“Good yes, not exactly what I expected though. In all my fantasies about living a DD lifestyle, I never really thought I’d get a punishment spanking. Or at least, I didn’t spend too much time thinking about what that would be like.”
Traci smiled and nodded. “Yes, punishment isn’t fun and sexy, and it’s not supposed to be, but I think it does increase the intimacy between partners, don’t you agree?”
“Oh yes.” Nancy flushed again, remembering how she and Sebastian went at it right after the spanking, and almost every night since. “It’s definitely improved our love life.”
“That’s very good. It sounds like you made it over that very large hurdle pretty easily. I think the problem was that even though you were telling him you wanted him to take charge and lead, your actions were completely the opposite of that. Instead of trusting him enough to talk to him, you assumed he would never consider moving to Corbin’s Bend and took the choice away from him, taking everything into your own hands and making a huge, life changing decision without his knowledge.”
Nancy nodded. “I would agree with all that. I never gave him the opportunity to lead before, and then I just forced us here, without consulting him.”
“You can’t do that anymore. You have to submit to his leadership. It might be difficult for you since you’re a driven woman, used to making her own decisions,” Traci cautioned.
“We’ve already had a situation where he put his foot down and made a decision that wasn’t what I thought I wanted,” Nancy admitted. “I had to consciously take a step back and make myself stop arguing. Remind myself that I asked him to step up, and I couldn’t change my mind the first time we didn’t agree.”
“What happened?” Traci asked, looking concerned.
“I told him I wanted to leave Corbin’s Bend. That I couldn’t take living here and having people know every time I did something wrong.” Nancy felt ridiculous relaying the story of how she’d balked at the first challenge, but Traci reassured her it was normal.
“It will take time, patience and hard work to get your relationship to where you both want it to be, and it’s normal to be afraid of a new lifestyle. But I think he handled it the right way. How do you feel now that it’s been a couple of days? Do you still want to leave?”
“No, definitely not. And Sebastian was correct in saying I’d be disappointed in both of us if he gave in and moved us back home. I didn’t like him telling me no in that moment, but it was the right decision for our family.” It had only taken Nancy a few hours to come to that realization. Once she calmed down and remembered all the reasons why she wanted to live in Corbin’s Bend, she’d thanked Sebastian for standing his ground.
“It certainly sounds like you two are on the right path,” Traci said, digging into her neglected sushi. “We’ll keep meeting once a week for a while, and you can tell me anything you want, or ask any questions that may come up. Sound good?”
“That sounds great, Traci. Thank you so much,” Nancy said, meaning every word. “I really appreciate your help. I’m sure we’re going to face more challenges ahead, but I’m willing to put in the work to make this lifestyle work for us.”
Sebastian pulled into the driveway, parking behind Nancy’s new car, at four o’clock the following Friday, surprised to find her home so early.
“Daddy! Mommy’s home early!” Chloe cried, unbuckling her seat belt and dashing out of the truck and into the open garage.
Sebastian took his time gathering up the paperwork sitting on the passenger seat, careful not to drop anything out of the carefully organized stack. He also took that time to prepare himself for the argument he suspected was waiting for him inside the house. He hoped it wouldn’t happen, but doubted Nancy would be able to bite her tongue and keep her thoughts to herself.
He locked the doors and walked up the driveway, not rushing but not dawdling either. When he entered the garage, he heard Nancy shriek through the kitchen door that Chloe had left wide open in her eagerness to get in the house.
“Oh my goodness, Chloe! What happened to your hair?”
Luckily, Chloe was either too young or too excited to notice the hint of distress in her mother’s words. Sebastian found them in the living room, Chloe showing off her new bob haircut by twirling around so the ends slapped against her cheeks, and Nancy sitting straight up on the couch, a look of horror peeking out from behind the hands covering her cheeks.
“Isn’t it great, Mommy? Daddy finally let me get my hair cut!”
