"Like what?"
"Now that we've realized we love each other; I assume you want to continue our relationship?"
She looked at him like he was crazy. "Absolutely. Don't you?" He could hear the worry in her voice.
"That's the number one thing I want right now, sweetie," he said as he pulled her in for another kiss to reassure her. "But I just had to be sure you felt the same way. Our relationship will change a bit, though, from here forward, and I wanted to be sure you understand that and are on board with it."
Heath watched her face flush again and she said, "You mean with spanking?"
He smiled and said, "Yes, sunshine, I mean with spanking. Now when you scare me like you did last night, instead of pulling my hair out, I'll be spanking you."
"She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair and said, "I am fond of this head of hair. I'd hate to see you pull it out."
"After breakfast we're going to talk about what things will earn you a spanking, and how to avoid them. I want you to know that I don't enjoy spanking you like that, but I will in order to help you. But I'd rather help you avoid them."
She looked at him and nodded. "I wondered if you enjoyed it."
He grinned as he answered. "Maybe parts of it a little." She looked confused, so he explained further. "I'm not even going to pretend that seeing your naked little bottom laying over my knees didn't excite me. You're absolutely beautiful, and you have the most perfect little butt I've ever seen."
He laughed when she turned red again, but continued. "But I very much did not like spanking you hard enough that I know it hurt. That was one of the hardest things I've done, especially since there were three things we had to discuss. I know it really hurt, and the only way I was able to do that was to keep thinking about your close call yesterday and what could have happened. Then I was ready to teach you a lesson."
She turned the stove down under the bacon she was frying and went over to him. Putting her arms around his neck she said, "Heath, I didn't realize how hard that was for you. I'm sorry I put you through it."
He kissed her before assuring her, "If it helps you become more careful, it will all be worth it."
"I'm going to try. I really am. I don't know how I'll do, though. Can you really teach an old dog new tricks?"
He laughed and told her, "You can with a paddle."
She chuckled, but then got serious. "Are you really going to use a paddle? Your hand hurt so bad last night, I can't even imagine what a paddle would feel like."
Heath reached down and rubbed her bottom. "I can tell you're still feeling it this morning, aren't you?"
"I sure am. I mean, it feels better than last night, but I think I'll leave the pillow on my chair this morning. I can't even imagine how much it would hurt with a paddle."
She was finishing the bacon and he was buttering toast, but he turned to face her. "I think my hand seemed to get the message across loud and clear. I don't see a need for anything else, although I have to warn you, you didn't feel my hand at full force last night." He had to chuckle when he saw how big her eyes got, but he gave her a warning. "Just remember that the next time you consider ignoring one of my instructions, like having your phone with you."
"Duly noted." He laughed as he patted her bottom again, before setting the table. They enjoyed breakfast, and even enjoyed doing the dishes together. They went to the living room and had a serious discussion. It was important to him that she was very clear on what he expected, and on the consequences she could expect otherwise. Once he was sure she understood, they got on with their day, not mentioning spanking again. He didn't want her to be overwhelmed by it.
Chapter Five
Later that morning after Heath went home to work, Sally knocked on her back door again. Sarah quickly invited her in. "I hoped you'd stop over today. Let me make us some tea so we can talk."
"I'm not keeping you from anything, am I? Ed knew I'd want to talk to you today, and he made it pretty clear he didn't want me to bother you if you're busy."
"Nothing in particular I planned on doing today, other than a lot of thinking about last night. I could sure use some help with that, and you're the most qualified person for that job."
"Are you sure? Maybe you should be talking to Heath."
"We already talked. He answered a lot of my questions, but I have questions he can't answer. I need someone else who's been there, like you. Does that make sense?"
"It makes perfect sense," Sally assured her. "That's why I came over last night. The first couple times Ed spanked me I had so many questions, mostly things like, why do I feel the way I do. Or is it always going to hurt this much. Or why does it feel so good snuggling up to him after he just hurt me so badly?"
"Yeah, that's one of my questions. Why does it?"
Both girls giggled, but Sally did her best to give her friend a good answer. "I never have totally figured that out completely. I have realized, though, that what he did may have given you some physical pain, but he didn't really hurt you. In fact, what he did was to help you, and cuddling afterwards always makes me see that. It's almost like you can feel how much he cares for you when he holds you afterwards, like that caring comes through his arms, and right into your heart."
Sarah was quiet a moment, before nodding her head. "Yeah, you're right about that. Last night when he was holding me I didn't ever want that to end. Even though my butt hurt really bad, it was like I could feel our love for each other in the air, like I was surrounded with it. I didn't want to move for fear that feeling would be lost. It was really weird."
"It does sound weird, but I know just what you're saying." Sally blushed a little, but added, "I felt it last night, too, after we left your place."
Sarah turned to look at her. "You did? Ed spanked you last night, after you'd been here? But why? I was so glad you came over."
"I'm glad to hear that. But last night was a real mess. When I heard what happened, I wanted to come over and make sure you were okay, but Ed kept telling me not to, that Heath said you were fine. I kept saying I had to see for myself that you were okay. Finally, he was afraid I'd come over and interrupt you two at a time you really shouldn't be interrupted, so Ed gave in and told me that Heath was planning on spanking you. But he told me he didn't want me to mention it, because he felt terrible about betraying Heath's confidence by telling me."
