Matt shrugged. “I suggested that Grant ask Brent, but Brett pointed out that he’d taught me, and there was no reason I couldn’t teach Grant myself.”
“True,” Lelo agreed. Addressing Grant, he added, “Taylor, isn’t it?”
Grant nodded. “I’m Grant Taylor, just moved in last week.”
“I thought I remembered you,” Lelo told him. “Lelo Stevens, I’m on the housing board. We met when you came for your interview back in the spring. We’re glad to have you here. Are you settling in okay?”
“It’s been great,” Grant replied.
“Glad to hear that,” Lelo said. “Why don’t you both hop in, and I’ll give you and your buddy in the back a lift around to Matt’s house.”
Matt climbed in without hesitation. Grant followed suit, despite his initial momentary alarm at the notion of a virtual stranger offering them a ride. Mere moments later, Lelo was pulling up in front of Matt’s house.
They hauled the dummy out of the back of Lelo’s truck and walked it inside. Lelo gave them a friendly wave and disappeared down the street. Once inside, they deposited the dummy on the sofa in the living room. Matt once again offered him a drink, and this time Grant took him up on it. He was a little surprised when Matt gave him a choice of soda or water. After all, Matt had readily offered him a beer earlier so clearly he had no problem with alcohol. His surprise most of shown on his face because Matt explained, “If you’re going to do this, either for play or for punishment, but especially when it comes to administering discipline, you always want to do it with a clear head. You should never dole out physical punishment if you’ve been drinking or if you are too emotional for whatever reason to think clearly.”
Grant nodded. That made sense. He was well aware that this had the potential to go bad and do real damage. He never wanted that to happen.
“If you’re too angry to be in control, then give yourself time to calm down. Take a walk. Go for a run. Do whatever you need to do, but don’t ever lay a hand on your partner when you’re angry,” Matt continued. “That’s not always easy. In my experience, my wife knows me better than anyone else and can push my buttons the way that no one else can, but that’s part of your responsibility. She’s trusting you and making herself vulnerable to you. You have to stay in control. I’ll tell you right now, if I ever find out you took a hand to Lainie in anger, I’ll kick your ass myself.”
“Got it, and thanks,” Grant replied. To someone else, that might’ve sounded strange, but Grant meant it. He liked knowing that there was someone else who would protect Lainie, even from him if it came down to it. He intended to make sure that that was never necessary, but he appreciated both the warning and the protectiveness behind it. Matt clearly understood because he simply nodded, grabbing a bottle of water and going back in the living room. Grant followed, downing most of his own bottled water along the way. Matt sat down on the sofa next to the practice dummy. “Probably the most basic and traditional way to go about spanking is taking her over your knee.” He positioned the dummy over his own knee in illustration. “It’s a classic for a reason. It’s easy to hold on to her.” He wrapped his arm around the dummy, grasping at the hip and pulling it close to his stomach. “If kicking and moving around becomes a problem you can even put her legs under yours like this.” He lifted his free leg and clamped it over the dummy’s legs. “It gives you a lot of control. It’s the position I normally use or else I have her lean over the bed.”
“That’s what we did when we were playing around with fun spanking,” Grant told him. “I didn’t even really think about it. It seemed natural.”
“It is pretty natural,” Matt agreed. “I’m assuming you used your hand in that instance.”
“Yeah,” Grant replied. “Like I said, we don’t have a lot of implements or toys.”
“You don’t necessarily need them,” Matt said. “Your hand can work perfectly well for discipline too. It’s just more force and speed without the breaks and rubbing and teasing that I’m sure went along with your play.” He gave Grant a knowing look and a teasing grin.
To his complete mortification, Grant found himself blushing like a schoolboy. For crying out loud, he hadn’t been this shy and awkward since he was a teenager. “What about implements?” he blurted, desperate to change the subject.
