Josie and James

by Megan Jones

Josie stared out of the kitchen window, sightless and still, she was bored, bored, bored, her body and mind crippled by tedium, daily wading through a quagmire of routine, habits and apathy. Housework and meals assigned to certain days of the week, shower and bedtime regulated to the minute. How the hell had it happened, when did a young, vibrant girl morph into a middle aged frump; slightly overweight, a little grey and intellectually dull?

Was marriage to blame? Children? Or just her resistance to change, absorbing the role of wife and mother until her identity had abandoned her, leaving to find a woman who would cherish and hold it.

She had much to be thankful for, she chanted that mantra daily: a lovely home all bought and paid for, two healthy, well adjusted daughters who worked in well paid jobs at opposite ends of the country, happy and busy. No need to go out to work and, of course, James, her husband of twenty six years, solid, dependable, predictable James. Still handsome, trim and toned thanks to his golf and squash, together, catapulting down the path to old age and regrets. He still made heads turn but he'd never strayed, how she didn't know. Sometimes she caught sight of them together in a shop window and wondered why, he good-looking and smart, she like something the cat had dragged, no make up, unflattering clothes, looking like a refugee or the "before photo" on one of those make over programmes on the telly.

"James, James, do you have any regrets?" she wondered. Did he ever wonder how they'd changed from the two people who courted each day with eagerness and confidence. Consuming new ideas, immersed in change and discovery, especially in each other. Now she came to the crux of the matter, the utter frustration of being parched of passion. Their sex life had devolved into a weekly ritual, usually on a Saturday night after sport on the television and a mug of cocoa, a quick feel of her breast followed by thrusting into an arid, unwilling body. On the very few occasions when he had playfully slapped her bottom, he hadn't noticed her smiling response or the way her body reacted, her bottom rising and inviting more. If it wasn't for the Internet she would never be able assuage her guilty pleasure, indulging in the thrill of the stories of lucky, lucky, women whose bottoms were warmed, regularly.

Clips of punishments, real or otherwise, and forums where she read and sometimes posted, adding her careful opinions and sometimes asking for others. In a moment of recklessness she had asked for help in her dilemma, many sympathetic members had answered her, one with a perfect solution that had worked for her. A weekend at a country house that was hosting a "Spanking Tuition For The Eager Novice" The member couldn't praise it enough, it had changed her life and her husband from an entrenched "Vanilla" into a "Top" with a very vivid imagination and much more energy. Josie was intrigued and very excited. Following the link she read with rapture the itinerary of the answer to her prayers.

Held in a country house that was hired out for seminars and such, it was surrounded by beautiful gardens, isolated in the countryside about three hours drive away. Not huge by "A pile in the country" standard, it offered an intimacy crucial for private parties indulging in secret fantasies. Twenty bedrooms with the usual facilities, en suite, tea making, etc. Full board and a complimentary drink on arrival. Arrival was recommended at ten o'clock to "Take advantage of all that was on offer" Room allocation, and then a welcome introduction to meet the organisers, other guests and learn about the "course" It sounded ideal, perfect, heaven. One problem, one insurmountable quandary, James.

Tuesday, steak night, with chips, fried onions and, on occasion, mushrooms. Bang on time, James' Volvo pulled into the drive, twelve minutes past five. Greeting Josie with the "Hi honey, I'm home" in an atrocious fake American accent, as he'd done for the last God knows how many years and he still thought it amusing. Josie wanted to stab him.

"Hello darling, good day?" Josie mouthed to the gently sizzling steak.

"Hello darling, good day?" asked James with a quick peck on her cheek.

"Absolutely brilliant. Ravished the Tesco delivery man, three times, then he spanked me for half an hour for not making it four. It was very tiring."

What she actually said was, "Fine, thanks, and you?"

"Had my secretary over the photocopier, twice, would have been more but the paper ran out and there was a queue." Not true, Edith was a confirmed spinster and built like a Sherman Tank.

"Just the usual. Excellent, steak and chips, my favourite"

"I know, I know, you tell me every bloody Tuesday without fail. God Almighty" Josie said to herself.

