“What do you think of these?”

Strutting alongside the kitchen island where Lacey was eating breakfast, Rae bent over just enough to give her girlfriend the best possible view… of her outfit, of course.

Hunched over her cereal, Lacey barely raised her head to look up.

“You’re going to be awfully cold wearing shorts in December, Rae.”

Rae was getting tired of the act. Despite living together, the past two months had been so busy for both of them that they’d only seen each other in passing. But if she’d expected absence to make her lover’s heart grow fonder, she was mistaken. Lacey had been cold and distant ever since their fight at the faculty party weeks earlier. Rae barely remembered what had kicked off their argument, and it could hardly matter anymore. Whatever it was, it had been dealt with… well, she had been dealt with, she recalled with a wince.

“Come on. You don’t recognize them?” She twisted herself into a pinup pose and shook her derriere. “Look real close…”

The tease worked. She couldn’t see the look on Lacey’s face, but she heard the spoon drop. Not quite the response she’d been hoping for, but close enough.

“Wait, are those mine? I don’t remember owning any daisy dukes.”

Rae had to laugh. She’d found them the night before while searching for one of her gig outfits, sticking out of a bag earmarked for donation. On Lacey’s lean hips, the pants were basically mid-thigh cut-offs. But on someone with a bit more figure…

“You just don’t have the booty to pull them off. They look good on me, right?”

Lacey leaned over, her long arms reaching past Rae into the silverware drawer for another spoon. She didn’t provide an answer.

“I was hoping I could keep these… for next summer, that is,” Rae corrected hastily, and then added, “I mean, if you don’t mind.”

Something was wrong. She’d felt it from the moment she’d walked into the kitchen, and the way that Lacey froze – just for an instant – when she posed the question confirmed it. Her girlfriend’s jaw moved, but nothing came out.

Rae bit down her anxiety. There was no need to panic yet. She still had one card left to play, and it was one that she didn’t think Lacey could resist.

“I know, I shouldn’t be taking your stuff without asking. I’ll take them right off, okay?” She unbuttoned her shorts, pulling the flaps aside just enough that Lacey could see the line of her thong underneath. A slow smile crossed her lips, and she pushed lightly at the edge of Lacey’s bowl. “While I’m at it… maybe you’d like something a little tastier for breakfast?”

“Rae…”

“Please? The school’s closed for winter break. The library’s closed. The bar is closed. We’ve got two weeks with nobody bothering us. Don’t make me be naughty all by myself—“

“What do you want, Rae?”

Lacey’s cereal very nearly ended up on the floor. Rae took a deep breath and withdrew her hand.

“I’d like my girlfriend to pay attention to me, for a start,” she said, as calmly as she could manage. “Maybe then you can tell me what’s got you in such a shitty mood.”

Lacey snorted. “Where to start… the laundry? The litter box? The dishes from last night? That Christmas card we were going to send to my parents?”

Rae’s eyes widened. The laundry and the dishes… well, those were innocent mistakes. Rae forgot things from time to time, she was only human. But the card was another matter. With that one, she’d promised Lacey that she would put it in the mail, she just needed a few days to figure out what she was going to write…

“Yeah, Rae, the card. I sent it yesterday. I couldn’t wait for you anymore.”

“Lacey, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—“

“Really? Because I thought you might be trying to get another spanking.”

A snappy comeback died on Rae’s lips. Lacey was quiet and easygoing most of the time, but she didn’t mess around when it came to punishment. The last occasion had involved a hairbrush and the bruises were still visible three days later. If she already talking about spanking, then Rae had really messed up.

But what if she had? A spanking wasn’t fun, but between that and having Lacey stay mad at her, she knew which one she’d pick.

“Well… if you think that’s best…”

“Rae. Stop.”

She froze.

A few seconds passed as Lacey took a last mouthful of cereal, the museli crunching between her teeth, and finally pushed the bowl aside. She swallowed and turned to face Rae.

“Look, I get this is something you’re in to, and that’s fine. I don’t understand it, but I’m willing to go along with it. For you.”

Liar, thought Rae. Lacey pretended to be ignorant, but Rae had seen how her girlfriend had changed since she’d taken on the role of disciplinarian. Tough Love Lacey was more assertive, more decisive. She even walked differently. And when she took that dominant energy to the bedroom—

She almost missed Lacey’s next words. “…but I’m sick of the way you try to manipulate me.”

