"I will—" Her voice broke. "I will remember, I promise?—"
"I know." Two more, deliberate and firm. "Because I'm going to make sure." He didn’t say another word for a long few minutes but instead let his hand do the talking. Swat after swat came down until he’d thoroughly punished her. Her entire butt throbbed.
She was crying now, not dramatically, just actually crying, the tears coming from the specific place where the physical sensation met the emotional reality of having broken his trust and of having worried him. She’d done the exact thing she'd said she wouldn't.
His hand came to rest against her butt, rubbing slow circles over the now flaming flesh.
"That's my girl," he said quietly. "You took that well."
She sniffled into the comforter.
"It's done," he said. "All of it. You hear me? Done and over."
He brought her up off his knee and into his lap in one smooth movement, and she curled into him instinctively, face against his neck, and his arms came around her fully and held on.
She cried a little more and he let her, one hand slow on her back, one hand in her hair.
"I worried you," she said, when she could. Muffled against his neck.
"Yes."
"I didn't think about that part. I was thinking about myself, how I wanted to go for a walk."
"I know." His hand moved through her hair. "That's what the rule is for. So you don't have to think about the threat part. I think about it. You follow the rule." He paused. "That's how this works."
She pressed closer. "I don't like worrying you."
"Good. I hope you remember that next time."
"I will." She meant it completely. "I really will."
He pressed his lips to her hair. Held them there.
They stayed like that for a long time, the room quiet and warm around them, Emily loose and wrung out and somehow lighter, the specific lightness of something that had been carried and then put down.
"Okay?" he said eventually.
"Yeah." She pulled back just enough to look at him. His face was warm, the controlled stillness of it softer at the edges than it ever was when other people were watching. "Really okay."
He reached up and brushed a tear track from her cheek with his thumb. "You took your spanking like a good girl, I’m proud of you."
She felt that settle all the way down.
"Can we stay here for a bit?" she asked.
"As long as you need."
She tucked back into his arms.
"For the record," she said, after a moment.
"Yeah."
"I understand the rule."
"I know you do."
"And I'm going to follow it."
