Learning to Blush (8 page)

“I’m glad you’re entertained,” she hummed miserably, parking the car. She looked over at Graham, who seemed eager to get out and explore how he was going to punish her. “I’ll give you money,” she said. “That way, you can just go in there without me.”

He arched an eyebrow and left the car in response. She sighed as he walked around the car and opened the driver’s side door for her. “Come on, Wife.”

She sighed and turned around. “You’re staying here, right?”

Thorton was looking for notes on text messaging through the internet. He glanced up just to say, “Yup.”

“Thank
God
,” she groaned, stepping out of the car and being guided towards the entrance of the store.

It took two seconds of looking around in there before Graham found himself grinning, and saying in Swarii, “Now I really feel sorry for humans… So deprived.” He picked up a movie. “Two women at once? But why? To what end? Doesn’t one bring enough pleasure here?”

Her lips pursed as she looked around, looking dead-on to a girl she knew back in high school who was running the front counter, watching with both delight and curiosity. “Can we not drag this out?” she hissed, folding her arms sourly in front of her.

“Watch your tone with me,” he warned, taking her firmly by the shoulder and leading her across the room. She couldn’t watch to see what he was choosing—she could hardly believe there could be so many anal plugs and anal stretching kits in one place. She put her hand over her eyes, wanting to melt into the floor. “Hold this,” he demanded, putting an object firmly in her hand.

She looked down and wanted to die. It was an enema kit—and he was still perusing, like he wanted to add to this night of fun. She choked out in his language, “No way, Graham. I said I was sorry, and I am, but it’s not fair that people will see us buying this, and they’ll know that—!” she whined, trying to choke back tears.

“This isn’t up for negotiations,” he assured firmly, putting a few cases filled with plugs into her hands one by one. “I’m not interested in ‘fair’. I don’t think this is fair, either, because I could punish you a hundred times and still not feel that we’re even for the horror you put me through.” He saw a pair of leather wrist restraints and picked them up and looked at them. He raised his eyebrows in a way that showed he was both impressed and interested by their existence. “Genius,” he said, handing those over to Ellie as well. Ellie shifted her weight from foot to foot nervously.

He put a final plug on the stack, one called ‘
The Super Big End
’. Her eyes widened. “Are you trying to kill me?” she yelped, her eyes pleading. It wasn’t the largest butt plug the store had, but it might has well have been. It was
never
going to fit. It was even larger than the largest plug Graham had ever put into her—and she had just made it to that level after a year.

“I’m just planning to get your attention,” he assured, grabbing her upper arm and walking her to the counter. When she tried to dig her feet into the carpet, he gave her a firm swat on the bottom. “Come on.”

Ellie saw one of the customers smiling sickly at her and tried to ignore it. She knew him, too. Worked on his cars…

“Never thought I’d see
you
here, Car Wreck,” the girl behind the counter finally said, glancing at Ellie and then glancing up at Graham. “Interesting assortment…” she said, obviously not trying to grin too widely. “You want lube, too?”

Ellie just searched into her wallet, trying as much as possible not to make eye contact or any conversation.

“Yes,” Graham replied for her.

“What kind?”

“There’s more than one?” Graham said, furrowing his bow.

The girl giggled. “Yes, of course.”

“Just grab one that’s appropriate,” Ellie begged shallowly, her voice monotone as she handed over her credit card.

The girl giggled again and picked one at random from a shelf behind her. She grinned and bagged everything up. “Have fun.”

“It won’t be,” Graham assured, and the girl’s smile suddenly disappeared as she recognized the dark seriousness in his eyes. She looked down at Ellie, whose face was beet red as Graham nodded his chin towards the bag, silently ordering her to carry it as if the carrying of the implements was part of the punishment itself.

Ellie nervously took the black bag with shaking hands and was guided out of the store. “That was Millie Parsons. She’s gonna text Penny before we even get to the
car
,” Ellie whined, her voice just above a whisper. Her tone was almost accusing.

“I’m not going to be doing much apologizing tonight,” Graham assured, opening her car door and taking the bag out of her hands. He watched her squeeze a tear out of her eye by the time he got to his seat. “Save that cry, little girl. We haven’t even
begun
.”

