Opting to simply face the corner with her arms hanging loosely at her sides, Avery waited. Fortunately for her, he didn’t make her wait too long.

It might have been this sense of vulnerability and embarrassment, heightening her sense of hearing. She could hear seabirds and the ocean waves in the distant background, crashing up against the barrier rocks before rolling in to lap more gently at the cottage’s boat dock and the sandy beach. Closer by, she could hear Thom’s movements too. Her body tensed as the clump of his cowboy boots came resolutely in from the main room. The sound was mesmerizing. Why was it she’d never noticed he wore cowboy boots before? Expensive ones too, judging by the weight of them. He was almost to the door now, and all other sounds faded from her consciousness. She became focused only on Thom.

And the promise of what was yet to come.

The jolt of arousal that swept over him was intense and amazing. That he wanted Avery was not surprising nor was his body’s reaction to seeing her standing in the corner. What was curious was that even though there was nothing sexual in the way she was standing, the thought ofhaving the beautiful woman before him face down over his knee while he paddled her backside was provoking a level of carnal need in him he had never experienced with anyone else. He sat down on the edge of the bed where she could see him out of the corner of her eye.

“Good girl, Avery. I’m very proud of you for doing what I told you to do. You are strong, beautiful, and courageous, and I’m the luckiest daddy in the world to have you as my little girl. Are you ready for your spanking?”

“I really think I’ve learned my lesson on this,” she said, her voice trembling every bit as badly as he could see the rest of her doing. “I know we agreed to it, and I’m not trying to avoid taking responsibility for my actions. But maybe I don’t have to be spanked quite so hard?”

“You disobeyed me and put yourself at unnecessary risk, didn’t you?”

Her head bowed. “Yes, Sir.”

“We agreed that when you choose to do that, you were going to get punished, didn’t we?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Do you have any questions or was there something we forgot to talk about on the couch?”

She sniffled, then shook her head. “No, Sir.”

“Do you know I love you?”

“Yes, Sir,” she said in a very quiet voice. “I… I love you too.”

“Thank you, baby. I know that was hard for you to say especially when you know you’re about to punished. I want you to come over here and put yourself over my knee.”

She turned, but it wasn’t until he patted his thigh to encourage her compliance that, stifling a sob, she came to give herself to him. She lay herself across his lap, assuming a position as old as the very concept of love and discipline.

His heart swelled. He’d made a big deal about his need to humble her, but her trust in him—in them, as well as in herself—humbled him too. He was the luckiest man in the world; he got to call Avery his own.

As she settled herself over his lap, he scissored her securely between his thighs, placing one hand on her shoulders to encourage her to stay in position while his other hand rubbed her quivering bottom. “Are you ready?”

“Yes, Daddy,” she whispered, trying to hold back the tears. “Scared, but ready.”

He stroked her bottom, letting her know without words that he understood. But there was really no help for it except to just get through it.

Raising his hand sharply, he brought it cracking down in the first set of hard swats, flattening the summit of one cheek, and then the other. With hard, stinging slaps, he spanked her, covering her entire bottom with bright pink handprints that gradually began to meld all together, vanishing beneath the quickly darkening blush he was creating.

She squirmed, trying to kick despite the vise of his restraining legs. This was part of the process. She couldn’t help but resist as the hurt intensified, but she wouldn’t find her own forgiveness for her bad behavior until he got her to that point where she finally gave in, yielding both to the pain and his authority. And for Avery, he knew, it was especially important for her to know that she could fight as much as she needed. He would always be strong enough, and love her enough, to enforce his dominance.

Again and again, he swatted her ass, concentrating for the most part on the fullest bloom of her cheeks and turning them a dark red. Once or twice, he directed his hand to her delicate sit spots, which made her yowl in protest. As red and hot to thetouch as she now was, he knew her belabored flesh would soon be swollen, but he didn’t stop.

The longer and harder he spanked her, the stiffer his cock became. And here, he hadn’t thought it possible that he could get any harder than he’d been when he first came walking in here. Seeing her standing naked, with her nose in the corner as he’d told her to do, would likely always do this to him. But he couldn’t afford to let himself relent before he’d given her every bit of what he’d promised. If he did, not only would it hurt Avery’s feelings and undermine her surrender to him, but it would undermine the commitment he’d made to her regarding consistency.

He doubled his efforts, covering her entire backside with open-handed strikes that he meant to be felt for at least a day or two. But this wasn’t just about chastisement; he needed to inflame her arousal too, and to that end, he let his fingertips start catching that most sensitive spot between her legs.

She sucked in a hard breath and immediately snapped her kicking legs together. He’d made sure that hurt, but it also told him everything he needed in that moment to know… she was wet and just getting wetter by the swat. Each time he let his fingers connect with her labia, they came back glistening with the proof of her arousal.

Avery’s moans of pain became shadowed by those of pleasure, her gasps turning to cries as he let his punishing focus shift to all the most tender places between her legs. Pausing to caress her swollen clit, he ignored the squirming, humping grind of her bottom as she both tried to evade and bucked up into his touch for more. Instead, he let his fingertips play along the slit of her weeping folds, stroking until he’d parted her, laying the silky pink entrance to her pussy open. Already those lower lips were swollen with need. It didn’t take much force behind the swats he targeted there to make her shout, twist, and yowl.

And yet, the wetness gushed from her. It spilled between his fingers as she writhed, panting in pain and moaning her lusty need. God, he needed her too. Removing his hand from between her thighs, he spanked her backside until she finally slumped limp across his lap, crying in earnest.

“Daddy, I’m sorry! Please stop!”

“You were very naughty and could have gotten yourself killed, Avery.” Bringing his hand to rest on her heated backside, he let his fingers slip in between to caress back and forth across her tight rosebud. “You are going to have to learn to mind me and follow the rules.”