Mercifully, Matt took the hint. “In this position, you need something that doesn’t necessarily take a lot of room to swing, a small paddle, a ruler, a hairbrush maybe.” They discussed the options for a few minutes more and then Matt stood up. “Okay, your turn.” Even though Grant protested that he already had experience with this position and didn’t need practice, Matt insisted. Grant reluctantly took a seat, pulled the dummy over his lap, and began to spank it. Matt offered several suggestions and tips on where and how to aim for the greatest impact. At first, he felt utterly ridiculous, but after a few moments, the strangeness began to wear off, and he realized he really was becoming more comfortable and confident in his own ability to do this without causing damage.
And so it went. From there, Matt positioned the practice dummy in different ways, demonstrating different positions, even moving it around the house. He bent it over the arm of the couch, and over the table in the kitchen. He leaned it against the counter in the kitchen, and laid it across the bed, hips propped up with pillows. He had Grant practice with a variety of different implements as well. The heavy Corbin’s Bend paddle, a lightweight wooden paddle not all that different from the one Grant remembered his father having, a wooden spoon, even a belt, until Grant was at least relatively comfortable with each one. As Grant had expected, he was the most comfortable with the paddles. They were what he remembered being used within his own family, and they just felt right, especially the smaller one. He said as much to Matt, who nodded.
“Most of us have certain implements or positions that we like more than others,” Matt agreed. “More often than not I stick to my hand, but it is important not to become too predictable. If you become too predictable, she may start to weigh whether or not what she’s doing is worth what she knows you’re going to do. That’s just going to lead to frustration for both of you. You want to keep her guessing about what you’re going to do.”
Grant frowned. Just before they had left the dome, Jonathan had pulled him aside and quietly explained to him that from the TiH side of things it was very important for an HoH to be consistent. Setting rules without enforcing them or only enforcing them some of the time was confusing and could make it hard to trust your HoH’s word. Now, Matt was saying to keep them guessing. How was that supposed to work?
“What is it?” Matt asked.
Grant shrugged. “It’s nothing really. Jonathan just said something earlier about being consistent.”
“He’s right,” Matt replied. “That’s one of the hardest things to do, but it’s also one of the most important. She has to know that if you tell her something is going to happen or you’re going to do something that you will.”
“So how does that gel with what you just said about keeping them guessing?” Grant wondered. “It seems like conflicting advice.”
“Not at all,” Matt explained. “You do need to be consistent. If Lainie breaks a rule there needs to be a consequence every time. She should be absolutely sure that there will be a consequence, but she should never be too confident in exactly what that consequence will be.”
“Except she does know, doesn’t she?” Grant countered. “I mean she knows she’ll get a spanking, even though she might not know exactly what form that will take.”
“Not necessarily,” Matt said. “Spanking is probably the most common discipline method, but it’s certainly not the only one.”
“No?” Grant said, one eyebrow raised an inquiry.
“No,” Matt confirmed. “You might have her stand in the corner or write lines. In fact, both of those can be effective in addition to a spanking. And then there’s this...” Matt had been standing up against the kitchen counter while they had t
his conversation. Now, he stood up and went to the refrigerator, pulling out an odd-looking vegetable, a brown cluster finger-like protrusions.
“What is that?” Grant asked.
“Ginger,” Matt replied, grinning. “It’s great for cooking, but it works really well for other purposes too. Ever heard of figging?”
Grant shook his head. “What does this have to do with discipline?”
Chuckling, Matt explained how ginger could be used to fashion a plug of sorts that when inserted into certain delicate places, produced an intense burning effect. “Julie has something of a love-hate relationship with ginger,” Matt admitted. “She hates it, but it gets her hot in other ways too.”
Grant grinned. “That sounds promising.”
“It is,” Matt confirmed. “Believe me, it is.” Glancing at the clock on the wall, Matt put away the ginger, washed his hands, and pulled out the ingredients for the kebabs he wanted to make for dinner. He put Grant to work chopping vegetables while he made up a quick marinade for the meat and set it in the refrigerator to marinate. “How are you feeling about this now?” he asked as they worked.
“Better,” Grant told him. “I don’t feel quite so out of my depth. At least I will have some idea what I’m doing when the time comes that I do have to discipline Lainie.”
