Fic: Show Me the Ropes (8/?)
See part 1 for warnings.
"Eat your salad."
"I don't want it."
"Eat it, it's good for you."
"No, I don't want it."
"Young lady, eat your salad or we'll be taking a trip to the bathroom for a spanking."
Lindsey's jaw dropped. She looked at Sara.
Sara's jaw dropped with Lindsey's, her cheeks flaming red as she quickly stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork and ate it. Talk about making her feel like a kid. And she couldn't *believe* Catherine said that in front of Lindsey. She gagged slightly as she swallowed the lettuce... she didn't like the texture.
The six and a half year old stared in wonder as the grown-up sitting next to her gagged down a bite of salad.
"Gagging, Sara? Lindsey has better table manners than you do. Really. Sit up straight and eat your salad."
"I don't like it!" Sara yelled petulantly, before she could think better of it. "It's slimy."
Catherine put down her fork and stood up, scooting out of the booth and putting her hands on her hips. "That's it. Stand up."
Sara's eyes went wide and she shook her head, grabbing up her fork again and trying to get a piece of lettuce on it. "I'm eating it!" she proclaimed a bit desperately.
"It's too late, you disobeyed me and you talked back. Now I don't think you want a spanking right here, do you? Stand up, Sara."
Sara slammed her fork down and got to her feet, thinking this was incredibly unfair. Chuck E. Cheese was supposed to be fun for Lindsey. And maybe for her too.
"Watch it," Catherine warned, grabbing her purse. She turned to Lindsey and gave her strict instructions to stay at the table and not speak to anyone.
Lindsey nodded agreeably and watched her mom drag Sara off to the bathroom. Poor Sara.
Poor Sara indeed. The bathroom was not empty, they had to wait in a short line, and Catherine already had her hairbrush out of her purse. And it was obvious she wasn't going to use it to brush her hair.
Sara stared at the floor with a frown on her face, only moving forward in line because Catherine pulled her by the elbow. When it was finally their turn, she heard a gasp of surprise from behind them as they entered the same stall.
Catherine locked the stall door and hung her purse on the hook, then turned to face Sara. "Pants down," she dictated, pointing the hairbrush toward Sara's jeans. When Sara looked like she might argue, Catherine added quickly, "don't make me tell you twice."
The brunette undid her pants and pushed them down, but she wasn't happy about it in the least. Her face was set in a scowl, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Just for your attitude? Underwear too," Cat said with a nod toward the garment in question.
The scowl escalated as Sara grabbed her underwear and jerked them down, returning her arms to the crossed position. "Whatever."
"Young lady, you had better knock the attitude off right now or you won't be sitting for lunch."
"I'm already not going to be able to sit for lunch, and everybody out there is gonna know why!" Sara whined, the scowl turning to a pitiful pout.
"You should have thought about that before you decided to misbehave." Catherine was done discussing it, and she closed the toilet seat, then sat down, pulling Sara across her lap. There would be no warm-up this time, this was going to be a quick punishment as if Sara really were a child.
After the first crack landed, Sara's hands flew back to protect her rear and she wailed into the stuffy air of the bathroom. "Noooooo!"
"You're making it worse," Catherine said calmly, pinning Sara's wrists to her back with one hand and peppering her bottom with crisp smacks of the brush with her other. Sara squirmed and kicked and vocally protested for the entire spanking, which she had never done thus far in their relationship. Cat knew this one was different, though, and that Sara needed to not want it and not like it. They both knew that.
As Catherine finished up the spanking with several sharp swats to the back of Sara's thighs, she finally spoke. "You are going to march back out to our table and eat your salad, am I clear?"
Sara howled, nodding over and over again. "Yes, yes, I'm sorry, I'll eat my salad," she promised. "I'll be good..."
Catherine helped her up and pulled her pants and underwear back into place over her bright red backside, zipping and buttoning the jeans for her. "You weren't bad, you were just a little naughty. Now go on..."
When she opened the stall door, she was so embarrassed she started to actually cry, staring at the floor as she shuffled out of the bathroom and toward their table. But she knew she'd deserved what she got, and a part of her was really glad that Catherine didn't let her get away with that bullshit. Even if she thought she might die of humiliation. She slid into the booth next to Lindsey, looking away to swipe at her tears, trying to pretend they weren't there. She was extremely surprised when she felt Lindsey's arms wrap around her.
Lindsey hugged Sara tight. "It's okay Sara, I cry when I get a spanking, too. It hurts."
Sara had no idea what to say to that, so she just nodded and swallowed before going with the truth. "I'm just embarrassed because there were so many people in the bathroom," she whispered.
"Yeah that's not very nice of Mommy." When Catherine returned to the table and sat down, Lindsey let go of Sara and crossed her arms over her chest. "Mom, that wasn't very nice of you to spank Sara when there was a lot of people. You made her embarrassed and crying."
Catherine raised an eyebrow at her daughter. "Sara needs to eat her salad," was the only explanation she offered.
"Mom that was totally not the point!" Lindsey informed her, gesturing wildly with her hands as Sara started to eat. "Couldn't she have gotten in trouble at home, or at her house?"
"Linds, I have my reasons," Catherine said firmly with a pointed look, and Lindsey got *her* point.
Sara managed to choke down the rest of her salad without further incident, and with a strained look around, she relaxed a little when no one was staring at her anymore.
"Sara, will you go in the tubes with me?" Lindsey asked hopefully when she noticed Sara was done eating.
Sara bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at the tubes in question. "Yeah, sure," she mumbled awkwardly, not wanting to disappoint Linds.
"Yeah!" Lindsey exclaimed, turning to her mother. "Can we Mommy?"
"Oh so now I'm Mommy?" Catherine asked with a smirk. "Go ahead, go ahead," she consented, nodding toward the play area. "Take good care of Sara in there..." she teased.
"I will!" Lindsey promised, grabbing Sara's hand and tugging her toward the structure.
--
Catherine watched from their table, sipping her soda and grinning like an idiot. She could see Sara crawling hesitantly through the tubes after Lindsey, glancing around nervously when they stopped in one of the 'cars' so Lindsey could pretend to drive. Really it was just a box at the end of a tube, with a steering wheel mounted on one side. Lindsey waved to her, and she waved back, her grin somehow getting even bigger at the sight. Sara was blushing, she could see it even from the table, and Cat could tell she was nervous about having too good a time in a children's playset. She waved at Sara too, and Sara shyly waved back. Then Lindsey started talking to Sara, and while she couldn't hear what her daughter was saying, she watched the transformation slowly take place in her lover. Sara listened raptly to Lindsey, her body language becoming less rigid, and tears sprang unbidden to Catherine's eyes when Sara nodded eagerly at some question or other and then switched places with Lindsey, taking hold of the steering wheel. Lindsey had asked if she wanted a turn to drive.
Up in the 'car', Sara was losing some of her inhibitions and starting to relax. Lindsey was great at having fun, and it was rubbing off quickly.
"Look out!" the little girl shrieked, ducking an imaginary object flying toward the car. She burst into giggles, flopping her head into Sara's lap. "Sara, you just drove us through a meteor shower! You shoulda turned left!"
Sara laughed too, pretending to be very serious as she replied. "I couldn't, there was a floating dinosaur blocking the way!"
Lindsey howled with laughter, clutching her stomach and kicking her feet as she rolled from side to side with her head in Sara's lap. "You're fun!" she decided once she had calmed down enough to use words.
"You're fun too," Sara agreed. "Uh oh..." She screeched the car to a stop and looked down at Lindsey. "Hurry up, that dinosaur's thinking we would make a good lunch!"
"Oh no!" Lindsey squealed, taking off out of the car and through the maze of tubes once more, with Sara hot on her heels. "Come on Sara, hurry! In here!" She found an exit and jumped into the ball pit with a squeak of delight.
Sara jumped in after her, careful not to land on Lindsey, then grabbed Lindsey and tossed her out of the way of the oncoming dinosaur. They ended up in a playful wrestling match, then had a game of basketball with the small round balls and Lindsey's hat. About a half-hour later, Catherine wandered over to the netting surrounding the pit and grinned in at them.
"Time to go, girls," Catherine announced, not surprised when Lindsey spun to face her with a pleading expression, but quite surprised when Sara did as well. She immediately laughed, shaking her head. "All right. Five more minutes, you brats," she conceded, wandering back to the table to gather up their things.
"Ten!" Lindsey called out, and she heard Sara's echoing voice agree.
"Five," she shouted back without turning around, because she knew she'd cave if she had to look at them. She heard groans behind her, then some sort of conspiratorial giggling, and she couldn't help laughing as she slid back into the booth.
Five minutes later, on the dot, Sara and Lindsey appeared in front of her. "Can we go for ice cream?" Sara asked.
"Yeah please Mom, please?" Lindsey added, jumping up and down in hopeful excitement. There was no way her mom could say no if another grown-up was asking! Even a really fun grown-up who was good at acting like a kid.
Oh boy. Catherine hadn't realized what she was getting herself into when she decided to take these two out together. But she wouldn't have it any other way, she realized with an affectionate smile. "Yeah, but only because you're so cute," she answered, tapping Lindsey's nose and standing to kiss Sara's cheek. "Let's go."
--
It was just assumed that Sara would spend the night, but Catherine and Lindsey argued over whose bedroom she was going to sleep in. Catherine only won because she pulled rank and used the hated reasoning of "because I said so".