She sniffled and started the car. When glancing into her rearview mirror, she noticed Thorton still texting in the back seat. “What IS a
roflmao
?” he finally asked, sounding both amused and frustrated at the same time.

“Something I’ll never be doing again,” she assured, turning back onto the main road. “I won’t have a butt to laugh off, apparently.”

Chapter Four

“So, Thorton says Ellie wants us to make ourselves scarce,” Penny informed, jumping off of the counter. “I’m thinking about taking Thorton down to Landon’s, if anyone wants to join,” she invited.

“Like hell,” Mike fumed, putting his feet up on the desk. “I’m staying right here.
I
want to know what the hell’s going on!”

“You can pluck it all out of Thorton,” Penny assured, waving her hand. “If Ellie wants time alone with her guy, she should be alone with her guy. She can come down to Landon’s later.”

“I don’t like this
at all.
” Mike pursed his lips thoughtfully. “Something’s fishy here, and I don’t like being lied to.”

Tom stood up and cracked his knuckles. “I say we give Thorton some truth potion, if you know what I mean. Get him good and shitfaced.”

Timmy gave a chuckle in agreement. “Make him go for the boot at Landon’s. Everybody’s shitfaced after attempting the boot.”

Mike found himself scratching is chin. “This is true,” he admitted, liking the idea more every second. “And, we’re more likely to get Thorton’s version of the story if Ellie’s not there to manipulate him.”

“I could just play with him,” Penny added simply, putting her cell phone in her pocket. Everyone turned to look at her. “
What
?” she shrugged. “I’m a big girl. It’s the oldest information extraction technique in the book. Besides… He’s kinda cute.” She reached over past Mike and stole a cookie out of a nearby bag. “By the way, Mille Parsons just texted me. Said that Ellie and some tall guy came by and bought a bunch of taboo sex toys. I’m not gonna stay around to listen to it. I’m not that curious as to what she’s up to.”

Mike blushed at this information, looking both horrified and disgusted. “Ugh—I could have lived my life without knowing that, Penny. What happened to the days when people just… kissed and held hands? You know, and eventually introduced people to their families before running away and marrying them and God knows what else?”

“We live in
Rogue River
, Mike. Not Stepford,” Penny reminded cynically, rolling her eyes as she continued to text. She heard a car pull up in the lot. “She’s here. Let’s go,” Penny demanded, pointing to Mike’s cowboy hat.

Mike huffed, grabbed his hat, and got up from his chair. Everybody filed out of the shop towards his SUV. Penny was excitedly bouncing up to the car just as Thorton was opening the door to leave. “Stay where you are!” Penny demanded. “We’re going to Landon’s!” If Penny noticed Ellie’s dour expression, she didn’t show it. “Can I borrow some cash?”

“I just gave Thorton my wallet. He’ll treat you, don’t worry,” Ellie said, doing her best to force a smile. “Just… just
go
.”

By now, Graham had stepped out of the car with a black bag in his hand and was pulling leather gloves out of his coat pocket. It wasn’t cold outside by any means—it was actually warm. Graham smiled politely at Penny, and then handed the gloves to Thorton. “Put those on,” he ordered.

Thorton looked grateful to get them, and put them on his six digits without complaint.

“You know, supposedly our great-granddad had six fingers,” Penny announced proudly, watching Thorton pull on the gloves. They looked like something a motorcyclist would wear—a thick, black material that looked like leather. “The sixth one was functional, too.”

“I heard that,” Thorton said with a smile.

“You wanna sit up front with me?” Penny asked, nodding towards the front seat.

“You’re driving?” Thorton said, looking like he was worried about the prospect.

“Hell yeah,” she said proudly. “I
always
drive.”

“She's been doing it way,
way
before it was legal,” Mike added with a sigh. He looked over at Graham, who had his hand tightly wrapped around Ellie’s upper arm. “I’m Mike. Her brother,” he snapped, putting his hands on his hips and not offering his hand in greeting. “I want to talk to you tonight,” Mike informed. “I want you guys at Landon’s no later than eight o’clock, got it? Gives you three hours before I get informed about what the hell is going on.”

