by Sable Drake
As I was lying in her warm embrace, I felt I was truly in heaven. I could not have been more at peace. The pleasure of her care worth every minute of my ordeal. I felt a great pride that I had endured my torment, as if I had done it for her. I fully understood the balance between pain and pleasure. They are two sides of the same coin, and I wanted to endure even more punishment so that I could enjoy more of this bliss.
I am a bit muddled about time and the course of events. I do know that at some point I was in a warm bed with proper bedding and at some point Penitence brought me a meal on a tray, although I have no idea what it was. I remember Penitence telling me that it was time to return to school. She said it in that strict voice— which was the only way that she ever spoke—and she said that I had to see something before I left.
My school uniform had appeared on the small table in the room, and Penitence watched my every move as I dressed. Moving still caused an ache between my legs, and I had ugly sore welts on my buttocks. Pulling up my knickers was painful. I now saw the almost paranoid modesty amongst the girls in a new light, and I wondered how many of them had to hide their bodies to conceal their own bruises and scars.
When I was dressed, Penitence took me along a corridor to a small room whose walls were the ancient bare stonework of the original building. The room was dimly lit and from the ceiling hung a large iron hook. Suspended from this hook and spinning slowly was a naked and bound woman.
Despite the leather blindfold and the huge iron gag which was distorting her face, I recognised Fortitude. Her wrists were chained to the back of her heavy iron collar so that her arms were straining behind her back. Ropes ran from the hook above her and under her arms where one could see how the bindings were cutting into her flesh. Metal clips were biting into her nipples and hanging from the clips were heavy lead balls which were swaying as she moved. The delicate petals of skin which formed her vaginal lips were being stretched downwards by more lead weights suspended from these little folds of sensitive flesh.
I wondered how any woman could stand such a keen and intimate pain. When she had her back to me, I saw a large lump of plastic protruding from her buttocks, stretching her back passage to its limit. It must have been hurting her greatly. The front and rear of her body showed the livid scarlet wheals of a severe caning which had included even her breasts. A bar was fixed between her ankles keeping her legs wide apart as they hung about three feet above the stone floor. Fortitude was not simply spinning but was also writhing against her bonds as if trying to ease her pain, but it was clear that her struggles were futile.
My first reaction to this scene was horror but, to my shame, I have to confess that all the muscles between my legs tightened. If I had not been under the eyes of Penitence, I would certainly have dipped my hand between my own legs to ease the tension which was being aroused there.
Penitence looked at the spinning victim then at me as she spoke. "You will say nothing to anyone about what has happened during your penance."
The threat was all too clear. Yet I knew that no matter obedient I was, I would need to return to this place. The monster within me had been awakened, and I now knew the connection twixt pain and pleasure. I would have to come back to experience more of this delicious paradox.
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Willing Submission
The Schoolhouse was Rob and Penny's first home together, and it was perfect. The grey stone building had plenty of character, set in a very private garden just outside the village. Plus, it was only an hour's commute to Rob's office.
Rob's recent promotion meant that Penny had been able to give up her IT job with a major corporation. The aim was for her to work from home setting up the software business which she had always wanted to run. Before that, however, she would spend her days while Rob was at work clearing out their new home. One room in particular was loaded almost floor to ceiling with junk.
She had been at the job for two days and was making good progress when she found the block. At first, she did not know what it was. Perhaps, she thought, it was simply an old chest. Then she realised that it had leather straps attached at strategic points. Penny went over her find with a wet cloth and saw the padded top on what was basically a hollow wooden block.
She stood back in silence as it dawned on her that she had found a whipping block. As she moved around it, her foot knocked over what looked like an umbrella stand and spilled crook-handled canes of various sizes and weights onto the dusty floorboards.
Penny picked up the implements of punishment one by one. The first was very lightweight, and she hardly felt it when she gave it a test whack on the leg of her jeans. Perhaps this was the junior cane; it would deliver a nasty sting to an outstretched hand. The cane which was surely the senior cane was of dark rattan and quite heavy. As Penny swished it through the air, it wobbled.
Rob and Penny had never done anything in any way kinky in their sex life together, but there was an indefinable tingle as Penny stood there holding the cane and staring at the block. What must it have felt like to be strapped down with one's bare bottom exposed and waiting helplessly for the first stroke to find its mark? Her hand went of its own accord to stroke her bum cheek, and she tried to imagine painful red ridges which would prevent her from sitting down.
It would be unbearably embarrassing to have to eat standing up as Rob sat down at table, perhaps with the cane on the white tablecloth beside him. It would be horrible and yet...there was something... why was she even thinking these thoughts? It was as if the whipping block had some power of its own. Was this the very room in which Victorian bottoms had been punished? Penny looked up at the rafters and heard the echo of high pitched screams coming back at her.
