“Hi, good to see you,” Reggie said, as he and Jocelyn were ushered into the apartment. This is Jocelyn Killian, Will Kozak,” he went on to introduce the two.
Jocelyn smiled at the man. Such a contrast he was from Reggie. Relaxed and warm, with gentle eyes and a handsome face that seemed genuinely pleased with her on first impression. Will was altogether more down to earth that her own lover, a lot like men she’d been with and fought with in the past. This man could be an easy friend, though not a lover.
“Where’s Alex?” Reggie wondered.
“Recuperating.”
“From what? She been sick?”
“No, smarting.”
“Ah, I see,” he replied.
Will ushered them into the living room where they sat down on the soft leather sofa.
“You have a lovely apartment,” Jocelyn said, as she looked around. “Reggie says it’s new?”
“Just moved in two weeks ago. We have some more decorating to do; it’s a bit difficult putting two distinct and different styles together. Alex and I struggled with that for years, so this time we decided to start over with a completely new place and see if we could make it work without a lot of past shit getting in the way…that is ‘past shit’ both physically and metaphorically,” he added with a grin.
Reggie seemed to appreciate the comment, though Jocelyn wasn’t sure what he meant.
“I’ll go see if I can get my bride.” Will excused himself and disappeared into the bedroom.
“What did he mean by that last comment,” Jocelyn asked Reggie.
“Will and Alex broke up for a while a year ago, and they just got married a couple of months back. I suppose they’re trying for a fresh start.”
“I see,” Jocelyn replied.
Reggie didn’t comment more.
When Will appeared again, Alex was at his side. Her smile was soft, though her blue eyes were not sharp and clear as Reggie was used to seeing. She looked like she’d been crying. Her blonde hair was held back in a clip, her makeup fresh, and the short blue dress she wore showed off her lovely long legs.
“So you’re recuperating I hear,” Reggie said, rising from his seat for a quick embrace and kiss on the cheek.
“You checking up on me?”
The remark was just a little too sharp to suit Will and he glared at her.
“Oops, I’m suppose to behave myself,”
“Since you haven’t been?” Reggie asked.
“Oh, I have been. I’m being the model wife, believe me. Will’s going to think I’m boring before long I’m so damn good.”
“Sure,” Will said sarcastically.
“Let me see your ass,” Reggie said.
“Oh Reggie, no, please!” Alex quickly retorted, though she tried to keep the comment playful.
“Show him, Alex,” Will interrupted.
She blushed easily, her neck and face turning a little more pink.
Reggie sat back down next to Jocelyn, while Alex turned around and pulled up her skirt. She was naked underneath, except for garter belt and hose. Without her panties, it wasn’t difficult to see where she’d been spanked. There was just a faint pink remaining, less vivid than her blushing face; but there were a few spots where the skin had been especially roughed up. The evidence might last a while.
“Pretty as ever,” Reggie remarked.
“I’m sure you’d think so,” Alex replied. She stood up quickly, and then plopped herself on the couch opposite her former dominant.
“She’s on her best behavior tonight,” Will informed him. “On threat of getting caned if she doesn’t behave. Keep an eye on her while I’m in the kitchen, will you?”
“Despite your current woes, Alex, you two do look happy,” Reggie remarked.
“Thank you for saying so,” Alex said, as if she was genuinely surprised that Reggie would even mention their domestic bliss. Meanwhile she eyed the auburn hair woman at Reggie’s side, not his usual sophisticated date – that is when he actually dated. She was far more basic in her appearance. She was beautiful as Alex would expect, the gorgeous hair, the green eyes…Alex could be instantly envious, but she wasn’t, seeing the kind of pair the two made.
“Have you and Reggie been together long?” she asked the lovely redhead.
“It’s hard to describe when we got together,” Jocelyn began. As soon as the conversation switched to the topic of his own relationship, Reggie got up.
“Excuse me. You two get to know each other, you might see a lot more of each other in the future.” He strolled into the kitchen.
“I’m sorry about that…that bottom thing. But then, if you’ve been with Reggie any time at all, you know his inclinations.”
“All too well,” Jocelyn said. “There’re times my bottom burns brightly too.”
“Really? Though I’m hardly surprised.”
“And you’re married now?” Jocelyn said.
“Four months ago. Reggie didn’t mention that to you?”
“No. But we really haven’t had time to talk of friends. It’s just one of those things that hasn’t come up.”
Alex nodded.
They liked each other, but weren’t ready to say so. There was a lot of mystery behind both women that the other didn’t know. If there was the possibility for friendship, it seemed remote until they’d covered questions they had of each other, and their relationship with Reggie.
Moments later their conversation was interrupted by Will announcing that dinner was ready. Jocelyn’s puzzlement about the attractive blonde was a subject that would be left to percolate in her psyche, resurrected at another time, if there was to be another time.
The conversation at dinner was light-hearted and jovial, the four managing to speak of things in common. Though toward the end of the meal, Reggie and Will were talking of the past, their shared past, sharing stories about their sexual adventures. It was a puzzle to both Jocelyn and Alex whether this was intentional or just an accident. But when they began talking about the clubs they’d frequented before either woman was in their life, and the antics they engaged in, there was a chilling silence from the two women.
“You know, Will, this train of thought is hardly appropriate with Jocelyn and me here,” Alex finally said.
Jocelyn could see the woman was frustrated. Just as frustrated as when she had dozens of Germans around her and she didn’t understand their language. At the moment though, Jocelyn was simply bewildered by the whole evening and not planning to say much of anything.
Will cast his wife a piercing glance. All the warmth that Jocelyn had experienced from him was instantly vanished, and for that moment, he was a replica of Reggie, in a different body and clothes.
