The Bottom Line (8 page)

‘I suggest you hold the edge of the box tightly with both hands,' Justine advised. ‘This is probably going to hurt you more than anything else you've ever experienced.'

Melody grimaced, unseen by Justine, and she fearfully clasped the edge of the box as Justine placed the paddle on the left cheek of her bottom and moved it slowly around. Then she removed it, flicked it two or three times through the air as though testing its weight, and brought it smartly down on the target cheek. There was a squeal from the victim. A second stroke and a second squeal followed, and then a third of each.

Then Justine shifted her attention to the right buttock and slowly repeated the procedure, and as soon as the final stroke had landed Melody meekly moved as though to get up.

‘Not so fast, young lady,' Justine admonished her. ‘You have another six to come yet, and you'll squeal a lot more when you get them.'

‘Please, Miss Dewberry,' squealed Melody, ‘I don't think I can take another six.'

‘Oh, you can take them all right,' Justine averred, ‘and you're
going
to take them.'

There was no further comment from a chastened Melody as Justine went back to the table, collected a tawse and then strolled casually to the buck. The tawse was of leather, about half a centimetre thick, the business end divided into five tongues and the whole thing having a well used look. Justine raised it and then let it fall softly onto Gail's tightly stretched buttocks.

‘I think this is one of my favourite implements,' Justine mused, ‘although I don't expect you to agree. It has just the right weight and it makes the perfect sound upon impact, and it creates such a good effect on vulnerable flesh.'

She brought it down for the first time exactly as the sentence ended, though without excessive force. There was no sound from Gail but the impact of the blow travelled through her body, causing her heavy breasts to ripple seductively.

The second blow was harder and Gail was unable to suppress a squeal; the third was harder still and the visible effect on her buttocks even more pronounced, but it was not until the fourth stroke that she actually shrieked, a response that seemed to please her disciplinarian.

‘That's very good, my dear,' the woman commented, ‘but when I return you'll get another four strokes like that last one. Do you think you'll be able to cope with that?'

‘I don't know, miss,' Gail admitted, ‘but I don't suppose I'll have much choice in the matter.' The last few words were forced through clenched teeth.

Justine paused to inspect the damage, a broad, reddish-purple hue visible where each blow had landed, then chuckled as she walked over to the wall bars, pausing on the way to change implements again and to adjust something with the remote control.

The crop she picked up was about half a metre in length, apparently made of reinforced leather with a long tongue at one end and a shaped handle at the other.

‘But on the other hand,' she said, still chuckling to herself, ‘this is probably the finest of them all. The cane does more damage, but it's pretty crude, really. There is nothing crude, however, about this. It is a real piece of craftsmanship.' As she spoke she cut it viciously through the air, relishing the ominous sound it made.

‘Very well, Caroline, take your feet off the wall bars, if you please, and let your arms take your weight.' She lay the crop lingeringly across Caroline's bottom as the girl clung on, her feet no longer providing any support, then drew back her arm and swung the crop firmly across both cheeks, the tongue at the tip lapping round to create a second biting impact.

Caroline yelped and her body jerked as the blow landed, but despite the instinctive wish to clutch and comfort her burning buttocks she had no real choice but to hang on desperately. A second blow landed, slightly harder and two or three centimetres higher than the first, and Caroline again yelped and jerked involuntarily, but again she managed to cling on.

Justine stood back as though to judge the effectiveness of her work, then moved to the other side of her victim and placed the crop in her left hand. ‘It's so useful being ambidextrous,' she mused, as though to herself, ‘though I'm less accurate with my left hand, so there's no telling where this will land. On the other hand, I'm not quite so powerful with my left as my right.'

Whilst speaking she was making practice swings, but then she suddenly struck the girl with immense force, and despite her disclaimer the blow landed with perfect accuracy, and in its wake a dull red line sprang diagonally across the visible weals created by the two previous strikes. Caroline sobbed piteously, but still managed to hold herself up on the bars, even though her arms quivered uncontrollably with the strain.

‘Very well, Caroline,' Justine said to her, ‘you've done very well so far. You may rest your feet again on the bars until it's your turn for the second round.'

She returned to the box, moved the stool to the other side and climbed on it again. The blotchy imprint of the paddle, and particularly the two rounded corners, could be seen on Melody's bottom.

‘Let's just get this focussed properly,' she said, still apparently talking to herself and pointing the remote control towards the camera angling down from a corner of the gym wall. ‘Right, that's better. You wouldn't want me to forget you, I'm sure.'

Melody said nothing, but gritted her teeth and waited for the restart of the ordeal, certain it would prove too much for her but knowing equally that she could do nothing to stop it from happening or to make it easier. She tensed her buttocks as Justine laid the paddle against her right cheek and then held her breath as she felt it being lifted. There was a blur of movement, a sharp crack, a shriek and a further movement as Melody tried to raise herself from the top of the box, but Justine simply pressed firmly down on the small of the punished girl's back.

‘No, my dear,' she gloated, ‘you've another five to come. One more on this side, two on the left, and then we'll finish with two smackers across the middle.' She delivered the next blow and Melody continued to sob, and the next two strokes, across her left buttock, prompted only temporary variances to the pitch. There was then a long pause as Justine returned the stool to the other side of the box, climbed up again, took careful aim and swept the paddle down across the middle of her target.

What had been a sob became a shriek and Melody pushed herself up from the box, pressed her hands to her bottom and turned defiantly to Justine. ‘That's it, you've finished!' she vowed vehemently. ‘I'm not taking any more of that!'

