54 | Punishment

*“The affectionate way you stir my innermost desires is pleasantly disturbing and truly mesmerizing. I am not ashamed for wanting more.” - Musings of Jen*.

**Third Person POV**

Clenching her eyes tightly shut, Sienna tensed every muscle and held her breath, waiting to feel to first lash against her skin. Her mouth went dry as the desert, and her heart thundered triple time.
Sienna waited.
And *waited*.
She almost jumped and broke position when she felt the warm touch of his palm instead of the kiss of the leather-like she had anticipated. “Oh!”
He cupped her buttocks, one after the other, and then kneaded them gently. It was wonderfully comforting, and immediately, her muscles loosened under his ministrations. For a long second, he settled into the intoxicated bliss of his erotic touch and welcomed his fingers by parting her knees a little further. Sienna almost forgot that she was bending over for punishment and not pleasure until the leather whistled in the air before landing sharply on her ass and caught the two globes in an accurate position.
“Motherfucker!”
She shrieked her displeasure, followed by a string of colorful words, and tried to push off the floor. But Gabriel saw her movement coming from a mile away. Before she could even get halfway up, he put a dominating hand on the small of her back and forced her to maintain her stance.
“That’s cheating!” Sienna grumbled, half-pouting, half growling.
“I hardly think so,” he shot back. “Show me your manners, girl, or we will start over.”
“It hurts.” With one hand, she reached back and rubbed her asscheeks before he swatted them away.
“I have just begun.”
“Gabriel, I can’t take so many. Please. I don’t…” She resisted the urge to rub the sore spot and shook her head as if chastising herself. “I don’t want to sound like a brat, but it’s too many.”
He stood to his full height and looked down at her demure, submissive figure - bending over, ass bared and ready to wear his marks - and wondered if he could persuade her to speak up.
“I can reduce the number, provided…” he trailed off and encircled her position, coming to stand before her as she looked up like a soft, pliable kitten. Sienna did not miss the menacing leather dangling from his hand as she gulped. “Provided you speak up.”
“Speak up?”
“I know there’s something bothering you, Sienna. Talk to me, confide in me. I can help you.”
Unable to escape, she closed her eyes and hung her head. And instead of answering directly, she simply shook her head and steadied her breath, awaiting his wrath.
Gabriel waited.
He gave her a stretched minute to decide, but she wouldn’t budge.
Goddamn stubborn, he cursed in his mind before returning to position himself behind her back and landed another sharp crack against her ass.
“You forgot to thank me.” His voice hardened. “So the first one doesn’t count, so I started over.”
“One!” Sienna said quickly.
The belt slapped over the second and third time, two successive lashes that had her singing in pain. And through the haze, she thanked him and prepared for the next blow.
Sienna fisted her hands and tried to find a flicker of solace in between the raging agony on her bare, unsuspecting ass. But every time she felt the sting, her mind tried to secure a position where it would hurt less. But she had nowhere to go.
“Ah! Thank you! Please!” Sienna swayed in her head, unable to figure out whether to hate him for it or show her gratitude. But when another lash rained upon her skin, it started to burn.
Once the number reached seven, he gave her a small reprieve and stopped the swinging of leather. He paused, giving her a chance to catch her breath and rubbing his palms briefly over the reddened welts.
The mere touch of his hand ignited the fire, yet sizzling bolts of pleasure shot straight to her pussy. Her nipples were hard enough to cut glass while tears ran down her cheeks.
“I can stop, sweetheart,” the priest cooed in her ear. “Only if you tell me what’s going inside that pretty head of yours.”
Sienna bit her lips and shut her eyes closed. As badly as she wanted to speak her mind, she could not. Gabriel would go off the rocks about the pictures, and she thought she could handle shit better than him. After all, she had been doing this all her life.
In the back of her mind, she knew that it was her mistake to drag him into her life and complicate it further. But in no way would she get Gabriel into the mess.
She was a strong girl inside the fortress of her mind.
Sucking in a harsh breath, Sienna gritted her breath and slightly looked over her shoulders. “The only thing going inside my head is that you are an asshole.”
Gabriel sighed and, without a word, raised his hand and brought the strap sharply against her exposed skin. And this time, catching the sensitive sit spot where her ass met the thigh.
“Oh, God! Fuck! Fuck!”
He lowered himself on one knee and simply trailed a finger all the way from her clit to ass, spreading the gushing dampness, and then wiped the juices over her blistering welts.
That bastard, Sienna thought.
He made it amply clear to her that he could inflict both pain and pleasure in equal measure, and her body would simply sing to his tunes. Sienna was one step away from begging him to fuck her, canting her hips to receive his touch.
“While I appreciate your desperate efforts for provocation, you are going to pay for it.”
The next blow knocked the air out of her lungs, making it clear that swearing would not be a good option when she had her ass bared and high for his calculated aim.
A light sweat broke out as her body tensed with the effort of repressing the feelings coursing through her. By now, Sienna was teetering on edge. She was hanging from the cliff, unaware where the pain ended, and the pleasure began as every damn line was blurred. Even her token of gratitude was slurred while her arms were beginning to give up.
How many strokes were left? She did not know.
But one moment, she was slumped over the ottoman, and in the next, her body was bundled into his arms. He was careful of her tortured ass as he rested her head in the crook of his elbow and brought a glass of water to her lips. Sienna drank mindlessly and then buried her head into the comfort he offered.
“Are you okay?” He asked. His voice held a good mix of concern and care as Sienna fought hard to lift her heart eyelids. It was like she was in a trance - her mind wandering in a happy place. Carefree and peaceful.
She licked her dried lips and tried to speak, but not a cracking sound came out.
“Shh. It’s okay. It’s okay,” she heard faintly while he rocked her in his arms.
Gabriel then pressed a kiss on her sweat-beaded forehead and whispering a few more soothing words. Sienna only understood half of it.
“Just nod if you are okay,” he instructed.
She did.

***
When the haze of subspace cleared out, Sienna opened her eyes, and she was still being cradled in his arms. Her throat still felt parched, but she managed to utter a few coherent words this time. “What happened?”
Gabriel smiles then, a bare twitching of his lips. “Subspace.”
“What?” Sienna tried to wriggle, which resulted in the fabric rubbing against her sore ass, immediately flaring up a burn. “Ow! It hurts.”
“I imagined,” he said, widening his lips to stretch into a long, wry smile. “You liked the pain.”
Her brows scrunched in disagreement. “Not really…but…”
When her voice trailed off, Gabriel added. “You are more of a masochist than I ever imagined. I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing.”
For years, he kept his addiction away and stayed sober. He refrained himself from wielding the start or cane on over-enthusiastic masochists, begging to have their ass painted red. And here he was - the headmaster and the priest of an all-girls school known for its unwavering stance on discipline.
He was just not bending the rules; he was breaking all of them.
“You are just mumbling to yourself, Gabriel.” With great efforts, she pulled herself in a sitting position and ignored the sore ass. “I should…”
“Stay.”
He brushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes with his fingertip. Sienna breathed in and the scent of him, his woodsy violet cologne, but underneath that, something that was just... him.
“I don’t want to…” She sighed, “…bother you.”
“You will bother me much more if you leave now. Just stay, Sienna. It’s an order.” She knew that tone and what it meant to defy it. But it was not his steeling voice that made her obey.
Sienna complied because she wanted to.
“Yes, Father,” came the faintest whisper from her lips.

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**Thank you for reading the chapter. I know I took a long break as a few personal challneges kept me away from writing and editing. But I truly apprecrieate and respect the patience**. ❤️