"Bloody sick of having it on a Tuesday" James thought, miserably.

"Sit down James, it's ready. Ketchup?"

"Please." he answered. "Or we could smear it all over us and then have a race to see who licked it off the quickest. Bet I win" he thought.

"What did you get up to today, then?" he asked "munching on his steak."Christ, this is like leather" was his thought.

"Same as usual, cleaned the bedrooms, ironed and found a brilliant spanking weekend on the Internet. Did she say that out loud? Please God, say I didn't. I 'm going to kill myself if I did" she scrutinised James' face, not a flicker, no look of confused disgust or amazement. Relief surged through her body, a trickle of sweat down her back.

James carried on eating, shock had rendered his face immobile, the steak stuck to the roof of his mouth, lodged as securely as any blood sucking leech.

"That's nice" he choked back.

"WHAT'S NICE? WHAT'S NICE?" Josie suddenly yelled at him, guilt and relief rendering her just a little hysterical. Her fork perilously near to his left eye.

"Nothing, nothing. What hell is the matter? Get that fork away from my face, if you don't mind"

"Sorry, sorry, don't know what came over me, must be menopausal" she mumbled back at him. Her nerves were screaming, visiting her favourite website, earlier in the day, hadn't helped matters, it just reinforced this desperate need inside her that filled her mind.

"Oh I think I do know what the problem is, my little devious wife. Did she not realise that computers had history files. You need a good old fashioned spanking and are too buttoned up to ask for it. If it takes a weekend away to solve this little matter then, so be it."

James completely missed the irony that he was being as every little bit devious as his wife. He knew exactly what she'd been up to, he had waited for some signal, a modicum of honesty, placing her trust in him.

Kitchen tidied, showers over and pyjamas on, they relaxed in the frilled, flounced living room with matching cushions and cream net curtains. All very cosy and Chintzy paralleling their lives perfectly.

"God, I hate this bloody room, it reminds me of my granny's." James sighed, picking up the paper, shaking it out, the way men do, and sat down on the cream and pink flowered chair.

Josie picked up her magazine opening to the page with the picture of the living room of her dreams. Pale carpet with a "distressed leather chaise suite, minimal furniture with tasteful sleek lines. Yearning for a room like this with nearly as much fervour as a spanking. Nearly.

"Pity James likes this room so much. He loved his granny" she too, sighed.

" So, when is it then?" James asked, not taking his eyes from the paper. He didn't have to, he knew exactly was going to happen. The shit was going to hit the fan, big style.

"When's what?" Josie was completely absorbed in the leather suite, trying to decide which colour she would choose. She quite liked the dark brown.

"The spanking weekend, when is it and where" He repeated.

Josie's boring world came to a sickening stop.

"What are you talking about, have you been drinking, you know that Malt whiskey has a strange effect on you, makes you delusional."

"Don't pretend you have no idea what I'm talking about, you were the one who brought it up, not me"

"I did NOT" she screeched.

"At dinner, if I remember correctly, wasn't it? What was it you said? "a brilliant spanking weekend on the Internet"

"Christ, she HAD spoken out loud, Dear God, kill me, kill me now" Josie flung the magazine on the coffee table, leather suites and cream carpets didn't matter because she'd be living in a pokey flat with a shared bathroom and a fan heater that she would only be able to afford to use on a low setting. She'd be known as that "Pervy woman who lived in flat 4B" because James would have told all his friends that she was a weirdo and he was lucky to have found out before he was dragged into her debauched world.

The bathroom was a good place to place to hide in, it had a lock on the door, always a good start. She sat on the loo with her arms wrapped tightly round her body, her forehead resting on her knees, feeling shaky and sick with humiliation and fear. A knock on the door sent her flying against the wall, flattening herself trying to merge in with white tiles and doing a sterling impersonation of an SAS veteran.

"Josie, open the door" James voice was distinctly tetchy.