She turned to walk back to the changing room, but Justine stood in her path. ‘I think you'd better get back on that box as quickly as you can so I can finish your punishment,' she ordered. ‘It would be a great shame if I had to make an entry in your personal file when you've only got one stroke left, now wouldn't it?'

‘Come on, Melody,' Caroline urged. ‘Don't be such a wimp, we've all been there.' With which Gail added a few words of agreement of her own.

Melody stood for a few moments, weighing up the obvious lack of alternatives, then very slowly she walked back to the box, used the stool to climb onto it, knelt there for a second or two and then lay down again, gripping the sides so firmly her knuckles turned white.

Justine resumed her position on the stool, took aim again and struck as hard as ever. There was no reaction from the girl other than a sharp exhalation of breath: no scream, no movement, but the evidence of the paddle was now even more clearly visible.

Justine stepped down and moved away, and eventually Melody straightened her arms to push herself into a kneeling position, then stepped carefully down. With tears glistening on her flushed cheeks she turned to Justine. ‘Next time it'll be the other way round,' she said defiantly.

But Justine merely scoffed. ‘Yes, yes,' she said, ‘that's what they all say. But perhaps in future you'll remember that you must always be polite to customers.' She picked up the tawse, moved to stand behind Gail and fiddled with the remote control again.

‘Are you ready?' she asked, and Gail murmured that she was.

Two blows landed in quick succession, neither of them as vicious as the last blow in the previous series. They elicited a gasp each time, but no stronger reaction. The third blow caught Gail high up and was much harder, producing a yelp of pain but it was the fourth, low down and right across the even more dramatically coloured stripes, which brought a real howl of pain as Gail kicked the air several times.

Justine moved round and stooped to undo the straps securing Gail to the buck, then watched as the girl straightened up, and in pressing her hands to the punished area involuntarily thrust her breasts out. ‘Hm,' Justine mused as she eyed their generous perfection, ‘one day, perhaps.' Then she repeated the advice she'd given Melody, and added some cautionary advise about moving more carefully around the shop.

Finally she changed weapons once more, walked across to the wall bars, and turned back to Melody and Gail. ‘I think you'd better watch this carefully,' she advised. ‘You in particular,' she stressed, staring at Melody. ‘This young lady is an admirably tough cookie and I don't think she's about to disappoint me.' She swatted the crop up and down with relish before addressing Caroline directly, moving to the left of her last victim as she spoke.

‘Right, young lady,' she said, ‘this is how people who are careless with money pay for their carelessness.' She placed the crop across Caroline's bottom, angling it upwards so it would cut across the weals visible after the first dose of punishment. Then she removed the crop, drew it back and practiced her stroke two or three times, though whether to make sure that her aim was accurate or to increase the tension for Caroline was impossible to judge.

And then it landed, hard and true, low down but searing upwards across the three weals. Caroline screamed, and for a fraction of a second one hand released its grip as her body reacted to the violence of the blow and her feet scrabbled for a foothold. Then she regained her composure, tightened her grip and allowed her feet to slide off the supporting bar, so that again she was hanging by the arms.

Justine moved to the other side and switched the crop to her left hand. ‘This will be just the same but in the opposite direction,' she warned, ‘and don't you dare let go of the wall bars again or try to stand on them. The sentence is six, remember, not five.'

She carried out the same preliminaries, equally slowly and deliberately. The fifth stroke, when it finally landed, was as hard as her left arm would allow, but this time Caroline knew what to expect and, though she could not stop herself from screaming, she was able to maintain her position more easily. Eventually she allowed her body to hang limply against the bars, two new and livid weals crisscrossing the three earlier ones, where the cruel beating had caused the blood to rise to the surface and where the crop had raised the flesh as it bit.

Justine waited until Caroline was calm again and then said, ‘You did very well; you can get down now.' Caroline slowly obeyed and showed all her self control in not using her hands to comfort her wounded flesh. She turned to face her tormentor.

‘Thank you, Miss Dewberry,' she said, without a hint of sarcasm.

‘You did very well,' Justine acknowledged again. ‘Nobody has ever taken the crop better than that from me. But don't ever be so careless with customers' money again, because if you are it will probably mean instant dismissal. Either that or a thorough caning,' she added. ‘Touching your toes like we used to have to at school. How many of those do you think you could take?'

‘I don't know, Miss Dewberry,' Caroline replied. ‘But it won't happen again, I assure you.'

‘No,' said Justine, ‘I don't suppose it will. Shame. You're going to feel that for a few days,' she continued, eyeing Caroline's welts. ‘You could always come round to my place later; I've an extremely effective lotion that will take the worst of the sting away.'

Caroline shook her head, and then the three girls walked stiffly and carefully back to the changing room to compare their wounds, even Melody having apparently forgotten her earlier shyness, while Justine tidied up the gym, turned off the camera and then went for a shower in the staff changing room.

Terry and Billy turned off the monitor in Justine's office, careful not to rewind the tape.

‘Bloody hell,' said Terry. ‘Bloody hell.'

‘Well?' said Billy.

‘I don't know where to start,' Terry conceded. ‘I see what you mean about Justine, though. She really is a vicious cow.'

‘Yes, well,' said Billy, ‘just imagine what she'd do to us if she found out we'd been in here.'

‘That Gail's a bit of all right though, isn't she?' reflected Terry. ‘What a pair of tits she's got.'

‘I'm surprised it was her tits you were looking at,' Billy replied. ‘Anyhow, let's get things put back to normal in here and then get out.'

‘Okay,' said Terry. ‘Hey, have you ever done this before, you know, watched her in action?'

‘No, of course not,' Billy told him.