Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Zoey had become good friends with Emily's spanking bench over the couple of years they had been together. They had shared many intense moments, the bench and her. Its softly padded top had been an essential piece of comfort during those times when Emily painted her whole world a painful red as she absolutely thrashed her ass, and it had soaked up its fair share of sweat and tears over the years.

By now Zoey only needed to lie down on the slightly clammy upholstery for the excited shivers to start. Still, she was glad that she was allowed to keep her clothes on today. It was approaching autumn, and while the flat was still warm enough that they hadn't turned on the heating yet, lying down on the cold bench naked would have made her shiver for entirely different reasons.

"Ready for action?" Emily asked. That question was their little ritual, a signal that the scene started, and that from this point on Zoey surrendered herself completely to her girlfriend's whims, until either Emily was satisfied or Zoey pulled the emergency brakes when it got too much. The latter had only been necessary three times so far, which was pretty impressive given how Emily seemed to completely forget the meaning of the word mercy once the scene started.

"More than ready," Zoey answered, giving the standard answer to indicate that she wanted Emily to go all out today. Due to life getting in the way, it had been a good two weeks since their last play session, and Zoey was itching for some punishment.

"I was hoping you'd say that. I've got something very special planned for you today."

Emily walked around the bench, trailing her fingers along Zoey's back as she did so. She crouched down in front of Zoey and tangled their black rubber ball gag before her eyes. "We're going to need this. You will get loud."

Zoey swallowed hard. Despite the relatively cold air, she felt her whole body heat up as her girlfriend so casually stated how badly she would make her suffer. She didn't even bother with a reply, just opened her mouth like a good girl to accept the gag. Her previous statement had not been exaggerated: She was more than ready for whatever Emily had in store for her.

In all her time, she had never really gotten used to the taste of rubber, even though she spent at least half of their play time gagged. While it didn't make her feel like she might retch like it had at the very beginning, there was something inherently unpleasant about the hard and yet kind of squishy material.

However, countless sessions had conditioned her body to equate the foul taste with thrilling rides of mind-boggling pleasure and pain. While she would have claimed that she still didn't like the gag, the mere act of putting it in made her lower body all tingly. Also, there was something almost comforting about how her teeth immediately set against the little dents she had left in the material during the many times when the pain had made her bite down with all her strength.

It didn't take Emily's experienced fingers long to fix Zoey to the bench. While the wrists were bound down as usual, though, she chose to fold Zoey's legs in before immobilizing them with the rope. Once her girlfriend was bound to her satisfaction, Emily slipped off Zoey's socks, exposing her feet to the cool air, soles pointing up.

Zoey's breath quickened. Emily rarely included her feet in these scenes, but when she did, it was always to devastating effect. The last time, when she had put the cane to them, had been one of the few instances Zoey had needed to safeword out.

But as much as she had cried, there had been something perversely invigorating about the searing pain as that thin rod cut into her sensitive soles. After some much needed cocoa and cuddles she had decreed that this wasn't a hard limit going forward, as long as Emily took care to watch her reactions and not go overboard.

After kneading Zoey's feet a bit, Emily moved on to pull Zoey's pants down, just enough to expose her ass to whatever abuse she might dish out. But once again she just felt Zoey's soft cheeks up a bit before walking away, likely to pick the first implement of pain for the evening.

The temptation to turn her head and see what Emily did was hard to resist, but Zoey forced herself to keep her eyes straight ahead, and not just because looking back while strapped in like this would be hell on her neck. Not knowing what was going to happen was its own thrill, its own little torment, one much more insidious than many of the actually painful things Emily enjoyed doing to her. The promise that she would get loud echoed in Zoey's mind as she lay there with both her ass and her feet helplessly exposed. She didn't regret her eagerness, but the anticipation was getting to her with every passing second.

Zoey shrieked when something ice-cold touched the sensitive crack between her butt cheeks. She instinctively tensed up, which was about the worst thing she could do, given that this was Emily's attempt to lube up her back entrance.

"So jumpy," Emily said with a little titter in her voice. She waited for her girlfriend to relax before slipping her well-lubed finger into her ass. "It's not like I kept that stuff in the freezer or anything."

It was hard to tell if that was a joke, or if Emily had really cooled the lube beforehand just to make Zoey squirm. Given her track record, the chances were about fifty-fifty. Luckily Zoey's sphincter was well-trained enough that it wasn't a problem if she couldn't fully relax, but she kept groaning all the way as Emily's icy finger massaged her insides.

