I couldn’t breathe.

Lust, anticipation, desire, guilt, shame, ecstasy all combined into one intoxicating cocktail and had rendered me drunk with insensibility. I glanced at my sexual Virgil, catching her eye and meeting my gaze with her own as she favoured me with a smile laden with erotic promise and curiously, a tinge of tenderness as well.

I did not dare speak lest I broke the enchantment, as if my voice would sully the sacred. Einstein was right: time really is relative to the beholder. When we are with those we care for, time slows down, your whole life flashes by, heartbreak and scars. Stay with it, and you can live a lifetime in that split second.

I felt a soft hand lightly touch my shoulder and I jumped as if electrified.

“Sorry, Tony.”

A trilling laugh ensued and I could feel myself turn crimson with embarrassment.

With the supple grace of a dancer, Claire inched towards the bed, lithely leading me towards it by the hand whilst in the same moment deftly unbuttoning her blouse. With a soft thump she dropped herself onto the edge of the bed and stared up at me, baby blue eyes sparkling. I could feel my face tighten, my groin throbbing and stirring; unsheathed and aching to be liberated and to find captivity once inside of her, a joyous gaol.

She pushed her now unbuttoned blouse off her shoulders, never once ceasing contact.

“I’ve been naughty sir.”

Her finger traced itself down her neck, towards the centre of her supple breasts.

“Very naughty.”

Her hand continued to her skirt, wish she removed skilfully in one swift motion, taking her panties with it, liberating that wonderful, succulent pink conch between her legs.

“Oh so so very very naughty.”

All the while, her fingers traced down her navel to her now increasingly swollen and puffy pussy. I could already see the glistening sheen of vaginal lubricant already present. With a gasp and a moan, she proceeded to pleasure herself, her nimble fingers expertly finding their intended location, exerting the right amount of pressure and tactile sensation.

As her right hand cupped and massaged her breasts, I hurriedly disrobed my own clothing, near enough ripping them off in impatience, impotent rage and lust. With a guttural snarl, I pounced on her, gripping her face tightly into my hands and roughly kissing her deeply.

I could see her eyes widen in surprise at my boldness and just for a moment, I could have sworn I saw the most fleeting trace of fear tinged in there as well.

My hands ran through her luxuriant brown hair, that sensual waterfall that cascaded down the arch of her back and I could feel her spasm at my touch and grunt at my caress.

So we tumbled in that way, her on top and then I, onward and onward in an endless loop.

As I won the struggle, I stared at her.

“Read though my emails huh? My private world and thoughts?”

At this she blushed. As she started to offer some explanation or excuse, I silenced her with a finger on her lips, my other hand already slick with her juices as I fingered her. She let out a muffled gasp, and keeping my gaze still firmly on her brought my hand that had pleasured her to my mouth and sucked on it.

“God, you are so sweet. Such a sweet, sweet girl.”

She blushed even more deeply now, an erotic, unintended and utterly natural expression of submission on her.

“But you did invade my privacy, and by your own admission were naughty. So you deserve a sore bottom.”

She nodded sheepishly at this.

“Yes, sir.

Sorry sir.”

I asked her for a glass of water, which she dutifully fetched from the kitchen, her bare feet sticking to the linoleum flooring.

As she returned, and placed the glass on the dresser with a faint clink. I leaned forward and grabbed her by the wrist. With a strangled yelp, more of surprise than pain, she allowed herself to be guided into my lap and over my knee.

We sat like that for what seemed to be an eternity, a deafening silence in the room that was so thick it was suffocating. It was as if neither of us could break the psychic attrition, nor had the inclination.

“Is something wrong, Tony?”

The sound of her voice, oddly flat reconnected me to reality.

I sighed silently.

“You are scared, aren’t you?”

I began to nod then realised my mistake that given she was over my knee, she could scarcely see my face.

I confirmed her suspicion, desperate to keep my voice and resolve from cracking.

“Light erotic spanking helps to promote stimulation of the blood vessels. Inflammation of the buttocks causes the diversion of blood to that region preferentially over other parts of the body. Given the relative proximity of the buttocks to the genitals, this also helps to trigger and stimulate feelings of sexual arousal.

Mild sensations of pain also trigger levels of dopamine in the brain….”

I interjected.

“Dopamine, is that a hormone or a neurotransmitter? I always get that mixed up. Pretty sure it’s a neurotransmitter...”

Giving an exaggerated and exasperated sigh, I could almost feel Claire rolling her eyes at me. I gave her a light slap on her bottom, relishing the tingling in my hand.

“For Christ’s sake Tony! Here we are, about to embark on a kinky escapade and you want to break it down to clinical discussion. And yes, dopamine is a neurotransmitter.”

I spanked her again, slightly harder this time, and she purred.

A dawning realisation came over me.

“Wait, are you baiting me? Trying to get me mad to make it easier for me to spank you?”

She turned around, looking at me with a mischievous grin on her face.

“Okay, let me put it into Tony terms.”

Despite myself, I laughed and motioned for her to continue, intrigued.

“Okay here goes. The kinetic model of matter espouses that there is a basic requirement of energy necessary for any and all chemical reactions to successfully occur, and this minimum input is known as the 'activation energy.' If we do not reach this threshold, the reaction does not occur.”

I nodded sagely, one of the basic precepts of chemistry, and one I enjoyed immensely.

She continued.

“Now I know you are uncomfortable with spanking because it seems to be about inflicting pain and bullying someone else. But if I want it, I am consenting to it. I am…. manipulating the variables and the reactants to get the desired outcome, or products. So again in chemistry, we manipulate temperature, pH, concentration etc in order to speed the reaction up, or increase yield.

Here, I am manipulating the variables to get my desired result, a red backside and a wet pussy. Preferably with an orgasm, but I’m not gonna push my luck, yo.”

I burst out laughing.

“God, you sound exactly like me. That was hilarious and terrifying at the same time.”

She winked at me conspiratorially.

“So. You gonna spank me now, pansy?”

I grinned.

“Of course.”