Kyle’s Bargain (28 page)

“I hope you’re right,” Meg said on a sigh.

She dressed exactly as he’d specified and felt both daring
and drab as she drove to his place. It felt odd wearing nothing under the
dress, but it served as a reminder that she needed to consider more what it
meant to be submissive.

She’d been giving that a lot of thought in the last day or
two, but for some reason, sitting in her car, dressed as minimally as legally
possible, she began to get a deeper sense of what it meant to really submit to
another person. Not that she gave up her right to make decisions for herself,
nor did she surrender responsibility for those people and things she’d
committed to. But she agreed to share those decisions and responsibility with
him, to weigh his thoughts and feelings on the subject equally or even more
important than her own. She’d lived on her own for so long with complete
responsibility for herself and her sister that she found it hard to even think
about consulting with anyone else. Adjusting that thinking would be hard but
necessary if she wanted a life shared with Kyle.

It wasn’t all that different from what a good, serious
marriage demanded, maybe just a bit deeper.

When she got to Kyle’s home, she knocked on the front door
rather than just walking in. He answered and waved her inside, looking her up
and down, probably to check that she’d dressed according to specifications. He
held out a hand, and said, “Give me the ring.”

Her heart broke apart again. He did intend to end their
relationship despite what he’d said. Or… Maybe not. Another test of submission.
This way the decision whether to return it later would be his and his alone.
Meg slipped the ring off her finger and put it on his outstretched palm. He
closed his fingers around it in an almost convulsive gesture and stuffed it in
his pocket.

Then he nodded toward the side of the room. She’d been so
focused on Kyle she’d barely noticed the newlyweds were there. “Rick and Lindy
are here to help out. Rick is going to administer your correction. Do you have
a problem with that?”

“Not if you wish it, Sir.”

“I do. You are still prepared to offer the same submission
Lindy did?”

“I am.”

“I should warn you. Rick has a heavier hand with a paddle
and cane than I do. Are you still prepared to endure it?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Very well. Remove all your clothes.”

Meg kicked off her shoes and slid the dress off. She stood
in the middle of the room, nude before the other three fully clothed people
there. The first level of her submission to Kyle. No, the second. She’d done
the first by dressing as he’d asked and returning the ring to him. How many
more levels would she go through before the night ended?

“Go back to the guest room.”

That bit marked a regression since he’d let her share his
bedroom before. Another marker of how she’d damaged their relationship with her
actions. She squared her shoulders and marched to the guest room.

The bed was higher than the one Lindy had leaned over, but
Kyle had anticipated the problem. A padded hassock stood next to it. “Kneel on
that and stretch out across the bed.” As Rick had done, he went around the bed
to the other side. He’d put a chair there, which he sat on. He’d laid out the
instruments on top of the dresser, Meg noted in passing. She couldn’t bear to
look too closely. She’d know what they felt like cracking on her bottom all too
soon.

She knelt on the hassock and leaned forward, stretching her
arms out over her head. Kyle’s hands closed on hers, fingers circling each
wrist. He angled the chair so that she could see him by turning her head to the
side. “You’ll keep your eyes on mine throughout,” he instructed. “And you still
have a safe word. You’re required to use it if you need to. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“You’re ready to start?”

Meg repeated, “Yes, Sir.”

She clenched her muscles and tensed in anticipation of the
first stroke. Despite Kyle’s warnings about Rick’s heavy hand, the first splat
of the paddle wasn’t all that hard. Little more than a tap, in fact. She felt
it, but the impact was no more than a nice pat on the bottom. The next few were
at the same level. He didn’t strike hard and did it at a slow, deliberate pace
that let the sting from each slap grow and start to fade before the next one
came.

If only they’d stay like this she could bear it easily.
Physically. Emotionally, not so much. Every raw nerve in her screamed with
shame and regret. She hoped Rick would strike harder. She wanted the challenge
of it, craved the opportunity to show Kyle the true depth of her sorrow, what
she’d willingly accept to make it right with him.

