Page 40 of After Dark
Josette thought about that all the way home in the car, because the truth was, her ass was also red. It felt hot with a sort ofitchy ache. But she didn’t mind it.
It wasn’t only the actual paddling that gave her something of a hard reset. It was the fact that it lingered on into the next day. She felt that paddle every time she moved. Every time he touched her. When she sat down, anywhere. There was no moment in her day that she wasn’t reminded of her submission to Arlo, the things he’d done to her, the things he would probably do in the future—with relish.
He was still holding her hand as they got into the elevator, though he looped his arm around her shoulders as they took it all the way up to the penthouse. And Josette had to wonder if part of why she’d hated the paddle before was exactly this. Its omnipresence.
It was like that collar. The constant reminder and endless reinforcement of the choices she’d made. Today, it felt like a gift. Eighteen months ago, she’d been certain that all of those things were suffocating her—and back then it hadonlybeen the collar. Oh, he’d loved to spank her, but hehadn’t maintained the spankings the way he had the last few days.
When they stepped out onto their floor he squeezed her shoulder, and when she looked up at him, he simply glanced at the floor.
She knew that order. And tonight, she embraced it. She dropped to her knees and crawled after him, 90% sure that he’d disabled the security cameras in the hall. Or, at least, sent them to his own computer rather than the building’s.
But there was always that remaining 10% uncertainty. There was always the possibility that people were watching her do these things for him, and Arlo knew exactly how much that turned her on.
Inside the apartment, she crawled down the hall, unable to kick her shoes off because they were laced to her calves.
He had her crawl into the living room and kneel before the chair. Then he took his time roaming around the apartment and taking his sweet time reappearing, swatting his palm with the paddle.
Arlo sat down in the chair and crooked his finger, so she crawled up and over his lap.
This was always more intimate. Skin to skin. It was impossible in this position not to feel more. Not to be aware of all the ways they were connected.
She lay on her belly over his hard thighs and he immediately trapped her legs with his. Her arms were draped down on the other side and she thought he might gather them behind her back, but he didn’t do it. Not tonight.
Tonight, he placed the flat of his palm in the middle of her shoulder blades and pressed her breasts against one thigh. He laid the paddle on her lower back, mostly so she could anticipate it, she thought.
He pulled her skirt up and began smoothing his palm over the globes of her ass.
“What a beautiful little slut you are,” he said in that low, rumbling voice of his. “It shocks me that you would think I would do anything, ever, but appreciate how much you love to fuck and all the ways you’re willing to fuck me. I can only assume that every man you’ve met before me is a fucking idiot.”
And to her absolute shock, Josette felt tears behind her eyes.
He dipped his fingers into her cunt, as wet for him as always.
“You’re always ready. Always wet. Always greedy for more.” He pinched her clit, and she yelped, but he held her in place. “Of course no one man can satisfy you. You were made for pleasure. Only a small man would fail to understand that you’re the kind of woman who loves freedom — especially if it’s on a leash.”
And again, she felt herself get wetter. In her cunt. In her eyes.
He gave her no warning. One moment he was saying these things to her, tearing at her heart, and the next the paddle was off her lower back and slamming against her ass once again.
Tonight, she didn’t try to endure it. She didn’t try to grit her teeth and get through it. It didn’t hurt any less when she kept herself from it. On the contrary, she thought it hurt a whole lot more.
But Josette thought about all the revelations she’d had earlier, and she tried to breathe.
Through her sobs. Through that bright, impossible pain as it flashed everywhere and somehow turned into heatat the last moment, just when the pain of it was almost too much.
She breathed, she cried, and when it was done, he sat her up. He held her in his lap and she could feel his cock hard beneath her, but he made no move to pull it out.
Somehow that was comforting too.
And hot, because it filled her with anticipation. Of how he would fuck her at some point, making sure to slam himself hard against her ass. Making sure to keep that ass in friction with the floor beneath them, or against his body, or up against a wall. Anything to make sure the spanking really sunk in.
It was like a lightbulb going off inside of her.
She thought,this red ass is who I am,and it made her heart seem to swell again inside her chest.
“Today was low protocol, obviously,” Arlo said, holding her in his arms, her ass bright and hot between them and tears all over her face. Neither one of them bothered to wipe them away. “All dynamic, all day, but no strict scenes. Unless you count paddling, and I don’t.”
She made a humming noise, drifting a bit because he was holding her. She could smell him all around her, salt and cedar, and that scent was part of her again now. Pressed deep into her own skin so when she smelled herself, she smelled him instead.