As Sara settled down next to Catherine, she felt the inexplicable yet overwhelming urge to cuddle. Now that just didn't fit into the equation. Catherine plus Sara equals hot sex and no emotional attachment. Cuddling really did not fit. She took a shuddering breath and forced herself to stay still. But when Catherine turned on her side and reached her arms out, Sara willingly melted into them. "Don't think this means I love you," she mumbled under her breath, snuggling into Cat's side and resting her head on her lover's shoulder.
Catherine threw back her head and laughed. "Don't think this means I love you either."
--
Sara was exhausted, but as usual when not at home, she couldn't sleep. She lay staring at the ceiling for a few hours, sometimes glancing over at Catherine to watch her breathe in sleep. So calm, so peaceful - the exact opposite of their waking lives.
Finally she couldn't stand just laying there anymore, and she quietly slipped out of bed and into the bathroom, closing the door and stripping off her clothes, getting into a nice hot shower. She stood with her head down, so the water could get her hair and then cascade down the rest of her body. She was just about to reach for the shampoo when she heard the bathroom door open and close, then a rustle of clothing, and she looked up in time to see Catherine climb into the shower with her.
They locked eyes, staring in silence for a long time, and Catherine spoke first, stepping forward to touch her body to Sara's. "I want you on your knees," she whispered, snaking a hand up Sara's back to curl tightly in her dripping wet hair, made an even darker brown by the saturating water. "I want you on your knees with them spread wide, and then I want you to put your hands behind your back and lick me once."
The hot water beating down on her neck and shoulders somehow gave Sara an extra burst of confidence, and she immediately complied, sliding down to her knees and spreading them wide, then clasping her hands behind her back and leaning forward to slowly lick the length of Catherine's pussy. Her eyes closed at the exotic taste, and she shivered, but stayed still, waiting for Catherine's instructions.
"Good girl," Catherine groaned, releasing Sara's hair and just resting her hand on the back of the brunette's head instead. "Lick me again."
Sara licked her again, whimpering softly as she had to force herself to stop again and wait. Catherine felt and tasted so damn good, not to mention the way she smelled. Sara's nostrils flared slightly in an attempt to stifle some of her arousal at the scent. "Please Cat," she begged, flicking her eyes up to Catherine's.
Catherine's knees felt a little shaky, but she kept it together, managing a sultry smile down at Sara. She wanted to push, just a little. "Please Cat, what?"
Sara whimpered again, her eyelids fluttering as she struggled to keep them open. Catherine really wanted her to beg. She realized that the thought made her warm to a startling degree, and uncomfortably wet between her legs, in addition to the shower's water that had settled there. "Please Cat, let me go down on you... let me put my tongue in you... let me fuck you as hard as I want, please Catherine," she begged openly.
Catherine really liked the sound of that, but she wasn't quite done pushing. "Why should I let you?"
Sara whined, then growled. "Because I'm gonna bite you if you don't."
Catherine debated slapping her, but she didn't think Sara was ready for that yet. Instead, she was out of the shower before Sara could even try to protest. She heard a strangled cry and the water shut off. She was almost halfway down the hall, and with a sigh she turned around, intending to tell Sara to get back in the shower, but she almost fell over instead. Sara was on the bathroom floor on her hands and knees, crawling towards her. The play of muscles over her shoulder blades as she crawled was exquisite, and the rhythmic dripping of her hair on the tiles, then the hard wood of the hallway, was distracting. That wet hair draped across her eyes in curtains was almost Catherine's undoing. Sara was naked and wet, crawling toward her in the hallway. Holy shit. She was so focused on the eroticism of the situation that she almost didn't hear what Sara was saying.
"I'm sorry, Cat... I'm a bad girl... please, please, please punish me and then let me fuck you, I need to feel you around my tongue. I need to feel you cum in my mouth. I need to feel your discipline, Cat, I know I was bad and I'm sorry..." Sara shivered as she crawled slowly toward Catherine, keeping her head up to at least partially hide her scars from view.
"Jesus," Catherine whispered, watching in awe as Sara came to a stop in front of her and sat back on her heels, finally bowing her head.
"Please punish me, Cat... I can take it. I want to show you that I can do this... that I *like* this... that I'm sorry for talking back." It was hard to admit, but not as hard as she thought it would be. Her entire body was on fire, despite the chill in the air that settled around her wet, naked skin like a blanket. And she found that she was less worried about showing her scars than she was about making her indiscretion up to Catherine. It wasn't love, but it was damn good.
"How... how..." Catherine was at a loss for words, overwhelmed by Sara's pleas. She dropped to one knee and cupped Sara's face in her hands. "Sara," she began softly, rubbing her thumbs back and forth over her lover's cheeks, "I already blistered your bottom once today... it has to hurt still." She waited for confirmation, and when Sara nodded, she continued. "If I punish you, it'll be with one of my belts, and I can't see any enjoyment in that for you. The dynamic we're playing here is not one-sided, despite how it may look to people who don't understand. If you're not enjoying yourself, I don't enjoy it either."
Sara leaned into the touch with an appreciative sigh. "Once upon a time, you told me you usually enjoy getting spanked, but that sometimes you're not supposed to enjoy it."
"You haven't done anything that bad, Sara..."
Sara dropped her eyes to the floor. "It was bad enough to make you walk away from me."
Catherine had no argument for that. She tried to, but she didn't. "All right," she said slowly. "Get a belt from my closet and lay it on the bed, then bend over next to it. You may put a tank top on but nothing else."
Sara nodded wordlessly as she got to her feet, and then at the last second she rushed, "yes Ma'am," and hurried into the bedroom.
Catherine put a hand on the wall to steady herself, unprepared for Sara's words and the rush of liquid heat that twisted in her belly and settled between her legs. She took several moments to get composed, and then entered the bedroom to find Sara in a black tank top, bent over the edge of the bed, a sturdy brown leather belt laid out beside her.
Taking a deep, calming breath, Catherine stepped up behind Sara and picked up the belt, folding it in half to increase her control over the implement. "Sara, you know that what you're doing right now is submissive?"
"Yes," Sara answered, closing her eyes. She felt Catherine behind her, felt the belt in Catherine's hand even though it wasn't touching her. "I kept trying to tell myself that I would never be this way, not even for you, but sometimes I'm not a very good listener," she whispered.
Catherine laughed sweetly, tears pricking her eyes. "Thank God for that, huh?" she asked rhetorically, and then turned serious again. "What are you being punished for, Sara?"
Sara thought for a second on how best to word her reply. "For taking liberties I was not entitled to, for threatening you with physical harm, and for talking back. I'm sorry, Catherine."
"I know you are," Catherine assured her. She rested the belt over Sara's backside, the bruises already there pulling at her conscience. "Ten strokes."
Sara nodded. She knew Catherine was going easy on her with that sentence, but it was her lover's call, not hers. She wouldn't disrespect her Cat by questioning the decision.
The sting of the belt was different than the hairbrush or Catherine's hand. It was lighter than the brush, easier to take, but even so, the ten strokes left her clutching the sheets in tightly closed fists, panting out her breaths at a slightly elevated rate and rhythm. She could feel the stripes of fire licking across her ass and thighs as she breathed heavily into the bed. She liked it. "Cat, I'm sorry," she exhaled, her cheeks tinged with embarrassment. "I liked that. A lot."
Catherine could tell that Sara felt bad for enjoying what was supposed to be a punishment. She leaned over her lover from behind and nuzzled her lips against the soft, warm skin of Sara's neck. "It's okay, baby, I liked it too. And I'm glad you liked it because I'd love to do it again sometime," she purred, planting soft kisses along the top of Sara's spine. "I know you're sorry for what you did even though you enjoyed the punishment. Consider the slate clean, all right?"
"All right," Sara said, managing a weak nod, and then in a shaky voice, she added, "Cat?"
"Yeah baby?"
"Pl... please fuck me." Her voice still shook and it was barely audible, even to herself. She felt vulnerable asking, considering what had happened in the shower, but she wanted it so badly. She needed to feel Catherine inside her.
Catherine dropped her forehead to the back of Sara's left shoulder and groaned. "Just like this?" she asked, a lewd suggestion behind her words. "You like it from behind?" Her fingers snaked down Sara's back and over her backside, tickling their way across one thigh to stroke softly between her legs.
Sara breathed out slow, trying to control herself. She did not want to do or say anything wrong and make Catherine walk away again. What was a submissive thing to say? It's not like she had a lot of experience with this. Or even any examples, really. She racked her brain, finally coming up with something she thought Catherine would enjoy hearing. "I like it however you choose to give it to me," she whispered nervously. Did that sound right? God she hoped so.
Apparently Catherine was pleased with her response, because she felt Cat's fingers slide gently inside her from behind. Three of them, filling her completely, making her breath catch and forcing a shuddering moan from her chest. And then Catherine moved, and she missed the warmth of her lover's body covering her protectively, but hot breath on her abused thighs distracted her from the loss, and when Catherine started placing open-mouthed kisses on her bruises, she nearly came. She wanted to whine that it felt too good, that she couldn't take it, but she didn't. And then Catherine bit her. Hard. And curled her fingers, pressing against a very sensitive membrane. The intense, searing pain coupled with the intense, searing pleasure made her scream into the sheets, her body consumed with the white-hot pulsing fire of orgasm.
When she came down from the high, she was crying. Overwhelmed with sensation and vulnerability, satisfaction and gratitude, anger and love. She didn't want to feel that for Catherine, but how can you give yourself to someone so completely and intimately without making some kind of visceral, primal connection?
Catherine's heart seized as she noticed Sara's tears, and she pulled her fingers out, quickly sucking them clean and stifling an appreciative moan. "Hey now, what's wrong, baby?" she asked, rubbing Sara's back as she took a seat on the bed beside her lover's head.