“Maybe the two of you should consider maintenance,” Matt said. “It’s not something Julie and I do, but a lot of people say it helps them to stay connected.”
“What’s that?” Grant asked, carefully chopping a tomato.
“Basically, it’s having a system where you agree to regularly scheduled spankings.” Matt explained. “It’s not a punishment. It’s just maintaining the relationship. A lot of people say it helps to clear the air of minor things so that they don’t turn into big things. In your case, since the two of you are so new to this, it might give you a way to practice and reaffirm your roles without the pressure of having to get to a full-blown punishment.”
“That could work,” Grant said slowly, thinking it through. In fact, it just might be the perfect solution to keeping their relationship on track. It would give him a way to deal with minor things without having to make an unnecessary fuss about them. It would give them a chance to talk about the discipline aspects of their relationship and make any changes they needed to as well. Yes, this could definitely work.
“Talk to Lainie about it,” Matt said. “You’re not obligated to do anything that doesn’t work for you, But it can’t hurt to discuss it. Just make sure Lainie realizes that this isn’t meant as a punishment. Just on the practical side of things to, a maintenance spanking is not meant to be anywhere in the same category as a punishment spanking. It should be relatively mild just enough to be meaningful and reinforce what the two of you are working on.”
“Right,” Grant said, taking that in. The more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. He was increasingly convinced that this was exactly what they needed. He needed to talk to Lainie about this. Soon.
Chapter 6
Despite Grant’s intentions, it was several days before he and Lainie ever got a chance to talk. Between starting his new job and trying to get acclimated to the new house and new community, they were both extremely busy. Every time he tried to bring it up, there always seemed to be some reason it wasn’t a good time. As much as he loved his children, there were moments when Grant wish they would just go somewhere else. They were always there underfoot, and this wasn’t the kind of conversation they could have in the presence of two teenagers.
Finally, he insisted that Lainie go for a walk with him after dinner one night and hustled her out the door before she could find any reason not to. They walked together to the community park nearest their house, strolling down one of the trails until they came to a bench.
Grant took a seat and pulled Lainie down beside him. “There’s something I’d like to talk to you about,” he told her.
“What a coincidence,” Lainie said. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to talk to you about too.”
Grant smiled. Maybe this would be even easier thought. “Ladies first.”
Lainie shook her head. “No, you go ahead. What’s on your mind?”
“Now that the actual move is over,” Grant began. “I’ve been thinking about things that we can do to help our relationship be stronger. I don’t want the distance we had between us to ever be an issue again. I was talking to Matt about some things that could possibly help in one of the things he suggested was something called maintenance.”
Lainie eyed him warily. “I take it you don’t mean getting the oil changed in the car.”
“Not exactly,” Grant replied, amused. “It’s kind of like that though, only it focuses on our relationship and specifically the DD part of it. The way Matt explained it is that couples arrange a certain time, usually once a week, to go over anything that’s occurred that week and clear the slate with a spanking.”
Lainie drew away like she’d been burned. “You want to do what?” she shrieked, pushing to her feet and spinning away from him. “Let me see if I get this straight. It’s not enough that you want to give me rules and punishments as though I was a child. Now you want to schedule weekly beatings even when I haven’t done anything? Not on your damn life. That may be how the others around here keep their little women in line, but you’re out of your mind if you think you’re going to bully me like that.”
“It’s not like that,” Grant began. “This isn’t about keeping anyone in line. It’s about reaffirming our roles.”
“Oh that’s rich,” Lainie spat, “reaffirming our roles. Why don’t you just say what you mean, Grant? You want to remind me who’s in charge. Funny, didn’t one of your training classes identify that as a common abuser tactic?”
Fury shot through Grant like a lightning bolt. He moved so fast that several things seemed to happen simultaneously and without thought. He grabbed Lainie’s arm, bent her over the bench, and landed a flurry of hard swats on her backside. Before she had a chance to react, he put her back on her feet and turned her back around to face him.
