They saw me to the front door, Danny snuggled into John’s broad back.

‘Come here, Danny,’ I said, pulling him out and drawing him into a hug. ‘It’s OK. I am not mad.’
His eyes were still red but he let me give him a tight squeeze and even hugged back. ‘Will you tell Keith …?’

‘No.’ John said firmly. ‘You will tell Keith yourself.’

‘But he hates me….’ He caught both our eyes, and backed down. ‘Ok, ok, ok … I’ll come over tomorrow and … and … talk to Keith?’

I nodded approvingly at him. ‘’That’s good Danny. Remember what we talked about? Just be honest and tell him how you felt. I’ll see what I can do tonight to … um … prepare him for your visit. It will be fine.’

‘OK,’ Danny said softly, not at all convinced.

I leaned down and kissed him on the head. ‘I’ll see you around elevenish tomorrow then? Be good!’ I turned to John and clapped him on the back. ‘Thanks man. We’ll do lunch next week?’

‘Sure!’ John agreed, and I ran out to the car. I had stayed almost two hours and I guessed that Keith would have driven himself up the wall by then. I flipped open my cell phone as I got into my car, calling the house to let Keith know I was on my way back.

I frowned when no one picked up. Feeling uneasy, I tried Keith’s cell phone next. Same thing – no answer. With a bad feeling in my stomach, I started the car and headed home. I scanned the drive, hoping to see the red sports car where Keith had parked it the night before. It was not there. I pressed the garage remote button; one last chance, I thought. Maybe Keith had moved his car inside. It opened up empty.

I sighed in frustration and disbelief as I let myself into the house and began flipping on switches. ‘Keith!’ I called loudly. The house was absolutely quiet and still.

Damnit! I cursed under my breath. ‘Keith!’ I called again, this time up the stairs. At the same time my eyes searched the hall table for a note. Nothing. Not really expecting to yield any results, I still went into every room both upstairs and downstairs. No sign of my brat.
I dialed his cell phone again, and left a terse message. I was ready to throttle Keith. My hands literally itched! Where could he be? And how dared he disobey me when I had explicitly told him to STAY PUT!

I thought about where he could possibly have gone to and I had a sudden flash of memory. In our early days together, before we introduced discipline into our relationship, whenever we had had a fight he would always storm out of the house. And I knew where he would run to.
I got back into my car and headed out to his apartment, hoping my hunch was not wrong. There were so many other places he could have gone to, so many types of trouble he could get himself into in his kind of rebellious mood. I didn’t even want to think about the possibilities.

It was usually Keith’s way to rebel when he was unhappy about something, for no other reason than it was a part of his nature. But this time, he had also issued me a direct challenge, one which he could not back down from without losing face. I had hoped I had been able to circumvent it by my threat of reprisals if he disobeyed. Apparently it hadn’t worked. He would be sorry and contrite later, I knew, but for Keith, it was a rite of passage. He had a long way to go to learn that he could not always give in to his passions and impulses as a way to make himself feel better.
I sighed with relief when I spotted his red car in his allotted space.

I parked at the visitors’ car park and jogged my way across to his block. Keith had given me a set of keys so I easily let myself into the enclosed foyer entrance and rode the lift all the way up to the 18th floor. There were only 2 apartments to each floor and we had always appreciated the privacy it offered.

I slipped my key into the front door and opened it. The living area was in darkness and I allowed my eyes to get accustomed to the dimness as I scanned the room. Slowly, the shadows took shape and I saw a huddled figure in a corner of the over-sized sofa in front of the empty fireplace. I sighed and flipped the switch on and the shadows receded. Keith looked up silently, in a calm way as if he was expecting me. Across the room, we stared at one another.

I walked over to the sofa and looked at Keith closely. I had been ready to jump down his throat for having left the house and not answering his phone. But the look in his eyes halted me. He looked both lost and resigned and I suddenly lost the urge to strangle him.

Still I kept my voice firm as I asked, ‘would you care to explain what you are doing here, Keith?’

He chewed on his upper lip as he gazed up at me, shrugging a little as if he hadn’t a clue in the world how he got there. His eyes remained wide and questioning, and I shook my head at him.

‘Don’t you open your eyes at me. You know exactly what I mean. I am waiting for an answer.’ I said.

I saw him swallow and clasp his hands together. He shook his head slightly and I raised my eyebrows. ‘I told you to stay in the house, didn’t I? I told you to wait there for me and that I expected you to be there when I returned from John’s place. Do you remember that?’

He gave a tiny nod and I pressed on. ‘And yet, despite my instructions being so clear and specific, you deliberately disobeyed me by coming here. Blatantly!’