At least it got better once the actual plug slid in. Thankfully they only had silicone ones instead of steel, and something about this feeling of being stuffed always made Zoey's body heat up. Emily used the plug rarely enough that she hadn't gotten used to it yet, and the constant pressure of this unnatural intruder was impossible to ignore. This forced awareness kept her on edge in a way that quickly got rid of the cold.

And with the awareness came the question of what Emily was going for. There had been times when she had used the plug as an additional irritating stimulant that punished Zoey for clenching down when Emily thrashed her ass with one of her viciously stinging tools, like the cane or the tawse. Other times the anal play had been the main event, with her sliding the plug in and out of her throbbing back entrance until the tension melted Zoey's mind. What would she go for this time?

"See, that wasn't so bad." By the sound of it, Emily was wiping her fingers. When she continued, her voice was dripping with malicious glee. "But don't worry, it's gonna get real bad real soon."

Her fingers returned to Zoey's butt. Zoey braced herself for a resounding spank, for burning scratches, for any kind of pain. Not that it helped her in any way, since Emily had something far more sinister in mind.

Zoey's eyes widened as she felt Emily's nails sliding down the sides of her butt. Her girlfriend didn't use enough pressure for it to actually hurt. What it did do was send a ticklish shiver through her spine. For sure Emily wasn't going to...

She was.

Emily's fingers danced over Zoey's butt cheeks in a wild flurry. Zoey jerked, yanking at her bonds. But while the ropes allowed her some wiggle room, there was no escaping Emily's fingers. And what did it matter if she managed to turn her butt a little, when every part of it was just as ticklish as the next?

Zoey howled into her gag. Despite knowing that there was no point to it, she couldn't stop struggling. Emily effortlessly managed to use her fingers and nails hard enough that it was impossible to ignore them, but still softly enough that instead of any satisfying groping, it only resulted in the most maddening ticklish sensation. And every time Zoey instinctively clenched her cheeks in a vain attempt to brace herself, her body reminded her that there was still a sizable plug filling her up.

The initial assault lasted barely a minute or so, but by the end of it Zoey felt that familiar light itch all over her body, the one she always got when she rapidly heated up, but hadn't start sweating yet. She had always thought of it as her body booting up her pores, and without a way to scratch herself, it quickly got infuriating enough in its own right.

"The first test was a total success, I'd say. Looks like we're gonna have a lot of fun today."

"Mpfh?"

Zoey tried to turn her head, in the vain hope that Emily would have mercy when she saw her pleading eyes. Her bonds didn't allow such a range of movement, though, and all she managed was to get some of her drool on her shoulder. The gag hadn't taken long to start making a mess, which was to be expected given her frantic distress and how her face was pointing down, completely invalidating any attempt at swallowing. Not that Zoey minded. She had far, far more important things to worry about.

She was far too ticklish for her own good.

While some of her childhood friends had loved using this weakness against her, Zoey had thought that she had escaped this particular torment when they had all grown out of it. Even Emily, who must have noticed Zoey's disproportionate reactions to such little things as being poked in the side, had never shown any inkling to make use of it during their kinky play sessions. Up until now, that was.

"You know, I'm always doing such awful things to your poor ass. I thought maybe we could switch it up a little, make you laugh instead of scream for once."

Emily lazily dragged her nails along that dip where the cheeks met the lower back. She didn't put any force into it, but the mere presence of these sharp edges gliding along this sensitive area sent shiver after hot shiver through Zoey's back. Emily giggled at Zoey's pitiful whimpers.

"Then again, I have the feeling we'll be getting to the screams before long anyway. So what do you say? Are you ready to start for real?"

Zoey whined into the gag. Her heart was thumping in her chest and that itch all over her skin was already starting to give way to the clammy feeling of the first droplets of sweat. She was seriously considering safewording on the spot. It might make her look ridiculous, but the thought of being at the ticklish mercy of her remarkably sadistic girlfriend filled her with genuine dread.

However, she had entered into this evening with the attitude that she was ready for whatever Emily wanted to throw at her. And sure, she couldn't have anticipated that things would go in this direction, but wasn't this exactly what she wanted? To totally surrender to Emily's whims, to be her girlfriend's willing torture toy?

She decided that she wasn't going to safeword. Not unless she really, really had to. It might only be a question of very little time until that point was reached, but until then she was going to do her best to try and bear it. She was a fighter, not a quitter.

When there was no complaint coming, Emily resumed her attack. This time, though, she went about it far more slowly and deliberately. After a last ticklish flourish on Zoey's lower back (that resulted in a wide-eyed squeal) she let her fingers travel between Zoey's soft butt cheeks.