Sarah nodded her head in understanding. "I understand that, but he needs to understand how much better I felt after we talked. A man wouldn't understand that, but I'm sure you knew it. Now I feel bad that you got spanked because of me. I need to talk to Ed and make him see that he should apologize to you. What you did wasn't wrong; it was being a good friend, and I appreciate it, more than I can put into words."
"Okay, I need to explain this to you, but I'm not sure how. Let me think a minute."
"There's nothing to think about, Sally. What Ed did, when he spanked you, was wrong. He had no—"
"No, it wasn't."
Sally's sudden words quieted Sarah. "How can you say that? There's no way you deserved a spanking for coming over to help me last night."
"Yes, I did, Sarah. There's more to it that maybe I need to explain to you. I used to be really carefree. Ed called it careless. I guess either one fits, depending on how you look at it. But I had some bad habits."
"Like what?"
"Paying bills was probably my biggest problem, and Ed didn't know it when we got married. We wanted to buy a house, but we got turned down on our loan because of my credit. His was fine, but mine was terrible. I made good enough money to pay my bills. In fact, I even had a few thousand dollars saved to put towards our down payment. But I just didn't like paying bills, so I kept putting it off. Then I'd forget about it, and before I knew it, they were late. I always paid them, but I paid them late a lot, which is why I had bad credit."
Sarah was considering her friend's words. "So I take it Ed helped you start paying them on time?"
"Oh, yes. He said he could start payi
ng them himself since we were married then, but that wouldn't help me break that bad habit. So instead, he mailed everything. To this day, there's a certain spot in our kitchen where all outgoing mail is to be placed, and he mails it. For a solid year, if we got a bill in the mail, the check to pay it had better be in the mail slot the next morning. It didn't take long for me to break that habit."
"I'll bet not."
"But there were several things like that, and I didn't always take them as seriously as I should, mostly because I didn't see it as that big a problem. I tended to fluff a lot of things off as not too serious. He spanked me for it a couple times, but it still didn't sink in. Then one day I fluffed off the wrong thing. I had several parking tickets I hadn't paid. I knew I'd misplaced one or two, so I wasn't really sure how many I had. I thought the easiest thing to do would be to simply stop in some day when I'm in town and see how many there were and pay for all of them at once and be done with it. But I kept forgetting to do that."
She sighed, and Sarah caught a sad look in her eyes as she continued. "Then one evening a police officer came to our front door. He had a warrant for Ed's arrest!"
"Oh, my gosh," Sarah said, eyes wide. "But how does that tie in with your parking tickets?"
"When we got married Ed said my car wasn't safe to be driving, so we sold it and I drove his newer car. He drove his old one until we traded it off. So the car I was driving was in his name, and when the parking tickets weren't paid they came over to him, as the owner of the vehicle."
"Oh, no," Sarah whispered.
"Oh, no is right. When they told us what the warrant was for, I told the officer I'd been the one driving the car, and I offered to pay for them right then, but he said he was sorry, but the warrant had already been issued. The officer put Ed in handcuffs and took him down to the station in his cruiser. I followed them down there."
"What happened?"
"Luckily, Ed's good friend is a policeman and he saw them bring Ed through the door and came over. We explained what happened, and he got it taken care of. I paid for all the parking tickets and they released Ed and dismissed the charges. But boy was he mad!"
"I'll bet." Sarah cringed a bit. "And I guess you can't really blame him."
"No, I didn't blame him at all. But we had a long talk that night, and he explained to me that I can't keep ignoring what he says. He's trying to protect me, and if I don't see the importance of it, I fluff it off. Sometimes it's a lot more important than I know. He made it clear that from then on, when he tells me something, he means it. If I ignore his directives, I know exactly what to expect. He meant it that night, and he still means it."
"So you've never gone against anything he's told you? Well, until last night maybe?"
"I didn't say that," Sally said a bit hesitantly. "The first time I ignored what he said, I did it as a way of testing him."
"Seriously? What happened?"
"Well, let me back up. After a while, probably longer than it should have taken, I finally caught on, and started listening to him. I had to admit to myself that what he was telling me made sense, and he wasn't being a tyrant, which is what I kept telling myself at first. So when I finally admitted that to myself, I listened to what he said. I had even begun to like how it felt knowing he was there, watching out for me. So I started listening to him, and I quit getting spankings. That was a good thing."
"I would think."
"But then I think I started missing them. Well, I didn't really miss the spankings, but I think I missed the way I felt after one."
"You mean when you're sitting on his lap and he has his arms around you, and you feel like nothing bad could ever happen as long as his arms are around you?"
Sally had to laugh. "Exactly. But then I started wondering all kinds of stupid things. Like was he just spanking me at first there because it was something new, but now the honeymoon's over and he won't be doing it any more? Or was he having to spank me too much, and he gave up on me? The more I thought about it, the more worried I got. So then one day I was at a store. There was a sweater I liked, but I didn't need it. I looked at the price tag and was shocked at how expensive it was."
