"P..pain slut?" I stuttered. I didn't know what the object was, but it made me nervous and the term he'd labeled me with didn't feel good either.

"That means you enjoy pain, Precious," he clarified.

It wasn't a question and I didn't want to expand on why pain didn't bother me. I did enjoy it, but I wasn't always that way.

"Do you know what this is?" He tapped my ass with the same object he'd been teasing me with.

"No, sir." I shuddered.

"It's a cane. It's a slim piece of bamboo. It hurts like hell. This will be the one and only time I use it unless you directly ask for it." Another soft tap on the ass.

"Yes, sir." Fear filled me, but still I tried to hold as still as I could.

"Count for me," he said, moments before a loud crack sounded and pain shot up my back and down my legs with a fire straight across my ass where the cane had landed.

"One, sir," I cried as my eyes filled with tears.

Crack.

"Two, sir," I sobbed as I fought with everything inside me to do as he asked so as not to get more punishment.

Crack.

"Three, sir." Tears flowed freely down my cheeks as my hands fisted, nails digging into my palms. My legs threatened to give out, but I locked my knees, determined to make it through them all.

Crack.

"Four... sir." It took me a moment to get my mind to focus through a hazy cloud that was slipping over everything. My hands relaxed their grip. The fire in my ass was no longer a pain-filled burn, but a pleasure-searing flame.

Crack.

Words were out of my grasp at that moment. Nothing mattered. Nothing hurt. A calm, quiet, serene feeling filled me from head to toe and I had no desire to stop what we were doing if that meant that this blissful feeling was going to leave.

My mind hadn't been this calm in... forever. Something always needed to be done. Someone always needed something from me. The rare chance I had freedom from work, my body and the ever-nagging addiction that raged and tormented me constantly were there to keep me company and my mind busy.

Slowly, I opened my eyes, not remembering closing them. Everything was dark, no matter which way I turned. Panic swelled and I tried to jump up from wherever I was lying, but hot, strong arms tugged me tight against a warm, firm body.

"Shh. It's okay. You are okay." Soft breath brushed against the top of my head.

"Where am I? What happened?" I tried to push the spiderwebs out of my head so I could figure things out on my own.

"You went to something called subspace," Master J said as his hand brushed against the back of my hair in a soothing manner. "It's when you are pushed past pain and into pleasure. They say it's like going into a cloud. Floating and calm."

"Yeah, I suppose that's a good way to describe it." I smiled lazily. Knowing that what had happened was actually a normal reaction had me wanting to do it again.

"I'm sorry I didn't see you were already slipping before the final punishment. But I got you down as soon as I realized you'd gone nonverbal on me." That relaxing hand continued to run through and over my hair.

"Nonverbal?" I lifted an eyebrow even though he couldn't see it.

"When you are unable to respond. That can be for something feeling good or bad. Its safest to immediately stop when that happens so you don't get hurt," he explained patiently.

"Oh. Okay." I didn't know what else to say. I didn't even know such things as 'subspace' and 'nonverbal' were possibilities in such an environment.

"How are you feeling?" His voice was soft and caring. A soft thumb brushed against my cheek tenderly.

"Good. Really relaxed. I don't know if I can walk, so I hope you aren't going to tell me I have to leave right now." I laughed softly and then stopped when he didn't join me.

"No, Precious. We will stay here, just like this until you are feeling more like yourself."

A moment of uneasy quiet hung between us although I wasn't sure what it was that I'd said that bothered him.

"Can I ask my questions?" I asked, trying to bring up an easier topic.

Chapter 10

John

Walking into the room and seeing Alix on her knees with those sexy thigh-high hose and garter belt on had nearly taken my breath away. She was already heart-stopping beautiful; then to see her stripped down to barely-there panties and having her pussy so easily accessible practically broke my control. Grinding my teeth, I knew what she'd planned. She had hoped for that exact thing and she would have to take a punishment for trying to push me to fuck her when I'd already told her it wasn't happening. She swore that it hadn't been her intention and I let her think that she was going to get away with it, but she'd get her punishment for it.

When she'd stood up she showed that she'd left her heels on, which only served to elongate her legs and flex her ass as she stood there looking more perfect than any other woman I'd ever laid eyes on. I realized that she indeed had not intended to tease and push me, but didn't realize just how desirable she was. How that was even possible, I'll never know. I fought myself constantly to keep my hands from straying. Having her trained and ready to be everything I needed, while also being all that she could be, was more important than a quick romp and release.

It wasn't hard to see, ever since the first time I'd seen her in the club that she was meant for a submissive relationship. She flourished helping people; her pain tolerance was the highest I'd ever seen in a submissive. She got turned on more than hurt when the crop had landed upon her. I planned to push her further to see just how much she could take.

After hooking the ribbon around her wrists high up on the wall, I picked up a flogger, then stood admiring her submission. She was uneasy, yet she stood waiting for what I would give her after a small warning to trust in me. Rolling the loose ends of the flogger together like wringing a towel, I let it come down on one shoulder then the other. It was a bit more of a biting experience than a figure-eight flogging was, until you really put some strength behind your swings and let the straps bite into the subs skin.

It took a while before her skin even started to turn bright pink, showing that she was feeling it, the blood rushing to the skin. Her head lowered between hits, her shoulders flexed just before the flogger came down, and I stopped. Her reactions were telling me that it was getting harder for her to take and with what I had in mind to do next, I didn't want her pain to be too bad...yet.

Standing in front of the wall, I stared at the various canes hanging there. I didn't want it to be too intense since it was her first time with a cane, but I wanted to test her limits. I picked a flimsier one. It'd hurt, but not nearly as badly as the strong, non-flexible type.

When I returned to her, I rubbed the cane along the underside of her ass, hinting at what was coming. If she ended up liking the cane, it would excite and scare her with the impending caning. The first crack against her ass didn't get even a reaction from her except to count as I'd instructed her. Pain slut if I'd ever seen one. She took it and waited for the next one. I could tell she was crying, but she wasn't using her safe word. She wasn't begging me to stop, she wasn't even sobbing. Not until the third one did she sob, but it wasn't a body-wracking screaming cry of pain. After the fourth one, I could tell she was starting to reach subspace; her body visibly relaxed, her head lolled downward. When the fifth and final one landed and she didn't count, I knew she'd fully slipped under but not in a way that I was comfortable.