Free The Bottom Line by Emma Savage Page B

climbed up again, took careful aim and swept the paddle down across the middle of her target.
    What had been a sob became a shriek and Melody pushed herself up from the box, pressed her hands to her bottom and turned defiantly to Justine. ‘That’s it, you’ve finished!’ she vowed vehemently. ‘I’m not taking any more of that!’
    She turned to walk back to the changing room, but Justine stood in her path. ‘I think you’d better get back on that box as quickly as you can so I can finish your punishment,’ she ordered. ‘It would be a great shame if I had to make an entry in your personal file when you’ve only got one stroke left, now wouldn’t it?’
    â€˜Come on, Melody,’ Caroline urged. ‘Don’t be such a wimp, we’ve all been there.’ With which Gail added a few words of agreement of her own.
    Melody stood for a few moments, weighing up the obvious lack of alternatives, then very slowly she walked back to the box, used the stool to climb onto it, knelt there for a second or two and then lay down again, gripping the sides so firmly her knuckles turned white.
    Justine resumed her position on the stool, took aim again and struck as hard as ever. There was no reaction from the girl other than a sharp exhalation of breath: no scream, no movement, but the evidence of the paddle was now even more clearly visible.
    Justine stepped down and moved away, and eventually Melody straightened her arms to push herself into a kneeling position, then stepped carefully down. With tears glistening on her flushed cheeks she turned to Justine. ‘Next time it’ll be the other way round,’ she said defiantly.
    But Justine merely scoffed. ‘Yes, yes,’ she said, ‘that’s what they all say. But perhaps in future you’ll remember that you must always be polite to customers.’ She picked up the tawse, moved to stand behind Gail and fiddled with the remote control again.
    â€˜Are you ready?’ she asked, and Gail murmured that she was.
    Two blows landed in quick succession, neither of them as vicious as the last blow in the previous series. They elicited a gasp each time, but no stronger reaction. The third blow caught Gail high up and was much harder, producing a yelp of pain but it was the fourth, low down and right across the even more dramatically coloured stripes, which brought a real howl of pain as Gail kicked the air several times.
    Justine moved round and stooped to undo the straps securing Gail to the buck, then watched as the girl straightened up, and in pressing her hands to the punished area involuntarily thrust her breasts out. ‘Hm,’ Justine mused as she eyed their generous perfection, ‘one day, perhaps.’ Then she repeated the advice she’d given Melody, and added some cautionary advise about moving more carefully around the shop.
    Finally she changed weapons once more, walked across to the wall bars, and turned back to Melody and Gail. ‘I think you’d better watch this carefully,’ she advised. ‘You in particular,’ she stressed, staring at Melody. ‘This young lady is an admirably tough cookie and I don’t think she’s about to disappoint me.’ She swatted the crop up and down with relish before addressing Caroline directly, moving to the left of her last victim as she spoke.
    â€˜Right, young lady,’ she said, ‘this is how people who are careless with money pay for their carelessness.’ She placed the crop across Caroline’s bottom, angling it upwards so it would cut across the weals visible after the first dose of punishment. Then she removed the crop, drew it back and practiced her stroke two or three times, though whether to make sure that her aim was accurate or to increase the tension for Caroline was impossible to judge.
    And then it landed, hard and true, low down but searing upwards across the three weals. Caroline screamed,