Deep in the Woods (15 page)

“If I were you, I wouldn’t say anything else.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Because what you’re admitting is that you knew I wouldn’t like it and therefore kept it a secret from me.” He scrutinized her, trying to figure out what was going on behind her shuttered gaze. “If you wanted to go to Overton Park after work, all you had to do was ask me. I could have met you and we could have gone together. Talk to me. Are you getting tired of me? You don’t like being with me anymore?”

“No! No Sir, that isn’t it at all.”

“Then what?”

Again, the closing off, the shutting down, just as she’d done the other night after her dream. He rubbed his eyes, not knowing what to do. Lecture her? Ask her again when her next session was with Dr. Perez? She just loved when he did that. He decided the best thing to do was to salvage what was left of the night. He placed one thumb under her chin and lifted it. “Do you ever go anywhere without telling me? Yes or no?”

“No Sir. I’m… I’m so sorry, Sir. I know I should have told you but…I just didn’t want to.”

“Yes. I see that. Not very good behavior, is it? I try hard to take good care of you. To protect you. There is an agreement between us that you don’t keep secrets from me. Not secrets like this.”

“Yes Sir. I know.”

“I’m afraid I have no choice but to punish you.”

She was truly sorry. He could see it in her downcast gaze, the tremor in her lips. She looked up at him in sudden embarrassment. “But…Ryan—”

“Yes, Ryan will hear you being punished. He’s a sadist like me, I’m sure he’ll enjoy listening to you get your due. Anyway, it’s strange that you’re so concerned about Ryan when I’m the one you should be worried about. I’m not happy with you, girl.”

She nodded, looking devastated. Part of him wanted to relent, pull her close and hug her until the situation ebbed away, but that wasn’t how things worked between them, especially with serious breaches of conduct like this. So instead he took a deep breath and said, “Undress.”

He stood and watched her take off her clothes with his arms crossed over his chest. When she stood before him nude, flushed and anxious, he took one nipple and pinched it hard. “As you are now, Sophie, that’s how I want you always. Naked to me. Open. Exposed. Do you understand what I mean? I don’t want you keeping secrets and hiding yourself away from me. If that’s what you want, you’re with the wrong person.” She sniffled through a quick miserable shiver. He took the other nipple and twisted it for good measure. “You’re my girl and I take care of you. I can only do that if you let me. You know I love you, Sophie.”

She shivered again before answering. “Yes Sir.”

“Get the cane for me and go lie down on the bed.” Those words brought real tears. Dave only used the cane for bona fide punishments because Sophie didn’t like it at all. She brought the implement back to him like it was a knife or firearm, handing it over with a stricken look. “Are you worried about being too loud? Would you like to be gagged?”

“Oh yes, Sir.” She nodded in relief.

“Go get the ball gag then. Quickly. Cerby can only keep Ryan entertained for so long.” He watched her pert ass cheeks shift as she hurried across the room and knelt to find the ball gag. Although he was upset, he still managed to daydream a moment about the marks he was going to impart on the gorgeous canvas. She returned and he fitted the gag in her mouth, tightening the straps. Sophie crawled onto the bed, lowering her body with a reluctance that made his dick throb. God, he had to punish her and get back out to his guest. He didn’t have time to fuck her now, but Jesus Christ, she made it hard to resist. “Arms up.” He strapped her hands into the cuffs that were kept permanently attached to the headboard, and then fixed her ankles to the cuffs on either side of the footboard so she was held tight. He had learned some time ago that Sophie needed restraints to take the cane. Speaking of restraint, it took every ounce of his self-restraint not to fall on her when she was this way—trembling in fear of what was on the way, but submitting to it anyway. And even with her tears and shame at being punished, it was impossible not to notice the shiny wetness between her legs.

He resisted the urge to molest her and instead landed the first stroke. His cock twitched as he watched her whole body tense and come alive from the pain. The first had been a warm-up, smarting but bearable. The second made her cry out in a long muffled wail. He waited between each stroke, letting the searing fire burn, spread, and subside before laying on the next. By the fifth stroke, she started begging for respite behind the gag. By the seventh, her pleas changed to sobs of self-recrimination and despair. Each stroke made her leap and then writhe in the aftermath, pulling at her restraints so her whole body seemed to fight the pain. When she had ten livid stripes across her backside, he stopped and put the cane away in its place beside the bureau. He listened in the silence to Sophie’s sobs. He returned and sat beside her on the bed, but she turned away.

“Look at me.”

She turned back, a mess of tears and slobber. He removed the gag and wiped her chin with a tissue, then brushed away her tears as she stared back, pain still coloring her gaze.

“Do you feel better now that you’ve been punished for what you did?”

She nodded. “Yes Sir. Thank you for punishing me. I deserved it.”

“It was a hard punishment, but I want you to understand how important it is not to keep secrets from me.”

She nodded, a few last tears straying down her cheeks as Dave went about unfastening her wrists and then her ankles. When he finished, he pulled her into his lap and pinched her sore ass cheeks. She whimpered a weak protest but he ignored her discomfort, stroking the welts to feel her tense against his chest.
Not now. Don’t fuck her now.
He forced himself to stand and pull her to her feet.

“Now, go get the medium plug and the clamps. You’re going to write lines while Ryan and I go for some takeout.”

Sophie crossed to the chest of toys again, returning with the nipple clamps draped over one arm by their connecting chain, and the medium silver anal plug in her hand, already dabbed with lube. He noticed with amusement that she had been quite stingy with the lube. Nothing like a subbie who punished herself. “Bend over the bed.”

