The Alexandra Series (43 page)

“No excuses, Alexandra,” Reggie said, in the same clipped distinct tones that had demanded submission from me so many times.

“No excuses?” I repeated, trying to decide what he meant.

“No excuses, Alex,” Will repeated.

I raised my eyebrows to question him.

“You have no excuses not to be the woman of your desires,” my sometime lover continued. “You know who you are, you know your crimes, your cravings and your own manipulative heart. I think you’d be glad to have two men to keep you honest.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked.

“You think I was going to let you get away with lying to me tonight?” Reggie asked.

“Lying?”

“You lie again about your stunt, you’ll regret it.”

“Will did spank me before we came,” I said.

“That was because you wouldn’t get out of bed,” Will reminded me. “There’s a larger crime to pay for here. I told you this was a perfectly innocent party, and you didn’t trust me. Reg and I had no plans to put you on the spot, and yet you refused to believe me, as many times as I told you that.”

I fidgeted with my hands nervously, and looked away from him. I was guilty as charged.

“Alexandra!” Reggie snapped me to attention.

“And then you blatantly, and not very convincingly, claim you’re ill, just to get out of going. It was really lame,” Will said.

“I made a miscalculation,” was the only defense I could muster.

“You could have been honest, Alex,” Will said, as if that was simple.

“Tell me, how sick were you?” Reggie interjected, a rather light-hearted grin appearing on his face. That was the worst, what was behind it was pure disaster—and that was just seconds away.

I stood for some moments trying to decide exactly how much to admit to, how much I could get away with.

“You know it might help to tell the truth, the way you used to,” Reggie prompted.

“I don’t know why you’re putting me through this. I guess you must just love to see me squirm. Of course I wasn’t sick. Unless you call being scared to death, sick?”

“Well, at least we got the confession over with without a fight,” Reggie said. “Over the stool!” He pointed to a low leather stool, an exact duplicate of one in the outer library on which I’d had my very first punishment from the dominant Reggie. If they hadn’t planned it this way, the coincidence must have been fined-tuned by the gods.

“Appropriate that you wore a scarlet dress,” he added. “We’ll see if we can make your bottom just as red.”

It was useless to try and weasel out of this horror, though I’m not sure I even wanted to when I realized the surfacing arousal. These two men, these two wild-hearted, stern-faced, cold-eyed dominant men with their eyes so fixed on me; I couldn’t very well deny the passion, even if I knew it would hurt like hell before the next half hour was over.

I went to the stool and pulled up my dress, no need to make them order me to do the inevitable. My bottom was as bare as a babe’s facing them, ready to be punished as I knelt on hands and knees. I heard them only briefly behind me, unsure at first who was intending to do the honors. I should have suspected that they’d both have a ‘crack’ at my ass before they were through, but I had my eyes tightly closed too afraid to look.

As soon as the first blow landed I peeked, seeing Reggie standing behind me with a flat wood paddle in his hand. His jacket off, the shirt sleeves rolled up. He was as no nonsense with this punishment as I’d ever seen him. Feeling the second smack land on my bottom, I closed my eyes again and tried my best to endure the assault. I didn’t even see Will, though I imagined he was not far off, thoroughly enjoying the sight of his friend reddening my swaying bottom.

“Yeeeeowch!” was all I dared howl. To protest was useless, I would endure this to the end. Though as resolved as I was to brave the very worst, I had no idea how bad that could be, as one incessant blow after another landed with fierce resolve on my upturned behind. At one point I collapsed against the leather stool that had warmed from my body heat. It was good enough to create a pause, but Reggie ordered me to my knees again, and was only more fierce with the paddle when he resumed.

“Pleeeeeeeese,” I tried a tunefully earnest wail, and he just kept up the treatment. I’m sure by then my ass end was as scarlet as the dress I’d worn.

By some silent agreement, the two men abruptly changed places, and Will picked up where Reg left off. My god! The paddling could go on forever this way, I thought, in the small sliver of time from when Reg stopped and Will began. And yet, it wasn’t long before Will stopped, too. I was surprised and intrigued; though something told me that he was not finished, even if I saw from the corner of my eye that he’d laid the paddle down.

His hand was at my ass, stroking it gently, his fingers probing me in both holes. The entire treatment was beginning to bring out the sexual fires again, and I swayed lewdly against his invading hand, thinking it would only be moments until he’d screw me. But I wasn’t that lucky. Will only stopped so that his friend could retrieve a cane for him, and once Will had the terrible looking thing in his hand, he abruptly stopped pleasuring me.

“I’ve only given you a few of these,” Will acknowledged.

I trembled seeing the dreaded implement. The stripes from cane he’d previously left had been light, but I had the distinct impression that it would be different this time. I snuffed then wiped my tears from my face, hoping that he’d have some pity on me.

“Shall I leave a few marks?” he asked, as he stroked my back so very gently.

“Please no,” I sobbed.

“Well, let’s see what a full dozen will do. If nothing else I hope you’ll get the point of the evening. It could have all been avoided.”

He stepped away from me, behind my sore naked ass, and must have eyed me a full minute before he began. My palms were sweating, and I thought I might slip off the stool, if he didn’t proceed quickly.

“Leave stripes, Will, she needs them,” I heard Reggie say, and then I heard the door open and shut. A trademark gesture, Reggie was still ordering my anguish then walking out the door while someone else did the dirty work. As intriguing as that thought was, I had no time to dwell on it.

Will drew back his arm and the first fierce swish landed right in the center of my bottom. I shrieked from the vile jolt. From the outset, I could tell Will was getting over his own fear of the cane; he was positively cruel.