"I could end up loving you, Cat, and I'm scared," Sara confessed without allowing herself time to invent an excuse for the tears. She didn't want to lie.
Catherine wasn't sure how to reassure Sara on that one. She couldn't promise that Sara would never love her, that would be ridiculous. Uncertain how to proceed, she just went with her instincts and pulled Sara's head into her lap, stroking her hair. The wet tears were warm on her bare thighs. "Would it be so bad if you loved me?" she finally asked.
Sara wrapped her arms around Catherine, pressing her face into her lover's belly. "I don't know," she murmured against the soft skin. "If I start to love you, and you're not on the same wavelength, it'll hurt."
"Well you can't tell your heart what to do, Sara," Catherine sighed. "All you can do is make the best of what you have right now, you know?" She paused for a minute, just looking down at the beautiful woman partly in her lap, and when Sara's eyes opened, Catherine gave her a coy smile. "Besides... I'm... pretty addicted to you," she said slowly, a soft pink tinging her cheeks at the admission.
Sara blushed as well. "What?"
"Yep," Catherine nodded, overcompensating for her discomfort by being especially confident in her next line of thought. "It's true. In fact, the Halloween party is next Friday night, and you're going to be my date."
"I am?" Sara wasn't sure if she was asking if Catherine was serious, or if she was being smug, so it came out about halfway between the two.
"You are," Catherine nodded again. "And you're going to wear what I want you to wear."
Now she knew she was being smug, but she couldn't help it. "Is that so?" Somehow Catherine had managed to quell her fears without really addressing the issue. She tried to hold back a smirk as she continued, "and what would that be, exactly?"
Catherine eased Sara's head off her lap and swung a leg over her lover's hips, straddling her and leaning down to whisper in her ear. "A collar and leash."
Good thing she was laying down, because she would've hit the floor on that one. "You're not serious," she managed to gasp around the sudden lump in her throat.
Catherine used the flat of her tongue to lick Sara's cheek, then kissed her temple. She held herself up with one hand and lightly feathered the fingers of her other hand across Sara's throat, delighting in the surprised whimper from the woman beneath her. She applied a bit more pressure and Sara started to squirm, so she backed off and kissed her sweetly, allowing her tongue to taste the fear so palpably clinging to her lover.
She kissed Sara for a long time, letting her calm back down, and then brought her fingers back to her lover's throat, barely touching with her fingernails as she raked them over the rapidly pulsing tendons.
Sara didn't know what to feel. She had never had a lover play with her throat. It caused an automatic tension, though she couldn't find a rationalization for it other than general wariness of having one's airflow cut off. It could also possibly be due to the sensitivity of the area. Whatever it was, she was on high alert, but she didn't struggle or ask Cat to stop. She trusted Catherine Willows more than she cared to admit. And that was Catherine's next question.
"Do you trust me, Sara?"
"Yes."
There was no hesitation in Sara's answer, and that thrilled Catherine on so many levels. "Good, because I would never knowingly or negligently put your life in danger. Now close your eyes, and just breathe... and trust me."
When Sara nodded and complied, Catherine scratched at her throat a bit harder, then once more hard enough to leave four red parallel lines marking her lover's skin.
Sara breathed deeply, in and out through her nose. She could feel the welts being left by Catherine's fingernails, and when she imagined what they would look like, a soft moan escaped her and she arched into the touch.
Catherine could feel the tendrils of dominance flare up in her blood. "Do you still trust me?" she whispered, her hands moving down to the neck of Sara's tank top.
"Yes," Sara answered, again without hesitation, though her voice was more strained this time.
"Yes Ma'am," Catherine hissed quietly, offering the correction just as Lady Heather had done for her, taking two handfuls of Sara's tank and carefully pulling in opposite directions.
Sara squeezed her eyes shut tight and gasped in a rush, "yes Ma'am." She heard the fabric rip and felt cool air on her newly exposed flesh. She wanted to make a sarcastic remark about the price of the luxurious wife-beater tank, but this time she swallowed it down. Fingers were immediately on her nipples, clamped softly and tugging until Sara couldn't help moaning.
"Do you like that?" Catherine was positively throbbing with the power Sara gave her.
"Yes," Sara answered, arching her back, pressing her breasts more firmly into Catherine's hands.
Catherine released her nipples and gave her a slightly sharp reminder. "Yes Ma'am."
Sara winced and quickly corrected herself, surprised at how easy the word was to say to Catherine. "Yes Ma'am."
The blonde slipped the straps of the tank top-turned-vest down Sara's arms and pulled the garment out from under her lover. Sara was naked, looking nervous but flushed with excitement. "Mine," she whispered, lowering her lips to Sara's quivering stomach and placing a soft, sweet kiss there. She noticed the nasty bruise her teeth had left on Sara's thigh, and she slid down to place a kiss there as well. Sara flinched, and Cat smiled. "I think you need a matching mark on the other side," she purred, shifting her mouth to Sara's other thigh.
"No!" Sara rushed, then corrected before Catherine could do it for her. "No Ma'am, I don't. I don't need another one, really."
Catherine was fast approaching headspace and she knew she had to be careful, so she talked herself back down quickly to avoid doing something that would break the mood for Sara. They hadn't talked about safewords, so she had to stop when Sara said no or stop. Even if the 'no' was in the form of a cute and desperate protest. No meant no, no matter what form it took. As much as she wanted to sink her teeth into Sara's thigh and hear her lover scream, she held back, instead licking her way up Sara's body and kissing her deeply. "Put your hands above your head."
Sara complied.
"Tell me what you feel."
Sara exhaled through puffed cheeks, not quite wanting to spill her feelings. "I don't know."
"Uh uh uh," Catherine shook her head, raising her left hand to hold Sara's face while she lightly tapped her lover's cheek with the palm of her right. "You do know. Tell me."
Sara gasped, even though the light tap didn't hurt at all. A multitude of sensations and thoughts rushed through her head and she tried to sort them all out. "Vulnerable," she blurted. "Safe." A short pause, then, "hot. Wet. Scared. Excited. Nervous."
"Give me more than one-word answers," Catherine coaxed gently, continuing to tap Sara's cheek.
"I feel desirable, and important, like I'm the only one in your world right now," Sara breathed. "I'm afraid of disappointing you, afraid of getting slapped harder, afraid I won't get slapped harder, all at the same time."
"You are desirable, and important, and the only one in my world right now," Catherine said in a quiet voice. "And you're naked for me, Sara. Just for me, right?"
Sara bit her lip and nodded, her eyes shining and sincere.
Catherine couldn't tell if Sara was trying to get in trouble on purpose or just forgot the rules, but either way, she gave her lover a slightly harder slap to the face. "Just for me, right?" she repeated.
Sara jumped and nodded again, her pulse racing, blood pounding in her ears. "Yes, yes, just for you, Ma'am," she remembered, the words tumbling out in a rush.
"That's my good girl," Catherine purred, rubbing Sara's cheek even though she still hadn't hit her hard at all. "If you forget again, I'd like to slap you hard enough to make you remember, would that be okay with you?" There was no way Catherine was going to haul off and smack her without permission. Not with Sara's past. She didn't know what exactly might trigger a bad reaction, and she never, ever wanted to do that.
Sara's breathing picked up as she thought about whether it would be okay. If she said no, she might never know how it felt. If she said yes, and she forgot to say what Catherine wanted to hear, she was afraid how she'd take the slap. But she was curious, and turned on, and she trusted Catherine, that was already established, so again she nodded her head, completely not realizing that she was failing to answer the way Catherine wanted her to.
Catherine waited a second to see if the nod would be accompanied by any words, but it wasn't. Slightly incredulous, she gripped Sara's chin tighter with her left hand and used her right to deliver a forceful, stinging blow flat across the plane of Sara's cheek.
Sara gasped out a whimper, instantly feeling the sting of the blow as tears sprang to her eyes unbidden. She worked her jaw in an attempt to ease out the pain, but her cheek continued to throb. She choked down a moan and rasped out an apology. "I'm sorry... I didn't do that on purpose," she promised, then quickly added, "Ma'am. I didn't do that on purpose, Ma'am." Her eyes closed and her heart hammered in her chest, her brain trying to focus on anything other than the burn. But the burn was the reason for the moan she'd managed to choke down. Imagining Catherine's handprint on her face. Imagining herself on her knees, begging for forgiveness, and Catherine slapping her again because she hadn't given permission to beg. Holy fuck. Her eyes snapped open, the tears gone, and she grabbed Catherine's wrist desperately, making the blonde stroke her stinging cheek. "Oh God, Catherine," she offered in a strangled cry. "I'm falling apart."
"No baby," Catherine soothed, allowing Sara to control the movements of her hand for the moment. "You're not breaking, you're learning new things about yourself. The hidden parts of you are coming out to play, and you might feel unhinged until your desires find a permanent place. Now, if you feel bad about what we're doing, feel like it's wrong for you, just tell me and I'll stop... but I promise, you're not falling apart."
"I just-- I just don't understand why it feels so good when you hurt me," Sara finally breathed. "I never thought I'd be... I never thought I would, you know, get off on being hit. I know the science behind it, I don't have a problem with the science."
"What does the science tell you?" Catherine asked, brushing a lock of Sara's hair back from her face and then running her fingernails lightly across her lover's scalp.
