I ought to say no, no, no sir.
Mind if move in closer?
At least I'm gonna say that I tried.
What's the sense of hurting my pride?
“Heidi, dear, where are you?”
Heidi’s face grew hot as she turned, heart racing in her chest. She’d been staring out the windows of Eleanor’s apartment and lost in the music playing from … somewhere. She never saw speakers but the room was bathed in the warm, comforting sounds of jazzy Christmas standards. Beneath her, the city spread out like glittering quartz on a dark beach. The apartment was warm and dim, lit by nothing but fairy lights and the Christmas tree, now that dinner was done, and for a moment Heidi had lost herself in the view; in the moment.
“Sorry,” she responded, quickly, whirling and moving toward the kitchen. “I was—”
“I know what you were doing, dear,” Eleanor purred, blocking Heidi’s path. “You love the view up here.” The older woman regarded her guest for only a moment—just long enough for Heidi to feel a flicker of concern—before offering her a tiny respite. “I finished up already. Dishwasher running, others put away.”
Heidi looked stricken. Eleanor had invited her over, made her dinner, and now she was left to do most of the cleaning up? She was already mentally berating herself as Eleanor’s warm hand touched her shoulder and guided her toward the living room. “Dear, you’re my guest. You don’t need to concern yourself with little tasks like that. Don’t be silly.”
The women moved around the roll-armed sofa before the tree. The leather was so shiny that to Heidi it appeared wet. Eleanor sat carefully down in the middle, directing Heidi to stand before her. “Are you dressed?” she asked simply.
Heidi squirmed—she’d been doing so all evening, truth be told, because she was, in fact, dressed. Eleanor had asked her to wear something flattering but modest as her outer layer but beneath … beneath Heidi was wearing only a full-body leather harness. The one they had picked out together last week. “Yes.” Her voice so quiet even the soft music filling the room nearly drown her out.
“Are you dressed?” Eleanor didn’t want words and she wouldn’t ask a third time.
Heidi’s blush deepened as she unbuttoned the thin silk blouse—another treasured gift from Eleanor—but the older woman was as serene and unfathomable as a winter landscape, her beauty frozen and unyielding, with only the barest hints of warmth and life beneath the surface.
Standing back up, before her mistress, Heidi undid the shiny gold buttons on her left hip that held her midi-length pencil skirt in place. She didn’t dare let it fall away, Eleanor had been working very hard, teaching her to respect her possessions, but instead placed it carefully on the sofa atop her blouse. She took the smallest steadying breath she could manage then stepped out of her chunky-heeled pointed toe shoes. Eleanor had commented on them one day they were out shopping together and Heidi returned to the store to buy herself a pair the following morning.
Standing before her like this, in the glow of the Christmas lights, somehow more exposed than if she were fully nude, Heidi waited in silence. Hoping for something she knew not what. The glossy green leather consisted of straps secured with gold buckles, studs, and rings. Diamond formations framed her champagne-glass breasts, their nipples painfully erect. A strap ran down from each ‘cup’ to a belt that encircled her waist then continued on to connect two more belts around each thigh, one at the very top of her thighs and a second a few inches below. Both of these Heidi had snugged tight enough to squeeze her flesh just a little. It felt like safety, like Eleanor’s embrace.
As she stood before Eleanor, Heidi felt a thrill of exposure, her crotch bared to her lover’s gaze, with only the soft, orange curls of her pubic hair providing a fragile sense of protection. Eleanor had told her to grow it out and it felt wonderfully decadent every time she touched herself now.
After long moments, the elegant woman seated on the sofa finally spoke. “Good girl,” Eleanor intoned, offering Heidi the smile she so coveted. Heidi felt her knees go weak at the praise and let out the breath she had been holding, unconcerned that, of course, Eleanor could see that she’d been holding it too.
“Now, down.”
Heidi squatted before Eleanor’s seated form, then lowered herself to her knees. She knew Eleanor preferred her to go to her knees in stages. She didn’t commit the sin of sitting on her heels, instead she remained upright and placed her palms on her thighs, waiting.
“Stay there.” Eleanor stood and strode purposefully to her bedroom. A moment later she returned with a large, lumpy Christmas stocking. It was the sort you would find in a pet store, with a clear, glossy pocket designed to hold a picture of a beloved companion. This one bore a photo of Heidi. It was from last September. She was looking right into the camera, laughing. Her messy, uneven hair was shockingly bright orange, except for the nearly-bare scalp of her undercut, where the stubble was a rich auburn."
Eleanor carefully placed the stocking before Heidi on the floor, then knelt behind her. Heidi could hardly contain her excitement with her mistress so close. She could feel Eleanor’s hot breath on the bare skin of her shoulders and her neck. Her breasts ached, swollen with need, as she leaned into the promise of Eleanor’s caress while the thrumming in her core intensified, a pulsing hum that vibrated through her entire body.
But Eleanor would ensure she had what she needed. What she deserved. She just needed to be patient.
“Tell me, dear. Have you been naughty, or nice this year?”
Heidi’s mind reeled. What was the correct answer? What would earn her rewards, and what might bring punishment? She had no way of knowing—she’d never been told.
“Oh, sweet girl, you don’t need to think, you just need to answer me.”
“I’ve … been … nice?” Heidi ventured, the tiny hairs on her bare arms standing up in excited anticipation.
“Wonderful. Then why don’t you see what’s inside your stocking?”
Heidi’s mind spun again. She’d answered correctly—hadn’t she? But she’d been given a command, no time to reconsider or to hesitate. She carefully, reverently, removed the first item from the stocking.
A paddle. An impression paddle. In a candy-cane pattern. Heidi’s eyes widened, and her thighs twitched involuntarily, a shiver running through her.