"No, go away you sneaky, conniving.................person"

"Me? ME?CONNIVING? That's bloody rich coming from you, isn't it? Who's been trawling the Internet looking for spanking weekends? Let me think, well that would be you, WOULDN'T IT?" James' temper was deserting him, in fact it was galloping away over the horizon with undignified speed.

"Oh, piss off and leave me alone, I don't like you, you're nasty!" Josie bawled back. "

His temper had disappeared into the distant, gone, deserted him. Completely.

"Open this f**king door now. NOW," She did her face, a picture of disbelief at James' swearing, and a rage to equal his.

" Don't you dare use that language in front of me, you f**king moron, who the hell do you think you f**king are?"

They stood, glaring at each other until James' decided that retreat was the best part of valour and stalked out of the room, down the stairs, out of the back door and into the garage. Picking up his sports bag, he turned and made the return journey.

Josie was still standing in the same place, seeing the bag, tears sprang to her eyes and her bottom lip wobbled.

"You're leaving?" she blubbered.

"Nope, not unless you want me to.Do you want me to?

She shook her head, feeling defeated and drained. She sat on the bed staring at the carpet and the coffee stain near the skirting board that defied all modern science's remedies for stain removal.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this, so to speak. Do you think that haven't noticed your unhappiness? I'm not thick, Josie, your face has been tripping you up for months, you hardly speak to me and you've forgotten how to take care of yourself. No! Don't say a word, I haven't finished, I'll let you know when I have"

Josie had taken a deep breath, ready to blast him off the face of the earth with her far superior vocabulary than his. She closed her mouth and narrowed her eyes.

" What maddens me more than anything is that you couldn't tell me what was bothering you, didn't trust me enough, give me a chance. You want to be spanked? Well that's fine with me because that's exactly what I'm going to do. Then you'll stand in the corner with your gorgeous red bottom on display, stay in the position I put you in and not move until I say so. After that I'll spank you some more, then we'll talk. Now you can speak"

James was giving his instructions and rearranging two pillows next to his left thigh at the same time. Bending down, he opened his sports bag and took out a small leather paddle and a wooden ruler. Josie didn't speak, she stared at the two implements and then back at James.

"Corner? Position? Display? He sounded like a seasoned "Top" she had learned this word from the Internet, along with a few others. "where the hell has this come from, and where did he get that paddle and ruler?" she wondered, gazing at them with dread.

"Off the Internet" he answered. " You're not the only one who can use a computer, you know, and you're not very good at deleting the sites you've visited, are you? It's a pity that I had to discover them. It would have been so much more convenient if we could have just got down to business and not have had to go through this farce. Did you think I'd be shocked? No don't answer, it's a rhetorical question. I'm a man, if you knew how many times I've wanted to put over my knee, bare that lovely bottom of yours and spank you until it glowed. Enough said. Have you got knickers on under those very fetching pyjama bottoms, that, by the way will be in the bin after tonight, I want to feel your skin in bed, not Marks and Spencer's nightwear for pensioners. No? Then put some on underneath, those white cotton ones are fine. Hurry up."

Josie ran to the drawer and took out a pair of white knickers, well that we're nearly white, more of a grey that matched her bras, perfectly. She turned to go into the bathroom.

"Here is fine. That's another thing that's going to change, hiding your body when you undress like coy virgin" James stopped her in her tracks. She wiggled out of her bottoms and pulled on the knickers, putting both legs in one opening, she nearly went flat on her face. James hid a smile.

"Come here." he held out his hand and she walked slowly towards him. " over, and get comfortable. That's important, isn't it, being comfortable? Yes, I can read, too"

James stroked her full - still fairly firm cheeks- for a good few minutes. Josie could have stayed there for a year. His hand began to slap, gently at first then a little harder until he had a pleasing rhythm. Her bottom tingled, it felt heavenly. The bottoms were pushed down to her knees and James stroked her cheeks again and Josie purred. The rhythm continued, the "sit spot" another word he'd learned, and its location, first, up the cheek overlapping each slap, across and down the other one. James was enjoying himself, immensely. Josie's bottom was wobbling in a delightful manner and he was beginning to feel a bit randy, quite a bit randy. Josie, on the other hand, was starting to squirm, it was starting to sting.

