Claire bent naked over my desk, holding on to the further edge of the desktop, legs wide apart. I’d tapped the cane against Claire’s bottom, and asked her if she was ready for her caning.

She shook her head. “God, I don’t know. Sir! But… I guess I have to be. Yes. Yes sir.”

“Hold on tight.” And I swung the cane medium hard, catching her across the middle of her buttocks. Claire’s head rose from the table, and she made a pained grunt. But she kept her bottom presented for me.

I added the second stroke, exactly as hard, just three centimetres lower. Her grunt of pain was no louder. 

Her ass waggled from side to side, but she settled, perfectly presented within five seconds. When it took her twenty seconds to be back in position after va stroke, she would get that stroke again. 

I resisted the urge to strike her harder. This was to be a cumulative thing. The third stroke, lower still, caused a short frenzy of stamping feet, and this time she moaned, high and musical. The muscles in her legs tautened as she struggled to keep her ass still. I nodded, but said nothing, raising the cane again.

The fourth stroke caused her first real grief, and a howl of pain and woe. Her feet left the carpet and kicked, and her ass dropped, her lower belly pressed against the desk.

I counted the seconds. Within seven seconds she was back in place, her bottom carrying four new raised welts, each a twin track of red with a paler line in the middle. I gave her the fifth stroke, and her vocal response was louder, and higher pitched. It took her twelve seconds to have her body back in the abjectly inviting position I’d instructed her to assume.

She must have sensed me raising the cane for the sixth stroke, because she gave one short groan before I delivered it.

When it landed, on the crease of her buttocks and thighs, she cried, “Fuuuuck! Oh! OH! Oh fuck!” Her legs lifted nearly level with the table and she rolled in pain, kicking.

Maddie pressed Claire’s shoulders down, and murmured something into her ear, I don’t know what, to comfort her and remind her to get back in position. Claire’s bottom, now marked with a new bright and rising weal, wouldn’t keep still. At last Claire presented her ass again, up and arched for me, and groaned, “Oh sir, oh sir, please, please, oh god.”

I tapped her left inner thigh with the cane. “That was your first six, Claire. We’ll take a short break now, but the best thing you can do is stay in position while you wait. We’ve got a long way to go together, you and I.”