"What was it; a designer label or something?"
"Yes. I'm not really a clothing diva, so I didn't think much of it, just put it back. We'd come up with a budget for ourselves, and were saving money so we'd have a bigger down payment on a house once my credit was better. I'd already spent most of my monthly budgeted amount for clothing, but then I got to thinking. If I bought something outrageous like that, would he spank me again? Or would he just let it go? I decided to find out. I had to know if the honeymoon was over and that was it."
"So you bought the sweater?"
"I did. But if I just paid for it he might not know what I spent the money on, so I put it on my credit card so he'd see it."
"And I take it he saw it?"
"Oh, yeah. I took the sweater home, put it in my closet, and forgot about it. I didn't really plan on ever wearing it. I kept the receipt with it and kept it in the box and bag it came in so I could easily return it after he found it. So then the credit card bill came in. I went home one evening after work and he was waiting for me, a frown on his face. I had no idea what the problem was, until he showed me the bill."
"So I take it he spanked you?"
"Oh, my goodness, yes. He spanked me and asked me if I'd worn it or if it could be returned. He thought making me return something I really wanted would be like additional punishment, so he was surprised when I told him, yes, I had it in my closet all ready to be returned. He asked about that, why hadn't I worn it, and why was it still in the box with the receipt. During his questioning I kind of let it slip that I hadn't really planned on keeping it, but wanted to know if he'd say anything about it. He put me over his knees and spanked me again, only harder than the first time. He said that was for testing him. He made me promise not to do that again, and if I had any questions along that line, to go talk to him about it."
"Oh, my gosh. Two spankings in one night?"
"Yes, and the second one especially was awful. I was screaming, telling him he was killing me. He assured me that no one had ever died from a spanking. I thought for sure I was going to be the first. It hurt so bad."
"Oh, my," Sarah said. "It was that bad?"
"It was. I was going to call off work the next day because I was so sore, but he wouldn't let me. He said dealing with the after effects of a spanking is part of the punishment, and I had to go to work. It hurt so bad to sit, I spent almost the whole day standing. I know my boss had to wonder what was going on. Anytime anyone needed something, I jumped up and offered to go get it."
Sarah giggled. "I'm sorry, it's not really funny."
"Yes, it is," Sally assured her, as she was laughing, as well. "Anyway, I've never tested Ed again after that night. But he feels consistency is very important, and I kind of have to admit that I agree with him. He still spanks me anytime I ignore something he tells me. I know when I do it that I'll be spanked for it, but sometimes it's just plain worth it. Like last night."
"But I feel bad knowing you were spanked for helping me."
"Don't feel bad. I've only done it a couple times, and somehow, Ed always seems to know that I did it knowing I'd be spanked, but knowing it was worth it to me. It still hurts, but then it's like he lets me know he's aware of what my motive was, and he's not upset. It's kind of like he has to spank me so I know he's watching me, but then he also lets me know he's okay with what I did. In a way it's a win/win. It hurts, but it doesn't. I don't know how to explain it, but I know he's not really upset with me."
"So you're okay this morning?"
"I'm perfectly fine. Not even sore this morning. How are you?"
"Well, I'm fine, but I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm not even sore."
"Yeah, I noticed the pillow," Sally said, grinning.
"Thank you for telling me all that, Sally. I know it was sharing a lot of private moments, and I want you to know I a
ppreciate it."
"You're very welcome. I had an ulterior motive, you know."
"You did? What?"
"Now that I know we share this; I know where I can come the next time I need to talk to someone."
"You can come over here anytime you want to talk. I'll be happy to listen."
"Thanks. Sometimes I need to vent. After I get it all off my chest, I see it a lot clearer, but at first, sometimes I-I don't know; I guess I wish I had someone I could talk to."
"I can't imagine going through this alone. That's why I was so glad you came over last night."
"Now we both have someone who understands what we go through with our men." She sighed dramatically, and both ladies laughed.
Their laughter was interrupted when Sally's phone rang. "It's Ed," she said as she answered. She talked a few minutes, then hung up and relayed his message on to Sarah. Ed talked to Heath this morning and they thought maybe we'd like to have a cookout tonight. Ed's going to stop on his way home and pick up some steaks, and they want to know if we'll make a salad and potatoes. They said it's up to us, but those potatoes you made last week that you cooked in foil on the grill sure were good."
"Then those potatoes they shall have," Sarah exclaimed as she laughed. "But I don't have any more red peppers to put in them. Want to go to the store with me?"
"Sure. On the way to the store we can decide what kind of salad to fix and get anything we need for it, too."
"Good idea. And while we're out, I think we should reward ourselves for what we went through last night, and have lunch out."
"Ooh, I like the way you think," Sally giggled. "Where do you want to go?"
"Anywhere that has nice soft, padded chairs."
"I couldn't agree more. Come on, let's go."
Sally drove, and an hour later they were sitting on the comfortable chairs at Sally's favorite restaurant. A friend of Sally's stopped to say hi, and they invited her to join them. The three ladies got along so well, they were shocked to realize they'd spent two hours talking and visiting.
The Real Prize Page 6