"I'll try my best to remember, Master," I murmured. I was used to shying away, hiding away who I was from everyone. It would take practice for me to do as he said, but I would try.
"Now I am going to hook your arms over your head to keep them there. If you behave and are a good girl, this won't take long and your shoulders won't get too sore. If you disobey me, then we will keep starting over and it'll take longer. Understand?" As he talked, he guided the tie on my wrists up high enough that I had to lift onto my toes. When his warm hands left my wrists, I was unable to put my feet solidly on the ground, but was still supported enough to not feel like I was going to fall.
"Yes, sir." I wiggled a bit to make sure I wasn't going to fall.
"For that, you'll get a couple extra. I will see to your safety, including you accidentally falling. Trust in me." Anger was clear in his voice even as he moved farther away from me. When his footsteps returned, I swallowed hard in anticipation of what was coming.
Silence descended for longer than I was comfortable with. I wanted to say something to fill it, but knew it would only get me in more trouble as I hadn't been spoken to first. Finally, I felt something that felt like loose leather straps tracing along my back.
"We are going to try flogging tonight. Have you been flogged before?" Master J questioned even as the tickling feeling on my back continued.
"No, sir. I don't think so. It tickles. Is it supposed to tickle?" My skin jumped as it tried to get away from the sensation, completely outside of my control.
"It won't tickle once I get started. I just wanted you to know what it was that was happening." The light, teasing sensation was gone as I heard him step away from me again. However, the firm, burning one that slapped against my ass was not what I had expected to come after the tickling. After another couple of harsh, loud slaps against my ass, a different sensation started on my right shoulder blade. This time the slap against my skin came more rapidly and didn't have quite the same harsh sting to it, although it burned in a different way.
The flogger was brought down in a rapid succession, falling on one shoulder then the other before moving back to the first. The longer it went on, the more it hurt, the more intense it felt. The flogger moved all along my back before moving back up again, each stinging, burning pain harder and more intense than the one before it.
Just when I thought I would have to give in and cry out from the pain, it completely stopped.
"That was just warming you up," Master J whispered in my ear.
Again, his footsteps grew farther away before returning.
"This will be much more intense and painful. You can handle it. If you can't, you know your safe word."
Something hard and cold rubbed underneath my ass cheeks. I swallowed before responding with a quivering voice. "Yes, sir. Edge."
"Exactly. You'll be getting five of these. Four for doubting me. One because you are a little pain slut." Again the rubbing of the cold, hard, slim object, as if warning me of what was to come.
"P..pain slut?" I stuttered. I didn't know what the object was, but it made me nervous and the term he'd labeled me with didn't feel good either.
"That means you enjoy pain, Precious," he clarified.
It wasn't a question and I didn't want to expand on why pain didn't bother me. I did enjoy it, but I wasn't always that way.
"Do you know what this is?" He tapped my ass with the same object he'd been teasing me with.
"No, sir." I shuddered.
"It's a cane. It's a slim piece of bamboo. It hurts like hell. This will be the one and only time I use it unless you directly ask for it." Another soft tap on the ass.
"Yes, sir." Fear filled me, but still I tried to hold as still as I could.
"Count for me," he said, moments before a loud crack sounded and pain shot up my back and down my legs with a fire straight across my ass where the cane had landed.
"One, sir," I cried as my eyes filled with tears.
Crack.
"Two, sir," I sobbed as I fought with everything inside me to do as he asked so as not to get more punishment.
Crack.
"Three, sir." Tears flowed freely down my cheeks as my hands fisted, nails digging into my palms. My legs threatened to give out, but I locked my knees, determined to make it through them all.
Crack.
"Four... sir." It took me a moment to get my mind to focus through a hazy cloud that was slipping over everything. My hands relaxed their grip. The fire in my ass was no longer a pain-filled burn, but a pleasure-searing flame.
Crack.
Words were out of my grasp at that moment. Nothing mattered. Nothing hurt. A calm, quiet, serene feeling filled me from head to toe and I had no desire to stop what we were doing if that meant that this blissful feeling was going to leave.
My mind hadn't been this calm in... forever. Something always needed to be done. Someone always needed something from me. The rare chance I had freedom from work, my body and the ever-nagging addiction that raged and tormented me constantly were there to keep me company and my mind busy.
Slowly, I opened my eyes, not remembering closing them. Everything was dark, no matter which way I turned. Panic swelled and I tried to jump up from wherever I was lying, but hot, strong arms tugged me tight against a warm, firm body.
"Shh. It's okay. You are okay." Soft breath brushed against the top of my head.
"Where am I? What happened?" I tried to push the spiderwebs out of my head so I could figure things out on my own.
"You went to something called subspace," Master J said as his hand brushed against the back of my hair in a soothing manner. "It's when you are pushed past pain and into pleasure. They say it's like going into a cloud. Floating and calm."
"Yeah, I suppose that's a good way to describe it." I smiled lazily. Knowing that what had happened was actually a normal reaction had me wanting to do it again.
"I'm sorry I didn't see you were already slipping before the final punishment. But I got you down as soon as I realized you'd gone nonverbal on me." That relaxing hand continued to run through and over my hair.
"Nonverbal?" I lifted an eyebrow even though he couldn't see it.
"When you are unable to respond. That can be for something feeling good or bad. Its safest to immediately stop when that happens so you don't get hurt," he explained patiently.
"Oh. Okay." I didn't know what else to say. I didn't even know such things as 'subspace' and 'nonverbal' were possibilities in such an environment.
"How are you feeling?" His voice was soft and caring. A soft thumb brushed against my cheek tenderly.
"Good. Really relaxed. I don't know if I can walk, so I hope you aren't going to tell me I have to leave right now." I laughed softly and then stopped when he didn't join me.
"No, Precious. We will stay here, just like this until you are feeling more like yourself."
A moment of uneasy quiet hung between us although I wasn't sure what it was that I'd said that bothered him.
"Can I ask my questions?" I asked, trying to bring up an easier topic.
Chapter 10
John
Walking into the room and seeing Alix on her knees with those sexy thigh-high hose and garter belt on had nearly taken my breath away. She was already heart-stopping beautiful; then to see her stripped down to barely-there panties and having her pussy so easily accessible practically broke my control. Grinding my teeth, I knew what she'd planned. She had hoped for that exact thing and she would have to take a punishment for trying to push me to fuck her when I'd already told her it wasn't happening. She swore that it hadn't been her intention and I let her think that she was going to get away with it, but she'd get her punishment for it.