"That, you know, since I was abused as a kid, grew up in a shitty household, had no control over anything, that I'm taking my power back, being hit when I say so, not when I couldn't run fast enough to avoid it." She paused, and when Catherine nodded encouragingly, she continued, leaning into the gentle touches her lover was providing. "And that's probably true. And I'd be fine with that, could totally let it go, but it doesn't stop there, Cat. It goes way beyond making up for the past. I don't just feel empowered, I feel... I don't even know what the hell I feel but whatever it is makes me hot and wet and aching for you. What I let you do to me... what I *love* to let you do to me, has nothing to do with my past, Cat. It's all here and now, and I don't understand why it feels so good."
Catherine was never one for generic answers or standard advice. She wasn't going to sit there and try to help Sara figure out why it felt so good, when there was no hope of her being any help for that. "Honey I know you're a scientist, but for God's sake, sometimes you need to let go of that compartmentalization, stop trying to rationalize, and just get the fuck off. Your brain will tell you what's up when it's ready, and you're gonna drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out before then, so just *feel*, Sidle. Let go. You're still trying to hold on to control, and I want you to let go. Don't try to make yourself fit into a box... throw caution to the wind and ride the waves of *this*, baby..." Catherine indicated herself with an arrogant grin.
Sara rolled her eyes and groaned. "If your head gets any bigger it won't fit in the room..."
Catherine's grin grew and she kissed Sara. "I love you," she laughed.
For a brief second Sara's mind went into overload and her body stiffened, but she forced herself to calm down and instead of freaking out, she easily flipped their positions and pinned Catherine to the bed, her lover's wrists held firmly on either side of her head. "Don't say that," she growled, licking Catherine's lower lip with just the tip of her tongue. Her grip tightened around Cat's wrists.
Catherine struggled to lift her head and capture Sara's tongue, but the brunette was amazingly strong and determined, and she got absolutely nowhere. So she pushed a knee up between Sara's legs.
Sara groaned again, this time for an entirely different reason, and dropped most of her weight onto Catherine's body. "Cheater."
Catherine wriggled and rubbed her knee back and forth, with some difficulty due to Sara's weight pressing down on her.
"Don't make me spank you," Sara teased.
Cat's first instinct was to say something like 'for the love of God, no', but she decided that she wasn't going to play it that way this time. "Did you just threaten me, little girl?" she growled, her eyes shining bright with promise and intent.
Sara's breath caught and she stared at Catherine, having expected a much more light and playful response, maybe even for Catherine to beg her not to do it... but this... wow. She eased her grip until she was no longer holding her lover's wrists, then slowly sat up and shook her head.
Cat followed her up to a sitting position and took hold of her chin, applying a firm, swift slap to her cheek once again, reveling in Sara's sharp exhale. "Over my lap."
"Cat, I'm naked," Sara protested, her eyes wide and filled with tears, though they were only an automatic physical reaction to the slap. Like when you get something in your eye.
Catherine slapped her again, harder, feeling her palm start to sting. "Over my lap, Sara."
Sara cried out, her face turning sideways away from Catherine, her breathing labored. She could do this. Her cheek hurt like hell and the throbbing in her face matched the throbbing between her legs. She said nothing, could not look at Catherine as she slid off her lap and laid across it instead. Well this was it. All of her horrible scars on view for her lover. She'd either get pity or disgust. People who had seen them were always either overly apologetic or immediately turned off. She had just learned to hide them to avoid going through that.
"I don't like having to tell you twice. What do you have to say for yourself?" Catherine asked, determined not to be like everyone else when it came to dealing with Sara's physical scars.
Sara blinked, confused for a moment, sure Catherine couldn't be talking about anything other than what she saw. But apparently she was, and Sara felt herself smiling into the sheets. "I'm sorry, Ma'am," she said, hoping her giddiness wasn't portrayed in her voice.
"I should hope so," Catherine scolded, running her fingertips up and down one of the scars. "What made this one?"
Sara tensed. "Broken beer bottle."
Catherine continued to trace it, scratching lightly with her fingernail every so often. "Now it's mine."
"What?" That was certainly new and unexpected.
"This scar, it's mine. When you think of it from now on, you'll feel my tongue, my fingers, my teeth... not a broken beer bottle." She let her words sink in while she slowly scratched the length of the scar, which stretched from Sara's left shoulder down to her left hip in a jagged sort of pattern. "Understand?"
Sara willed herself to stop shaking so she could answer the question, but to no avail, so she had to answer with a shaky voice. "Yes Ma'am."
Catherine licked her fingers and traced the mess of scars covering Sara's back, causing the skin to glisten lightly with her saliva. "Beautiful," she murmured, meaning so many different things about Sara.
"They're not beautiful," Sara snapped, her voice suddenly full of acid. "Don't pretend on my account, I already know how ugly they are."
SMACK! "Don't you dare tell me that any part of you is ugly," Catherine scolded, her hand falling crisply over Sara's bruised bottom. "Not even your scars." SMACK! "They are a part of you, and that makes them beautiful, and sexy, and unique. Each one tells a story that helped make you the woman you are, and there is nothing ugly about that." SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
"Ow! C-aaaaah! Cath-ahh! I thought you were just-- ow, Cat! I thought you were just trying to be different! I didn't know you really meant it... I thought you were patronizing me, I'm sorry!"
"You're going to be," Catherine promised. "Go stand in the corner."
"What?"
SMACK!
"God damnit!" Sara cursed, still not moving, waiting for elaboration on Catherine's instruction.
SMACK!
Finally she realized she wasn't going to get any elaboration, and she was going to keep being spanked until she obeyed. Grudgingly she scrambled off of Catherine's lap and shuffled miserably to one corner of the room.
"Face the corner," Catherine told her, pointing toward said corner with a stern look on her face. "Hands on the back of your head."
"Why are you making me do this?" Sara asked with a frown, turning to face the corner and lacing her fingers together behind her head.
"Because I've already told you how I feel about being accused of lying. And you just accused me of patronizing you, which is something we both know I would never do. I'm insulted, and you're going to make it up to me. You're being punished and I don't want to hear another word until I ask you to speak."
Punished? That sucked. Lucky for Sara, her brain was processing the information with such focus that it left no room for words. Otherwise she may have landed herself in even deeper shit. The scowl on her face would have been comical, if anyone could see it.
Finally Sara got tired of standing in the corner and she spun around to face Catherine, who was seated on the edge of the bed watching her intensely. "This sucks!" she announced hotly, narrowing her eyes at her lover. "What kind of punishment is this? Making me stare at the wall? What the hell is the point?"
Catherine stood and walked slowly to Sara, taking her by the shoulders and calmly turning her back around. "A punishment you don't enjoy," she explained. "I've just started your time over."
"How long am I supposed to fucking stand here?" Sara asked, getting angrier by the second.
"As long as I fucking want you to," Catherine warned darkly. "Longer every time you speak or turn around." She hoped she wasn't pushing Sara too far, but she had a feeling it was okay, and returned to sit on the bed and watch her lover. She watched the tension in Sara's back and shoulders stand out like ripples on a pond. She watched Sara squeeze her fingers together so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She watched her lover's knees falter every few minutes, and watched the way Sara forcefully straightened them to keep them from buckling each time. She watched as the defiance slowly began to drain out of the beautiful woman in front of her eyes, noticed the almost imperceptible bowing of Sara's head which signaled acceptance, whether it was intentional or not. And she watched as Sara's shoulders began to lightly shake with tears. "Come here."
Sara sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, then turned around and dropped down, crawling to Catherine's side.
"Now what do you have to say?" Catherine asked, her tone not gentle but not harsh, either.
Sara nuzzled her cheek against Catherine's knees, taking a slow breath before answering. "I'm sorry, Cat," she whispered. "I know I've been saying that a lot today, but I... you were so wonderful about my scars, and I didn't know how to deal with that, so I lashed out and questioned your sincerity. I'm so sorry... I know you would never say anything untrue, even if it was to make me feel good about myself."
"You're right, I wouldn't," Catherine agreed, pulling Sara up onto her knees by her hair and leaning down herself to be eye level with her lover. "If you ever accuse me of lying or being insincere again, my hairbrush will be making an appearance that'll make Chuck E. Cheese seem like a picnic. You get that?"
Sara shuddered, her head nodding before Catherine had even finished speaking. "Yes, yes Ma'am, I get it," she assured the blonde. Again she was struck by how easy it was to make herself call Catherine 'Ma'am'. It didn't feel silly or demeaning like she imagined it would. "Thank you, Cat..."
Catherine raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
Sara wrapped her arms around Catherine's waist and laid her head on the tops of her lover's thighs. "It's what I should have said in the first place. You told me I'm beautiful, that you think my scars are beautiful, and I should have said thank you. No one has ever said that to me before and meant it. And no one has ever said anything like that about the mess on my back. But I know you mean it. I know you do, Cat. Thank you."
"How do you feel about anal sex?"
Sara choked, breaking into a spluttering coughing fit. Catherine was so damn good at taking the solemnity out of a situation by throwing out something so far out of left field that you couldn't possibly ignore, thereby making you completely forget about what you were emotional about in the first place. Finally she squeaked, "what?"
Catherine threw her head back and laughed, then dragged Sara up onto the bed with her, laying down and embracing her lover tightly. "Go to sleep, naughty girl."
"Right," Sara snorted, rolling her eyes. "Like I can sleep after that. You'll probably wake me up with anal sex before you even get my answer."
Catherine cackled gleefully, the sound musical to Sara, and it made her laugh too. "So will you wear a collar and be on my leash for the Halloween party?"
Sara had forgotten about that request, conveniently, but how could she say no? It was a delicious thought, and despite the fact that she wasn't fond of being the center of attention, she didn't think she'd mind being looked at for being on Catherine's leash. It would connect her to the blonde on a level no one could question. "Yeah," she finally answered. "I'd love to."
