Lilah nodded. It was about time. They hadn’t seen each other for more than a month. He told her bend over his desk. The words were clichés, and yet they still had power. They worked for him and it seemed they worked for Lilah.

Lilah sucked her stomach in and turned to face the desk. She did like mild humiliation, in its time and place, but he had never known her not to be vain. She leaned forward until she could hold onto the further edge and lowered herself onto the wooden desktop.

Jaime liked the idea of how cold and hard the desk would be, under her body. He always thought of her as warm.

Lilah knocked a couple of files with her hip, and they slid onto the floor. It probably hadn’t been deliberate, but Jaime used the mess as a reason to pick up his new ruler. If it hadn’t been the files it would have been something else.

He brought the ruler down on her bottom and upper thighs as hard as he could. He watched the first stripe form. She had moved her feet a little, to steady herself, but otherwise she seemed comfortable. It was a pleasing pain, and she’;d waited a month for it. So he smacked her again, just as hard. He’d bought that ruler in an art shop that afternoon specifically because it was the cheapest and flimsiest ruler he’d ever seen. He thought she’d be impressed with herself, if he broke an implement of discipline on her.

But the damn thing wouldn’t break. He kept going. He did his best.