“So you just thought you’d keep it a secret from me. What did you do? Threaten my friends not to say anything?” I asked, feeling myself becoming angry.
It was an overstep, to try and control my relationships.
She didn’t reply, which was answer enough.
“You can’t interfere in my relationships like that. No wonder Ana has been so hostile anytime you are mentioned! It’s not right. You can’t control my life like that. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to protect me,” I challenged.
Selene turned to face me, her eyebrows drawn in a frown.
“I can control any and every aspect of your life that I choose. I can decide every little detail of your day—from when you wake up, what you wear, eat, who you speak to, even when you use the bathroom. The freedom you enjoy is a gift bestowed by me.” She growled in frustration.
“It is my duty to keep you safe—physically and emotionally. You didn’t need to know, nor did you need to hear your friendsand peers discussing what some nobody had to say about your shoes or hair.”
“Ugh!” I huffed loudly with my own frustration. “You don’t even understand that keeping this from me was wrong, do you?” I asked, raising my voice.
Selene reached out and gripped the hair at the nape of my neck in a tight fist. I whined quietly as she dragged me forward on the bench towards her.
“This behaviour, pet, is in need of correction,” she hissed against my ear. “You are being disrespectful, challenging my authority, publicly. We spoke of this.”
I swallowed hard, all my growing anger replaced with something else—not quite fear, but something close to it. A foreboding of sorts.
“I believe a public correction is in order,” she continued.
“W-what, what do you mean?” I stuttered out, nothing more than a whisper.
She did not answer me in words. Instead, I found myself being dragged across her knees, having to reach out with my hands to catch myself against the damp morning grass.
Before I could even begin to protest, I felt a dull thud of a spank against my clothed buttocks. The sound was loud, but it was not overly painful. I was stunned.
It was quickly followed by another on the same cheek, and another. The dull thudding seemed unbearably loud, and although we were alone, I knew we were not really alone—that other people would be watching, that others would hear the deafening sound of the spanking.
The hits themselves, while lacking the sting of skin on skin, were growing in heat—a painful building.
Shock kept me silent, but embarrassment drew forth tears.
After what felt like a lifetime, Selene dragged me back up by the back of my coat and sat me on my hot, aching butt on the cold stone bench. I rubbed the tears from my face quickly, not wanting her or anyone else to see that I had cried, not wanting to draw anymore attention to myself.
“I can’t believe you did that,” I eventually managed to speak, after the silence between us had began to ring in my ears.
“You know exactly why I needed to correct you, pet,” she replied.
“No,” I said, my bottom lip wobbling, and I was scared to look around to see if anyone was out and about and had seen the shameful way I had been disciplined.
I worried I’d hear the servants whispering about me and my spanking. I could almost hear it already, feel the knowing looks as I passed them.
“You raised your voice to me, you were disrespectful—neither of which is ever acceptable—but you chose to behave in such a way publically, you were corrected publically.
Be thankful for the cold, or I would have made you stand and remove your trousers and underwear before the spanking,” she replied.
And I felt myself grow inexplicably hot—from embarrassment and something else, something I didn’t want to even begin to explore.
Selene drew in a deep breath through her nose, her eyes flashing brightly momentarily, and I winced, fearful that she would put words to my bodily reaction.
I didn’t think I could withstand the embarrassment.
“I am owed an apology, pet,” she said, and I was relieved.
“I’m sorry,” I said. The apology much easier to give than confront what we both knew—that her threats of such public humiliation had turned me on.