"Ow, ow, James, that is hurting, a bit" she turned her head, glaring at him.

"Is it? Well fancy that. It's going to hurt a bit more, I'm still put out by your secret keeping so keep still" He never broke the tempo, his hand had a life of its own.

"Time for the unveiling, let's get that bottom scarlet"

Down came the knickers, a few minutes of gentle stroking then wallop. Josie nearly bit her tongue off in shock. Her legs flew up, right hand back to protect her suffering bum.

"I don't think so." James grinned, pinning her arm in the small of her back and her legs with his right one. He carried on, happily.

"Ow, James, that's enough, it hurts, I've changed my mind, let me up" she pleaded.

"Tough, I'm not finished and I'm enjoying myself"

Twenty more sound spanks and then he stood her on her feet. She reached down to pull up her knickers.

"No, you don't. Leave them where they are and go choose a corner. Make sure that you're happy with it because it'll be like a second home in the future." James pointed to each one in turn until she minced over to the chosen one.

"Hands on head, bottom out, no rubbing or jiggling about. Perfect." he ordered. " and listen to what I've got to say"

"We'll go on this weekend if you want, but before we decide, I am going to make a few suggestions. Firstly, tomorrow I want you to write down any secret fantasies you have and not shared with me. If you haven't any, we'll make them up as we go along. Next, go on to a sex site, your choice, I don't care. Browse through what they have to offer and see if it raises your interest. Better still, mine. A school girl costume springs to mind. We'll look at spanking implements together, I don't want cheap ones. At the weekend we're going shopping, you needn't panic, not locally, we'll have a day out in London, we'll be spoilt for choice there. As far as the spanking goes, we'll discuss it, together. What you want, then me. Between us we'll both be happy, unless you've been naughty and then you won't have a choice, it'll be what I decide you deserve" James was getting right into this, he was impressed with himself.

"I've created a monster" thought Josie "I'm going to laugh. Think about something sad, next door's dog dying? Nope, she had hated that little, ratty, snappy mongrel. Yappy mutt. Think off something else. Too late" a gurgling choke followed by a bellow of mirth. James grabbed her by the ear and flung over his knee, knocking the wind out of her lungs.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, James, please don't. Listen I've stopped" she chortled.

James refrained from answering. He picked up,the paddle and drummed into each cheek in turn, flattening the mounds and painting them crimson. Next came the ruler, stinging wrist flicks,he was good at those thanks to his squash games. Josie had stopped laughing.

"Bed, and take those bloody pyjamas off, you little ragbag, laughing at me" pointing at the bed. "don't you dare move. If you do as you're told I might bring you a drink up later. Move"

he said, pointing to the bed. Josie moved. Her very hot bottom soothed by the cool cotton sheets.

"Was it only this morning when I was craving this?" she thought, wriggling her cheeks to another cold part of the bed."Hurts more than reading about it."

James appeared in the door way, in his hands was a bottle of wine and two glasses. He poured for both of them and handed her one.

"How did I do, then?" he grinned at her, winking. That wink lit a certain part of her body and brain that had been dormant for quite some time, if not completely extinguished.

She blushed, "You were wonderful, every girl's dream, well, this one's anyway. Sexy, masterful............."

"Ok, ok, Don't go berserk, just a general idea is all I need, not a eulogy. Drink up and tomorrow we'll give it another go, maybe a " good girl spanking" the spanking world is our oyster, a lot to be got through." he told her, downing his wine.

He stripped off his pyjamas and threw them into the corner. "They're in the bin tomorrow, too. Nightwear is banned in this house from now on. Turning off the light, he drew Josie close until her head was resting on his shoulder. Sleep came surprisingly quickly.

Sometime during the night his hand found Josie's breast, stroking and teasing until she moaned and welcomed him into her ready, moist body. Sex was slow and deeply satisfying bringing a glint of tears to her eyes. Snuggling close, afterwards, he whispered in her ear, softly and lovingly,

"How do you feel about anal sex?"