“No, I’m serious, you two,” Alex argued. There was little malice in her voice, but she was still annoying Will.
“If you two want to go have your own conversation between yourselves, please do, we’re not stopping you,” Will said.
“I was trying to make a point,” Alex came back, more adamantly this time. She was rising from the table, taking her plate to the kitchen when Will reached for her arm and the plate clattered to the floor.
“You forgot what I told you?” he asked her.
“Forgot what?” she asked.
“Maybe Reggie and Jocelyn would like to see the cane on your ass.”
“I wasn’t trying to be rude or flip,” she answered exasperated, though her tone was conciliatory.
“Go get the cane,” he said.
“But…”
“Doesn’t matter, I’ve decided anyway. You’ve annoyed me, brat. I’ve ignored far too long… but not today.”
“But with company, please,” she whined.
“Good god, Reggie’s probably taken care of your butt more than I have, and Jocelyn gets her ass end paddled. I don’t think there’s any reason to hold back on that account.”
“Oh but…” She tried to wrench away from his firm grip.
“Go get the cane, Alexandra,” Reggie’s voice shot out with its familiar air of authority.
For an instant the rebelling blonde was in the middle of a nasty quandary…
…One Jocelyn could relate to. The redhead shivered herself, knowing that Alex was not going to win any battle here. She dreaded the outcome she was sure to witness.
“I don’t really want to see this,” Jocelyn whispered squeamishly to Reggie.
“You can damn well stay here and see it, unless, of course, you want to be the center of attention?”
Jocelyn was instantly silenced. She thought of the horrible punishment scene she’d witness in Germany. But that had been theatre, an offbeat S&M club. Here in someone’s house, it was like walking into their bedroom, or worse.
When Alex returned with the cane, Jocelyn relived the moment of her own caning, as she watched the sassy blonde ordered to bend over. Right there at the dinner table, Will rose, approached his wife’s rear and began to lay nine sharp cuts across the Alex’s white behind. Why nine, that number was a secret between husband and wife that neither guest was privy to.
Jocelyn was horrified by the way the red lines appeared on the surface of Alex’s fair skin. They stood out as brash statements of her surrender. It was an unwilling surrender, Jocelyn could see the defiance in her, desiring insurrection; but it wouldn’t happen this day. She thought the once sweet Will as ruthless her own Reggie. Maybe it was easier that Reggie didn’t cloak his dominance with all that warmth. It might be easier to know where she stood. Then again, Reggie could be as impulsive as this man was. Perhaps that was a trait of dominant men, they didn’t deny their whims, their darkest impulses turned into fact with a turn of a phrase, a glance of the eye, or a sudden command.
Each line on Alex’s bottom drew a passionate wail from the woman. The tears she’d shed before they arrived were obviously flowing again.
Such humiliation!
Jocelyn wanted leave, but she didn’t dare. She was ready to leap to her feet, but Reggie would only have brought her back with a firm hand. She had the distinct impression that he’d live up to his word and cane her here, too, if she tried to bolt. They were a cozy group with similar bizarre inclinations, and if Reggie wanted to take her a step further in her initiation into his world, this would certainly be a perfect place. It even crossed her mind that she had been set up to see this performance, though she could hardly believe that Alex would consent to this treatment just for her benefit.
The seventh cut made Jocelyn jerk away as if was happening to her. It was so fierce that it practically knocked Alex from her feet. The blonde started to bolt, but Reggie, not Will, lurched forward and grabbed her by the arm. There was an instant when their eyes met, Reggie capturing the not so submissive woman in a deadly stare. What Jocelyn witnessed was the hold her lover had over the woman – one that perhaps even Will didn’t have.
“You’re fighting it again, Alexandra. Don’t,” he said in his steeliest voice, as his eyes made a cold journey into her mind.
The comment was all she required for Alex let go her fight and resumed her position. The last cuts paled in comparison to the earlier ones. The confrontation was obviously over.
***
Jocelyn and Reggie drove away from the Kozak’s apartment in silence.
“You’re quiet,” Reggie finally broke the silence, noting his normally loquacious Jocelyn was in a sullen pensive mood.
“Lots to think about,” she said.
“My friends disturb you?”
“I don’t know about the caning,” she said.
“It didn’t arouse you?”
“I suppose it did in a weird sort of way. I don’t think it should have.”
“What is, is,” he said.
“Did it arouse you?” she asked.
“No,” he replied.
“That surprises me,” she said.
“Alexandra fights herself so much, she was staging a rebellion, but that gets a little dreary sometimes.”
“It does?” Jocelyn pondered aloud, not expecting him to say that. “Was she the other woman that tried to get inside your heart?”
The comment stopped Reggie cold. Only after a few chilly moments did he reply. “She was.”
“And she didn’t go far enough, I wonder why?”
“I wouldn’t let her.”
“Why was that?”
“Because I knew she’d be happier with Will. I think the two of us are too much alike.”
“What do you mean by that?” Jocelyn was completely confused.
“We’re perfectionists. We both need a milder kind of energy to counteract our intensity.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Why?”
“It’s almost an admission of imperfection,” she said, laughing.
“Haven’t I done that before?”
“Never in business, and rarely when it’s personal,” she replied.
“Well see? I’m changing. That should make you happy.”
“That depends on what changes,” she said. “Most of you, I wouldn’t change for anything in the world.”
“That’s good, because I think most of me is perfect to a fault.”
Jocelyn laughed again, the melody of her mellow voice touched him in places that had been too long denied the opportunity to feel.
Chapter Eight
Jocelyn walked into Reggie’s office and directly past his desk. All protocol aside, she moved around his chair, and standing behind him, she leaned in and began rubbing his shoulders.