He was waiting for her to find it, to figure it out. And she did. Something locked down, centered. Though she was nervous about being so blatant in front of Chris, she lowered her eyes. She knew Geoff was finding his center in all of this, learning how to be the right kind of Master for her, and they were having to trust each other along that new path. She had to admit he'd hit the right trigger this time, because the words came to her lips practically without thought.
"Yes sir. I was wrong. Please forgive me."
"Will punishment help you forgive yourself?"
The relief that spread through her chest answered that. Wondering at it, she nodded, and his grip tightened. "Yes, Master."
"All right, then. Stand up and take off everything you're wearing. Those clothes are intended to tempt your Masters. Naked, you have nothing to use for guile. You're simply ours, serving our will. When you've done that, pull two sets of Velcro cuffs out of the box and hand them to me."
She could say this was too much, game over, but Chris's watching silence and something else swirling in her breast told her that this wasn't too much. She swallowed, a silent assent. When Geoff stepped back, she removed her clothes under their intent regard, folded and set them aside. Then she bent and removed the cuffs from the box. She brought them to Geoff and his fingers brushed hers. She shivered.
"Are you cold?" he asked.
She shook her head. "No sir. Just nervous. And unsettled. But right, too, for the first time all day."
Geoff swept her hair off her brow, and she welcomed the caressing touch like water for thirst. "We love you, Sam. You understand that? If there's anything you can't handle, that feels wrong to you, you tell me. And we won't be angry with you. Do you understand I'm not angry with you now?"
She nodded.
"I don't think Chris is as sure," he said. "He looks ready to whisk you away from me. Which is why he's going to be the one punishing you."
In her peripheral vision, Chris started. While she wondered if he'd go along with that, Sam understood her Master's decision. He and Chris would do anything she truly desired, but Geoff exercised a certain level of intuition and judgment to figure out what those desires truly were. Chris would simply take at face value what she said she desired, because that was the kind of heart he had: open and generous, no guile to him.
She'd tested Geoff, knowing subconsciously he'd react just as he had, tolerating that shit only so far. Whereas Chris was her safety net, the definition of home, a place of unconditional acceptance. Which made him a treasure she should never take for granted, and Geoff was going to make sure she didn't. Her punishment had to come from Chris, because her infraction against him was worse.
She expected to be told to kneel again or to stretch out on the bed. Instead, Geoff clasped her elbow and guided her out of the room. Taking her down the hallway, he
turned left and went through the laundry room to pass through the door to the garage, Chris following behind them with his heavy tread.
Since they'd told her she couldn't go into the garage, she'd imagined a lot of things, but it was still a crazy, arousing shock to find a spanking bench, with polished cherry-colored wood and a blue cushion. Geoff propelled her toward it as her stomach somersaulted. "What do you think?" he asked. "It could use another coat of finish, and we're still making some modifications, but it's close to being all done."
"I . . . I love it." She was also a little terrified, realizing they could restrain her on it, making her truly helpless. She suspected Geoff planned to prove that to her right now.
Taking the cuffs from her hand, he clasped her wrists and guided her fingertips to the bench, permitting her to explore the way it felt.
"When it's all done, we'll put you on your stomach on the bench, and bend your legs so your shins are flat on these side pieces," he said. "It's like that Child's Pose you do for yoga, which keeps you accessible for spanking, switching, fucking your ass or cunt . . . whatever we want to do."
Her fingers trembled and his grip on her wrist tightened, moving her hand to the cushion, trailing her fingers along that edge. "When we need it, there will be an adjustable chin piece to hold your head up, so we can see every reaction on your beautiful face to what we're doing to you. It will also support your neck when you take either of us in your mouth. Do you like your gift?"
"Yes," she said, her voice hoarse. "Very much." There were rings at different places along the sides that would hold straps or cuffs or whatever else he'd use to restrain her.
"Good. We'll look forward to using it that way, at another time. But this is about punishment, isn't it? A punishment you need."
"Yes sir."
Geoff put his palm on her back, applying pressure so she was perpendicular to the bench, bending over it. The lower piece he'd described as being there to support her shin pressed like a bar against her hipbones.
"Stay like that," Geoff ordered. She couldn't see Chris, but she knew he was there, standing outside her line of vision, watching.
Removing a tie-down strap from the drawer of a toolbox, Geoff attached it to the short end of the bench. He ran the strap over the back of her neck and fixed it to the other end, ratcheting it down so she was held in her bent-over position. He used the cuffs to stretch her arms out across the bench and hook them to the same ring. The tops of her breasts pressed against the cushion. Her legs started to quake as he fixed the second set of cuffs to her ankles and hooked them to the wooden legs so her thighs were spread apart. Geoff smoothed a hand down her back, played with the ends of her hair.
"She's beautiful this way, Chris. She's gotten wet as I've bound her, because that's how she reacts to restraint. Come feel."
Sam felt Chris's fingers slide down her buttock and between her legs. She let out a soft moan and twitched against his touch.
"She knows she needs a punishment, Chris. It arouses her, even as it feeds something inside her, makes her feel better." Geoff dipped his fingers into her pussy and she whimpered as he collected her reaction there. "You think you can't do it, because you're standing outside this moment, believing this is about a man abusing a woman, striking someone you love. But holding her when she cries brings her comfort. So does this, in an entirely different way. It will release the negative feelings that have built up inside her, that have made her act so oddly tonight. Those tears you saw in her eyes a little while ago that she didn't shed? They're burning her from the inside, and she needs to let them out."
God yes. As Geoff spoke the words she hadn't known how to voice, those tears were thickening in her throat. Sam's fingers curled in her bonds.