"Eat your salad."
"I don't want it."
"Eat it, it's good for you."
"No, I don't want it."
"Young lady, eat your salad or we'll be taking a trip to the bathroom for a spanking."
Lindsey's jaw dropped. She looked at Sara.
Sara's jaw dropped with Lindsey's, her cheeks flaming red as she quickly stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork and ate it. Talk about making her feel like a kid. And she couldn't *believe* Catherine said that in front of Lindsey. She gagged slightly as she swallowed the lettuce... she didn't like the texture.
The six and a half year old stared in wonder as the grown-up sitting next to her gagged down a bite of salad.
"Gagging, Sara? Lindsey has better table manners than you do. Really. Sit up straight and eat your salad."
"I don't like it!" Sara yelled petulantly, before she could think better of it. "It's slimy."
Catherine put down her fork and stood up, scooting out of the booth and putting her hands on her hips. "That's it. Stand up."
Sara's eyes went wide and she shook her head, grabbing up her fork again and trying to get a piece of lettuce on it. "I'm eating it!" she proclaimed a bit desperately.
"It's too late, you disobeyed me and you talked back. Now I don't think you want a spanking right here, do you? Stand up, Sara."
Sara slammed her fork down and got to her feet, thinking this was incredibly unfair. Chuck E. Cheese was supposed to be fun for Lindsey. And maybe for her too.
"Watch it," Catherine warned, grabbing her purse. She turned to Lindsey and gave her strict instructions to stay at the table and not speak to anyone.
Lindsey nodded agreeably and watched her mom drag Sara off to the bathroom. Poor Sara.
Poor Sara indeed. The bathroom was not empty, they had to wait in a short line, and Catherine already had her hairbrush out of her purse. And it was obvious she wasn't going to use it to brush her hair.
Sara stared at the floor with a frown on her face, only moving forward in line because Catherine pulled her by the elbow. When it was finally their turn, she heard a gasp of surprise from behind them as they entered the same stall.
Catherine locked the stall door and hung her purse on the hook, then turned to face Sara. "Pants down," she dictated, pointing the hairbrush toward Sara's jeans. When Sara looked like she might argue, Catherine added quickly, "don't make me tell you twice."
The brunette undid her pants and pushed them down, but she wasn't happy about it in the least. Her face was set in a scowl, her arms crossed over her chest.
"Just for your attitude? Underwear too," Cat said with a nod toward the garment in question.
The scowl escalated as Sara grabbed her underwear and jerked them down, returning her arms to the crossed position. "Whatever."
"Young lady, you had better knock the attitude off right now or you won't be sitting for lunch."
"I'm already not going to be able to sit for lunch, and everybody out there is gonna know why!" Sara whined, the scowl turning to a pitiful pout.
"You should have thought about that before you decided to misbehave." Catherine was done discussing it, and she closed the toilet seat, then sat down, pulling Sara across her lap. There would be no warm-up this time, this was going to be a quick punishment as if Sara really were a child.
After the first crack landed, Sara's hands flew back to protect her rear and she wailed into the stuffy air of the bathroom. "Noooooo!"
"You're making it worse," Catherine said calmly, pinning Sara's wrists to her back with one hand and peppering her bottom with crisp smacks of the brush with her other. Sara squirmed and kicked and vocally protested for the entire spanking, which she had never done thus far in their relationship. Cat knew this one was different, though, and that Sara needed to not want it and not like it. They both knew that.
As Catherine finished up the spanking with several sharp swats to the back of Sara's thighs, she finally spoke. "You are going to march back out to our table and eat your salad, am I clear?"
Sara howled, nodding over and over again. "Yes, yes, I'm sorry, I'll eat my salad," she promised. "I'll be good..."
Catherine helped her up and pulled her pants and underwear back into place over her bright red backside, zipping and buttoning the jeans for her. "You weren't bad, you were just a little naughty. Now go on..."
When she opened the stall door, she was so embarrassed she started to actually cry, staring at the floor as she shuffled out of the bathroom and toward their table. But she knew she'd deserved what she got, and a part of her was really glad that Catherine didn't let her get away with that bullshit. Even if she thought she might die of humiliation. She slid into the booth next to Lindsey, looking away to swipe at her tears, trying to pretend they weren't there. She was extremely surprised when she felt Lindsey's arms wrap around her.
Lindsey hugged Sara tight. "It's okay Sara, I cry when I get a spanking, too. It hurts."
Sara had no idea what to say to that, so she just nodded and swallowed before going with the truth. "I'm just embarrassed because there were so many people in the bathroom," she whispered.
"Yeah that's not very nice of Mommy." When Catherine returned to the table and sat down, Lindsey let go of Sara and crossed her arms over her chest. "Mom, that wasn't very nice of you to spank Sara when there was a lot of people. You made her embarrassed and crying."
Catherine raised an eyebrow at her daughter. "Sara needs to eat her salad," was the only explanation she offered.
"Mom that was totally not the point!" Lindsey informed her, gesturing wildly with her hands as Sara started to eat. "Couldn't she have gotten in trouble at home, or at her house?"
"Linds, I have my reasons," Catherine said firmly with a pointed look, and Lindsey got *her* point.
Sara managed to choke down the rest of her salad without further incident, and with a strained look around, she relaxed a little when no one was staring at her anymore.
"Sara, will you go in the tubes with me?" Lindsey asked hopefully when she noticed Sara was done eating.
Sara bit the inside of her cheek and glanced at the tubes in question. "Yeah, sure," she mumbled awkwardly, not wanting to disappoint Linds.
"Yeah!" Lindsey exclaimed, turning to her mother. "Can we Mommy?"
"Oh so now I'm Mommy?" Catherine asked with a smirk. "Go ahead, go ahead," she consented, nodding toward the play area. "Take good care of Sara in there..." she teased.
"I will!" Lindsey promised, grabbing Sara's hand and tugging her toward the structure.
--
Catherine watched from their table, sipping her soda and grinning like an idiot. She could see Sara crawling hesitantly through the tubes after Lindsey, glancing around nervously when they stopped in one of the 'cars' so Lindsey could pretend to drive. Really it was just a box at the end of a tube, with a steering wheel mounted on one side. Lindsey waved to her, and she waved back, her grin somehow getting even bigger at the sight. Sara was blushing, she could see it even from the table, and Cat could tell she was nervous about having too good a time in a children's playset. She waved at Sara too, and Sara shyly waved back. Then Lindsey started talking to Sara, and while she couldn't hear what her daughter was saying, she watched the transformation slowly take place in her lover. Sara listened raptly to Lindsey, her body language becoming less rigid, and tears sprang unbidden to Catherine's eyes when Sara nodded eagerly at some question or other and then switched places with Lindsey, taking hold of the steering wheel. Lindsey had asked if she wanted a turn to drive.
Up in the 'car', Sara was losing some of her inhibitions and starting to relax. Lindsey was great at having fun, and it was rubbing off quickly.
"Look out!" the little girl shrieked, ducking an imaginary object flying toward the car. She burst into giggles, flopping her head into Sara's lap. "Sara, you just drove us through a meteor shower! You shoulda turned left!"
Sara laughed too, pretending to be very serious as she replied. "I couldn't, there was a floating dinosaur blocking the way!"
Lindsey howled with laughter, clutching her stomach and kicking her feet as she rolled from side to side with her head in Sara's lap. "You're fun!" she decided once she had calmed down enough to use words.
"You're fun too," Sara agreed. "Uh oh..." She screeched the car to a stop and looked down at Lindsey. "Hurry up, that dinosaur's thinking we would make a good lunch!"
"Oh no!" Lindsey squealed, taking off out of the car and through the maze of tubes once more, with Sara hot on her heels. "Come on Sara, hurry! In here!" She found an exit and jumped into the ball pit with a squeak of delight.
Sara jumped in after her, careful not to land on Lindsey, then grabbed Lindsey and tossed her out of the way of the oncoming dinosaur. They ended up in a playful wrestling match, then had a game of basketball with the small round balls and Lindsey's hat. About a half-hour later, Catherine wandered over to the netting surrounding the pit and grinned in at them.
"Time to go, girls," Catherine announced, not surprised when Lindsey spun to face her with a pleading expression, but quite surprised when Sara did as well. She immediately laughed, shaking her head. "All right. Five more minutes, you brats," she conceded, wandering back to the table to gather up their things.
"Ten!" Lindsey called out, and she heard Sara's echoing voice agree.
"Five," she shouted back without turning around, because she knew she'd cave if she had to look at them. She heard groans behind her, then some sort of conspiratorial giggling, and she couldn't help laughing as she slid back into the booth.
Five minutes later, on the dot, Sara and Lindsey appeared in front of her. "Can we go for ice cream?" Sara asked.
"Yeah please Mom, please?" Lindsey added, jumping up and down in hopeful excitement. There was no way her mom could say no if another grown-up was asking! Even a really fun grown-up who was good at acting like a kid.
Oh boy. Catherine hadn't realized what she was getting herself into when she decided to take these two out together. But she wouldn't have it any other way, she realized with an affectionate smile. "Yeah, but only because you're so cute," she answered, tapping Lindsey's nose and standing to kiss Sara's cheek. "Let's go."
--
It was just assumed that Sara would spend the night, but Catherine and Lindsey argued over whose bedroom she was going to sleep in. Catherine only won because she pulled rank and used the hated reasoning of "because I said so".
