Page 29 of Thwack!

“Well, today I’m going to. Because it’s simple. Very simple. I’m going to put you over my knee and spank you.”

“Like, with your hand?”

Maddox hit him with all kinds of things—belts and paddles and wooden spoons. With his hand too, but only for a little extra encouragement mid-fuck when he wanted Jack to push back harder.

“Yeah. With my hand.”

Jack swallowed. He was sure he could handle Maddox’s hand. It was the other part that had him worried.

“Over your knee?”

Maddox only smiled. The fucker.

“That’s kind of… I mean, I’m too big for that, aren’t I?”

“Not afraid of a spanking, are you, Jack?”

“Of course not.” He was a tough guy who did a tough job, an FBI agent. Never afraid of anyone. Except a little bit of Maddox.

“Then what’s the trouble?” Maddox asked with faked confusion. “You don’t want to go over Daddy’s knee? My wittle boy don’t wanna be my wittle boy?”

Jack scowled. He wasn’t a baby. They didn’t do Daddy play. He was a full-grown man who wasn’t going over anyone’s knee, not even Maddox’s.

“I never thought I’d see you back down.”

“I’m not backing down.”

“Seems like you are. Seems like you can handle a lot of pain but not much humiliation.”

Humiliation. That was it. Maddox abused him fiercely, carelessly, but with a sort of respect for how much he could take. There was nothing impressive about taking a simple over-the-knee spanking. Any baby-girl in a Lolita dress or poser puppy-boy could do it. Jack had been made for harsher things. And to drape his six-foot frame over his husband’s slightly smaller one like a bratty sub when he’d never so much as told Maddox no once in their relationship…

He didn’t think he could do it.

“Jack?” Maddox used his steely grip to turn Jack’s chin in his direction. “If you don’t want to do this, you’re going to have to say red. That’s your only way out.”

He didn’t say red to Maddox. Only once, when Maddox had warned him they weren’t stopping until he did. Even then, under the lash of an unrelenting belt, knowing it wouldn’t end until he choked out the word red, he’d waited as long as he could, basically until he’d collapsed. A spanking was nothing. How could he say red over it? But the whipping had only been physical pain. Being turned over Maddox’s knee and spanked by hand would be psychic torture.

“I’m not saying red.”

“Of course you aren’t. Because you’d do anything for me, wouldn’t you?”

Maddox knew the answer to that and right now Jack hated him for it, for knowing exactly how to trap him. No bondage had ever put him in a worse predicament than this one.

“Let’s go then. Pull your pants down and get over Daddy’s knee.”

“Are you really going to say things like that?”

“I am if it gets a reaction.”

He gritted his teeth, trying not to give Maddox a reaction. Sometimes when they played he was stoic and sometimes he screamed. Sometimes he floated in sub space and sometimes he suffered every blow with full presence. But he’d never in his time with Maddox had to force himself so hard to submit. Before Maddox there’d been scenes he’d tolerated more than enjoyed, usually because he was bored. So if he could endure a mild, ritualistic scene for a stranger, then couldn’t he do the same for Maddox? Of course he could.

He got resolutely to his feet and stood over Maddox as he undid his fly. He pushed his jeans and shorts down, but before he could step out of them, Maddox forestalled him.

“Leave them around your ankles like a bad boy.”

So they were doing that, were they? Fine. His pants were around his ankles every time he took a shit. No big deal. None of this was a big deal. A silly little ritual that would be about as painful as a shaving nick.

He shuffled around to Maddox’s side, bound in this ridiculously ineffective way, and dropped gracelessly to his knees. He had no idea how to get over Maddox’s lap and he hated appearing incompetent. It didn’t help that Maddox was smirking at him, enjoying his dilemma like the fine sadist he was. But with a little maneuvering, he managed to brace his arms on the other side of Maddox’s legs, forming a table over him.