The Long Day of Revenge (15 page)

“Again, Manolo Garza prepares for the kill and…”

A second miss brought grumbles from the crowd.

“Bad luck,” the commentator continued.

“Manolo usually kills well,” Rafael was saying from the passageway also, as he watched the display. “This is rare for him.”

The third thrust was effective, sinking in and bringing death to the bull. Lucinda was able to give a sign of relief as she saw it happen and knew all would be okay for the moment.

“Casa De Campo?”

The words came to her again. Now they were troubling.

“Bad luck, Manolo,” the commentator on the arena floors was saying. “Two misses caused you to lose the ear, but you are still warmly applauded.”

“Yes,” Manolo agreed. “I will be right back.”

He sounded winded as he uttered these words.

“Pardon me.”

With empty hands, he saluted the crowd, then withdrew to behind the fence where the commentator was waiting.

“Now for the announcement. It will not be until the Cinco De Mayo weekend which is always the most important time for Nogales and always when they have the biggest bullfights. I have announced next season for the Cinco de Mayo festivities that I will be renting the bullring myself. I will act as lone matador, and I will kill all four bulls.”

Lucinda’s eyes opened wide with horror, for she knew this was the long day of revenge Manolo so often rambled about.

“Magnificent!” the commentator exclaimed.

“Furthermore, I have reserved the purchase of four bulls from the ranch of Eliseo Manzano.”

Lucinda put her hand to her mouth, knowing what was coming.

“If you will remember a long while ago, right before I started my career, I was gored very badly by a calf by the name of Gaditano. Well, Don Eliseo Manzano has been saving this animal for me, and he is now a full sized toro. At the Cinco De Mayo festival, I will fight and kill this bull which nearly killed me on the ranch.”

Rafael looked on with nothing to say and turned away, also displeased with what had happened. The agreements had been made behind his back, and it showed.

Once more, tears came to Lucinda’s eyes, as the last bit of certainty about life was suddenly taken away. Manolo was going through with his plans, and in doing so, she saw his death.

It was again that the Casa De Campo came to her.

For the first time ever, Manolo had left without his traditional spanking for luck before a bullfight. As silly as it sounded, he was always deathly serious about this.

Was the Casa De Campo some form of whore club or escort service that really went beyond the call to serve fetishes? People being shit on? People liking to watch? People liking to spank!

As the last bull of the day entered the ring for Gomez to face, Lucinda’s interest in the event died away. Instead, she went to the computer and ran a search on the Casa De Campo in Nogales. What she found was not to her liking.

Chapter Twelve

Lucinda had sought to deal with Manolo and his sometimes absurd eccentricities in the months that followed, but life was becoming hard. The ferocity of the spankings he administered was worse than ever. This, as much as his fixation with Gaditano, threatened the very core of their relationship. The existence of their marriage was at stake, yet she endured. She at least tried not to do anything that would bring about a verified punishment, but this game was about to run its course.

It was January of the new year that Manolo announced he was taking a week off from his bullfighting schedule. He was fresh off a triumph in Mexico City and said he had business to do that would require a trip to Nogales again. He did not look pleased when Lucinda said she planned to go, too.

The flight had been a quiet one from Mexico City to Hermosillo, and the train to Nogales was even more silent. As they checked into their hotel room, Manolo seemed to be more fidgety than usual. He was also suspiciously killing his wife with kindness.

“I think I’m going to do some border town shopping and just get something to eat on my own,” she suggested. “Is that alright with you?”

Again, Manolo seemed too complacent.

“I have a meeting with the bullring owner and also need to speak to some newspaper crews. I know we have a ways to go, and it is moving fast. Even if it is four months until the Cinco de Mayo, I want things set into motion. I think it should be the sooner the better. You do what you need to do, and I will do the same. We’ll meet back here whenever.”

With that, Lucinda made her way out of the hotel, but the curio shops, liquor stores, and dress places held no interest for her. She flagged down a cab and ordered the driver to take her to Casa De Campo.