As Sara settled down next to Catherine, she felt the inexplicable yet overwhelming urge to cuddle. Now that just didn't fit into the equation. Catherine plus Sara equals hot sex and no emotional attachment. Cuddling really did not fit. She took a shuddering breath and forced herself to stay still. But when Catherine turned on her side and reached her arms out, Sara willingly melted into them. "Don't think this means I love you," she mumbled under her breath, snuggling into Cat's side and resting her head on her lover's shoulder.
Catherine threw back her head and laughed. "Don't think this means I love you either."
--
Sara was exhausted, but as usual when not at home, she couldn't sleep. She lay staring at the ceiling for a few hours, sometimes glancing over at Catherine to watch her breathe in sleep. So calm, so peaceful - the exact opposite of their waking lives.
Finally she couldn't stand just laying there anymore, and she quietly slipped out of bed and into the bathroom, closing the door and stripping off her clothes, getting into a nice hot shower. She stood with her head down, so the water could get her hair and then cascade down the rest of her body. She was just about to reach for the shampoo when she heard the bathroom door open and close, then a rustle of clothing, and she looked up in time to see Catherine climb into the shower with her.
They locked eyes, staring in silence for a long time, and Catherine spoke first, stepping forward to touch her body to Sara's. "I want you on your knees," she whispered, snaking a hand up Sara's back to curl tightly in her dripping wet hair, made an even darker brown by the saturating water. "I want you on your knees with them spread wide, and then I want you to put your hands behind your back and lick me once."
The hot water beating down on her neck and shoulders somehow gave Sara an extra burst of confidence, and she immediately complied, sliding down to her knees and spreading them wide, then clasping her hands behind her back and leaning forward to slowly lick the length of Catherine's pussy. Her eyes closed at the exotic taste, and she shivered, but stayed still, waiting for Catherine's instructions.
"Good girl," Catherine groaned, releasing Sara's hair and just resting her hand on the back of the brunette's head instead. "Lick me again."
Sara licked her again, whimpering softly as she had to force herself to stop again and wait. Catherine felt and tasted so damn good, not to mention the way she smelled. Sara's nostrils flared slightly in an attempt to stifle some of her arousal at the scent. "Please Cat," she begged, flicking her eyes up to Catherine's.
Catherine's knees felt a little shaky, but she kept it together, managing a sultry smile down at Sara. She wanted to push, just a little. "Please Cat, what?"
Sara whimpered again, her eyelids fluttering as she struggled to keep them open. Catherine really wanted her to beg. She realized that the thought made her warm to a startling degree, and uncomfortably wet between her legs, in addition to the shower's water that had settled there. "Please Cat, let me go down on you... let me put my tongue in you... let me fuck you as hard as I want, please Catherine," she begged openly.
Catherine really liked the sound of that, but she wasn't quite done pushing. "Why should I let you?"
Sara whined, then growled. "Because I'm gonna bite you if you don't."
Catherine debated slapping her, but she didn't think Sara was ready for that yet. Instead, she was out of the shower before Sara could even try to protest. She heard a strangled cry and the water shut off. She was almost halfway down the hall, and with a sigh she turned around, intending to tell Sara to get back in the shower, but she almost fell over instead. Sara was on the bathroom floor on her hands and knees, crawling towards her. The play of muscles over her shoulder blades as she crawled was exquisite, and the rhythmic dripping of her hair on the tiles, then the hard wood of the hallway, was distracting. That wet hair draped across her eyes in curtains was almost Catherine's undoing. Sara was naked and wet, crawling toward her in the hallway. Holy shit. She was so focused on the eroticism of the situation that she almost didn't hear what Sara was saying.
"I'm sorry, Cat... I'm a bad girl... please, please, please punish me and then let me fuck you, I need to feel you around my tongue. I need to feel you cum in my mouth. I need to feel your discipline, Cat, I know I was bad and I'm sorry..." Sara shivered as she crawled slowly toward Catherine, keeping her head up to at least partially hide her scars from view.
"Jesus," Catherine whispered, watching in awe as Sara came to a stop in front of her and sat back on her heels, finally bowing her head.
"Please punish me, Cat... I can take it. I want to show you that I can do this... that I *like* this... that I'm sorry for talking back." It was hard to admit, but not as hard as she thought it would be. Her entire body was on fire, despite the chill in the air that settled around her wet, naked skin like a blanket. And she found that she was less worried about showing her scars than she was about making her indiscretion up to Catherine. It wasn't love, but it was damn good.
"How... how..." Catherine was at a loss for words, overwhelmed by Sara's pleas. She dropped to one knee and cupped Sara's face in her hands. "Sara," she began softly, rubbing her thumbs back and forth over her lover's cheeks, "I already blistered your bottom once today... it has to hurt still." She waited for confirmation, and when Sara nodded, she continued. "If I punish you, it'll be with one of my belts, and I can't see any enjoyment in that for you. The dynamic we're playing here is not one-sided, despite how it may look to people who don't understand. If you're not enjoying yourself, I don't enjoy it either."
Sara leaned into the touch with an appreciative sigh. "Once upon a time, you told me you usually enjoy getting spanked, but that sometimes you're not supposed to enjoy it."
"You haven't done anything that bad, Sara..."
Sara dropped her eyes to the floor. "It was bad enough to make you walk away from me."
Catherine had no argument for that. She tried to, but she didn't. "All right," she said slowly. "Get a belt from my closet and lay it on the bed, then bend over next to it. You may put a tank top on but nothing else."
Sara nodded wordlessly as she got to her feet, and then at the last second she rushed, "yes Ma'am," and hurried into the bedroom.
Catherine put a hand on the wall to steady herself, unprepared for Sara's words and the rush of liquid heat that twisted in her belly and settled between her legs. She took several moments to get composed, and then entered the bedroom to find Sara in a black tank top, bent over the edge of the bed, a sturdy brown leather belt laid out beside her.
Taking a deep, calming breath, Catherine stepped up behind Sara and picked up the belt, folding it in half to increase her control over the implement. "Sara, you know that what you're doing right now is submissive?"
"Yes," Sara answered, closing her eyes. She felt Catherine behind her, felt the belt in Catherine's hand even though it wasn't touching her. "I kept trying to tell myself that I would never be this way, not even for you, but sometimes I'm not a very good listener," she whispered.
Catherine laughed sweetly, tears pricking her eyes. "Thank God for that, huh?" she asked rhetorically, and then turned serious again. "What are you being punished for, Sara?"
Sara thought for a second on how best to word her reply. "For taking liberties I was not entitled to, for threatening you with physical harm, and for talking back. I'm sorry, Catherine."
"I know you are," Catherine assured her. She rested the belt over Sara's backside, the bruises already there pulling at her conscience. "Ten strokes."
Sara nodded. She knew Catherine was going easy on her with that sentence, but it was her lover's call, not hers. She wouldn't disrespect her Cat by questioning the decision.
The sting of the belt was different than the hairbrush or Catherine's hand. It was lighter than the brush, easier to take, but even so, the ten strokes left her clutching the sheets in tightly closed fists, panting out her breaths at a slightly elevated rate and rhythm. She could feel the stripes of fire licking across her ass and thighs as she breathed heavily into the bed. She liked it. "Cat, I'm sorry," she exhaled, her cheeks tinged with embarrassment. "I liked that. A lot."
Catherine could tell that Sara felt bad for enjoying what was supposed to be a punishment. She leaned over her lover from behind and nuzzled her lips against the soft, warm skin of Sara's neck. "It's okay, baby, I liked it too. And I'm glad you liked it because I'd love to do it again sometime," she purred, planting soft kisses along the top of Sara's spine. "I know you're sorry for what you did even though you enjoyed the punishment. Consider the slate clean, all right?"
"All right," Sara said, managing a weak nod, and then in a shaky voice, she added, "Cat?"
"Yeah baby?"
"Pl... please fuck me." Her voice still shook and it was barely audible, even to herself. She felt vulnerable asking, considering what had happened in the shower, but she wanted it so badly. She needed to feel Catherine inside her.
Catherine dropped her forehead to the back of Sara's left shoulder and groaned. "Just like this?" she asked, a lewd suggestion behind her words. "You like it from behind?" Her fingers snaked down Sara's back and over her backside, tickling their way across one thigh to stroke softly between her legs.
Sara breathed out slow, trying to control herself. She did not want to do or say anything wrong and make Catherine walk away again. What was a submissive thing to say? It's not like she had a lot of experience with this. Or even any examples, really. She racked her brain, finally coming up with something she thought Catherine would enjoy hearing. "I like it however you choose to give it to me," she whispered nervously. Did that sound right? God she hoped so.
Apparently Catherine was pleased with her response, because she felt Cat's fingers slide gently inside her from behind. Three of them, filling her completely, making her breath catch and forcing a shuddering moan from her chest. And then Catherine moved, and she missed the warmth of her lover's body covering her protectively, but hot breath on her abused thighs distracted her from the loss, and when Catherine started placing open-mouthed kisses on her bruises, she nearly came. She wanted to whine that it felt too good, that she couldn't take it, but she didn't. And then Catherine bit her. Hard. And curled her fingers, pressing against a very sensitive membrane. The intense, searing pain coupled with the intense, searing pleasure made her scream into the sheets, her body consumed with the white-hot pulsing fire of orgasm.
When she came down from the high, she was crying. Overwhelmed with sensation and vulnerability, satisfaction and gratitude, anger and love. She didn't want to feel that for Catherine, but how can you give yourself to someone so completely and intimately without making some kind of visceral, primal connection?
Catherine's heart seized as she noticed Sara's tears, and she pulled her fingers out, quickly sucking them clean and stifling an appreciative moan. "Hey now, what's wrong, baby?" she asked, rubbing Sara's back as she took a seat on the bed beside her lover's head.