“But your beautiful hair, Chloe,” Nancy lamented, oblivious to her daughter’s joy. “Why would you do that to your hair?” Chloe’s face fell at Nancy’s obvious disapproval. “And you!” Nancy turned her focus to Sebastian. “Why would you do this?”
He fought to stay calm even though he had a sudden urge to shake her. The salon trip had been a spur of the moment decision, not an intentional deception. The day was brutally hot and Sebastian couldn’t take one more minute of seeing his baby girl miserable and sweaty. And Chloe was so excited to go to the salon and look through the books the stylist showed her to pick out her new haircut.
“I think Chloe’s hair looks beautiful, and she’s wanted to get her hair cut for a really long time, Nancy. It was too hot and too heavy.” She opened her mouth to speak again but Sebastian cut her off. “Don’t you think it looks beautiful like this too, Nancy?” He pointedly glanced at Chloe, who looked ready to cry, all of her excitement gone. If Nancy didn’t get with the program soon, he was going to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of the room before she upset Chloe further.
Luckily she caught his meaning and softened her attitude when she saw Chloe watching her with shimmering eyes. “Yes, I do think it looks beautiful like this. Come here, baby, let me look closer.” She held out her arms and Chloe reluctantly trudged over. “I’m sorry, sweetie, you just surprised me.” Nancy gave her a tight hug before releasing her. “Let me see it all, spin around.”
Sebastian sighed in relief when Chloe smiled again and started shaking her head so hard she made herself dizzy. He retreated to the kitchen and started pulling out the chicken and vegetables he’d cut up and marinated earlier, thankful Nancy hadn’t made a bigger scene.
After dinner, Nancy helped Chloe take a bath while Sebastian cleaned up the kitchen, then they read Chloe a story together and tucked her into bed. Before Nancy made herself comfortable on the couch, Sebastian stopped her.
“We need to go downstairs.”
Her face twisted in confusion at his demand. “What? Why?”
“We need to have a maintenance session.” He’d meant to have one last weekend but Nancy had been nervous about starting work, and they’d had such a wonderful week together with her off, that he didn’t want to ruin the mood. But he agreed with Brent that it was needed, and her attitude slip earlier reinforced that belief. Just the night before he’d met with his mentor, Sean Campbell, who also happened to be married to a driven, independent woman, and he’d agreed that Nancy would benefit from regular reminders to keep her on track. Sean’s wife, Traci, was naturally a more submissive person, and had more experience living in the lifestyle, so they didn’t use maintenance in their relationship, but he was familiar with the concept and knew other couples that employed it with good results. Nancy’s hours researching online were not nearly the same as living DD, and Sebastian wanted to make sure she remembered he was her HOH.
Nancy screwed up her face like a child and almost had him laughing. “I don’t want maintenance.”
“It doesn’t matter what you want, Nancy,” he reminded her. “You agreed to it, and I happen to think you need it so let’s go downstairs.”
“I’m really not in the mood for a spanking, Sebastian.”
She’d gone from petulant and pouting to dismissive in thirty seconds flat, and there was no way Sebastian was tolerating any of it. “You’d better get downstairs right now, young lady, or else this will go from maintenance to punishment.” He stayed calm but made sure ever
y word he spoke sunk in to her stubborn brain.
Her shocked expression and sputtering ‘But, but’, confirmed she understood he was serious.
“No buts, Nancy. You not only agreed to this lifestyle, you asked for it, and you can’t just want it when it’s convenient for you. I’m the Head of Household, and I say it’s time for a spanking.”
He didn’t know what he looked like, but whatever she saw convinced her not to argue further. She turned and trudged down the basement stairs, Sebastian following closely, making sure the door shut firmly behind them.
She paused in front of the table and chairs, looking anywhere but at him, arms crossed tightly in front of her. Sebastian could tell she was equal parts nervous about the spanking and pissed off that he didn’t give in to her refusal.
