right we would tackle it together, a stage at a time.”
“So tell me why you felt obliged to gallop on down there and attempt the whole nine yards by yourself, ignoring all common sense?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like? What made you think it was acceptable to risk life, limb and my displeasure by going down there this morning?
“There’s the Queen Victoria thing again.” Lin scowled. “Maybe I should be grateful you don’t look like the squat little monarch herself. You’ll be wearing black bombazine and a lace cap next."
David was not amused, a fact he demonstrated by landing a powerful, gasp-inducing slap to the side of Lin's thigh. “I told you I’m in no mood for smart comments. Answer me.”
Lin tempered his attitude. “It wasn’t planned. It was a knee-jerk impulse. I felt I had to tackle the wall on my own.”
“Why on your own, to show how angry you are with me over my decisions of the last few days? Was it a means of superseding my authority, sticking your middle finger up at me?”
“No, at least not consciously.” Lin chewed his lip for a second and then blurted out, “I should be strong for you, David. I’m older than you. I should be the one protecting you. Instead I almost got you killed because I was too much of a fucking coward to move from the wall of my own accord. I’m a spineless loser. I couldn’t even climb onto the thing today. I was so afraid I almost blacked out. I don’t understand why you want to be with me or how you can love me.”
“You don’t have to understand, just know it.” David pulled Lin into his arms, saying fiercely, “and you are not a coward in any way, shape or form. A coward wouldn’t refuse to leave a scene of danger, despite being ordered to do so. You're always there for me when it matters. As for age, how often do I have to say this, it’s irrelevant. You’re hardly Methuselah to my boy David. There isn't a huge span of years between us. It’s need and nature that counts, not age. You have needs, which I meet in harmony with my nature, just as I have needs, which you fulfil in harmony with yours. We suit each other.”
"I'm six years and eleven months older than you, the best part of a decade." Lin availed himself of David’s black t-shirt to wipe his eyes. “Do I really meet your needs? Do I make you happy?”
“Oh, Lin, of course you do.” David hugged him close. “You make me complete. I consider the evening I walked into that publishers party and saw your scowling face as the luckiest of my life.”
Lin pouted. “Don't you mean my smiling face?”
“No, it was definitely sc
owling,” said David solemnly. “You were having a row with another guest. You’d thrown a tray of assorted canapés at him.”
Lin blushed. “I’d been unbearably provoked. Anyway, I didn’t throw them. I dropped them. He just got in the way, and I didn’t like you one bit when I first met you. I thought you were arrogant.”
“Only because I told you to clear up the mess you’d made and behave. You gave me the dirtiest look and asked me who the hell I thought I was.”
Lin groaned at the memory. “When you told me I was so embarrassed I wanted the ground to open up." He imitated David's voice. "I’m the guest of honour, and the new owner of the companies that publish your books and produce the cookery programme you present.”
“You didn’t show any embarrassment. You stuck your nose in the air and snapped, and I’m one of the people that make the buying of such companies worth your time and money. You seemed most unimpressed with me." David smiled, "though you did clear up the canapés and behave impeccably for the rest of the evening.”
He grew sombre again, stroking Lin’s hair away from his eyes. “Talking of behaviour, let’s return to the subject of yours today.”
Lin gave a deeper groan. “Didn’t we get past all that?”
“No, we got sidetracked for a moment. As I said I know beyond a shadow of a doubt you’re not a coward. You risked your life for me on Wednesday. You have no idea how much it means to me, even though I was angry when you refused to leave. I thought I was endangering you when all I wanted was your safety, but as you pointed out, in such situations we have no master but ourselves. However, taking risks in those kinds of circumstances is very different to doing what you did this morning."
Lin opened his mouth intending to try and justify his actions once again, but David raised a finger, warning him to silence. The stage was his.
"How do you think I felt when Jeff let slip where you were and what happened minutes after you left? What if panic had immobilised you, like it did on Wednesday and you couldn’t move off those steps? You would have been killed or at best seriously injured.”
Lin paled as it struck him how close to danger he’d come, but his voice still held a hint of defiance. “I wasn’t to know there was another rock fall imminent. I’m not psychic.”
“No, but you were well aware of the possibility of there being another rock fall. There were enough warnings posted around. It doesn’t need a psychic to foretell the obvious. You shouldn’t have been there. There was no life or death situation. There was nothing to warrant you ignoring all warnings certainly not to prove some point about not being a coward. A dead hero can't warm a bed, and I like having a warm bed."
He held Lin at arms length. "When I rule on a matter I expect to be obeyed to the letter. I told you to stay clear of the wall and you should have done so, end of story."
"Yes. I'm sorry, okay." Lin tried to pull away from David, but was held in place. "There's no harm done, so let's move on."
"No harm done?" David's eyebrows pushed up. "I disagree. I suspect the real truth is you did what you did, not to disprove the coward theory, but to confirm it, in your own eyes at least. It was an excuse to run yourself down and heap up bad feelings. All you've done of late is rubbish yourself and I'm sick of it. It's verbal self-harm and it damages us both. I know what’s behind it. This 'alleged' new restaurant. You’re already in heavy competition with something that doesn’t yet exist outside your mind."
Leading Lin over to the sofa, David sat down, pulling him onto his lap. "You've decided the chef of this assumed eatery will be better than you are, better than The Venus. You think people will forsake you and clamour to its doors. You’ve already judged and condemned yourself as a failure, and you’re seeking ways to reinforce the negative view and castigate yourself for it."