"I could end up loving you, Cat, and I'm scared," Sara confessed without allowing herself time to invent an excuse for the tears. She didn't want to lie.
Catherine wasn't sure how to reassure Sara on that one. She couldn't promise that Sara would never love her, that would be ridiculous. Uncertain how to proceed, she just went with her instincts and pulled Sara's head into her lap, stroking her hair. The wet tears were warm on her bare thighs. "Would it be so bad if you loved me?" she finally asked.
Sara wrapped her arms around Catherine, pressing her face into her lover's belly. "I don't know," she murmured against the soft skin. "If I start to love you, and you're not on the same wavelength, it'll hurt."
"Well you can't tell your heart what to do, Sara," Catherine sighed. "All you can do is make the best of what you have right now, you know?" She paused for a minute, just looking down at the beautiful woman partly in her lap, and when Sara's eyes opened, Catherine gave her a coy smile. "Besides... I'm... pretty addicted to you," she said slowly, a soft pink tinging her cheeks at the admission.
Sara blushed as well. "What?"
"Yep," Catherine nodded, overcompensating for her discomfort by being especially confident in her next line of thought. "It's true. In fact, the Halloween party is next Friday night, and you're going to be my date."
"I am?" Sara wasn't sure if she was asking if Catherine was serious, or if she was being smug, so it came out about halfway between the two.
"You are," Catherine nodded again. "And you're going to wear what I want you to wear."
Now she knew she was being smug, but she couldn't help it. "Is that so?" Somehow Catherine had managed to quell her fears without really addressing the issue. She tried to hold back a smirk as she continued, "and what would that be, exactly?"
Catherine eased Sara's head off her lap and swung a leg over her lover's hips, straddling her and leaning down to whisper in her ear. "A collar and leash."
Good thing she was laying down, because she would've hit the floor on that one. "You're not serious," she managed to gasp around the sudden lump in her throat.
Catherine used the flat of her tongue to lick Sara's cheek, then kissed her temple. She held herself up with one hand and lightly feathered the fingers of her other hand across Sara's throat, delighting in the surprised whimper from the woman beneath her. She applied a bit more pressure and Sara started to squirm, so she backed off and kissed her sweetly, allowing her tongue to taste the fear so palpably clinging to her lover.
She kissed Sara for a long time, letting her calm back down, and then brought her fingers back to her lover's throat, barely touching with her fingernails as she raked them over the rapidly pulsing tendons.
Sara didn't know what to feel. She had never had a lover play with her throat. It caused an automatic tension, though she couldn't find a rationalization for it other than general wariness of having one's airflow cut off. It could also possibly be due to the sensitivity of the area. Whatever it was, she was on high alert, but she didn't struggle or ask Cat to stop. She trusted Catherine Willows more than she cared to admit. And that was Catherine's next question.
"Do you trust me, Sara?"
"Yes."
There was no hesitation in Sara's answer, and that thrilled Catherine on so many levels. "Good, because I would never knowingly or negligently put your life in danger. Now close your eyes, and just breathe... and trust me."
When Sara nodded and complied, Catherine scratched at her throat a bit harder, then once more hard enough to leave four red parallel lines marking her lover's skin.
Sara breathed deeply, in and out through her nose. She could feel the welts being left by Catherine's fingernails, and when she imagined what they would look like, a soft moan escaped her and she arched into the touch.
Catherine could feel the tendrils of dominance flare up in her blood. "Do you still trust me?" she whispered, her hands moving down to the neck of Sara's tank top.
"Yes," Sara answered, again without hesitation, though her voice was more strained this time.
"Yes Ma'am," Catherine hissed quietly, offering the correction just as Lady Heather had done for her, taking two handfuls of Sara's tank and carefully pulling in opposite directions.
Sara squeezed her eyes shut tight and gasped in a rush, "yes Ma'am." She heard the fabric rip and felt cool air on her newly exposed flesh. She wanted to make a sarcastic remark about the price of the luxurious wife-beater tank, but this time she swallowed it down. Fingers were immediately on her nipples, clamped softly and tugging until Sara couldn't help moaning.
"Do you like that?" Catherine was positively throbbing with the power Sara gave her.
"Yes," Sara answered, arching her back, pressing her breasts more firmly into Catherine's hands.
Catherine released her nipples and gave her a slightly sharp reminder. "Yes Ma'am."
Sara winced and quickly corrected herself, surprised at how easy the word was to say to Catherine. "Yes Ma'am."
The blonde slipped the straps of the tank top-turned-vest down Sara's arms and pulled the garment out from under her lover. Sara was naked, looking nervous but flushed with excitement. "Mine," she whispered, lowering her lips to Sara's quivering stomach and placing a soft, sweet kiss there. She noticed the nasty bruise her teeth had left on Sara's thigh, and she slid down to place a kiss there as well. Sara flinched, and Cat smiled. "I think you need a matching mark on the other side," she purred, shifting her mouth to Sara's other thigh.
"No!" Sara rushed, then corrected before Catherine could do it for her. "No Ma'am, I don't. I don't need another one, really."
Catherine was fast approaching headspace and she knew she had to be careful, so she talked herself back down quickly to avoid doing something that would break the mood for Sara. They hadn't talked about safewords, so she had to stop when Sara said no or stop. Even if the 'no' was in the form of a cute and desperate protest. No meant no, no matter what form it took. As much as she wanted to sink her teeth into Sara's thigh and hear her lover scream, she held back, instead licking her way up Sara's body and kissing her deeply. "Put your hands above your head."
Sara complied.
"Tell me what you feel."
Sara exhaled through puffed cheeks, not quite wanting to spill her feelings. "I don't know."
"Uh uh uh," Catherine shook her head, raising her left hand to hold Sara's face while she lightly tapped her lover's cheek with the palm of her right. "You do know. Tell me."
Sara gasped, even though the light tap didn't hurt at all. A multitude of sensations and thoughts rushed through her head and she tried to sort them all out. "Vulnerable," she blurted. "Safe." A short pause, then, "hot. Wet. Scared. Excited. Nervous."
"Give me more than one-word answers," Catherine coaxed gently, continuing to tap Sara's cheek.
"I feel desirable, and important, like I'm the only one in your world right now," Sara breathed. "I'm afraid of disappointing you, afraid of getting slapped harder, afraid I won't get slapped harder, all at the same time."
"You are desirable, and important, and the only one in my world right now," Catherine said in a quiet voice. "And you're naked for me, Sara. Just for me, right?"
Sara bit her lip and nodded, her eyes shining and sincere.
Catherine couldn't tell if Sara was trying to get in trouble on purpose or just forgot the rules, but either way, she gave her lover a slightly harder slap to the face. "Just for me, right?" she repeated.
Sara jumped and nodded again, her pulse racing, blood pounding in her ears. "Yes, yes, just for you, Ma'am," she remembered, the words tumbling out in a rush.
"That's my good girl," Catherine purred, rubbing Sara's cheek even though she still hadn't hit her hard at all. "If you forget again, I'd like to slap you hard enough to make you remember, would that be okay with you?" There was no way Catherine was going to haul off and smack her without permission. Not with Sara's past. She didn't know what exactly might trigger a bad reaction, and she never, ever wanted to do that.
Sara's breathing picked up as she thought about whether it would be okay. If she said no, she might never know how it felt. If she said yes, and she forgot to say what Catherine wanted to hear, she was afraid how she'd take the slap. But she was curious, and turned on, and she trusted Catherine, that was already established, so again she nodded her head, completely not realizing that she was failing to answer the way Catherine wanted her to.
Catherine waited a second to see if the nod would be accompanied by any words, but it wasn't. Slightly incredulous, she gripped Sara's chin tighter with her left hand and used her right to deliver a forceful, stinging blow flat across the plane of Sara's cheek.
Sara gasped out a whimper, instantly feeling the sting of the blow as tears sprang to her eyes unbidden. She worked her jaw in an attempt to ease out the pain, but her cheek continued to throb. She choked down a moan and rasped out an apology. "I'm sorry... I didn't do that on purpose," she promised, then quickly added, "Ma'am. I didn't do that on purpose, Ma'am." Her eyes closed and her heart hammered in her chest, her brain trying to focus on anything other than the burn. But the burn was the reason for the moan she'd managed to choke down. Imagining Catherine's handprint on her face. Imagining herself on her knees, begging for forgiveness, and Catherine slapping her again because she hadn't given permission to beg. Holy fuck. Her eyes snapped open, the tears gone, and she grabbed Catherine's wrist desperately, making the blonde stroke her stinging cheek. "Oh God, Catherine," she offered in a strangled cry. "I'm falling apart."
"No baby," Catherine soothed, allowing Sara to control the movements of her hand for the moment. "You're not breaking, you're learning new things about yourself. The hidden parts of you are coming out to play, and you might feel unhinged until your desires find a permanent place. Now, if you feel bad about what we're doing, feel like it's wrong for you, just tell me and I'll stop... but I promise, you're not falling apart."
"I just-- I just don't understand why it feels so good when you hurt me," Sara finally breathed. "I never thought I'd be... I never thought I would, you know, get off on being hit. I know the science behind it, I don't have a problem with the science."
"What does the science tell you?" Catherine asked, brushing a lock of Sara's hair back from her face and then running her fingernails lightly across her lover's scalp.