“I am not abusive, not to you or anyone else,” he seethed. He was inches from her face, so close he could see her pupils dilate. “I never have been, and I never will be. Don’t you dare accuse me of that just because you’re pissed and having a tantrum. I’ve seen plenty of men bully and abuse their wives, and I am not one of them.”
Grant raked a hand through his hair and stepped back, fighting to marshal the emotion still thrumming in his veins. His breath came in harsh pants. He made himself take a deep breath and let it out slowly.
Lainie was staring at him, wide blue eyes filling with tears. The muscles in her throat rippled as she swallowed again and again, clearly fighting back sobs. She started to speak, but he held up a hand, cutting her off.
“Not now,” he said. “I know we need to talk about this, but I need some time. Just go home, please.”
“But Grant,” Lainie began.
“Just go home,” he broke in. “For once, just do what I’m asking you to do and don’t argue.”
The tears in her eyes spilled over and rolled down her cheeks, but Lainie turned on her heel and fled.
Grant watched her go. Knowing that he was the cause of her tears made his chest ache. Part of him wanted nothing more than to go after her, wrap her in his arms, and assure her that everything would be all right, but he was also far too angry to be logical right now and he knew it. First, he needed to cool off. Then, he would go after her. He turned and took off down the street in the opposite direction at a jog.
Grant had run nearly to the other end of the community by the time his anger and frustration began to recede enough for him to really think about what had just happened. Somewhere in the area near where most of the restaurants and shops were located, it dawned on him that he had just spanked Lainie for the first time ever that wasn’t a part of sex. Although as spankings went, it wasn’t much of one, more an attitude adjustment than a
true spanking. Still, it was by far the closest that he had ever come to disciplining her. Until today, he had never administered more than a single reminder swat, and that had been more of a rare impulse than on any conscious thought on his part.
Not that he had been entirely conscious this time either. He’d been so angry that he had just reacted. Suddenly, a horrifying thought occurred to him and he stopped in his tracks. He had spanked her in anger. Immediately, Matt’s warning came back to him. “I’ll kick your ass myself,” Matt had said. Grant would gladly let him. He more than deserved it. First, though, he had more important business to attend to. He needed to apologize to Lainie.
Despite being only a few minutes walk away from their house, Lainie would have sworn her trip home took an eternity. Her anger disappeared as quickly as it had come, and in its wake came a crushing guilt. How could she have possibly accused Grant of being abusive? This was the man who woke up in cold sweats from nightmares of the horrible things he had seen in the line of duty. Though he was extremely reluctant to give details, she knew enough to know that more than a few of them involved battered and abused women and children. Those were the calls that ate at him, the ones that he couldn’t seem to let go of even long after his interaction with the people involved was over. It was those haunting cases that had been the driving force between his decision to move from working as a deputy on the road first to joining the jail team and now to becoming a campus police officer.
That was the deepest and most secret part of Grant. The one that few people ever got to see and know, and she had stabbed brutally and unerringly into the heart of it. What the hell had she been thinking?
She’d had no call to react like that. As uncomfortable as it was to admit, he was right to say she’d been throwing a tantrum. She was frustrated and confused so she had lashed out, just like a toddler.
Grant wasn’t an abuser. Despite what she had said, the very idea was ridiculous. Grant would never hurt her. If anything, he was more likely to get hurt himself trying to protect her. As much as she might balk against him trying to tell her what to do, deep down she knew it wasn’t control simply for the sake of being in control. Grant wasn’t a control freak or a bully drunk on his own power. Even if she didn’t understand this crazy maintenance thing he had suddenly come up with, she did know he had never tried to force anything on her. He never had. That wasn’t what practicing domestic discipline or moving to Corbin’s Bend was about. She knew that. Maybe she hadn’t had a real idea of what she was getting into - in fact, her stinging backside was currently screaming she’d had no idea what she was getting into - but she had agreed to it. They had discussed it thoroughly, for days and weeks as they debated this move. She might not have been wholeheartedly on board, but she had agreed. They had made the decision together, just as he had been trying to make a decision together about whatever this maintenance was he was talking about.
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