“Huh?”

“You heard me. Is it part of your kink that I have to actually be angry with you? Is that why you neglect your chores and miss appointments, or get drunk and embarrass me in front of my coworkers? Because you need to earn your punishment?”

“Once! The work thing only happened once!”

Lacey rose to her feet. In her seat she’d looked harmless – short hair tousled from sleep, her shoulders slumped, skinny elbows resting on the counter. But looming over Rae, her expression darkening, she was downright terrifying.

“This isn’t a line of conversation you want to continue. Trust me.”

Terrifying… and just a little hot.

Rae took a step back. “The spanking was all your idea, though. I never asked—“

“No, you didn’t. That’s what I’m saying. Instead you kept dropping hints, like ‘we used to do this all the time in my last relationship’, and ‘I just need the kind of lesson that sticks’. Sound familiar?“

She didn’t remember speaking those exact words, but they sounded like the sort of things she would have said before, back when she was still Rachel. Frustrated, helpless Rachel, who could never say what she wanted, only what she wanted to be told.

“It took a while,” Lacey continued, “but eventually I clued in. You know what I learned from that?”

Solid wood prodded Rae softly in the hip. The room wasn’t large, and her retreat had pinned her between the island and the kitchen table behind it. She was trapped.

But Lacey hadn’t made another move since standing up. Her feet planted, she kept her eyes trained on Rae. Watching her. Studying her. Finally, Lacey’s grimace cracked. And for an instant, Rae felt relief.

“Turn around,” said Lacey. “Put your hands flat on the table.”

Blood rushed behind Rae’s ears. “What if I don’t want to?”

“Then don’t. It’s up to you.”

Rae licked her lips and considered her options… but she’d made her decision even before the return of Tough Love Lacey. Rae turned and pressed her palms against the hardwood surface. Was it always that warm to the touch? The shorts that she’d so proudly flaunted left her on full display, and Rae realized that Lacey would have nearly complete access to her ass without having to take off a stitch of clothing.

She told herself to concentrate on the reconciliation that would follow. There would be warm hugs and deep kisses. Forgiveness. A second chance. Those were things that Rae could look forward to… because the next few minutes were going to suck.

From behind her, she could hear Lacey rummaging through something on the counter, but she dreaded what she’d see if she dared to look back.

A flat but otherwise unfamiliar object settled on Rae’s bare cheeks.

She had a flash of inspiration. “So, what did you learn?”

The question gave Lacey some pause. The flat object withdrew.

“I learned…”

And then it was back, landing with a rubbery splat that burned like hellfire. Rae yelped.

“… that I might have a bit of a kink, too.”

Rae shifted her weight from one leg to the other, only for Lacey to smack the opposite cheek the same intensity.  She clenched her teeth, trying to keep her hands and feet still as each new swat was added to her stinging backside and failing miserably.

“You’re not going to like what happens if you kick me,” Lacey warned her.

“I’m trying not to! What even is that thing?”

“Just a scraping spatula from the tool drawer. It’s not like I do a lot of baking, right? I like this use a lot better.”

Rae hadn’t even seen a spatula in their kitchen before, and if she ever saw it again, she was going to introduce it to the document shredder in Lacey’s office. She held tight to that image until the horrible tool swung back down and batted it away.

“Oww! Lacey, I’m sorry!”

“I believe you. But this isn’t punishment, it’s just… consequences.”

The distinction was lost on Rae, but she supposed that she could have pleaded for mercy from a punishment. Lacey just kept swinging the spatula like a metronome, from one side to the next, never in the same spot twice. Rae pawed the floor, swearing that Lacey was going to have to try a lot harder if she wanted to get any more of a reaction.

Rachel would have broken by now, she was reminded. Rachel would have batted teary eyelashes at her smug ex, promising that she would be a good girl. Rae would make no such promises, consequences be damned.

A hand pressed softly on her back.

“Breathe, honey.”

Rae didn’t even realize that she’d been holding her breath. She exhaled, the sound coming out louder than she imagined it would. Lacey’s hand flexed as air filled her lungs again, grounding her and drawing her attention once more to the searing pain in her ass.

Lacey set the spatula down on the table beside Rae. She could swear it was smoking.

“Think you’ve had enough?”

Mercilessness followed by tenderness. A steel backbone behind a soft exterior. Rae knew that there was a reason she loved that woman. Her voice only cracked a little when she replied, “Fuck you, bitch.”