“That’s for you,” Eleanor murmured, her voice a husky growl against Heidi’s earlobe. “I’ll hold it for you while you look at the rest.” Heidi relinquished the paddle without a sound, though the promise it held and her mistress’s clothed body pressing against her naked flesh from behind, it was already more than she could take.
A jewellery box? Oh no! Heidi felt her stomach fill with butterflies. It was the box!
“Open it, my good girl.”
With trembling fingers, Heidi opened the jewellery box, though she already knew the contents so very, very well. A receipt from the campus coffee shop. The first time they’d gone out together. A book of matches with two missing. Eleanor had Heidi use them to light the candles the first time they used wax. The box was full of trivial little reminders of all the important moments they’d shared. She had no idea Eleanor had known about it.
“Have you been naughty, or nice, pet?”
Heidi was beginning to understand the shape of this game. “Nice,” she responded softly, her voice shy and uncertain. She felt foolish. Like a little girl.
“You have,” Eleanor agreed, and Heidi gasped as she felt the paddle caress her bare behind, soft as dandelion fluff. “See, it’s very easy. Now, there’s more.”
Heidi set aside the jewellery box and retrieved the next item from the stocking. As she pulled it free—an ominous weight in her hand—Heidi’s bare skin prickled with gooseflesh. The room was warm but suddenly she was very cold.
“Have you been naughty … or nice, darling?” Heidi couldn’t see her mistress’s face, but she felt sure Eleanor was glaring at the wooden spoon.
“I…” Heidi’s voice barely a squeak. The paddle caressed her buttocks again, its gentle touch both a warning and a promise.
“Words, Petal. You must use words.” Eleanor’s tone had taken on the menacing edge that filled Heidi with equal parts excitement and dread.
“I don’t underst—”
SMACK!
The candy-cane paddle’s sharp crack cut through Heidi’s words, leaving her gasping, tears welling up in her eyes. Her ass flared with pain immediately and she nearly toppled forward, but Eleanor swiftly pulled her upright by her harness. Still kneeling on the floor behind Heidi, Eleanor brought her lips to the sub’s ear once more.
“Heidi. Naughty or nice.”
Heidi’s teeth sank into her lower lip, her mind racing with the consequences of deception, struggling to find the courage to speak the truth. “Naughty,” she choked out. The paddle touched her skin again and she flinched before understanding it was a caress.
“There’s my good girl,” Eleanor breathed into her ear. Her fingertips were playing over Heidi’s bare stomach now, sending an electric thrill all through her body. “Explain.”
No! Heidi thought. She couldn’t confess. She couldn’t … she couldn’t deny Eleanor.
“W-w-wooden,” was all she could manage.
“You’re being very brave right now, my sweet. Now tell me.”
“I can’t,” Heidi felt herself getting light-headed. She couldn’t say these things out loud. Not to Eleanor! But she couldn’t disobey her either!
SMACK!
“I’m trying!” Heidi was gasping for breath, desperate for any way to avoid confessing.
“No trying. Tell me.” Eleanor never raised her voice. She never had to.
“His n-nickname, W-woodenSpoon,” Heidi finally began. The words came easier the more she spoke. She confessed everything. How he was a dom she’d met on VelvetChains, how they’d never met in person but how Heidi had submitted to him online. It was only once, early in the year, before Eleanor and Heidi had fully committed, but the weight of it had grown every time Heidi had kept it from her mistress.
“Please!” Heidi was shivering all over, crying, nearly hyperventilating at the idea that this might cost her Eleanor’s love and care.
Instead, the paddle was set aside, and suddenly Eleanor’s warm, protective arms wrapped around her. Eleanor was in front of her now, hugging her tight, in just the way Heidi loved best. “Shh, shh, shh, shh,” she whispered softly. “There she is. My brave, strong girl. I’m so proud of you.” She kissed each of Heidi’s cheeks softly. “You’re doing so well for me.”
They stayed like that for a long time. Heidi wasn’t sure how long. She’d practised kneeling even when alone in her apartment, and had become very good at it.
Eleanor’s voice was a gentle breeze on a summer’s day, “There’s one more, my flower,” she said, her words dripping with promise as she stood before Heidi, the stocking still on the floor. Heidi’s emotions had been wrung out, leaving her drained, yet somehow renewed. She was a canvas waiting for its next brushstroke.
But she’d been given an instruction.
With trembling fingers Heidi reached into the stocking once more. As her fingers closed around the device inside, Heidi’s mind reeled with confusion, followed by a thrill of shame that left her breathless and eager. She knew that looking up without permission risked another paddle—or something worse. But how could her mistress have known?
“Have you been naughty or nice,” Eleanor asked and her tone, as always, was gleaming marble under ice.
“Naughty,” Heidi responded, her blush colouring even her pale chest as she pulled the black, silicone covered device from the stocking. The electrical cord trailed behind. Then came the carefully wrapped selection of glass electrodes. Her breath caught as she studied the rake, then the mushroom.
“Is this what you wanted from me, my beautiful thing?” Eleanor’s voice was almost bored, but Heidi knew better. She knew in her heart that the wand was a gift for them both.
“Yes.”
Trembling, gasping, truly naked now save for a sheen of sweat, Heidi lay on Eleanor’s bed. She vaguely remembered Eleanor guiding her here at the end of their session, but what she remembered most was the overwhelming love she felt for Eleanor—and the deep, bottomless love Eleanor returned when she surrendered completely.
“Rest, my love, you’ve done wonderfully.” Eleanor returned to the bedroom, wearing nothing but a silk robe now and carrying drinks for both of them. “Drink first—you need electrolytes—then sleep. I have you.”