She was a nice respectable middle class young married woman who had always thought of herself as well balanced. But, if she was so well balanced, what was all that business with her sister? Penny's older sister had qualified as a barrister and had recently delivered to her parents their first grandchild. For all her life, Penny had felt herself in the shadow of her gifted sibling. Their parents had never done or said anything to encourage this irrational belief, but theirs was a family which valued achievement and hard work. Penny had never quite reached the peak. Deep within her subconscious mind, she felt herself lazy, someone who had always fallen short of the success of her sister.
She gave the senior cane a hard swish at her own bottom and, even through her jeans, a little cry escaped as the stroke landed. She deserved a good bit of punishment. Perhaps if she took her punishment, she could excise the guilt which she felt at being second best.
Penny continued with the task of clearing the room and found it very hot work. She stopped for a breather and mopped the perspiration from her brow with her sleeve. She looked around, her eye again being drawn to the whipping block as her mind filled with an image of unfortunate girls having their skirts raised and their drawers lowered. Would the punisher have undressed the girls or would they have been ordered to do it themselves?
A couple times in her teens, Penny had played strip poker with her girl friends, and it had felt deliciously humiliating to be told to undress with others watching. Of course, the girls had all seen each other undressing in the school changing room but at those times, one tended to face the wall out of modesty. It was very different to have to stand in the middle of the room while one's fellows chorused, "Penny loses! Get the knickers off, girl!"
Wooden chairs had been thrown into a heap at one end of the room, and Penny had no idea of what lay under the heap. She was hot already and moving the chairs would be a very sweaty and uncomfortable job. Well, she reasoned, what harm could it do to make herself more comfortable? She peeled down her jeans and then dragged the dusty T-shirt over her head. Then, she realized she didn't want her nice underwear covered in dust and cobwebs, either. So, she shed them as well, rendering herself nude. As she did so, she fantasised a stern male voice giving her orders.
"Penny you will complete your task naked as a punishment."
"Oh, Sir, please let me keep my knickers on." Of course, her phantom overseer had no mercy, and her pathetic request was denied.
Once the now-naked young woman had moved the chairs, she discovered several old fashioned school desks with lifting tops. At the centre of the pile was the teacher's desk, which was a very substantial piece of furniture. Penny arranged the desks into two rows with a chair behind each and then, by pressing her whole body against it, she managed to slide the big desk into position at the front of the room with a chair behind it.
By this time, Penny needed to prepare the evening meal as Rob would be home quite soon. So, she had a very quick shower and dressed before going to the kitchen. That evening, she showed Rob what she had found, in particular the whipping block and canes. She giggled in a coquettish fashion as he stood in the schoolroom surveying her work.
"You could make sure I was a really good and obedient girl for you."
The two of them actually discussed every decision to be made and agreed on a way move forward. To Penny's delight, Rob did not dismiss her light hearted suggestion, and he went along with the game.
"You would have to smarten your ideas up, young lady."
No more was said on the subject that evening, but the next day Penny returned to her work in the school room. There were many small items like broken picture frames and even an ironing board to be loaded into the car and taken to the tip. Instead, she found herself standing in front of the whipping block just staring at it. She loved Rob with every fibre of her being, and she did want to be a good wife. She had only been a wife for a very short time, and that culture of achievement which she had brought from her growing up clicked into play. Rob was too good hearted and considerate to criticise her, so he would probably overlook her flaws. Penny did not want to even have flaws. What was needed was a system such that her faults could be dealt with in an organised way. Penny had heard of couples who divorced, and it was only at the end that they discussed things which had annoyed one another for years.
"You never put the top back on the toothpaste."
"For years I have hated the way you dropped your smelly socks on the floor."
That would not happen to her and Rob. They would deal with these things so that they were not allowed to fester.
By around lunchtime, Penny figured that she had done all she could in the schoolroom, so she showered and had a snack. During this time, a plan formed in her mind. She was a very organised person and liked to make lists and have a clear idea of what was to be done. As such, she tended to be naturally drawn to structured play and ritual. She went about phase one of her plan in her typical meticulous fashion.
In the bedroom, Penny went through her wardrobe and selected a plain black skirt, equally plain white blouse which buttoned to the neck, and a pair of white socks on which she carefully cuffed the tops making sure both were precisely the same length. Her attire felt incomplete, and she began to go through Rob's ties. One of them was perfect for what she wanted, and she adorned herself with one having diagonal stripes in blue and white. Her underwear consisted of a brief white bra and a pair of white cotton knickers which came right up to her waist. The effect was rounded off by a pair of flat, black sensible shoes.
This was the picture which greeted Rob when he arrived home from work. Penny steered him into the school room where she sat behind one of the desks looking up at him. Rob was clearly impressed with what she had achieved, and Penny made her pitch.
"I thought we could keep it as a feature, a sort of tribute to the roots of the building. We won't need this room until we have to think about a nursery, and that won't be for a while yet."
