Free The Marine's Pet by Loki Renard

landed again and again, painting nigh unbearable heat across her bottom.
    It did not take long for her to start crying, and then sobbing. Waves of upset were crashing over her, emotional pain mingling with physical. She did not entirely know the source of it, but she knew that it was almost too much to handle.
    Sensing that she had reached her breaking point, Austin pulled her up and cradled her in his lap, holding her close as he removed the gag, allowing her to breathe more deeply and speak again.
    “Sarah,” he said consolingly. “It’s alright. I’ve got you. It’s okay.”
    “It’s not okay,” she sobbed. “It’s not okay at all.”
    His hands held her tightly, their warmth and their strength comforting.
    “We’re at a party,” she sobbed. “The worst party ever. I want to go home.”
    “We’ll go home when you’ve calmed down,” he said. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
    “Nothing to worry about? They know. They all know. That judge brought you that gag…” She started crying all over again.
    “Because each and every one of them knows what you’ve been feeling tonight, and a good number of them know what it’s like to wear a gag,” Austin said. “You’re among people who understand.”
    “Understand what?”
    “That sometimes a lady needs a spanking to feel at home.” He pressed kisses to her cheeks, taking her tears away with his lips.
    “I don’t feel at home,” Sarah said. “I feel awful.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I don’t understand this… and you spanked me… and…”
    “It’s not nice being spanked for disciplinary purposes,” Austin agreed. “Even less so when you know that others know not only that you misbehaved, but that you were punished for it, but I’m telling you now, nobody is judging you here. This is one of the very few places in the world where a deserving woman can end bottom up over her master’s thighs and nobody will be the least surprised or concerned by it.”
    Her master’s thighs. Three words which said so much. That she had a master, that she was owned, that she was now living in a world where her reckless mouth would earn her repercussions.
    “This is…” She could not quite finish her sentence.
    “It’s new,” he said. “And I brought you here for that reason. Well, partly for that reason. I thought you’d learn more by observation than by direct experience on your first gathering, but I suppose that was fairly silly to assume, knowing you as I do.”
    He held her close for a little longer, then announced that they were going to rejoin the group.
    “I can’t go back out there,” Sarah refused.
    “Yes, you can,” Austin said firmly. “And we’re going to. And you’re going to apologize to Earnest and Sybil and Hannah for your rudeness.”
    “I am not.”
    “You are,” he said. “That was totally unacceptable. You basically mocked them to their faces. You didn’t even attempt to understand what was actually going on. I expected better from you, Sarah. I really did.”
    The disappointment in his voice made her heart feel heavy. She knew too, that he was right. She had been rude, and for no real reason.
    It was with great reluctance that Sarah allowed herself to be drawn back to the party. The guests were back in the lounge now and conversation was flowing, as were the post-dinner drinks. Nobody made any mention of it when Austin and Sarah came in and he sat on the couch, pulling her down into his lap where he held her close.
    “Earnest, Sybil, Hannah,” Austin said. “Sarah would like to say something to you.”
    Everyone looked in Sarah and Austin’s direction.
    “Now apologize,” he murmured in her ear.
    Heat suffused her face. She had not felt this guilty, this small, or this undone for decades. “I’m sorry I was rude to you,” she said, hating how her voice wavered with the threat of fresh tears of embarrassment. The stinging in her bottom seemed exacerbated by her shame, so much so she could not help but