Answering to Him (Old-Fashioned Husband) by Dinah McLeod Page A

his eyes. “Am I in trouble?”
    Oliver considered this for a moment. “Do you think you should be?”
    “Are you asking me?”
    “Yes, I’m giving you a choice. We’re very new to this, we’re still laying out ground rules. We’ve talked about obeying laws for your safety, we’ve talked about how we will speak to each other in the future. In this situation, concerning our son, I’m willing to let you off with a warning.”
    Take it! My mind screamed at me. Take the pass! I opened my mouth with every intention of saying so, but somehow what came out was, “I think you should punish me.”
    If he was surprised by my decision, he didn’t show it. “Jonah’s blaring his music. What do you think about staying down here to do it?”
    Numbly, I nodded. I wondered if I cried Uncle, if I said I’d made a mistake, would he let me out of it? But something inside of me, the same something that had had me say I should be punished wouldn’t let me take it back.
    “I’ll be right back.”
    I watched in trepidation as Oliver stood and walked into the kitchen. My stomach clenched into a tight knot when he took a wooden spoon from the utensil holder. The only thing that helped was seeing the love on his face, the tenderness in his eyes as he walked back to me.
    “I’m going to make this quick,” he said. He helped me back over his lap, and I steadied myself with my palms down on the floor. “Now, honey, the reason I’m going to spank you is the fact you undermined me in front of our son. We should always try to be on the same page, at least when he can see. I shouldn’t have scolded you, that’s true, but I wouldn’t have if you had just let me handle it, like we agreed.”
    “I’m sorry,” I said mournfully, tensing on his lap.
    “Let’s remember to be considerate of each other from here on out.”
    I nodded, braced and waiting. Oliver surprised me by sliding my sweat pants down my bottom, and hooking his thumbs in my underwear. “Please, leave them up!” I pleaded.
    But it wasn’t to be. My panties were pulled down too, and my husband wasted no time in warming up my butt. His hand bounced from cheek to cheek, smacking the same two places, right where my thigh met my bottom. He landed swat after swat until my teeth were gritted against the pain—and against the urge to cry out.
    When he rested his hand on my back, I let out my breath, whimpering. “You’re looking very pink,” he commented. “Should we stop here?”
    I turned my head to look at him, and saw the question in his eyes. “It’s up to you,” I said, at last. I realized the truth of the words. Now that we’d agreed to change our life together, he would have the right to spank me, if he thought it was necessary. He could say no, or yes at will. It was scary, giving myself over to someone like that. As long as we’d been together, I’d never felt so connected to him as I did in that moment. I had to trust that he would take care of me.
    “A little more, I think.”
    I groaned, but I didn’t protest. At least, not until I felt the unforgiving wood of the spoon come down on my behind. He rapped it smartly from one thigh to the next, making me squeal. “Please,” I ground out between my teeth. “ Please stop.”
    “Not yet,” he replied, moving the spoon up, swat by swat, to the top of my burning butt. Continuing a steady rhythm, he spanked all the way back down to my thighs before he was done. By that time, I was crying too hard to hear whether or not Jonah’s music was still playing. I was in too much pain to care.
    Oliver rubbed my back, shushing gently. When I settled down, still crying, but softly, he helped me up. He kissed me on the lips and then brushed my tears away with his fingertips. “And just know, next time you won’t have Lortab to dull the pain.”
    I spluttered through my tears, and before I knew it, we were laughing together as though nothing else in the world mattered.
     

Epilogue
     
    Two weeks later,