"I'd do anything to help you," he said. "This temper of yours isn't any good for our relationship, is it?"
"No," she agreed. Tell him. "There's an internet forum," she began, working out the best approach, "for women with problems like mine."
"Bad tempers, you mean?"
"Yes, and other things. Destructive behaviour like mine, or self-destructive behaviour. There's a woman who used to be bulimic. The thing is…" Damn; why wasn't this easier? "They've tried counselling, support groups, all that stuff, and that's helped a bit, but hasn't stopped the behaviour. The only thing they've discovered that actually stops the behaviour is…" Her voice trailed off; she couldn't say it.
He hugged her tighter, encouraging. "Is what?"
"I can't—"
"You mean hospitalisation, something like that?"
He sounded horrified and Charlotte laughed. "No, not that. Though sometimes I think I belong in a nuthouse. No, what they've discovered is… This is really embarrassing."
"I gathered that. Go on."
"Their…" She took a deep breath. Do it. "Their husbands spank them."
She glanced at him, saw his mouth quirk. "What?"
"I know," she said. "It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But they swear it works. This woman, Panda—"
"Her name's Panda?"
"I think it's really Miranda or Amanda, something like that. Anyway, her name's irrelevant." Charlotte had said the s-word now, she needed to convince him it was just what their marriage needed. "She had bulimia for ages, and the only thing that cured her was getting spanked by her husband if she starved herself, binged or purged. She said the spankings eased her guilt over her behaviour. And she said that when she was tempted to skip a meal or to vomit up her food, she'd remember it meant she'd get spanked, and so that stopped her doing it."
"It sounds a bit…weird."
"But it's worth a shot, isn't it?" She turned to look at him, desperate for him to agree. "You know how bad I feel when I've lost my temper. When it happens, I sort of feel I should be punished. And if I knew I was going to be spanked, it would help me curb my temper."
"I don't know…"
"Please, Con. All these women say it helps. And I hate being the way I am."
She could tell he was far from convinced. But still, he sighed and said, "All right."
Elated, Charlotte beamed at him. "You will?"
"If it's what you want and if you think it'll help."
"I do." She hugged him. "Thank you."
He was going to spank her!
Six
Thread: We're starting domestic discipline!
Miss Scarlet: FINALLY, I plucked up the courage to tell my husband about my need for spanking. We've sat down and talked about it, and we're starting domestic discipline!
So, I found a suggestion in an old thread about introducing spanking via an erotic board game. I dashed out and bought one, and sod's law, there wasn't a single spanking-related activity on the game board. Anyway, I thought we'd play it last night after dinner, regardless. He'd been away and I got the fire going, put a roast on, lit the candles, all ready for a romantic evening when he returned home. And of course he was too tired from his trip and didn't want to play the sex game. I got really angry with him (even hurling the board at him—whoops!), and he told me how much he hated my temper and asked how he could help me control it.
Well, that was my cue. I was really embarrassed, but I took it. I told him about domestic discipline and how it helps the women here control their destructive, or self-destructive behaviour. He was a bit uncertain at first, but when I told him how much I thought it would help our relationship, he was willing to give it a go. We have drawn up some rules. I'm to keep my temper and I'm to be respectful towards him (the first rule was my idea, the second his) and I'm to be spanked if I break them.
I am so excited about this, so relieved I've finally told him and that I'm going to receive the discipline I've always craved.
His Precious Gem: Congratulations, Miss Scarlet. You have taken your first, tentative steps along what will be a wonderful, lifelong journey.
Admin: That's great. Good on you for finally opening up to him, and good on him for agreeing to take you in hand.
Panda: Now, don't hold back, Miss Scarlet! Give us all the details. I am betting your bottom has been spanked as scarlet as your namesake already for hurling a game board at him. I know mine would have been, lol. Congratulations, and looking forward to hearing your adventures. And remember (if you haven't already found out) domestic discipline is wonderful, but boy is it painful at the time.
His Precious Gem: >>>And remember (if you haven't already found out) domestic discipline is wonderful, but boy is it painful at the time.>>>
It certainly is. Maybe Miss Scarlet won't be as rebellious as you or I, though, Panda. Not everyone gets spanked as often as we do.
Miss Scarlet: >>> Not everyone gets spanked as often as we do.>>>
I rather hope I will…
Why hadn't Connor spanked her for that temper-tantrum last night? Charlotte brooded about it as the train whisked her down the line towards work. At the time, it hadn't bothered her when he went to bed after their conversation, worn out from the weekend dramas. She'd been desperate to post on Spanking Sheilas about their new arrangement. But when she'd snuck a look at the responses this morning, she cursed him for not giving her a sore bottom straight after their agreement. Of course the Spanking Sheilas wanted to hear spanking stories. That was what they were all there for after all.
The day at work dragged by. Not so very long ago, Charlotte had lived to work, constantly chased after stories that would add to her portfolio, help her snag a better job. These days, she wondered how she could ever have found work, especially this job, so compelling. All day, she relived the forumites' spanking sagas in her mind and fantasised about Connor taking her over his knee. Other activities had taken a back seat too. She still phoned her parents once a week, but she owed all her UK friends emails. She had no desire to cobble together accounts of work woes, cinema visits, bushwalks and the latest in the Deborah saga when she could be on Spanking Sheilas.
