by Loki Renard
The lights went up, the crowd went wild and she began to sing.
“Rodeo, Rod….”
She didn’t make it two words in before the hot lights faded, darkness swirled in and that was the last Cash knew of anything…
… until she opened her eyes in a small pleasant room. The blinds were drawn across the windows, but it was clearly a sunny day outside. She felt rested, oh so rested. There was a clean, somewhat clinical scent that told her she was probably in hospital.
“Cash.”
She looked to her left and saw Miles. He looked terrible. His face was long and drawn, strangely sallow. He was wearing a black t-shirt that looked as though it had been slept in for days and there was uncharacteristic stubble growing around his chin. In spite of his clear exhaustion, he was still handsome, his dark eyes lit with passion. Her heart rose at seeing him, then sank almost immediately when she realized she was the reason he was in such rough condition.
“Cash,” he said again. “You’re awake.”
“I am,” she agreed. “What happened?” Her memory was a blur. She thought she’d done the concert, but she didn’t really remember ever having gone on stage. The last she really remembered she was on the bus with Mattie and Miles and Kevin.
“You collapsed on stage,” Miles explained. “The good news is that the doctors have ruled out everything besides poor nutrition and overwork. You just need to keep getting rest.”
“What about the tour?”
Miles’ jaw clenched slightly and his expression grew hard at the mention of work. “The tour is over.”
“But the fans…”
“Don’t you worry about the fans,” he interrupted firmly. “You worry about you.”
Cash squirmed in bed. She suddenly had the very strong feeling that she was in trouble.
“I’m going to be making sure you eat right and get the rest you need,” he said, confirming her suspicions. “No more staying up to all hours working your little ass off, no more skipping meals.”
“I have to stay in shape,” she protested.
“And you will.”
The look on Miles’ face that told Cash there was no point arguing. Besides, she wasn’t in the mood to argue anyway. She turned on her side and gazed at Miles, reaching out for his hand.
“I’m sorry if I scared you,” she said. “I didn’t mean to faint, honest.”
“I’m sure you didn’t,” he said, his expression softening.
“Where are Kevin and Mattie? Did they go home?”
“They stuck around,” Miles said. “The rest of the tour has gone on home though.”
“That’s nice,” Cash said, smiling a little. She was glad that Kevin and Mattie hadn’t gone as well. She would have missed them.
“Mattie is driving Kevin crazy,” Miles smirked and shook his head. “Which is good for him. And for her.”
As if on cue, the sound of bickering down the hall somewhere floated through the partly open door.
“Quit smacking me!”
“Quit deserving it,” Kevin’s lower voice replied. There was another loud smack and a squeak.
“Dammit, that hurt!”
“Good.”
“You bas..”
“Shh, you’ll wake Cash.”
“She’s in a coma or something. She won’t wake up.”
“You’d wake the dead.”
Cash was grinning when they walked through the door together. Unlike Miles, Mattie and Kevin actually looked quite relaxed. Kevin was wearing his usual designer jeans and a t-shirt and he’d grown his beard out longer still. Mattie had abandoned some of her harsh Goth aesthetic in favor of a hot pink tank top and a short skirt with long winter boots, flat heeled of course. An outfit for all seasons, or no seasons, depending on how you looked at it.
“Cash! You’re awake!” Mattie flew to her and hugged her tight.
“So Miles tells me,” Cash said, smiling as Mattie hugged her. “Hi Kevin.”
“Hello Cash, glad to see you awake,” Kevin said, his pleasure showing clearly. “You gave us a fright.”
“And you gave the media lots of headlines. Did you know you’re hooked on crack cocaine? It’s true, it’s totally true,” Mattie snorted.
“Really,” Cash nodded. “Fascinating. What else have I been up to?”
“There’s also rumors of pregnancy,” Mattie added. “You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“Not unless it’s a virgin birth,” Cash murmured without much thinking about it. The silence that followed her comment made her look up into Mattie and Kevin’s slightly stunned faces. “What?”