Keith’s face paled but he kept his eyes fixed on me. That was an encouraging sign; it meant he intended to take responsibility for his actions and was not trying to worm his way out of the situation. When Keith tried to wriggle his way out of trouble, he would usually argue and pace around the room, averting all eye contact. I had come to believe that in those times, he was trying to convince himself as much as me that he was innocent of any wrong doing and therefore did not deserve to be punished. But when he looked directly at me with trust in his eyes, I knew that was his way of admitting fault, of submiting to me and my rules and authority.

‘Um … Did you see … Danny?’ he quietly asked, sweeping aside the immediate focus of our discussion.

Realizing that that was the uppermost concern in his mind at the moment, I allowed us to switch directions. I grunted and sat down opposite him so I could watch his face. ‘I did.’

‘W..what did he say?’

‘Danny was very upset.’

‘Ohhh …?’ Keith’s eyes opened wider, obviously curious but reluctant to dig. That was Keith and his pride. He would find it beneath his dignity to beg or ask for more information. I folded my arms and decided to wait.

I won the battle. Slowly, Keith slid out of the sofa and crept over to my armchair, sliding up to me in between my knees. He laid his head on my chest and my hand automatically reached up to stroke his hair.

His voice was muffled as he murmured into my belly. ‘So … did he say what … um … he was upset about?’

I smiled down at the fair head resting heavily against me. ‘Oh, I believe he realizes how inappropriate his behavior was, and how unfair he had been to you. He is beating himself up about it actually.’

‘Good!’ he said savagely, and I smacked him lightly on the head.

He looked up at me, his blue eyes clear and indignant. ‘Isn’t it good that he finally acknowledges he was being an …. Well, you-know-what? Are you sure he said that?’ he asked suspiciously. ‘Or did you make that up?’

I said seriously. ‘He is coming over tomorrow to see you. I guess he wants to apologize.’

‘Oh!’ Keith looked slightly taken aback. ‘How come the change of heart?’

‘You can ask him that yourself.’

‘Did John spank him?’ Keith asked, a trifle too vengefully I thought. ‘Is that why he is coming over?’

‘If you mean is John making Danny come over to apologize, the answer is NO! Danny is really sorry about the whole thing. Like I said, it’s just a small misunderstanding and you’ll talk about it and that’s the end of the matter. As for whether John spanked Danny or not, that is hardly your business, is it Keith?’

He pouted and shrugged his shoulders.

I swiftly took the opportunity to turn the conversation back to our issue at hand. ‘However, whether or not I spank you is very much your business.’

He began to chew on his lip again, looking worried. ‘I’m sorry Dusty. I just had to get out. You know me. You know how it is with me.’

‘No Keith, that’s not going to work. You have total control over yourself and your actions. Do not be telling me you cannot control what you do or say. There is a brain in there somewhere,’ I tapped the side of his head, ‘and I expect you to use it!’

He twitched his head away from my finger, but continued looking at me, soulfully. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘You ought to be.’

‘Well, I am!’ He insisted sincerely.

‘I know, but the fact still remains that you left the house when I told you not to. You chose to disobey me. Why?’ My voice was very stern by then.

‘Dusteee….. please don’t be mad….’

‘Tell me. Why did you disobey me?’ I was very insistent and I could see Keith crumbling.

His lips quivered as he blurted out. ‘I asked you not to go! I didn’t want you to go to John’s.’

‘And because I didn’t do as you asked, you had to retaliate? Is that it?’ I nudged his chin up with a finger so I could look into his eyes. They glistened with sudden tears as he nodded miserably.
I resisted the urge to kiss his eyes; they were so blue and appealing. Instead I said matter-of-factly. ’You deliberately threw me a challenge.’

‘I was angry when I said that. I didn’t really mean it, but you took forever to come home … so … so I thought … I’d …’

‘Teach me a lesson?’ I asked dryly.

‘We … ll.‘

‘Keith, that’s not how it works. You do NOT retaliate when I say no. Do you?’

Keith lowered his eyes and muttered something incoherent.

‘Answer me.’

‘You are right. I shouldn’t have. But I did. So - are you … going to spank me?’

‘What do you think? Don’t you deserve to be spanked?’ I held out my hand to him and pulled him to his feet. We needed to get this over with and I didn’t want to wait till we got home. The apartment was as good a place as any to deal with it.

He sniffed loudly but allowed me to tug him into the master bedroom. It was mostly bare, most of his things having been moved to my place. There was not even a hairbrush left, I noted to myself.

We had never really used that room much before. A couple of times we had tumbled into the bed when things got too hot for us, but we had never actually slept there. And Keith had never been disciplined in the apartment before either.