Connor was in the kitchen, frying sprouts in butter, when Charlotte arrived home. A delicious aroma emanated from the oven. He was on early shift this week, meaning he got home much earlier than she did.
"That smells good."
"I made shepherd's pie. How was your day?"
"A bit boring. How was yours?"
"Interesting." Connor's face twisted in an expression of concern. "They called a full staff meeting after lunch. There's going to be a restructure."
"Will it affect you?" Charlotte hoped not. Connor didn't earn much more than she did, and most of his salary went in child support to Deborah. With the mortgage and bills, things were tight sometimes.
"Not sure yet. They've made all the graphic designers' jobs redundant, and we have to apply for the new positions." Connor pushed the sprouts around the pan with a plastic spatula. Charlotte imagined how it would feel applied to her backside.
She pulled her thoughts back to Connor. "That's a pain."
"Yep." He nodded in the direction of the kitchen table. "Can you put the knives and forks out?"
Over dinner, which, like everything Connor cooked, was delicious, he said, "You don't want the computer tonight, do you?"
She did. "Why?"
"I thought I'd go on the internet, have a look to see if there are any jobs advertised."
"You don't know that you've definitely lost yours yet. You might get one of the new positions."
Connor chewed and swallowed a sprout before answering. "I want to get a jump on it in case I am made redundant. It's not going to be so easy for me to get a job at my age."
That was true. Connor was forty-one now. With all the new technology, companies were recruiting younger, more tech-savvy designers, who were quicker and learned faster.
"Well, as long as you're not on it all night," she said. "I do need to check on one o
r two things."
She settled down to read after dinner, leaving him to the job-hunting. Lately (well, since the day she typed 'spanking' into the search engine not long after they first got the internet at home), Charlotte had struggled to get interested in books. In fact, some days she had spent the entire half hour of her train commute with the book open at the same page, distracted by obsessively recollecting Spanking Sheilas posts. But today at lunchtime she'd purchased a new Val McDermid thriller, set in the 1960s, about a missing child. It was compelling enough that she'd actually forgotten all about spanking on the train ride home. Now, she turned the pages, absorbed in the novel, and was startled when she glanced at the clock on the lounge room wall and realised the time. Ten o'clock! And she hadn't even been on Spanking Sheilas yet tonight.
She put the book on the coffee table and dashed up to their office. Connor was still on the computer, reading an article about photography.
"Can I have the computer now?" she asked.
Connor jumped. "Shit," he said, checking the time. "I didn't realise it was that late."
"Neither did I."
"Just give me another fifteen minutes or so," he said, "to check for jobs, and then I'll be finished with it."
"I thought you'd already checked for jobs."
"No, there's a photography magazine gone online that I wanted to have a look at. They've put quite a few old copies up. Look, I'll show you."
"You mean you've spent the last two and a half hours reading magazines when you knew I needed to go on there?" Charlotte glared at him, furious. She didn't mind him monopolising the computer for work reasons. But just to mess around reading old magazines? That was fucking selfish.
"Sorry," he said.
"You always say that!" she snapped. "What use is 'sorry'? It doesn't change anything, does it? It doesn't bring back the hours you've wasted on the computer when I could have used it for work."
"You need a break from work anyway," he said. "They're working you too hard."
"It wouldn't have taken me very long," she said quickly, not wanting him to mention these extra hours she'd supposedly been working should he run into any of her colleagues. "But I prefer to check stuff when I'm alert, not at ten bloody thirty at night."
"It's only just after ten."
"It won't be by the time you've finished up in here, will it?" She was up for a fight now, and hell, if she was going on Spanking Sheilas so much later than she wanted, she'd better have something to write about. "It's always the same with you. You say you're going to be online for a few minutes, then you're in here for hours, and by bedtime you still haven't looked up what you went online for. Bloody dickhead."
He made a tutting sound and turned back to the screen.
What the hell? He'd promised, now he was letting her down. Deliberately? Or had he forgotten?
"Dickhead," she repeated.
He swivelled his chair to look at her and their eyes locked. Sudden remembrance of their conversation made his eyes light up with challenge. He rose threateningly from the chair and she scurried out of the room, along the passageway, to the bedroom. He caught her at the bedroom door, pinned her against it.
"What did you call me?" he demanded.
She giggled, delighted. "I can't remember."
"Well, I can." He gripped her firmly, marched her over to the bed, and pushed her face-down over it. He tossed up her skirt, exposing her knickers and stockings and Charlotte tensed, suddenly nervous as well as excited.
"What were our rules?" he asked her.
"Not to lose my temper. And I didn't, not really, despite great provocation."
"And the second rule?"
"To respect you."
"And is calling me a dickhead showing respect?"
"No."
"No, it isn't." Up till now, Connor had been going okay, but he suddenly put on a mock-stern voice. "You're a very naughty girl, and you need to be punished, don't you?"
Charlotte was instantly irritated. She wanted him to be naturally authoritative like Hayden or Mark, not to role-play.