Her comeuppance was immediate. Lacey’s snatched up Rae’s cut-offs in her fist and yanked upward, hauling Rae onto her tiptoes. She managed a strangled gasp as gravity embedded the fabric in her crack.

“Do I have your attention, Rae?”

“Yes! Hell, you have everything!”

“I don’t like you calling me that name, and you’re not going to get what you want by using it. That’s how consequences work. So I want you to try something else. I want you to say: ‘Lacey, will you please keep spanking me?’”

“Okay, okay! Just put me down, alright?”

“Say it.”

Rae wasn’t sure that more spanking was actually what she wanted. Teasing Lacey had seemed like the thing to do in the moment, but she was starting to wonder if she could have made a smarter choice with a few extra seconds to think.

Lacey was expecting an answer, though, and dangling in the air from her taint gave Rae all the motivation she needed.

“Lacey, will you… ohhh, will you please…”

“Say it.”

Rae bit her lip. The wedgie must have been short-circuiting her brain.

“Maybe I can take a little more... please?”

Lacey let go, and Rae sprawled across the tabletop with a grunt. She heard one of the nearby chairs scraping the floor as Lacey drew it close.

Rae closed her eyes, and felt the hard platform give way to the familiar support of Lacey’s wiry legs. Hands and feet swaying free, it was almost as if she were flying. She wished that Lacey would have undressed her first, it would have felt so more intimate if she was bare – but that wasn’t her decision.

Lacey’s hand skipped across Rae’ bottom, raising yelps and fleshy ripples in its wake. She wasn’t even trying hard; each crack reanimated the sting left by the spatula, leaving Rae whining and writhing across Lacey’s lap as she ensured that every inch of skin was sore and scarlet by the time she was finished. And Rae took it resolutely, hating every second and needing it more than she could begin to describe.

And once Rae was done – so damp from her struggle that she nearly slid off her perch – she felt Lacey gently turn her over and embrace her. At her girlfriend’s kiss, her eyes flashed open. The worst was over. Lacey regarded her with something between curiosity and amusement, but said nothing as she rocked Rae back and forth in her arms. 

Even Lacey’s notoriously aloof cat Prince Charming made a brief appearance to moan and nuzzle Rae’s legs, only to vanish again once he discovered there was no food or fresh laundry around.

Rachel had never felt so loved.

Her lips against Lacey’s ear, she murmured, “Thank you.”

Lacey chuckled. “I never thought I’d hear that after beating a girl black and blue. You know what I think about when I’m in bed alone and you’re working late?”

“No idea. Something sexy, I hope?”

“Mm, yeah. It’s that sound you make when you know I’m about to get rough with you. Like you’re frightened and turned on all at once. You know the one?”

Rae balked. “Are you saying that you like my whimpering?”

“Oh, I get off on your whimpering. It’s the best I’ve ever heard.” She kissed her girlfriend’s forehead and helped to guide Rae back to her feet. “Look, this has been a weird journey, but… I think I get it now. So if you need me to do this on a regular basis? I can do that. You want me to spank you and send you to bed every day for the rest of our lives… done.

“But I expect you to be a grown-up about it. We’re partners now, so I’m not going to parent you. No more games, and no more excuses. Do you hear me, Rae?”

She didn’t have an answer at first. Lacey’s offer sounded like it could be heaven, or it could be hell. And in either case, who for?

If she were still Rachel, she couldn’t have handled it. Rachel had been a pampered and sometimes paddled housepet – she’d even worn a collar. And while Rae was free, she’d struggled to cope without the confines of a cage. Living on her own had been next to impossible, but the thought of living as a couple with Lacey… a real, grown-up couple? That might be even harder.

She tried to sit on the tabletop and immediately regretted it.

“Rae?”

There was one problem, though. Lacey was wrong.

Rae could be temperamental and lazy – and yes, even manipulative, she admitted. But for all the talk of ‘excuses’ and ‘games’, there had not once been a time where she’d tried to get Lacey to spank her. Not consciously, anyway. That had been Rachel’s life, not hers.

“Rae?”

For the rest of our lives, Lacey had said. The words had struck Rae to the bone. The rest of their lives was a long time to consider. Could she stay focused in all that time? Could she stay faithful – not only to Lacey, but to herself?

Who was she, and what did she really want?

The truth was…

“Rachel?”