Rob sat down on the desk, and Penny took a deep breath as she got to the meat of her plan. This was the point where Rob might dismiss the idea as absurd.
"It could be our little secret together. Wouldn't you like to have me bent over that block and totally at your mercy?"
She knew her husband well enough to detect the slight dimple at the corner of his mouth which, when she saw it in the bedroom, indicated that she had raised his interest. Now was her chance to press her advantage.
"To be honest, I am dying to know what it would feel like. You could have a secret affair with a naughty schoolgirl and know that your wife would never find out."
Rob could tell that Penny really wanted to play this game, and he wanted to indulge her if it gave her pleasure. He did not at that point admit to himself that Penny had tugged on a string which lead right to the very darkest place in his male psyche. Puberty kicks in during one's school years, so virtually every man's first interest in the opposite sex involves crisp school blouses and the occasional glimpse of knickers on the hockey field. But first, Rob had to make sure that he understood what Penny was saying.
"You want me to strap you down over that thing?"
Her eyes went to the floor.
"Yes, please, Rob."
"I've never hit a woman in my life."
She handed him the senior cane.
"I want you to. I'm sure I'll scream, but once a number of strokes has been set, we have to agree that we will go through with it. Please."
Rob was silent for a moment, and then he made his decision.
"Well let's get on with it then."
Penny began to lower herself onto the block, but Rob had other ideas.
"I've had a hard day, and I've not had my dinner. You are the laziest, most insolent girl in the entire school. So, we are going to do this properly. You will take your punishment naked."
Penny could hardly believe that this was her husband. She slowly stood and found his harsh manner had shocked her into meekness.
"But, Sir, it's only the two of us here. Don't you think..."
He raised his voice.
"Sykes, you have thirty seconds to remove every last stitch of clothing and get yourself over that block."
Penny noticed the use of her surname, and she began to tear off her clothing, leaving it to fall to the floorboards. She found that she was breathless as her naked belly came down onto the padded top of the box. She felt Rob pull the broad leather strap over her back and buckle it tightly to the other side of the box. She was unable to lift her torso. Trapped.
Next he took her delicate wrists and strapped each to the hardware at the base of the block, one on each side. Penny felt extremely vulnerable. Her head hung over the front of the box, and her hair cascaded untidily. She felt Rob grip her left ankle and drag it to the side of the box, where he strapped it in place. Then, he did the same to her right.
The helpless young woman was very aware of the cold air on her exposed pussy. She was also uncomfortably aware that she was displaying herself with her legs wide apart like a cheap whore. She found that she could hardly breathe because she was so tense, and she was beginning to regret the time she had spent that afternoon in shaving her pussy hair so that Rob was presented with a white, smooth pussy. In his present mood, that little bit of extra provocation just might be a step too far. If he were careless with that heavy cane and even just the tip of it found her sensitive private parts it would be agony.
Rob's voice was very commanding, and Penny could tell that he was completely in character as the merciless master.
"So, Miss Sykes, how many strokes did we say?"
This, she knew, was his way of checking how many she thought that she could handle. The number six was out of her mouth before her brain really caught up.
It was maddening that she could not twist her head far enough around to see Rob standing behind the block, and there seemed to be a very long pause during which he made no sound and no stroke of the cane landed. Penny became convinced that he had changed his mind about going through with her caning. That made the shock even worse when the cane struck across the centre of her left buttock.
It was not actually a hard stroke, but the shock factor tripled its effect. Penny's body tensed as every muscle fought the restraining str
aps, and she howled in pain.
Again there was a pause, and then the next stroke connected with her right buttock. Rob had swung this one with much more effort, and his helpless victim heard the swish an instant before her flesh caught fire. Again her body tried to react against the pain, but the block was very well designed and constructed. It allowed her virtually no movement at all. She simply had to lay there presenting a perfect target.
Strokes three and four came almost at once–left then right–so their pain was added to that which she was still trying to absorb from the previous two. Her mouth was wide open, and tears were flowing down her cheeks in response to her whipping.
Rob left a short pause, then stroke five came up under her right cheek and caught her exactly in that tender little crease where thigh swells into buttock. He counted aloud to two, then he laid on the final stroke, apparently with all his strength, as a diagonal across the left cheek. Penny's head went back and she thought her lungs would explode with the ferocity of her wild yell of agony. She had lost count and was uncertain whether or not she had another stroke to come. She was sure that she simply could not bear to be struck again.
Penny felt the strap over her back being released, then Rob was kneeling in front freeing her wrists. She did not have the strength to raise her arms even after they were free, so she simply lay there, well aware of the slick perspiration covering her entire body. He unstrapped her ankles and gently pulled her from the box, but there was no way she could not stand without aid. He supported her slim form as he walked her the few feet to the teacher's desk and allowed her to lay belly down with her flesh in contact with the smooth, cool timber.