He strode past her and took his seat, patting his lap. “Come here and get over my knee, Nancy.”
She’d changed into short cotton shorts before dinner so he let her leave them on, for now. They wouldn’t offer much in the way of a barrier to his palm, and it wasn’t meant to be a punishment spanking. Just a reminder of their roles to keep her focused.
As she wiggled into position, Sebastian appreciated the view of her rounded bottom, womanly and full, jiggling slightly as she found a comfortable spot.
“Now,” he began once she’d settled. “We’re going to do these sessions every week from here on out so that we both stay on track in this relationship. I don’t expect you’ll be receiving very many punishment spankings so these weekly sessions will help us remember our roles in this relationship. And when I say it’s time, it’s time. I don’t expect there to be any argument. Absent a good excuse, and not just that you’re not in the mood, when I tell you to go down to the basement, you will go. Do you understand?”
When she didn’t respond right away, Sebastian landed a swift blow on her backside, prompting her to squeal, “Yes, I understand.”
“If you refuse again, we’ll add some punishment onto the maintenance, understand?”
This time her response came quickly, without any prompting. “Yes.”
“Good, then let’s get started.” Without any further warning he began peppering her behind with swift smacks, making sure to warm her up evenly as he’d been instructed. For the first minute or two she barely responded, but once he started increasing the force, she started squirming in discomfort.
Smack. Smack. Smack.
He incrementally increased the strength of his blows until she cried out, “Ow, ow! It hurts!”
After one more on each of her lower thighs, he paused, resting his arm across her bottom and gripping her hip so she didn’t get the mistaken impression that they were finished.
“I also want to talk to you about your reaction to Chloe’s haircut. I appreciate that you reined it in eventually, but what you let out was bad enough. I’ve spoken to you before about cutting her hair so it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to you.”
“I thought you knew I didn’t want her hair cut,” she replied. “I like her hair long.”
“I know that, Nancy, but she doesn’t like her hair long. It gives her a headache when I put it up, but when it’s down, it makes her hot and sweaty. I was sick of her being on the verge of tears because of her hair.”
“But she looks so cute with long hair!” Nancy protested, earning her a swift volley of spanks.
“Listen to yourself. I’m telling you it makes her upset and uncomfortable and your response is that she shouldn’t get it cut because it’s cute? The truth is that you like long hair, and that’s fine for you, but now that Chloe has an opinion, shouldn’t she be able to have her hair how she wants it? Within reason of course.”
When she didn’t respond for several minutes, Sebastian thought he’d have to resume the spanking to make his point, but then he heard her sniffle and decided to wait it out.
Finally, after another long minute, she wailed, “I’m a terrible mother!”
Sebastian bit the inside of his cheek, trying not to chuckle at her dramatics. “You are not a terrible mother.”
“I am. I’ve been so selfish, thinking only about what I want, even when you were telling me why she wanted her hair cut.”
“That’s why I made the decision to go to the salon today. That’s why I’m the HOH. So I can make the right decisions for our family. Even about little things like haircuts.” He rubbed her back as she cried, letting her get it all out. He wasn’t going to try to console her though. Even though it wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things, and she certainly wasn’t a horrible mother, this was one little piece of control that she needed to give up. Chloe was getting older, and they both needed to take her thoughts and feelings into consideration – sometimes.
When she calmed down a few minutes later, he spoke again. “I did have to put my foot down today when she picked a pink striped Mohawk out of the book.”
That earned him a giggle. “I could definitely picture her trying to talk you into something like that.”
“Well, she has her mother’s skills of persuasion. Luckily I can outwit a five year old.”
“How’d you manage that?”
Sebastian could tell she was smiling now. “Ice cream.”
Nancy laughed out loud, before meekly asking, “Can I get up now?”
“Yes, as long as we’re on the same page about maintenance and questioning my decisions.”
“We are,” she assured him, nodding her head so vigorously her whole body shook.