Sophie grasped the footboard and bent over, spreading her legs without being told. Dave worked the plug into her, in and out, judging by her short moans of discomfort when to shove it in to the hilt. He pressed the base against her, making sure it was fully seated. “Who do you belong to, Sophie?” he asked against her ear.

“You, Sir.” She exhaled with a shudder.

“Stand and present your breasts to me.”

Sophie stood and turned to him, taking deep breaths as he pinched her nipples and applied the biting clamps to each tender point. “Now, you know what to do. When you’re finished, remove the clamps and get dressed again. You’ll continue to wear the plug until I tell you otherwise, as a reminder of how naughty you’ve been. I’m going to go with Ryan to get Chinese for dinner.”

“Yes Sir.” She swallowed. A telltale scarlet blush was flooding her cheeks. “Will I be eating with you both tonight?”

“You certainly will. When I come back I expect to find you sitting in the living room waiting for us.”

She blushed even redder. “I’m just so embarrassed, Sir. For my behavior, and having to be punished with him waiting out there—”

“As well you should be. But when the lines are done, your punishment will be over and you’ll snap out of it and be a pleasant hostess for my friend. Let’s turn the night around, baby.” He smiled and tugged on the chain dangling across her chest. “Now get busy. The longer these stay on, the more sore you’ll be, and you’re already going to have a hard time sitting.”

* * * * *

Sophie moved to the desk and pulled out some of the lined notebook paper Dave kept on hand for one purpose and one purpose only—writing lines.

Sophie wrote lines at least once every week, although not usually for such serious misbehavior. More often than not, she wrote them with clamps on her nipples, a nagging background of ache to add to the humiliation. The chain hit against the edge of the desk as she leaned over and picked up her pencil. She shifted on the hard wooden chair, feeling every one of the ten stripes on her burning cheeks, not to mention the intrusive plug in her ass.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

Some small part of her, as ever, whined,
Why are you doing this?
But the greater part of her was careful to write in neat, even print, to capitalize every
Sir
and dot every
i
. She knew why she did it—because she needed it. Why she needed it was a more difficult question, but thankfully one she felt less and less worried about answering. She loved Dave and he loved her. They made each other happy. Enough said.

But those thoughts made the tears come again, confused tears of gratefulness mixed with self-reproach and shame.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

Sophie thought she might have written
I should not keep secrets from my Sir
instead. Or
I really, really wish I hadn’t kept secrets from my Sir, because now I feel so awful.
Or
I’m the luckiest girl on earth to have such a wonderful Sir, so what was I thinking sneaking around behind his back?

But Dave probably wouldn’t appreciate her efforts at creativity, or an essay on why she loved him so much and how she would never keep secrets from him or go into the woods again without his knowledge. Look at what happened to Little Red Riding Hood when she went traipsing alone around the forest. Sophie smiled and shifted again on her aching hindquarters. She had a sudden strong urge to touch herself, to lie down and masturbate herself silly on the bed where Dave had just caned her, but that would have been tragically reckless. Ten more cane strokes on top of the ones she had didn’t sound very nice. And then more lines with her poor nipples clamped and the chain dangling down between them.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir and then masturbate myself silly after he punishes me.

I will not touch myself without Sir’s permission, no matter how much I ache for that relief.

I will not fantasize about Sir sharing me with his friend with Sir’s cane marks on my ass and my breasts still aching from his clamps.

I will not obsess about the plug in my ass and the likelihood that Sir will use me there later.

Or perhaps Sir’s friend.

Or perhaps both.

I will concentrate on my lines. I will be a good sub.

Sophie sighed. The ache in her nipples was building, nearly throbbing now, and she still had two pages of lines to fill.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

I will not keep secrets from my Sir.

Chapter Nine

“What’s the longest and largest nerve in the human body?” Ryan asked.

“Easy,” said Sophie. “Sciatic nerve.”

“And the opening that connects the esophagus and stomach?”

“Cardiac…um…cardiac orifice,” Sophie shouted after a moment. Dave snorted and almost spit out a mouthful of Chinese wine. Ryan crowed, “Correct,” and slapped Dave on the back.

Dave had shown Sophie pictures of Ryan so she knew he was handsome. Tall, dark-haired and fit, with gorgeous deep brown eyes. She had assumed he was funny and intelligent, just in light of the fact that he was Dave’s best friend. But Dave hadn’t told her that Ryan was a doctor, a neurosurgeon with his own practice up in Boston. It didn’t escape her that he was quite young to have gotten through medical school and already established himself in such a demanding field, but Sophie had no problem believing Dave when he told her Ryan had made it through medical school in half the time most others required. Ryan was like a grown-up Doogie Howser, she thought, only much sexier and a lot more intense. After grilling her on biology over chow mein and sounding her out on ethics while they munched on dumplings, Ryan began quizzing her on anatomy, one of Sophie’s favorite subjects. Like some bizarre game of Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, Ryan named some obscure muscle or body part one after the other, and Sophie endeavored to show him where it was, to the soundtrack of Dave’s approving laughter. So far she had been almost one hundred percent correct, only getting tripped up when she confused the “subclavian” vein with the “clavicle”, which was obviously a bone.

“Laryngeal prominence.”

“Oh, easy.” Sophie pointed to her neck. “Adam’s apple.”

“Not on the medical boards, my dear. Okay…latissimus dorsi.”

“Even I know that one, Ry,” scoffed Dave as Sophie pointed to her upper back.

Ryan held up a hand. “Leave this to the actual medical experts, Dave. Sophie—the Circle of Willis.”

Sophie tapped the side of her head. “A ring of arteries in the brain.”