"Don't you?" he pressed.
Charlotte didn't answer, then gasped as his palm cracked across her backside. He gave her another six scalding slaps, two apiece on both cheeks, one on each thigh. Then he smoothed her skirt back over her stinging backside.
"Don't let it happen again," he said, still with that silly faux stern tone. "I'll let you know when I've finished with the computer."
He was leaving her? He was supposed to roll her onto her back post-spanking, make orgasmic love to her. Charlotte slipped into the en suite to check her bottom in the mirror. It was beautifully rosy, and a handprint was emblazoned on each thigh. It was the only thing about the spanking that felt satisfying. Even though the slaps were sharp on delivery, the sting had already started to wear off.
She changed into a sexy black teddy to be ready for the making up part when he finished on the computer. She sort of wanted to tell her forum friends about her spanking. It may not measure up to Panda's or Gemma's, but it was still her first encounter with domestic discipline. Still, that could wait till morning. She'd rather stay in the bedroom for the make-up sex.
Charlotte slipped beneath the doona, slid her hand between her legs. Already wet, she relived the spanking of a few minutes ago in her mind, while masturbating. Only in her mind, Connor didn't stop at seven slaps. He smacked her thirty times, each swat harder than the last, warning her that if she ever spoke to him like that again it wouldn't be his hand spanking her backside; it'd be his belt. Charlotte groaned, rubbed harder.
By the time Connor came to bed, she was fast asleep.
Seven
Charlotte listened to the sound of water running in the en suite. Connor was on an early shift this week so always had first shower. The first thing she remembered when she woke up was last night's spanking and that he hadn't shagged her afterwards. What a nuisance today was a work day. She wished it was the weekend, that she could provoke him into spanking her when he came out of the shower. Spend the day being spanked and made love to instead of wading through piles of press releases and speculative articles, trying to find something that would make a good story for the next issue of the magazine.
She heard Connor turn off the shower. Presently he padded into the room, a towel around his waist.
"Morning, princess," he said.
"What happened to you last night?" she asked.
"What d'you mean?" He rubbed himself dry with the towel.
"I thought we might have had sex last night."
"We might have if you hadn't been fast asleep when I came to bed."
"Yeah, well if you leave it long enough I always will be."
He didn't reply. He started dressing for work. Charlotte wished he'd answer, talk to her. God, he was so bloody irritating.
When he did speak, he changed the subject, annoying her more. "I'm going to pop round Mum and Dad's on the way back from work," he told her. "Get the lawn mowed. They'll be back at the weekend."
"You can't tonight," she reminded him. "We're going round Graham and Lisa's, remember?" Graham was Connor's old university friend. He and his wife Lisa had asked them round for dinner.
"I'd forgotten that." His face fell. "There's rain forecast the next couple of nights. I won't get onto it. I'd have made time for it at the weekend if it hadn't been for Josh."
"Don't worry about it," Charlotte said. "It's not long since you were round there. The grass won't have grown much."
"I'd better get out of here," he said, glancing at the alarm. "See you later."
He bent to kiss her, but she moved her head.
"What's wrong with you?" he asked.
"You!"
"What have I done now?"
"Just bloody ignoring me and then changing the subject when I complain. You're so fucking annoying."
"You're going to get another spanking if you're not careful," he said, mock-stern. "Is that what you want?"
Oh, yes.
Bu
t she didn't respond aloud. She didn't know what to say. 'Yes' was the honest answer, but 'No' was the correct one. If he had natural authority and didn't use that silly voice, she'd be thinking 'No' all right. Panda, Gemma and the others never wanted a spanking.
Connor lifted the doona, slapped her lightly on her exposed thigh. "Nice teddy… Wish I could stay home, but I can't. Gotta go. See you later."
Charlotte looked at the faint handprint. He had threatened her, even if it was with that silly tone, so maybe he would give her a spanking later, if she misbehaved. God, she hoped so. A longer, harder one than last night, and a shag… God, how she needed a shag.
She always picked up breakfast from a café for work, so she had time to check Spanking Sheilas before she needed to leave. Anna had started a new thread.
Thread: What's your favourite implement?
Anna35: What do you all prefer your husband to spank you with? We haven't been practising DD for very long, and he mostly uses his hand or, for more serious punishments, my hairbrush. I prefer the hand!
His Precious Gem: I prefer Mark to use his hand too. We do use other implements, but there is something about walking around with my husband's handprints on my bottom. I feel possessed and adored, and that's very sexy.
Panda: Oh, boy, when Hayden is spanking me I hate whatever implement he's using, because my poor bottom gets so sore. If Hayden weren't such a big, strong guy, I guess I'd say I preferred his hand too, but honestly his hand feels like wood! I feel so loved afterwards though, when I'm sobbing in his arms and he's tracing his fingers over the marks he's just left. I feel loved and forgiven, and like I never want to do anything to make him use his hand or the ruler or the hairbrush or the wooden spoon on my bottom again. But I always do, and way too soon, because he's so loving and protective and always on the watch for me to do something that isn't in the interests of my health. I am so lucky.
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