“I thought that ‘virgin’ thing was just a tag line,” Mattie said. “I didn’t think you actually…”
“Well it’s not a topic that comes up in mixed company,” she shrugged, blushing slightly.
“You two can have your girl talks later,” Kevin said. “Cash, you need to rest. You need to get your strength back – and you need to come up with something to tell the label executives.”
“What?”
“I told you they wouldn’t be pleased,” he said grimly. “After your little fainting episode, the label started looking into this tour. They’ll be having a word to you about your off-message performances.”
“Right on!” Mattie lifted up her hand for Cash to high five her, but Kevin took advantage of the motion to draw her away with a stern scowl, his large hand wrapped around her slim wrist.
Mattie responded by kicking him swiftly in the shin. “Quit manhandling me!”
“You’ve been enough of a bad influence on Cash,” Kevin growled down at Mattie. “It’s time you stopped encouraging her.”
“You can both stop it,” Miles interjected. “She only just woke up and you’re already on her case. There will be no more work talk. If you can’t be human beings first, you can both leave now.”
To their credit, both Kevin and Mattie stopped and looked ashamed.
“For the next week,” Miles said, turning to Cash, “you aren’t Cash Raine. You’re a young lady on holiday and you’ll act like it. There will be no singing, no dancing, no writing, nothing to do with work at all. Do you understand me?”
“Yessir,” Cash agreed. “What about the executives?”
“They will wait until you’re better,” Miles said firmly.
Cash nodded outwardly, but inwardly she was consumed with fresh concern. Would the label drop her? Did they have any damn right to? She started to feel anger all over again, a growing annoyance that made her stomach feel all tight and her heart beat faster.
“Hey,” Miles interjected. “Cut it out, I can see you winding yourself up right there.”
Busted. Cash grinned apologetically, “I’m sorry,” she said, “It’s just…”
“No excuses, young lady,” Miles said. “Work will take care of itself for a few days. In the meantime you are going to have a proper holiday.”
“With me!” Mattie said, perching on the end of the bed. “You and me, Cash, we’re going to paint this village red.” She held up two fingers. “Two coats, at least.”
“The only thing getting two coats of red will be your bottoms if you don’t take it easy,” Miles interjected. “If you two break the holiday rules together, you’ll find out what its like to be spanked together.”
Mattie scowled rebelliously. “You’re not the boss of me,” she said. “The tour is over.”
“I’m the boss of you,” Kevin reminded her, his hand clamping down on the back of her neck in a way that made her give a little puppy-like yelp. “And I’m with Miles a hundred percent on this. You two can go to spas, take afternoon tea and go for country walks.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Mattie bit back smartly. “I thought we were going on holiday in Belgium, not in the year 1800.”
Cash broke into giggles as Kevin glowered at Mattie.
“Shall we also wear our crinolines? Do you want a man with a flag to walk in front of the car when we drive anywhere?” Mattie was on a roll, much to
Cash’s amusement. Even Miles, stern, taciturn Miles, cracked a hint of a smile.
“No,” Kevin replied. “But I’ll tell you what I do think is a good idea, a birch rod. That would be period appropriate and it might stop you from running your mouth.”
“Birch? Bitch, I don’t even know what that is,” Mattie replied, getting way, way ahead of herself and crossing a line she probably shouldn’t have crossed.
Kevin responded immediately and appropriately, tipping her over to slap her backside very soundly. Without her usual jeans on there was nothing to stop him from flipping her skirt up, revealing a tight round bottom covered in soft bikini panties, resplendent with a cupcake and cloud pattern. He snorted at the sight and laid his hand right across the seat of those cute panties until Mattie cried out for clemency.
“Do you understand the rules now, Mattie?” He released her, letting her skirt tip back to cover her behind.
