maybe, it could be harder,” she murmured, almost inaudibly, before hiding her face in her hands.
Impressed by her serene tolerance, Hugo increased the force behind his swats but slowed the velocity, allowing every harder smack to penetrate through her layers of outer clothing before administering the next.
“Oh,” she groaned, “please, harder still!”
“All right, twelve of the best. Right now. Are you ready?”
“Yes!”
“But you’d better think pure thoughts,” he warned. “because if I get the slightest inkling that you’re thinking the other kind, this is never going to happen again.”
“I understand,” she promised. “I’ll be good.”
Whether she was good or not, Hugo never knew and never asked. He finished the spanking with twelve hard smacks, the last four across her calves, each of which made her kick and then let her lay perfectly still across his lap while she composed herself. When he finally turned her around, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him hard.
She looked at him and said, very slowly, “That...was...perfect!”
“Okay,” Hugo thought to himself, “this is all past weird. I am obviously having a very perverse dream, from which I am about to awake. I’ll find myself in my bed at the house, Laura will be beside me. It will be the morning of the day I planned to propose and the only one to show up for the shoot will be Margot, the legitimate model from Boston.” Hugo closed his eyes hard, then opened them. But the only thing he saw when he did was Amanda jumping to her feet and brushing down her slightly rumpled clothes.
“I’m hungry, aren’t you?” she asked with a grin.
As the day began to wane, they peddled homewards, passing close by Michael Flagg’s cottage, off Shadow Lane.
“A friend of mine lives there,” said Hugo, the next moment noticing a familiar bike banked against the porch rail. As they came closer to the cabin, the distinctively crisp sound of a paddling from within could be heard without. Hugo flushed with pique as he realized his almost-fiancée was inside Michael Flagg’s house, being played with.
“It sounds like he’s corporally punishing someone!” Amanda exclaimed.
“That’s Laura’s bike,” Hugo revealed, already comfortable enough with Amanda to make her his confidante.
“Oh!”
They stopped their bikes and stared at the cottage.
“Do you want to go in and break it up?” Amanda asked conspiratorially.
“It would be fun to discompose them,” Hugo mused.
“You have the perfect excuse for dropping in. Introducing me.”
“So that’s how she considers a marriage proposal from her lover,” Hugo remarked.
“You’re not really mad, are you?”
Hugo smiled. “How can I be mad on such a beautiful day?”
“But you’re annoyed.”
“I am annoyed,” said Hugo.
“Come on, let’s have some fun!” she urged him. “Imagine how irritated they’ll be at having to stop playing.”
“You’re bad,” Hugo grinned at her.
“I’m having so much fun today!” she exclaimed.
They dismounted, parked their bikes against a tree and climbed the porch.
“We should make them feed us, anyway,” Hugo said. Before Amanda could reply, the front door swung open and Michael Flagg stuck his head out. Flushing as only one of Celtic ancestry can do, he nevertheless recovered quickly from the shock and emerged to greet his unexpected guests.
“Hugo! Well, and this must be Amanda? Laura was just telling me about your arrival.” Michael extended his hand to shake Amanda’s.
“Yes, we could hear you talking from here,” Hugo said dryly.
“You’re a little prankster, I hear,” Michael said.
Laura emerged next, dressed in a beige wool dress, brown sweater and boots that laced up the back. Her long, chestnut brown hair was unrumpled but her color was high.
“Hi,” she said, smiling at Amanda and avoiding Hugo’s eyes.
“Come in. We’ll have some coffee,” said Michael, ushering them inside to a large, paneled room with a fireplace and a good deal of oversized oak furniture, upholstered in royal blue with cream and burgundy accents. There were no animals mounted on the walls, but the cottage had a lodge-like feel and scent.
“Any food to go with that coffee?” Hugo asked, casually falling into a chair.
“I have just the thing,” Michael said, going to start the coffee and bring out some sandwiches he’d brought home from the tavern.
Laura slipped into a chair near Amanda and stretched out her hand to the younger woman, saying, “I have a younger sister you’re going to like very much.”
“I think I’m borrowing her bike today,” Amanda said, squeezing Laura’s hand warmly before letting it go.
“I’ll introduce you on your next visit,” said Laura.
“I haven’t been invited back for a second visit so far,” said Amanda, in a stage whisper, shooting a look at Hugo.
“Honey, it goes without saying that you should consider my home your own,” he assured her. “Now, let Michael show you around the house, its got quite lot of features.”
“All right!” Amanda followed the path her host had trod out of the room, leaving Hugo to freeze Laura with a glance.
“You’re so lucky Amanda is here,” he said.
“I think I recognize you from the magazine,” Amanda said to Michael as he showed her the ingenious hideaway punishment furniture that the house’s designer had built into the paneled walls.
“I’ve appeared in a couple of issues,” Michael admitted.
“I’ll bet you have girls lining up to play with you,” Amanda observed, having quickly taken note of his V-shaped back, monumental quads and large hands.
“Well, I’m married,” Michael said.
“To a lady in the scene, right?”
“Yes. You may have read some of her stories. She writes under the name Alma.”
“I’ve read all her stories!” Amanda declared. “I hope I can meet her next time I visit.”
“She’d love that, Amanda.”
“Now I can see where she gets her inspiration,” Amanda flirted.
“Look at this. It’s a pull down spanking horse,” Michael said, opening a cabinet and causing a leather-padded bench with support braces underneath to drop down.
“So, someone in the scene built this house for you?”
“Laura’s ex-husband.”
“Is he in the magazine?”
“Yes, he’s been in a number of issues, going back to when your mother worked with Hugo.”
“If he wears glasses, I know exactly who he is. There’s a photoset of him spanking my mother and her sister. I’d love to meet him! Imagine, someone from this world who knew my mother before I was born!”
“So, you heard us playing when you walked up, did you?”
“What do you think?”
“You girls in the scene are all so impulsive. I hold myself blameless,”