The next six cuts crisscrossed my bottom, no doubt tracing some fine intersecting lines across the center. The next several cuts landed where my lower bottom meets the top of my thighs. Each one was accompanied by a biting pain. By the time Will had reached the tenth cut I was ready to collapse.

“Two more, my darling,” he said, in the kindest, sweetest language, though it was all a ruse to catch me off guard, because the next cut was sheer torture. The last descended with as much ferocity, and this time I slithered from the stool, knowing that I didn’t need to maintain that awful pose.

“Look at me, Alex,” Will demanded.

I sat up and stared up into his eyes.

“You think we’re done?”

“Can’t we be?” I was pleading for mercy.

“Get back on the stool.”

“No, no, please.”

“Alex!” he said sharply.

“Please.”

“On the stool.”

I don’t know how I managed to return to the awful position, but I soon knew that Will had something far different in mind than more punishment. The fingers that had probed my rear channel before were now greased and ready. Appropriate justice I suppose. Where it began, it was ending. And I couldn’t miss the irony, how much this was like my first moment at Reggie’s command. I’d get the message loud and clear or I wouldn’t get it at all. The thrust of his penis across my tight sphincter wasn’t as harsh as that first time, but the implication of submission was unambiguous. But different from that first terrifying assault, I let these sensations take me away. I gave in instead of resisting. All the cries, and all the tears, and all the memories that followed were reminders to me of the woman I was, the submissive I liked to deny.

Will rode me hard. His thrusts were so deep I thought he’d split me in two. And though his substantial cock was bearable, my own pleasure would have to wait, as I struggled just to hang on to that blasted stool. When he was finally done, he held my ass against his groin and let his cock recede inside me.

“You know what—? What you really wanted tonight was exactly this. Don’t tell me that’s not true, because I know you. You wanted to come back to Reggie, you wanted to see if you could endure it again. And I bet your only regret is that you didn’t have an audience.” I listened to his words knowing he was right about it all.

And now, when I hoped Will would be warm and affectionate at the end of this remarkable trial, when I hoped he’d take me in his arms and hold me, when I hoped we could share a moment of intimacy to restore our broken relationship—when I hoped for all that, I was dealt the cruelest blow of all. Instead of affection and comfort and intimacy, Will was cold again. And that swept over me so fast, I found myself crying. This was just too much.

Without saying a word, Will let me collapse against the stool while he put himself together, and left the room. It was the rudest thing he’d ever done to me.

“You think you can go home,” Reggie asked. “Or do you want a room upstairs?” I hadn’t realized that he’d come into the den minutes after Will left; I felt so incredibly alone.

“No, I don’t want to stay,” I answered sharply.

“Then my limo is ready,” Reggie said.

He wasn’t much help, just a little encouragement, and his coldness a reminder of why I didn’t want to spend another minute in his house.

“Where’s Will?” I asked, as I struggled to rise.

“He’s left,” Reggie answered.

“Left! How could he?” I protested, though the suddenness of his announcement gave me enough strength to sit upright.

“I don’t know,” Reggie shrugged. “Something about setting things right, I think he said.”

Weariness instantly turned to anger.

“That ass!” I seethed. “I went through all of this for nothing, for absolutely nothing. You’re both crazy, completely loony, if you think I, or any other woman is going to stay around to be treated this way. I guess from you, I expect it. But I’m beginning to think you’ve turned Will into a carbon copy of your heartlessness, and that is really tragic.” I was too weary to be angry, but I was anyway.

“Get on home,” he said, nudging me from the stool.

“You can tell him for me, Reg. I don’t want him back. Not now, not anymore.”

“Go home, Alexandra, and get some rest,” he said calmly.

I gave him one long glance, trying to read something in his expression, but that was impossible. Making myself presentable again, I left his house, feeling the righteous anger in me bursting uncontrollably.

***

When Reggie’s limousine dropped me in front of the apartment building, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go inside. Everything about this night had gone awry, beginning with my misguided feelings about it. There was something symbolic about the punishment I’d just endured at both their hands, but I still wasn’t sure of it. The idea that I wanted it was likely right, but I didn’t want to think of it, certainly not now.

And certainly, I wasn’t sure of my still estranged lover anymore. Why had he left me? Why had he bothered to punish me if he only intended to leave me? All I had was questions, not an answer in my head.

When I gazed up to the second floor of the building, I hoped I’d see a light burning in my living room, a sure sign that Will was there. But there was just the small night-light in my bedroom, glowing faintly, the one light that was always on.

Walking up the stairs, my heart felt like lead, my feet as well, and my poor bruised and aching bottom felt so raw with energy, I wished someone, anyone would just throw me down and fuck me so I could get beyond the sexual aching that needed some relief.

Reaching the second floor, I set my sights on the bed. If nothing else, I could take my pleasure in the same old way I’d so often used. However, almost at the second floor landing, I caught my high heel on a torn piece of the skid proof mat, and falling forward, I landed hard on the stairs, tears instantly streaming down my cheeks as I felt the sharp pain.

I sunk down against the step. I almost laughed, thinking it was as good a place as any to sit and wait out the night. This stupid step had once been good luck for me, maybe I’d be lucky again. Was there another Will, another Reggie, another chance for me to get things straight, or was I just fated to repeat over and over again the same old lesson until my dying day?

The thoughts passed through my mind, keeping me captive for at least ten minutes; and I was so lost in them, I hardly heard a door open or a man approach. But I did hear his voice, loud and clear, when it finally pulled me from my reverie.

“Is one of the benefits of living in this building, that I find you crying your eyes out on the stairs?”

I jerked and looked up.

“Will?” I said, as if he was the very last person on earth that I expected. I smiled. After all, he was smiling at me.