Willa glanced from side to side looking for a sequestered bit of space to change, as she felt as if on a stage with several dozen eyes looking at her. Matt seemed to catch a glimpse of her feelings, then nodded and turned his back to her. She blinked a few times, hesitating a moment before starting to remove her skirt and top, sliding the silky material down over her curves to pool on the floor. Her shoes were kicked off into the pile, and she scooted it out of the space with her toes. 

“Ready, I think”, she ventured. 

Matt turned back toward her, and his eyes took in her form, running down the front of her then back up again to catch her gaze. His right hand was idly swinging the dragon’s tail a bit to tap against his left, and he blinked without breaking eye contact. Feeling her own eyes widen with the anticipation of the moment, Willa shifted her weight from foot to foot, feeling the floor under the soles of her feet. She crossed her wrists behind her back, daring him to look back at her body. 

“You think? That doesn’t sound very consenting of you, girly.” He quirked his head at her, asking questions with his eyes.

“I mean, I know. I think. I mean, hit me, dammit!” She swung around awkwardly, her wrist striking the edge of the cross, and threw her hands up at the top of the arms of the wood covered in soft leather. The pound of her palms smacking sounded like he’d already begun to hit her, and she wished he would just get it over with. Insatiable curiosity was such a burden to bear sometimes, and if he waited too much longer she’d probably end up calling it quits entirely. Which she really didn’t want. 

Her forehead pressed into the padding on one of the cross’s arms, she wiggled her ass at Matt a bit. It was quiet, and she didn’t hear the laughs she’d grown used to hearing from him when she did something a bit out of expectation in the moment. She turned a bit, glancing over her shoulder in his direction, and there he was, standing with the toy gripped in both hands across his thighs, arms relaxed, eyebrow raised at her. 

“Now. Is it you ‘think’? Or do you know? Even though this is play in my mind I don’t joke around with a person’s first time experiencing something like this. Not only could this lead to dangerous situations physically, it is more likely to cause mental or emotional harm if someone isn’t ready to experience it. So I will need you to be very clear going forward, little one, either you are ready or you’re not, there is no middle ground, no room for indecisiveness.” He was so clear and to the point he could have cut her and she would have felt it less sharply. 

Willa’s shoulders sagged, and she felt her stomach drop, she felt like she’d inadvertently disappointed him, though there was no set expectation in the moment. She completed the turn so that she was facing him, with her back against the cross, leaning with her hands trapped against the wood and leather behind her. She needed the support, her knees weakened a bit from the surge of emotion and confusion snaking its way through her core to her fingertips. They grew a little cold from the pressure of her back against them, and she flexed the tips, squeezing the firmness behind her. 

Swallowing her pride and immediate knee-jerk reaction of getting annoyed at the situation, Willa inhaled deeply, looked Matt in the eyes, and asked, “I would very much like you to hit me with that dragon’s tail, please.” 

“How hard?” His questions seemed to draw the moments out so much that she was getting more anxious, and the spark in his eyes meeting her own showed her that he knew exactly the reaction she was feeling. “Marks? Or no marks? How long would you like them to last? Anywhere you’d like me to avoid?”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she replied, “Please hit me hard enough to mark for a few days. I don’t know where, not on my arms I suppose? I just want to be able to cover them up for work. It’s hard to say specifically, as I’ve never tried this. Any suggestions?” 

“How about this…our safewords are Red, Yellow, Green. If I strike you somewhere you don’t like, or too hard, but you want to keep going, I expect you to use the word ‘Yellow’ to indicate you don’t want to stop, but you need to adjust something. I will pause, get clarity from you, and then we will continue when you are ready. If I need to check in with you and ask if you’re doing okay, and you don’t need a change, then ‘Green’ will suffice. If you need me to full stop quit the entire scene, then I expect you to use the word ‘Red’. Got it?” He never looked away or interrupted the intensity of his gaze, not from the moment she’d turned to face him. 

“I’ve got it.” She confirmed. 

“‘Yes, Sir’, please, during the scene.” He corrected her. 

“Yes, Sir.” 

Matt reached out slowly with his right hand, cupping it around the bottom of her jaw so that his thumb could stroke her cheek. “Good girl.” 

A breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding when he reached his arm toward her escaped in a sigh as she leaned her head into his hand. She didn’t realize how much she wanted to be touched in that moment, but even more so she had needed to hear those words from his lips. She felt herself sinking into his touch with her eyes closed, not even thinking of the picture she was presenting him with, it didn’t matter who she was, top or bottom, Dom or submissive, in this moment everything felt so very right, and she needed it to continue. 