In secret she had made the appointment in advance, and for all anyone knew, she was a lesbian seeking an encounter. Always loyal to Manolo, however, she had other plans in mind.

When she knocked on the door and the matriarch answered, she paid in advance.

“Now I expressed myself clearly when I said I wanted to deal with a woman who is into spanking.”

The proprietor merely smiled.

“I will be right back.”

Lucinda scanned the waiting room with her eyes and noticed a bullfight poster with the name of De La Torre and a black ribbon taped to the frame. That was not reassuring.

“This is Esmeralda.”

Lucinda grinned uncomfortably as she stared at the dark haired woman in the robe.

“Charmed,” Esmeralda spoke out. “Come up to my room and we can do whatever comes to mind. We have three hours.”

“It won’t take that long,” Lucinda whispered as she made her way to her waiting guide.

Once inside the room, Esmeralda stripped off her robe to reveal herself naked underneath.

“Take off your clothing too,” she instructed. “A massage comes with this.”

“Actually, I came here just to talk. I want to ask about spankings. I want to learn.”

Esmeralda tilted her head quizzically.

“Okay. Fine. Let me know what I can do. But you might as well undress and get your free massage. It comes with the deal.”

Lucinda nodded.

As she undressed, she was aware of Esmeralda eyeing her and starting to cook with lust. She clearly swung both ways.

“I’m not into other women,” Lucinda whispered as she finished peeling off her panties until she was likewise nude. “I’m a happily married woman. Well, pretty happy.”

Esmeralda continued to listen.

“Anyway, I have a husband who is really into spanking. It just goes beyond weird. The thing is, I love him and I want to be tolerant of his wants, but it’s killing me. He doesn’t just want to do it for foreplay. He also beats the hell out of my ass like he thinks I’m some little kid or something. He’s into his punishment thing. It started when he slapped my bare ass a few times before we even started dating. A thing that just happened. But it went out of control.”

“So you come to me and want to know about being a better submissive, or turn into a dominant yourself? You want to know how to prepare yourself for the spankings, or how to turn the tables and make the relationship better? Whatever you want, I can tell you about, but I am sure you know talking is not the same as doing it. I can advise, but there is no guarantee.”

“Of course.”

Esmeralda knelt by Lucinda and started to rub her shoulders, feeling the tension.

“So your husband spanks you, but otherwise does not abuse you in the woman beater sense of the word? He never strikes you in the face or anything like that.”

“No,” Lucinda answered. “That’s the funny part. If the man ever hit me, punched me, or struck me anywhere but my ass, I’d be out of there in a heartbeat. I don’t believe in that shit, and that is what makes the rest of this so odd.”

“I think you have a very spankable ass,” Esmeralda noted. “It is a pity you do not swing both ways. Are you sure you would not like to explore?”

“I am faithful only to my husband,” Lucinda answered. She was not being condescending, but stating a fact.

Esmeralda sighed, as she had seen this syndrome many times.

“If only the husbands would be the same way. Maybe I have no room to talk, because I profit from them, but there are so many women out there. I might as well get paid for what others do for free. To me, it is a business deal.”

“Do you ever fall in love with a customer?” Lucinda asked.

Esmeralda pondered her answer.

“Sometimes, briefly, I start to fall in love, I think, but in this line of work, you have to keep boundaries. You have to keep perspectives. There are problems more often when a man falls in love with someone like me. It won’t work. These men don’t buy it though. They believe a lie they tell themselves.”

“And you are also into spankings besides sex? How did it happen?”

Esmeralda was again truthful.

“When I was a girl, I got spanked all the time by both my mother and my father. It was always with my pants down and on the bare bottom. With the hand it hurt enough, but when my father took me into the bedroom, told me to pull down my shorts or lift my dress and get ready to learn my lesson, I knew I was getting it with the belt. I was a teen and still getting beltings on the naked behind. That was when I noticed something I didn’t before. Even though it hurt like fuck, I was getting turned on.”

“You were never sexually abused by your parents?”

