Page 4 of Loving Luna

The paddle crashed down again before I’d even finished crying out. Again and again and again. She gave me no time to breathe between swats.

Maureen was relentless, and before long, I wasn’t even thinking about Drake and his stupid declaration ruining everything, or how angry I was with him. I wasn’t wondering what had put Maureen in her current mood. I could only concentrate on the constant crashing of the paddle. Of the stinging, followed by the deep thuddy pain settling in my muscles. Of the waves of pain, glorious pain, washing over me, pulling me out of my own head.

Maureen paused only long enough to rub my aching ass cheeks.

I glanced up to see Drake looking at her over the top of my head, his expression one of genuine concern.

Well, he could get fucked. It was none of his damn business.

I glared at him, and oddly enough, he relaxed, but only slightly. I had a feeling he’d been about to come over and intervene, but he stayed put, keeping a steady gaze on Maureen and me.

This man pissed me off. Acting like he wanted to be the one whaling on my ass right now. Newsflash: He very well could have been, and probably would have been if he hadn’t gone and ruined everything with those three little words.

I wanted so badly to close my eyes, to shut him out, but I knew if Mistress Maureen noticed she would not be happy. And with the mood she was in tonight, not even the masochist in me wanted to piss her off.

Instead of closing my eyes, I looked down, averting my attention from Drake, or maybe attempting to avert his from me. Doing so allowed me to clear my head and get away from the anger boiling in my blood every time I looked at him. I was so consumed with looking at the floor instead of at him, I missed the shift in the air around me, and wasn’t expecting the hard swat Maureen delivered. I reared up in surprise, my body jerking in response to the unexpected burst of pain.

“Ow!” I screeched.

I half expected the correction, the barked instruction to keep my eyes straight ahead like I’d been told, but it didn’t come. Instead, the paddle fell relentlessly across my bottom, over and over, barely giving me time to draw my next breath.

My ass ached, tears pricked my eyes. Relief filled me even as the pain consumed me. This was exactly what I needed.

DRAKE

My heart dropped when Luna walked past me into the Dungeon, barely dressed, and shaking her hips like she knew I was watching her. Of course I fucking was. Any man would.

But I wasn’t any man.

I was the man who was one hundred percent, head over heels in fucking love with her.

If I admitted that, my fellow Doms might think I was a pussy for not telling her and just going after her already. They’d probably even claim that she was obviously in love with me.

They’d be wrong.

I’d managed to act like it wasn’t tearing me up inside to see her, to know she was playing with someone else, even if that someone was a woman I knew she scened with platonically sometimes, but I wasn’t even kidding myself, so I was sure she didn’t buy it.

I sighed, and shifted slightly, so I could have one eye on my post and one eye on her.

I watched as she met Mistress Maureen, saw her body language shift as they began their push and pull into the dance of submission, and snickered to myself when Mistress Maureen positioned Luna on the spanking bench that had her directly facing me.

The Domme looked up and winked at me, and my breath caught in my throat.

God bless that woman.

The fact that her choice was intentional let me know that at least one person was rooting for us and was enough to cancel out the sting of the daggers Luna was glaring at me.

Throwing her a knowing smirk, I settled in to enjoy the show.

LUNA

Thwack, thwack, thwack!

Goddammit, I was mad at him. Not just mad. Infuriated. Utterly pissed. How dare he go and ruin the good thing we’d had going for years. He knew how I felt. He knew I loved him in my own way. And he certainly knew that I wanted nothing to do with a serious relationship.

Parental issues. Trust issues. Commitment issues. All stemming from a long history of never being able to trust anyone but myself and watching my parents fail their way through nearly a dozen marriages between them. The psychology degree I was currently studying for gave me the tools to psychoanalyze myself all day long, but one could go crazy doing that. I just wanted to give in to the pain. So that’s what I did.

I felt every swat, and let my brain work its way through its issues. I pushed my ass out to meet the paddle as much as the restraints would allow and let the catharsis roll. My brain bounded between solutions to my current dilemma and anger that I had a dilemma in the first place.

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