I looked around and sat down on the bed and drew Keith closer. He was suddenly very cooperative, clinging on to me, which was totally unlike him in a situation like this. He pushed his body hard against me, leaning into me, demanding attention and comfort.

I pulled him onto my lap and held him for a while. ‘Poor baby,’ I said soothingly.

He nestled closer, so I rubbed his cheek with the back of my hand.

I continued in a low tone. ‘It hasn’t been easy, I know. But that’s no excuse for defying me and disappearing when I explicitly told you to stay put. I am very cross about that, young man! Not to mention not answering your cell phone. Didn’t we agree you would never do that again?’

‘Yes.’

‘Yes, we did. And you ARE going to be spanked for that as well.’

He groaned but remained glued to me.

I gently pried him off me and stood him up. ‘Strip,’ I commanded, indicating his jeans.
He didn’t say anything, just began unbuckling his belt and pushing his jeans down. He looked up at me for a brief moment, then sighed and pushed his shorts down as well. I pulled him over my lap, face down this time. Made sure his torso was resting on the bed. Then I clamped one hand over his waist and began to spank him with the other.

‘Ow!’ he cried out, wriggling fiercely. ‘Ow!’

I spanked him soundly, remembering my worry when I found him gone and not being able to locate him. I watched his bottom go from pale to pink and didn’t stop till it turned a darker shade of red. It was a serious spanking in my book and Keith knew it. If we had been home, he would most certainly have gotten the hairbrush. I compensated with extra long and hard smacks instead.

He started crying softly into his arms, where he had hidden his face, and his cries gradually became louder as I spanked longer and harder.

Finally, he raised his head and pleaded. ‘Please …’ he panted. ‘God! That hurts Dusty! Oh stop please … Please …’

I paused, panting a little myself. ‘What is this spanking for, Keith?’

‘Dis…obeying … ‘ he gasped.

‘How disobeying?’

‘For leaving … the house when you told me not to. Ow!’

‘What else?’

‘Not … not answering … my cell phone … Ow!’ Another stinging slap was delivered.
‘Are you going to be remembering this lesson, Keith?’ I asked, as I landed another two smacks on his heated butt.

‘Yes, yes!’

‘When I say stay put, what does that mean?’

‘It means … I … don’t go anywhere. Ow!’ He jumped as my hand connected with his butt again.

‘That’s right. It means you don’t go anywhere!’ I said, and I smacked again, harder still. He yelped loudly and twisted to get free.

‘I’m not done yet. Stop struggling!’ I ordered.

With some difficulty, he settled down, burying his face into his folded arms once again. But I knew he was paying attention.

‘I won’t tolerate defiance, Keith. Especially when it’s done in a fit of temper to get back at me. Don’t do it again, or next time I will use my belt. Do you understand?’

Keith lifted up his head and gasped at me. ‘W...what?’

‘You heard me. Blatant disobedience and direct defiance will earn you a spanking with my belt in future. Believe me, you don’t want me to do that, Keith.’

‘But … ‘

‘Darling, why do you think I asked you to stay put? To make you more miserable? You were already distraught and upset and I didn’t want you going out alone in that frame of mind. God knows where you would have gone and what you would have done.’

‘I came here!’ He cried defensively.

‘Thank God for that. Tell me, was this the only place you thought about?’

He squirmed under my hands. ‘Well … um … no … er, yes … maybe … ‘

‘Yes or no?’

‘I did think about going to a pub, OK? Just for a drink? Just a drink … ’

‘Exactly. And the choices you make when you are angry and upset are usually those that land you in trouble. What if you had had more than a drink? Would you have driven yourself home? Would you have called me, knowing you would be in trouble? ‘

He didn’t answer, so I continued. ‘I will not allow you to do anything that might endanger yourself or put you in a compromising position. I will do my best to keep you safe – that’s my job. And yours is to not go against my orders when I tell you to do something. Not ever!’

He sniffed loudly but seemed to accept my decree.

‘Is that clear, Keith?’ I asked softly.

‘Yes,’ he replied, his tone matching mine.

I stroked his hair for a while and then patted his red butt lightly.

‘Ow,’ he yelped, but there wasn’t much punch in it.

I laughed softly. ‘OK, sweetheart, we’re ok now. Come on, get up and turn around.’

He quickly put his arms around my neck and clung on once he was seated again on my thighs. He sniffed a few more times, but I knew the sting was probably receding by now and he was more than capable of handling it.

‘So you ready to talk to Danny tomorrow?’ I asked.

He shrugged and buried his head further into my neck.

‘Everyone makes mistakes, Keith, and everyone deserves to be given another chance to make things right.’

‘I guess …’

‘Good boy,’ I said, kissing him firmly on the mouth. ‘Come on, put your jeans on and let’s go home.’

* * *