Even if he hadn’t demanded it, Meg wouldn’t be able to tear
her gaze from Kyle’s face, hoping to see a return of the warmth and love that
had thrilled her before. His expression remained impassive.

She didn’t even try to keep count of the strokes. For a
while it seemed that they would have little effect other than the occasional
jolt and minor sting. But as it went on, the various little stings grew
together into an all-over tingly burn. It wound its way all through her, even
down into her womb where it roused the familiar desire. A desire that wouldn’t
be indulged tonight if they followed the script from Lindy’s submissive offer.

A desire that shouldn’t be indulged tonight. She didn’t
deserve it. Hadn’t earned it yet. She fought back tears.

The warmth in her bottom was still easily tolerable when
Rick finished the first set of strokes and changed instruments. She wouldn’t
take her eyes from Kyle’s to turn and look at what he picked up next. The
whizzing sound it made and the splat of it hitting the skin suggested a wide
belt or long leather paddle. It snapped with a harsh thud that roused a deep,
painful fire in the skin. He kept spanking at the slow, deliberate pace. But
the burning sensation continued to build even though the strokes got no harder.
She held tightly to Kyle’s hands when the fire made her want to wriggle and
reach back to rub away the stingy burn.

The part of her that could still think wanted it even harder
and more painful, the better to prove to Kyle how much she wanted him. The
warmth of his hands on hers was the anchor she clung to. That and the hope that
when this was over he’d forgive her.

During the third set, done with a longer strap that left
sizzling ribbons of fire across her bottom, it began to get uncomfortable to
the point of real pain. Meg couldn’t contain the occasional groan when the
strap raked over an area already grated and sore from a previous strike. Though
he still didn’t whip her particularly hard, the accumulating burn from a lot of
them over the same stretch of skin grew into a fire that she couldn’t bear
without a bit of jerking and wiggling.

It started to feel like it had been going on for a very long
time by then too. Her neck grew stiff from keeping her head at the same angle
and her bottom became a throbbing, stinging mass of flesh. She wondered how
she’d be able to bear the rest. With each slap she now gasped or groaned and
she couldn’t hold still. Humiliation added to the discomfort in her bottom when
she realized how much of her slit she showed to Rick and Lindy.

And even as she wondered how she could stand any more, she
wanted it. She wanted every bit of the pain and more. Every bit of the shame
and embarrassment. It was all she could offer to him in recompense, and the
more she could bear, the greater the gift.

Moaning as the fire built even more, she squeezed Kyle’s
hands and tried to lose herself in his gaze. She did it for him. Only for him.
To demonstrate that she could and would submit to whatever he wanted from her.
Even bear the unbearable. Another strike from that long strap made her jerk and
yelp as its fire dug deep inside and ran through every nerve and sinew. “Oh
God,” she whispered, still writhing and trying to get around the pain.

Tears overflowed and ran down her face. Kyle’s expression
changed to a worried frown. He looked away from her to Rick and held up a hand.
“Wait,” he said. Then, staring her her, his gaze following the streaks of the
tears, he asked, “Stop it? Is it too much?”

“No.” It came out sounding a bit wild. “No, please,” she
added more calmly.

He reached down and flicked the tears off one cheek and then
the other with his thumb. “You don’t have to. You’ve borne a lot already. I
won’t hold it against you if you want to stop now.”

“No,” she said firmly. “All of it. I want all of it. I need
to do it all.”

“You’re sure?”

“Sure.”

He nodded to Rick, who struck again with the strap, hard
enough to light her bottom with a raging heat. It drew a long squeal and made
her arch up off the bed.

By the time Rick had finished that set she was beginning to
writhe uncontrollably. The fire in her butt spread out and engulfed her all the
way to the tips of her fingers and toes. Only Kyle’s grasp kept her from an
even more humiliating effort to get up and run away. Only his steady gaze gave
her the courage to keep accepting it.