Graham’s normally-serious face smiled and he bowed his head respectfully, but somehow Mike got the feeling that Graham thought he was being
cute
. “You got it, Brother.”

Mike grumbled and sat in the backseat with Tim and Tom. Thorton scrambled around to the front. “I can go, right?” Thorton asked as he sat down, looking past Penny out the window at Graham.

Graham shrugged, “I’d say you’re on leave. Behave yourself.”

“Ha! Don’t I always?”

Ellie and Graham watched the pickup truck and the SUV scoot off through the parking lot to head out onto the street. “My apartment’s above the garage,” she admitted, turning around.

“Unlocked?” he guessed, rifling through his pocket for something.

She shrugged. “Should be,” she told him. “Why?”

“I’m going upstairs.
You
are going back
there
,” he pointed to the woods in the back of the business, “and you are finding me three good switches. Do you remember what a good switch looks like?” He passed her a pocket knife.

“Graham—can’t we just… make love and snuggle and worship each other? Just for tonight?” she begged, remembering full well what a “good switch” looked like. She had been on the great planet of Swaraan for maybe two minutes before he told her to search for one. And then when she chose ones that would certainly break after a few stripes, he stripped her leggings off and made her look bare-assed in the forest behind his home as he taught her how to find a ‘good one’ by testing several combinations on her backside so it was nice and welted before the festivities had officially begun.

“I’d love to!” he assured. “If I had a wife who would not take stupid risks, that’s exactly what I would do with her right now. Maybe one day you’ll
be
that wife,” he added. “But so far you’ve decided to be a naughty, disobedient, mischievous, and practically suicidal wife. So instead of snuggling, I get to perform a punishment night. I want you up there in no more than ten minutes,” he informed her, pointing to the second story of the garage. “Don’t make me come looking for you.”

It didn’t even take her five minutes to find suitable switches and to start slowly stripping the bark off of them. She sat in the locked, closed car garage for the rest of her time remaining, not wanting to go up to her room too soon, where he was surely getting his torturous new toys out of their packaging and getting her enema ready.

She shuddered at remembering her last enema; it had actually been a long time since she'd received one. Graham used bottom punishment sparsely in truth, and she probably only received four or five such punishments since they'd been married. Thus, it had nearly been five months now since her last enema or her last plugging. Though… the last time was the first he’d actually
rode
her afterwards. She finally graduated to a size that was bigger than his girth, which would stretch her bottom wide enough to allow him entrance.

Afterwards she didn’t know what to think of it. It was strange to be punished while being so close to him and giving him pleasure. Somehow, the act had embarrassed her, and he'd known that it would. Having anal sex seemed so
animalistic
to her. His girth was uncomfortable, but the fact that he didn’t care whether she got pleasure or not was shaming.

She was always in the mood for him, even when she pretended she wasn’t. He was the most handsome, strongest and most confident man she’d ever met, and she felt like she was so much more powerful since she’d been with him; more able, more confident in herself. That was probably because he was so strong and important, and she was the most important thing in his life; she could see it in his eyes in the way he looked at her.

When she was mounted from behind, however, she didn’t get to see that look. She was normally blind-folded for the bottom plugging ritual, since Graham rightly felt that the blindefold would add to her helplessness about the matter.

Nope—she definitely wasn’t looking forward to any part of this. She dragged herself up the stairs to her apartment slowly before walking in through the door. He was busy arranging pillows on her bed. It looked like he did some light cleaning; it no longer looked like she was trying to decorate her studio apartment with dirty clothing. She guessed he didn’t like the look of dirty socks on the lampshade as much as she did.

“Lots of cleaning for ten minutes,” she commented, trying to lighten the mood slightly.

“I discovered a hamper in the corner of the room,” he enlightened. “Did you know about it?”

“Oh,” she smiled weakly. “So
that’s
what that was. Thought it was just a fancy basket my mother put in here.”

He put out his large hand expectantly and she put her switches into it. He eyed them closely, but in the end he seemed to approve of them. He put them next to the pillow before he took the pocketknife from her hands and put it back into his coat pocket, then took off his coat and laid it over the back of a chair. He rolled up his sleeves…