His hand slid softly along her jaw to the nape of her neck, gripping slowly and steadily stronger until he had a handful of her hair, which he then used to turn her around to face the cross. She breathed deeply with the movement, and felt her belly press against the firm surface now in front of her, eyes closed, just concentrating on what his hand was telling her to do. His fingertips traced down her back until they disappeared at the waistband of her underwear. She felt his shoe press against the inside of her right heel, then her left, situating them at the foot of each of the beams of the X of the cross, widening her stance. 

“Stay there. And stick your ass out.” He commanded in a gentle tone. 

Willa arched her back until her belly was against the cross, and her feet back several inches, could feel her back curve beautifully and imagined the picture she made. She quivered inside, wondering if he could see her shake, reveling in the sensations of the wood, the leather, the firm floor supporting her, the air around her suddenly colder as he stepped back to view the scene. She wanted to turn to look at him but resisted, and tilted her forehead against the cross for some stability, finally willing to wait on him and see what the next moments would bring. 

She felt it before she heard it, the slap of the tip of the dragon’s tail, rubbery, no sting yet, just a tentative touch, a tickle really. She gasped, as she’d anticipated something harder. The room was silent except for the swish of the rubber behind her, slicking against the middle of her back, then her ass, thighs, between her shoulders, soft and gentle. He was feeling her out, watching her reactions to the new sensations, observing her breaths. She felt comfortable with the licks of the tail and stuck her bottom out more, realizing that with the anticipation she’d drawn it in a bit. 

“Good girl”, he whispered behind her, “I want you to stick your ass out more after intense strikes, so that I can watch how your body reacts. If you’re good after a hard one, then put yourself back into position, palms on the cross, ass out toward me, face or cheek against the wood if you like for balance.” 

She nodded wordlessly, just listening to the air pressure changing around her. A loud SNAP and she jumped, he’d struck the arm of the cross above her, not touching her at all, probably looking to see how she’d react to the loud noise. Willa grinned to herself, and pressed her hands back to the cross, her forehead into the padded leather, and wiggled her hips at him to tease. Three more pops close to her ears but not touching, and with the next sound she felt lit on fire from her right shoulder to left hip. His palm was immediately on the impact point, cooling on the heated skin, smoothing her down like she was a frightened filly. 

He was close to her ear when he whispered, “How was that, girly?” 

Willa found her mouth was agape, but the burn on her back was a welcome sensation, and she giggled under her breath. Wordlessly, she smacked her palms hard against the cross, stomped her feet, and leaned against the leather again, leaning her ass out. 

She could hear Matt laugh behind her, “Well done.” He continued to chuckle under his breath, and she could almost picture him planning his next hit. 

The next three were definitely not misses, intentional or otherwise, and she lifted to her toes as she felt the absence of pressure where they touched her. After the fifth his hand was on her skin again, soothing down her thighs and bottom where he’d struck, and she realized she was panting, more from his touch than from that of the dragon’s tail. The pain was nothing new, she loved pushing her body to extremes on hiking trails or moving stuff around in her place. And like those times when she’d push herself to the edge of her endurance a certain peace came to settle around her ears, her hips, down to her heels. As the endorphins began to spread through her skin and mind she reached her right hand around to touch his fingers, following him as he stroked her welts. She gasped in surprise, and turned her torso to look, and there she spied red stripes curving around the side of her hip. Willa’s fingers traced the risen lines, like strumming the strings of a guitar, and all she could think of was her irresistible desire for more. 

Slapping the cross with her palms, she arched her bottom back toward Matt. 

He laughed, “Please, Sir, may I have another, hmm? I can see that you’re not as shy as you would like to think, girly. In fact, I can smell it more than I can see it.”

She jumped in response to his words and turned her head to meet his eyes, “What do you mean?!” 

His reply was only to trace the bead of wet sliding down the inside of her knee, back up the inside of her thigh, until he broke contact halfway up. He then licked his finger without breaking her gaze. 

“Yes, definitely enjoying yourself.”

A gasp escaped her as she reached her fingers to the cleft between her legs just to pull them back damp. She glanced down and saw the line he’d just traced. She was wet, her lips puffy and full of blood, sensitive to the touch. Her eyes widened as she realized the betrayal of her body, how it was reacting in ways she didn’t even consider. Pain to her was always something to bear, even when pushing herself physically she would simply wait for the relief to come. But here the flesh she lived in was happier than it should be, reveling in the sensations. It was puzzling, confounding even, but she didn’t want it to end.