“Then we’re done.” He helped her up to a standing position in between his knees and wiped her damp cheeks. “I love you, Nancy.”
She leaned forward and twined her arms around his neck, bending forward slightly to give him a kiss. “I love you too, and I’m sorry for trying to talk you out of my spanking.”
“I forgive you. Just don’t let it happen again,” he warned.
“I won’t, I promise.”
Chapter 9
By the end of August they’d settled in nicely, adjusting to their new home and way of life. Nancy loved her job at the clinic, enjoying how the slower pace and small town allowed her to bond with her patients, and the community in general. She worried she’d miss the hustle and bustle of her old job, but being able to connect with the people she served made up for losing the adrenalin fueled challenges she’d had at the hospital. It took her a little while to get used to everyone knowing her name and what she did for a living, but it wasn’t long before she began to look forward to the random conversations while waiting in line to check out at the market with people she didn’t know. It wouldn’t be long before she’d recognize everyone on sight too.
Plus, having a regular work schedule and a predictable week provided more benefits to her family than she could count. She and Chloe were able to spend quality time together, and she felt like their relationship had grown much closer in the past few weeks. Seeing Sebastian more often also had its own benefits, especially after one of her maintenance sessions. For as much as she balked at it the first time, she now looked forward to their weekly appointment. Sure the spankings hurt, but they helped her relieve stress and reminded her that Sebastian was in charge, just the way she liked it. Plus, the intimacy and closeness they shared afterwards shot their sex life through the roof. It was almost like they were back in college, barely able to keep their hands off of each other.
Sebastian spent his days with Chloe at the Community Center pool or the park, meeting new people and getting to know the town in his own way. Now that Nancy was home in the evenings he was also able to go hang out with the guys in the man cave, watching a game or doing whatever else it was that men did there. Nancy suspected that they shared more than she would have liked but he remained tight lipped whenever she asked, never telling her what the guys discussed. But she couldn’t be mad since she didn’t tell him everything she and the other women talked about when they met for sushi and wine.
Summer was swiftly winding down, and it was the perfect time to inv
ite some of their new friends over for a cookout as a way to thank them all for welcoming her and her family to Corbin’s Bend and helping them adjust. Best of all, Regan was flying into town tomorrow for a visit.
When Regan first began calling a few days after they moved, Nancy ignored her calls. After a week, the guilt of blowing off her best friend won out, and she answered but made excuses to hang up in a hurry when Regan started asking too many questions. Since then, they’d played phone tag, with Regan doing the bulk of the tagging and Nancy running away.
Finally, last week, Regan left a terse voicemail informing Nancy she’d booked a flight and a hotel room in Denver, and would arrive Saturday morning. And that Nancy had a lot of questions to answer.
Finding out that the trip was booked and Regan would come whether Nancy liked it or not was a relief. Obviously Regan had discovered what sort of place Corbin’s Bend was, and the fact that she was traveling cross-country to see Nancy had to mean that Regan didn’t think she and Sebastian were weird… Right?
It didn’t matter at this point since Regan would arrive tomorrow morning. Nancy took Friday off to get ready for the cookout and Monday to catch up with Regan. Although she’d made new friends in Corbin’s Bend, she looked forward to spending time with someone she’d known for years.
Nancy jumped in the car shortly after ten to head to Denver to do a large grocery shop. Not only did she need everything for the party tomorrow, but Nancy planned to have Regan over for dinner several times during her visit, and the markets in Corbin’s Bend just didn’t have everything she wanted.
Even in Denver she ended up going to three different stores to find just want she needed. First the party store to purchase plastic tablecloths, plates, silverware, and cups. Plus coordinating napkins – beverage and luncheon sized. Then on to the beverage center for soda, water, and beer. Sure she could have purchased the drinks at the grocery store but the beverage center had a better selection and was cheaper. Finally she made it to the grocery store almost a half-hour behind schedule already, and it was there she discovered she’d left her cell phone at home in her rush to run out the door.
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