Page 329 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

He grunted in response and hung up. By the time he got dressed, he heard Kate calling his name with a note of panic in her voice. “Dom? Dom, I'm here!” He heard the back door bang open and then shut. He was waiting at the top of the stairs when she knocked there. “Dom? It's safe!”

He opened the door and he felt her jump back in surprise.

“Oh Dom,” she gasped. He was sure that the sight of him was not pretty. He was too irritated to speak to her yet. He walked past her to the kitchen and started feeling his way to the refrigerator. “You can't see,” she spoke in an anguished whisper. “Please, Dom—let me. You're hungry?”

He took a step back from the fridge to allow her in.

“What sounds good? A sandwich?”

“Yeah. Make three. Fox and Stella will be hungry too.”

“Your—your eyes,” she whispered.

“It's temporary. Like snow blindness,” he said tersely. He sure hoped it was temporary, anyway. “I need to go let Stella and Fox know that it's safe.”

He left her to it and felt his way down the corridor to the stair door to Stella's wing. He knocked on the door and she opened it right away. Like him, she'd been waiting and ready for the word that it was safe to come out.

“All clear. Will you tell Fox? And maybe run interference for me with him while Kate and I discuss this?”

“You bet.”

He didn't have to explain anything to Stella. She was a no-questions-asked type anyway, but he also knew that she understood the dynamic he had going with Kate.

Back in the kitchen Kate said in a tiny voice, “Here you go, Dom.” She put a hand very lightly on his arm to guide him to a chair where the sandwich was waiting for him. “What else can I do?”

“Are you finished with your lessons for the day?”

“Yes. I canceled the last one when I finally got the message. I'm so sorry, my phone was—

“Go wait for me in the bedroom,” he interrupted.

“Okay,” she whispered.

Kate's knees were jelly. She tripped down the stairs and into Dom's bedroom with her heart pounding in her throat. Oh God. There was a belt on the bed. She was sure it was purposeful. This was it.

Her first real punishment spanking. She didn't count the time he spanked her to tears over snapping at him, because he hadn't really been angry then and he had done it to relieve her stress. This time he was angry—she could tell. She paced around the room, tears choking her. Her face burned with the pressure of them. She sat on the bed and started to cry.

The door opened and Dom filled the doorway, holding a wooden spoon. She stood up and ran to him, clutching his arm so he could find her in space. “Dom, I'm so sorry. I was in a hurry and I just totally forgot that I'd opened the shutters.” Her tears started up fresh again.

To her surprise, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight. She sobbed into his chest. When she had calmed down a bit, he drew her away and looked in her direction, although his blind eyes missed focusing on her eyes. They were a horrible sight—bloody mucous was oozing out of the inner and outer corners of his eyes and the whites were completely bloodshot. His skin was as red as a lobster, like a redhead who'd spent all day at the beach without sunscreen. Some places had weeping blisters.

“Kate, there's no excuse for your irresponsibility. I thought I made it clear how serious it was to leave the shutters closed.”

“You did,” she choked. “You absolutely did. I know and I feel so bad,” her voice broke again and she drew in several hiccupping breaths.

Dom just waited.

“Are you going to spank me?” she asked in a whisper.

“What do you think I should do?” he asked quietly.

Ah. This was the consent piece, again. He wasn't going to hurt her without her permission. Of course she didn't want to be spanked. Especially not with his belt. But she'd caused him to be badly hurt and she felt absolutely horrible about it. And spanking was the solution on the table. She leaned her forehead against his chest and nodded. She couldn't bring herself to say the words—to actually ask him to spank her. He understood.

“Take off your clothes,” he commanded.

He went to the bed, reaching his legs in front of him tentatively, until one of them hit the edge of it. He sat down, turning his face in her direction.

Knowing he was blind somehow made stripping off her clothes a little easier, but not that much. There was something about baring herself to be punished that made her feel so very small and vulnerable.

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