A pause while Rick changed instruments allowed her a moment
to regain her breath and try to get control of herself. She drew a deep breath
and reminded herself she could do this for Kyle. The next instrument was a
switch judging by the way it whizzed through the air and cut a narrow, fiery
stripe diagonally across both cheeks of her bottom. It took only a few blows,
still not hard or fast, to have her gasping and groaning. Three more and she
was moaning steadily as the blaze in her bottom grew to an almost unbearable
intensity.

She couldn’t do it. She held Kyle’s hand so tightly it had
to be hurting him and ground her hips into the bed covers as each successive
slice dug blazingly painful trails on her body. Agony threatened to overwhelm
her, to drown her. One stroke, only a little harder than the others, made her
shriek and roll to the side, though she still kept her gaze locked with Kyle’s.

For him, for him, for him.
She repeated it as a
mantra as each further stroke increased the pain engulfing her. She could do
it. For him.

Her bottom throbbed and felt swollen to twice its natural
size from the unending barrage. She contemplated using her safe word as her
world narrowed to a red haze of pain. But then the look in Kyle’s blue eyes
softened and the coldness began to melt and she knew she’d do whatever it took,
endure anything to see the warmth of love return to his face.

The deliberate pace made it seem as if it had already lasted
an eternity and would go on forever. Her world turned to a haze of pain that
had her groaning steadily. Gasping sobs interrupted her almost steady moans.

Finally that set ended and she braced herself for the last,
knowing no matter what it was, her blazing bottom would make it excruciating.
The noise barely registered, but when multiple tails dug into her bottom, each
left a small inflamed area. It felt like the stings of several bees all at
once. It kept stinging, more and more, making the blaze that was her bottom
burn hotter, the pain filling and nearly overwhelming her.

The only way to bear it was to keep her attention focused on
Kyle. His expression had softened, letting signs of love shine there again. She
wanted to keep that look on his face forever. She’d do whatever it took, endure
whatever was necessary. And the enduring was getting harder as each stroke of
that multi-thonged whatever blasted additional stings on the already
devastatingly sore flesh.

Meg kept not just her gaze but her whole being focused on
Kyle. It was all about him and not about her. The longer she watched him, the
more she lost herself in him, the less she felt the spanking as personal pain
and the more she reveled in it as a gift to him.

In the background, Lindy said something to Rick and the next
stroke was much harder. Meg screamed and bounced up and down, kicking and
clawing at Kyle’s wrists. The next few came more quickly than earlier strokes
and even harder until the red haze all but engulfed her.

Then it stopped. She lay there for several long moments,
gasping, her groans quieting as no fresh stings landed. Kyle shifted his grip
on her hands as he leaned forward and balanced a knee on the bed. He moved
toward her until he could help lift her torso up and lean it against his chest.
Her head rested on his shoulder.

She burrowed closer and his arms went around her to hold her
close. It felt so good there, like peace and contentment and home. Another man
leaned close and kissed her temple. “You’re amazingly brave,” Rick whispered in
her ear. “Kyle’s a lucky guy.”

He pulled away and spoke louder. “We’ll let ourselves out.”

She felt Kyle nod but didn’t have the energy even to look
up. All she wanted was to rest against the man she loved.

He held her in place close to his chest while he moved and
then he stuck a hand out with the engagement ring on his palm. “Fresh start
time. I’m going to ask again. Will you marry me with all that entails,
including submitting to me on matters that are important to both of us?”

She sobbed again and had to swallow hard before she could
answer. “Yes, love. I promise that I’ll never again go behind your back that
way.”

“I don’t want or need you to be a doormat,” he said. “And I
don’t want to interfere in things that are primarily your responsibility. I
don’t even want you to be afraid to make decisions that affect us when you have
to. I just want to know that you’ll respect me in important things and obey me
when it’s something I feel strongly about. Or take the consequences when you
don’t. Can we do that?”

“Isn’t that what this was all about?” she asked. “Proving
that I would take the consequences.”

He hugged her tighter. “Was it bad?”

She drew a breath and sighed. “Pretty bad. But it had to be
to make it mean anything, to prove anything to you. I’m glad I did it. I’m glad
it’s over.”