"That, you know, since I was abused as a kid, grew up in a shitty household, had no control over anything, that I'm taking my power back, being hit when I say so, not when I couldn't run fast enough to avoid it." She paused, and when Catherine nodded encouragingly, she continued, leaning into the gentle touches her lover was providing. "And that's probably true. And I'd be fine with that, could totally let it go, but it doesn't stop there, Cat. It goes way beyond making up for the past. I don't just feel empowered, I feel... I don't even know what the hell I feel but whatever it is makes me hot and wet and aching for you. What I let you do to me... what I *love* to let you do to me, has nothing to do with my past, Cat. It's all here and now, and I don't understand why it feels so good."
Catherine was never one for generic answers or standard advice. She wasn't going to sit there and try to help Sara figure out why it felt so good, when there was no hope of her being any help for that. "Honey I know you're a scientist, but for God's sake, sometimes you need to let go of that compartmentalization, stop trying to rationalize, and just get the fuck off. Your brain will tell you what's up when it's ready, and you're gonna drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out before then, so just *feel*, Sidle. Let go. You're still trying to hold on to control, and I want you to let go. Don't try to make yourself fit into a box... throw caution to the wind and ride the waves of *this*, baby..." Catherine indicated herself with an arrogant grin.
Sara rolled her eyes and groaned. "If your head gets any bigger it won't fit in the room..."
Catherine's grin grew and she kissed Sara. "I love you," she laughed.
For a brief second Sara's mind went into overload and her body stiffened, but she forced herself to calm down and instead of freaking out, she easily flipped their positions and pinned Catherine to the bed, her lover's wrists held firmly on either side of her head. "Don't say that," she growled, licking Catherine's lower lip with just the tip of her tongue. Her grip tightened around Cat's wrists.
Catherine struggled to lift her head and capture Sara's tongue, but the brunette was amazingly strong and determined, and she got absolutely nowhere. So she pushed a knee up between Sara's legs.
Sara groaned again, this time for an entirely different reason, and dropped most of her weight onto Catherine's body. "Cheater."
Catherine wriggled and rubbed her knee back and forth, with some difficulty due to Sara's weight pressing down on her.
"Don't make me spank you," Sara teased.
Cat's first instinct was to say something like 'for the love of God, no', but she decided that she wasn't going to play it that way this time. "Did you just threaten me, little girl?" she growled, her eyes shining bright with promise and intent.
Sara's breath caught and she stared at Catherine, having expected a much more light and playful response, maybe even for Catherine to beg her not to do it... but this... wow. She eased her grip until she was no longer holding her lover's wrists, then slowly sat up and shook her head.
Cat followed her up to a sitting position and took hold of her chin, applying a firm, swift slap to her cheek once again, reveling in Sara's sharp exhale. "Over my lap."
"Cat, I'm naked," Sara protested, her eyes wide and filled with tears, though they were only an automatic physical reaction to the slap. Like when you get something in your eye.
Catherine slapped her again, harder, feeling her palm start to sting. "Over my lap, Sara."
Sara cried out, her face turning sideways away from Catherine, her breathing labored. She could do this. Her cheek hurt like hell and the throbbing in her face matched the throbbing between her legs. She said nothing, could not look at Catherine as she slid off her lap and laid across it instead. Well this was it. All of her horrible scars on view for her lover. She'd either get pity or disgust. People who had seen them were always either overly apologetic or immediately turned off. She had just learned to hide them to avoid going through that.
"I don't like having to tell you twice. What do you have to say for yourself?" Catherine asked, determined not to be like everyone else when it came to dealing with Sara's physical scars.
Sara blinked, confused for a moment, sure Catherine couldn't be talking about anything other than what she saw. But apparently she was, and Sara felt herself smiling into the sheets. "I'm sorry, Ma'am," she said, hoping her giddiness wasn't portrayed in her voice.
"I should hope so," Catherine scolded, running her fingertips up and down one of the scars. "What made this one?"
Sara tensed. "Broken beer bottle."
Catherine continued to trace it, scratching lightly with her fingernail every so often. "Now it's mine."
"What?" That was certainly new and unexpected.
"This scar, it's mine. When you think of it from now on, you'll feel my tongue, my fingers, my teeth... not a broken beer bottle." She let her words sink in while she slowly scratched the length of the scar, which stretched from Sara's left shoulder down to her left hip in a jagged sort of pattern. "Understand?"
Sara willed herself to stop shaking so she could answer the question, but to no avail, so she had to answer with a shaky voice. "Yes Ma'am."
Catherine licked her fingers and traced the mess of scars covering Sara's back, causing the skin to glisten lightly with her saliva. "Beautiful," she murmured, meaning so many different things about Sara.
"They're not beautiful," Sara snapped, her voice suddenly full of acid. "Don't pretend on my account, I already know how ugly they are."
SMACK! "Don't you dare tell me that any part of you is ugly," Catherine scolded, her hand falling crisply over Sara's bruised bottom. "Not even your scars." SMACK! "They are a part of you, and that makes them beautiful, and sexy, and unique. Each one tells a story that helped make you the woman you are, and there is nothing ugly about that." SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
"Ow! C-aaaaah! Cath-ahh! I thought you were just-- ow, Cat! I thought you were just trying to be different! I didn't know you really meant it... I thought you were patronizing me, I'm sorry!"
"You're going to be," Catherine promised. "Go stand in the corner."
"What?"
SMACK!
"God damnit!" Sara cursed, still not moving, waiting for elaboration on Catherine's instruction.
SMACK!
Finally she realized she wasn't going to get any elaboration, and she was going to keep being spanked until she obeyed. Grudgingly she scrambled off of Catherine's lap and shuffled miserably to one corner of the room.
"Face the corner," Catherine told her, pointing toward said corner with a stern look on her face. "Hands on the back of your head."
"Why are you making me do this?" Sara asked with a frown, turning to face the corner and lacing her fingers together behind her head.
"Because I've already told you how I feel about being accused of lying. And you just accused me of patronizing you, which is something we both know I would never do. I'm insulted, and you're going to make it up to me. You're being punished and I don't want to hear another word until I ask you to speak."
Punished? That sucked. Lucky for Sara, her brain was processing the information with such focus that it left no room for words. Otherwise she may have landed herself in even deeper shit. The scowl on her face would have been comical, if anyone could see it.
Finally Sara got tired of standing in the corner and she spun around to face Catherine, who was seated on the edge of the bed watching her intensely. "This sucks!" she announced hotly, narrowing her eyes at her lover. "What kind of punishment is this? Making me stare at the wall? What the hell is the point?"
Catherine stood and walked slowly to Sara, taking her by the shoulders and calmly turning her back around. "A punishment you don't enjoy," she explained. "I've just started your time over."
"How long am I supposed to fucking stand here?" Sara asked, getting angrier by the second.
"As long as I fucking want you to," Catherine warned darkly. "Longer every time you speak or turn around." She hoped she wasn't pushing Sara too far, but she had a feeling it was okay, and returned to sit on the bed and watch her lover. She watched the tension in Sara's back and shoulders stand out like ripples on a pond. She watched Sara squeeze her fingers together so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She watched her lover's knees falter every few minutes, and watched the way Sara forcefully straightened them to keep them from buckling each time. She watched as the defiance slowly began to drain out of the beautiful woman in front of her eyes, noticed the almost imperceptible bowing of Sara's head which signaled acceptance, whether it was intentional or not. And she watched as Sara's shoulders began to lightly shake with tears. "Come here."
Sara sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, then turned around and dropped down, crawling to Catherine's side.
"Now what do you have to say?" Catherine asked, her tone not gentle but not harsh, either.
Sara nuzzled her cheek against Catherine's knees, taking a slow breath before answering. "I'm sorry, Cat," she whispered. "I know I've been saying that a lot today, but I... you were so wonderful about my scars, and I didn't know how to deal with that, so I lashed out and questioned your sincerity. I'm so sorry... I know you would never say anything untrue, even if it was to make me feel good about myself."
"You're right, I wouldn't," Catherine agreed, pulling Sara up onto her knees by her hair and leaning down herself to be eye level with her lover. "If you ever accuse me of lying or being insincere again, my hairbrush will be making an appearance that'll make Chuck E. Cheese seem like a picnic. You get that?"
Sara shuddered, her head nodding before Catherine had even finished speaking. "Yes, yes Ma'am, I get it," she assured the blonde. Again she was struck by how easy it was to make herself call Catherine 'Ma'am'. It didn't feel silly or demeaning like she imagined it would. "Thank you, Cat..."
Catherine raised an eyebrow. "For what?"
Sara wrapped her arms around Catherine's waist and laid her head on the tops of her lover's thighs. "It's what I should have said in the first place. You told me I'm beautiful, that you think my scars are beautiful, and I should have said thank you. No one has ever said that to me before and meant it. And no one has ever said anything like that about the mess on my back. But I know you mean it. I know you do, Cat. Thank you."
"How do you feel about anal sex?"
Sara choked, breaking into a spluttering coughing fit. Catherine was so damn good at taking the solemnity out of a situation by throwing out something so far out of left field that you couldn't possibly ignore, thereby making you completely forget about what you were emotional about in the first place. Finally she squeaked, "what?"
Catherine threw her head back and laughed, then dragged Sara up onto the bed with her, laying down and embracing her lover tightly. "Go to sleep, naughty girl."
"Right," Sara snorted, rolling her eyes. "Like I can sleep after that. You'll probably wake me up with anal sex before you even get my answer."
Catherine cackled gleefully, the sound musical to Sara, and it made her laugh too. "So will you wear a collar and be on my leash for the Halloween party?"
Sara had forgotten about that request, conveniently, but how could she say no? It was a delicious thought, and despite the fact that she wasn't fond of being the center of attention, she didn't think she'd mind being looked at for being on Catherine's leash. It would connect her to the blonde on a level no one could question. "Yeah," she finally answered. "I'd love to."