Mattie scuttled away from him, rubbing her bottom enthusiastically. “Yeah, I get the rules, my liege.”
Kevin’s brow rose. “Sounds like little Miss Smart Ass needs a sore ass.”
“Smart ass needs a sore ass sounds like a dinosaur,” Mattie rejoined. “And I’m done with getting smacked. Smack Cash, she’s the one who got herself all worn out.”
Cash’s eyes went wide at the betrayal. She felt Miles’ large hand pat hers and turned to see him looking at her.
“Don’t worry,” he said softly. “I will be tending to Cash personally, later on.”
Cash let out a little whimper and squirmed in the bed, fighting the sudden urge to hide under the blankets. Miles looked so stern and she knew he’d been serious about her taking care of herself. Her collapse was clear evidence that she’d disobeyed him. Miles did not like to be disobeyed and he really didn’t like her to not take care of herself. All the concern she had regarding the executives was dissolved in fresh anxiety relating to a much more intimate part of her person – just what was Miles going to do to her bottom?
Chapter Fourteen
Cash was soon released from the clinic and true to his word, Miles was dead set on having her take a holiday. To that end he’d organized a holiday home in a little Belgian village, which looked to Cash like something out of a fairy tale book. It was all low ceilings and wooden beams and lead glass windows that turned the sun into a work of curling art on the polished wooden floors. She fell in love with the place almost immediately, going from room to room, drinking in the history and culture.
“It’s wonderful,” she breathed. “You can just sort of feel all the people who lived here before, can’t you? It’s as if the walls really do talk.”
“I agree,” Miles said, ushering her into the master bedroom. “This room, for instance. I imagine many naughty women have had their bottoms spanked in this room, just like you.”
She turned and looked up at him with wide, hopefully innocent eyes. “But I haven’t done anything.”
“I told you not to go on if you weren’t up to it, Cash,” he reminded her. “And I told you to make sure you got enough sleep and ate well. Instead you worked yourself unconscious.”
“I can’t help it! My job is hard!”
“It is,” Miles agreed. “Especially when you let it consume your life. I’m going to help you with that.”
Cash frowned and stomped her foot. She was feeling much healthier and she no longer saw why it was fair to get in trouble for having felt sick. “I don’t need help,” she said. “You’re just being mean.”
“And you’re trying to argue your way out of discipline,” Miles replied.
“Because I don’t need it!”
“I watched you drop on the stage as if a bullet had hit you,” he said, speaking softly. “Do you know what that felt like? To see you hurt? To see you lose consciousness altogether? To not know what was wrong? To fear the absolute worst?”
Cash looked into his eyes and saw a fraction of the concern he’d felt at the time. He still looked thoroughly exhausted, the product of days and nights of worrying about her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”
“You work yourself like you’re a machine,” he said. “You were so exhausted you just dropped and almost stopped breathing. You might be feeling well enough now, but it took them days to get you stable. You were malnourished, Cash.”
Guilt began to swallow her from the inside out, a slow creeping darkness that permeated her entire body. “I’m sorry,” she repeated softly.
“Don’t tell me you’re sorry,” he said. “You owe yourself an apology. You haven’t been kind to yourself. You haven’t even stopped to consider yourself in all of this. The music, you cared enough to do something about that, but you didn’t do anything to make sure you held body and soul together.”
“It wasn’t that bad, it was just a little exhaustion…”
“Your heart could have stopped,” he interrupted her. “You were running on fumes, Cash.” His face tightened with agitation. “The phrase ‘working yourself into the ground’ applies to you. You are on the verge of putting yourself six feet under with this lifestyle.”
“Okay,” Cash said. “Then let’s get some lunch. I’m hungry.”
It was about the only thing she could have said that would have stopped him in his lecturing, and it was effective.
