Take Me Down The Rabbit Hole (BDSM | 18+)

LXVII

"We'll see about that," Thea huffed. "Who taught you about this belt cuff?"
Aspen's mouth suddenly felt dry. "Leo," he admitted after a long pause. "I think this is the only sort of bondage he likes at all, and it's ... convenient."
"And sexy," Thea added. Their tone was no longer teasing, and Aspen could tell they had meant it. It was like that one time weeks ago when they had jokingly called Aspen good looking over dinner prep and then admitted they thought he was handsome.
He merely inclined his head in response and dropped Thea on the bed, careful not to have them land  on their wrists with their entire body's weight. "You are distracting from the matter at hand," he started, only to be momentarily distracted by Thea's giggles. "Hey," he added sternly, snapping his fingers in their face. "Focus. I promised you a spanking."
Thea's nose scrunched in response. "I don't care for it," they said.
"I do," Aspen said sharply, but he took a step back and contemplated whether he actually meant it.
Thea immediately noticed his sudden silence and twisted on the bed, trying to look at him. "What's going through your head?" they asked.
"I've never been in charge of someone like this."
The belt buckle chimed into the silence as Thea continued their fruitless wiggling. "Better late than never, right?" they huffed, obviously already regretting their decision to struggle.
Aspen put his hands on his hips. "I suppose," he agreed slowly. "It's mortifying."
Another pause.
Aspen inhaled sharply and began rolling up the sleeves of his dress shirt. "Here goes nothing," he mumbled, and then he leaned down ever so slightly and allowed his palm to strike Thea's skin.
Thea giggled in response, which made Aspen straighten up, reach for the belt and use it to turn them around on the bed. Tears were pooling in Thea's eyes, but they didn't look particularly distressed.
"So we think this is funny, hm?" Aspen tutted.
"Yes," Thea snorted. "Very, Sir." A beat, in which a grin spread out on their face, eyes twinkling. "If you want this to be a punishment, you're going to have to spank me harder than that."
"Backtalking brat."
Aspen decided that as long as Thea continued challenging him, he'd meet them every step of the way, and abandoned them on the bed for a moment to rummage through their implement closet.
"This will do nicely to drive the message home, wouldn't you agree?" he asked, holding out the paddle with the "brat" text cutout for Thea to see — and object to, if they had wanted.
"Not if you keep spanking me like that it won't!"
Not a no, then. Great.
THWACK.
Thea flinched at the sound, even though Aspen was still on the other end of the room, and had merely used the paddle on his own thigh to gauge its weight and impact. One of these moments, he would drive the brat out of the person on the bed at his mercy, and then he would be able to go back to being a good little housekeeping submissive, a kind of safety that he hadn't been aware of until just now.
Maybe he'd be content—
THWACK.
Maybe he should stay focused on the moment. Rash decisions weren't like him, either.
The paddle would indeed do nicely, he decided, glad for the fact that the momentary pain had provided enough distraction from his spiraling thoughts.
Thea had ceased their wiggling on the bed and lay there, anticipating, but when they looked up at Aspen, there was this "I know what you are thinking about" expression on their face, and just for a second their arms flexed against the cuffs as if they wanted to break out of their restraints and take over.
Aspen wasn't going to let them. He flipped Thea back on their stomach, ignoring their little yelp of surprise, adjusted his grip on the paddle and straightened up again.
"Safeword?" he demanded.
"Green."
THWACK.
A gasp. "That—" Thea ground out. "Yep."
"Maybe I should relieve you of your clothes," Aspen mused, but again didn't wait for them to reply. He dropped the paddle on the bed and reached for the waistband of their pants, carefully yanking them down their legs and only stopping to see if Thea would object to having the same done to their underwear.
Not that the lacy bit of fabric provided much coverage, it wasn't even enough to cover their cheeks, on one of which the outline of the word had bloomed in the middle of an angry red spot.
Thea was quiet, but it was as if they could hear the gears rattling in Aspen's brain as he contemplated whether or not he should embarrass them further.
"Just do it," they complained, sounding just a bit breathless. "I know you want to."
Aspen couldn't help but smile at that.
"Well I am not going to do it," he decided.
THWACK.
THWACK.

"Red!" A pause. "And take this stupid belt off."
Aspen obliged instantly.
"You win," Thea declared.
Aspen, who had preemptively put a tube of ointment into the backpocket of his jeans and was busy squeezing some onto the welt on their ass chuckled. "Thank you. Your pain tolerance is—"
"High, I know!"
As if they were entirely unbothered by the number Aspen had done on their ass, they turned around and sat on the bed, dangling their legs over the edge. "Now, do I get a reward for taking my punishment like a good little sub?"
"You've been mouthing me off for the past twenty minutes, Thea," Aspen said sternly. "I'm not sure you deserve that."
Thea's mouth shaped into an o. "H-Have you ever referred to me by my name without an honorific?" they asked suddenly.
Aspen screwed the cap back on the tube and sat with them on the bed. "No. Why?"
Thea flushed. "It sounds nice. From your mouth. It's a nice mouth— I mean– Sound. Yep." The color on their cheeks deepened.
"A nice mouth, huh?" Aspen teased. "I bet you five bucks I can guess what you are thinking about."
"Try me."
"How about I show you instead?"