“Of course not. Nothing of the kind. I don’t even think the spankings were a sexual abuse. It was like this. You were bad in the household and you got it with the pants down, plain and simple. There was nothing erotic about it. It was later that I realized I loved to fuck and to suck. I learned I loved women and men both. I also learned I loved to be disciplined. Now I would be what is called a bottom, because I am on the bottom, or the receiving end. The person who administers discipline is a top, because he or she is on top, like say in an across the lap setting, and the one dishing out the pain.”

Esmeralda’s hands drifted down toward Lucinda’s own ass, caressing it. There seemed to be no scars or abrasions at the time.

“I can see why your husband would love to spank this ass. Hell, I want to spank it. Are you sure you wouldn’t want me to dominate you? I prefer taking rather than giving, but in some cases I blur the line.”

“No,” Lucinda objected once more. “I am loyal to my husband. I just want to learn more about the spanking realm.”

“Well, I can help you there, too. First off, is there any way you think you’ll ever learn to accept what is being done? Do you think you might learn to like or even love these things?”

Lucinda was silent for a long time.

“I don’t know. I love sex, but I hate the damned spankings. I especially hate it when I get those real over the knee or bent over bad girl spankings that are intended to teach me some kind of God-damned lesson. The role play ones are something else, but these others. Jesus. I am not a little girl. There is no doubt I love my husband, but I wish to Christ I had put a stop to this. Now it’s too late to end it. I just know.”

“So how did you find Casa De Campo?” Esmeralda asked.

“Just heard it mentioned,” Lucinda answered. In a way, it was the truth.

“I have seen and done it all,” Esmeralda sighed as she worked her way down on Lucinda’s legs. “Believe me. I have seen and done it all.”

“Don’t you fear getting diseases?” Lucinda asked. She wondered if the question was a taboo one.

“There’s a whole system. There are exams. I even get checked more often than I am supposed to, and you know what? I have never come down with anything. I think the saints protect me, even if I do not believe in them.”

“Some of the saints really baffle me as well,” Lucinda answered. “San Sebastian. Here’s a guy martyred and shot full of arrows, yet he is the patron saint of archers. If I was him, I’d be saying, ‘Fuck the archers,’ and that would be that.”

Both women laughed.

“I don’t suppose you would like to roll over and let me do your front side too?” Esmeralda asked. “I won’t do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Maybe in a bit,” Lucinda said in a hushed voice. “The massage is fine. Like I said, I won’t cheat on my husband.”

“But will he cheat on you?”

The question brought deadly silence.

“I think it’s valid to ask.”

Lucinda thought long and hard, for some things were truly troubling her. There was something about this place and how Manolo had come to have knowledge of it, even if more than likely second hand through De la Torre was alarming.

“So how do I handle a husband who likes to spank?”

Esmeralda smiled, showing a face that radiated pure lust.

“Different ways. You can tell him outright that you are fed up with this shit, and tell him no more. If you do, he will show either that he truly loves you or not, as he will stop. But the problem is, will he stop? Many men will secretly come to someone like me and never tell you. How would you feel if you caught your husband cheating on you?”

“Our marriage would be over.”

“I see. Well, I do hope that all works out. Anyway, let me go on.”

Esmeralda was now rubbing Lucinda’s feet, and from the foot of the bed, the voice seemed distant.

“You can also draw a line and tell him no more of these real spankings if you hate them so much. Just tell him you are not going to play this discipline game, and no matter what he thinks, spankings are not acceptable as a way to deal with conflict as an adult. If you really want to get to him, tell him it ranks with spouse abuse, though we both seem to agree this is not the case here. Put your foot down and tell no more, but then you compromise. You tell him you’ll accept spankings, even really hard ones like with a belt or a paddle, as a means of foreplay. I’ve been spanked for foreplay really hard myself so many times I have lost count. That is one of my specialties, which is why you came to me.”

“That could work,” Lucinda muttered. “Maybe.”

“Another solution is to learn to love the spankings, or at least grudgingly accept them in whatever form they come. If you love him that much, then I might dare to assume you accept his, how can we say, peculiarities.”

With her face in the pillow, Lucinda nodded once more.