Hand in hand, they walked through the little Belgian village. It was beautiful and oh so peaceful. Nobody seemed to know who she was. If they did know, they certainly didn’t care. Caught up in the natural beauty of the town that sat at the edge of a verdant valley surrounded by white tipped mountains, Cash made a silent wish that she would always be so happy. Concerts and show business seemed very far away in that place, where the only sounds were the chirping of birds and the chattering of insects.
Miles lead her to an open air tavern, where pretty ruddy-cheeked young women were serving lunches consisting of thick curled sausages, fermented cabbage and beer. She was soon presented with her own serving of the lunch, which seemed to be a one size fits all option. Cash was a little uncertain about the flagon of brown brew deposited in front of her. She looked at Miles askance.
“You need the calories,” he said. “Just go easy on it.”
The sausage was full of fat, the sort of thing Cash would normally never have eaten, but she was smart enough to sense that Miles would not tolerate her refusing food. So she made a decent attempt at it, finding that it was incredibly tasty and seasoned to perfection. The sharp tang of sauerkraut made a tasty counterpoint to the fatty sausage and, when washed down with cool beer, the meal attained a pleasing completion.
Miles said little as they ate, but Cash was happy just to sit next to him. For once she felt as if he was just a man and she was just a woman. Roles of bodyguard and starlet were forgotten as they feasted on good, simple food and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air. She found herself drifting into a little fantasy world where she and Miles were boyfriend and girlfriend, just two normal people being normal. That sounded like paradise to her.
“I think I could live here forever,” Cash sighed at the end of the meal. Her stomach was full and she was entirely content. “It’s like a fairytale.”
“It is beautiful,” Miles agreed.
There was still tension about him, tension Cash knew she had been the cause of. “I’m really, really sorry, Miles,” she said. “I just… I got so focused on work.”
He nodded. “I know,” he said, offering his hand. Together they left the little tavern and kept wandering through the village until they happened on the edge of the forest that rose up the mountainside.
“I care about you, Cash,” he said, leading her down a leafy trail. “I hope you know that.”
“I know,” she said, “and I’m sorry.”
She got the sense that they were going somewhere. Miles looked as though he had been there before, he moved with purpose as he led her down the winding trail, through the woods until they reached a glen. There, soft gr
ass filled the area open to the sun, creating a little space out of time and out of the world, a place where there was nothing but dappled sunlight and a seat created by a fallen tree.
“Do you see that tree branch?”
Cash nodded, nervous.
“You’re going to go lay over it,” Miles said. “I’m going to pull your pants and panties down and you, my girl, are going to get a switching.”
She looked at him and saw that he had something in his hand. A thin, whippy green branch, very smooth and about a foot and a half long. “You… wha?”
Taking her by the hand, he urged her over to the place of her reckoning.
“This is the perfect spot for reminding a young lady about what is important in life,” he said, pressing her gently forward over the thick log. It was so thick and round that when her hips were raised high over the center of the curve her toes did not touch the ground. She grasped at a knot in the trunk for security as Miles’ large warm hands worked her pants and panties down her thighs.
Then there was the soft brush of the breeze against her bare bottom, the gentle heat of the sun against her cheeks. She was bared, oh so publicly. As with the other times she had been spanked, she couldn’t help but notice that Miles did not acknowledge her nudity. She was shamefully exposed in the position; she knew that her downy lips and tight bottom hole were quite visible to anyone who cared to look - certainly to Miles.
“What if someone sees?” She gasped the question as he rubbed his palm over her bottom.
“All anyone will see is a naughty girl being disciplined the way all naughty girls have been disciplined since the very dawn of time,” Miles said, slapping her left cheek lightly.
Squirming, Cash felt a blush rising to her face. She knew she deserved this. She knew Miles had promised it if she did not take good care of herself. It was comforting to know that he intended to set limits for her. It was less comforting when she felt the thin switch brushing against her bottom.
Miles rested his palm on her lower back, securing her in place. “This is going to sting, Miss Raine,” he said, lapsing back into his authoritarian mode of speaking. “But you will survive it.”