He rubbed Lin's thigh. "If a new restaurant opens, it opens, love. There’s nothing we can do to stop it. What I can and will do, and you need to understand this, is prevent you from using it as a means to torture, torment and work yourself into the ground. I won’t permit it. We are not repeating the London scenario here. Those days are gone. I don’t care if a string of restaurants open up in Stanes. It isn’t going to influence how you work or how we live our life. Stand up please.”
Lin did as he was told, a faint tremor beginning in his knees.
“The decisions I've made over the past few days have been made with the intention of protecting and caring for you, for us both, do you believe me?”
"Yes." Lin spoke without hesitation.
"Which makes your behaviour today even more unacceptable." David pointed towards the computer desk. "Get the paddle."
Lin's mouth went dry and the tremble in his knees increased. "Not the paddle. I don't deserve a paddling."
"I'll decide what you deserve. Get the paddle. Don't let me have to tell you again."
Lin moved over to the desk with reluctant steps, unlocking and pulling open the drawer where the paddle was kept, his cock twitching dismay. The slipper stung badly enough, but was nothing compared to the sting rendered by this hard little beast. He lifted the solid, polished bamboo oblong out of the drawer, walking slowly back towards the sofa, holding it out.
"Thank you." David took it and placed it on the floor at his feet. Placing his hands on Lin's hips, he pulled him forwards, manoeuvring him between his knees, undoing the fly buttons on his jeans. “Submitting to my authority seems to be a real problem for you at the moment. Blatantly defying me this morning was the last straw. You ignored a real and present danger because you wanted to turn the screw on yourself.” He tugged the jeans past Lin’s slim hips and down to his knees, doing the same with his briefs. “I won't tolerate it.” Drawing Lin round to the right side of him he brought his knees together and patted them. "Bend over."
Lin's swallowed a sudden accumulation of salvia. He hated being told to present his backside for punishment instead of having David physically put him over his knee. It was a cold order, and a sign discipline was going to be severe. He hesitated a second too long.
"Still flouting me." Standing up David grasped Lin's arm and turned him round, warming his bare buttocks with a series of firm slaps, which had Lin hissing and hopping on the spot. He sat down again in the middle of the sofa, repeating the curt order. "Bend over."
Lin complied, awkwardly flexing his body over David's lap, placing his hands on the floor. He sucked in his lower lip as he was roughly rearranged, the back of his t-shirt and the waistband of his jeans being utilised as handles to lift and position him so his cock and balls weren't crushed.
Heart hammering he lowered his head between his arms, closing his eyes, feeling his hair curtain his face. The mild heat from the hand spanking had diminished, but would soon be replaced with something much fierier.
Picking the paddle up from the floor David laid it across the middle of Lin's rosy bottom. He paused for a moment letting Lin feel its presence and then lifted it.
Lin's palms pressed hard against the floor, his head snapped up and he bellowed as bamboo struck the muscular centre of his backside, falling forcefully across both cheeks. The burn was so intense he felt as if he'd been branded. A split second later the paddle struck again on his left buttock and then on his right and then once more to the centre making the skin flame. He screeched at the top of his lungs, flinging his right hand back in a futile attempt to shield his rump.
"It hurts, oh God, Jesus, please, David, please, no more, it hurts too much." His hand was taken and held and he shrieked again as the brutal implement smacked against his arse three times in rapid succession. "Fuck-fuck-fuck!" He yelled and struggled, kicking up his heels trying to block its path, managing to half-slip from his punisher's knee in the process.
"Of course it hurts." David dropped the paddle on the cushion beside him. Spreading his legs apart he hauled Lin up from the floor, pulling him across his left thigh. "But not as much as being hit by a ton of rock. You won't be able to sit comfortably for a few days, but at least you'll be a
live." He drew Lin's right arm behind him, pinning it against his back and then clamped his right leg over both of Lin's legs, immobilising him before picking up the paddle again.
Lin gave way to tears, sobbing as the paddle resumed its painful business, striking every inch of his buttocks and upper thighs in a repetitive agonising circuit. Sweat soaked his body and his throat grew hoarse from shouting and begging for the paddling to stop.
Gritting his teeth and tightening his hold David forced himself to continue with the spanking after Lin began crying. Every now and again in a relationship like theirs it was important to clarify roles, to make crystal clear who was in charge. When undertaking a position of authority you had to show a willingness to follow through, to be ruthless when the occasion called for it. This was such an occasion. Lin needed reining in.
He at last paused in his administrations, speaking in a cold firm manner. "Let me make things clear one last time. I will tell you when The Venus is to reopen, you don't ask, you don't complain and whine. You stay away from the seawall. In fact you don't go out at all. We are not discussing the chapel. You are going to stop obsessing over it. When I say no to something I mean no and you do not try to override me."
Raising the paddle once again he underscored his words and concluded punishment with six heavy, scolding spanks to the underside of Lin's carmine globes, the sensitive sit spot.
Red Sky by Morning
Ten
After washing his face Lin lay down on the bed, as he'd been told to do. He lay on his stomach, wishing the heavy air would winter down and cool his burning behind instead of adding to its hot discomfort. Closing his eyes he abandoned any notion of persuading David to open The Venus on Sunday. To even suggest such a thing in the present climate would be several steps beyond foolish.
When the call came he got up and re-dressed, dismissing underwear and favouring a pair of baggy, lightweight cotton shorts over the jeans he'd been wearing earlier. The shorts were hardly flattering to his figure, but were more respecting of the comfort of his backside.
Red Sky by Morning Page 5