It didn't even tickle that badly on a moment to moment basis, but Emily's nails never paused for a single second as they slid over every tiny bit of the intimate area from the top of Zoey's butt, down to either side of her stuffed back entrance, and almost all the way to her twitching pussy.

"That plug was a great idea," Emily idly chatted away she she kept gently drawing her nails between Zoey's cheeks. "Just look at that greedy ass nomming on it. You really can't get enough of it, now can you?"

Zoey groaned, her chin slick with drool. Her ass was already throbbing and burning from how tightly she clenched around the plug, but there was just no way to relax her muscles while Emily kept up her teasing tickles. Despite the foul taste she kept gnawing and sucking on her gag, just to have anything at all to distract herself from these constant prickling sensations.

That tactic stopped working when Emily once again switched to moving her fingers over her cheeks in a wild spidery flurry. It was all Zoey could do not to suffocate as the forced laughter, only slightly muffled by the gag, shook her whole body. She was ripping at her bonds with all her strength, but to no avail. There was no escaping Emily's cruel fingers. By this point she was sweating for real, her clothes uncomfortably sticking to her body. She barely even noticed it, though. Her mind was completely overloaded by the ticklish hell Emily put her through.

How could a butt even be this ticklish? And her butt to boot! During their time, they had done their damnedest to harden it. Countless painful sessions had brought Zoey's ass to the point where a few strikes with the cane barely even made her flinch anymore. And yet it seemed as if it hadn't lost any of its sensitivity when it came to tickling. Zoey was acutely aware of every single teasing movement of Emily's fingers. Her cheeks were tingling from the constant assault, and the burning pressure in her back entrance only made the whole cocktail of sensations even more unbearable.

When Emily finally relented, Zoey was a complete mess. It wasn't just drool running down her face, although her wild laughter had produced a fair share of that. Her eyes stung from the tears freely rolling down her cheeks. Even though it was over (for now), she kept shaking with uncontrollable giggles. Her butt kept tingling and she could almost feel ghosts of Emily's fingers still moving over her skin. It took an enormous mental effort to relax her ass at least somewhat, though it remained impossible to ignore the plug firmly planted in her throbbing hole.

"Well, that was a nice warm-up, wouldn't you say?"

Zoey only managed a defeated groan. Her confidence that she might make it through this session was rapidly dwindling. However, she was still determined to try and see it through. And if she was completely honest with herself, no matter how absolutely unbearable it might be, deep down it was kinda hot to be pushed to her very limits by her girlfriend.

"I was hoping for a little more enthusiasm. You sounded like you were having so much fun just now. Guess I'll have to put the joy back into you. Let's see what happens when I have a go at these here."

Zoey's eyes shot wide open when she felt Emily's nails settle against the balls of her feet. Oh no! Oh no no no no no! Her butt had been bad enough. If Emily attacked her feet with the same intensity, she would go insane.

"You almost look like you're scared. But why would that be? After all, it's just a completely harmless silly little tickle." Emily chuckled as she dragged her nails over Zoey's soles, all the way to her heel and back.

It was only a little taste of what was to come, but it was already enough to draw a desperate howl from Zoey. She scrunched her toes and tried to cross her feet as much as her bonds allowed, but once again her attempts to protect herself amounted to nothing. Even if she managed to cover parts of her feet, it only ended up leaving other parts exposed to the ticklish assault.

Emily ramped it up slowly. Her fingers picked up speed as they danced over Zoey's soles, so far restricting themselves to her arches and the balls of her feet, but that was already devastating enough. Zoey's feet were ridiculously ticklish, and she already had fresh tears stinging in her eyes as she almost choked on her shrieks. She tried to focus on anything else than Emily's nails on her sensitive skin, but the soft tickles completely overshadowed everything else. The continued pressure in her ass, the taste of the gag, the clammy feeling of sweat, tears and drool all over her body, it all barely registered compared to Emily's fingers setting her nerves ablaze.

When Emily went between her toes, Zoey completely lost it. Her laughing shrieks turned into full-on screams as she desperately flailed her feet the little bit she was able to, clenched and unclenched her toes, did anything and everything within her power to try and shake Emily off, but nothing helped. Her throat hurt from how loud she was, and her lungs burned from lack of oxygen, but she couldn't hold her screams back long enough to even just catch her breath. The ticklish sensation was to her sanity like a flamethrower to a snow man. It was too much. She couldn't take it, she just couldn't!

"Woah. I didn't expect this violent a reaction. Looks like I found your weak spot there," Emily said, laughing as she finally let go of Zoey's feet.

Zoey didn't even manage a whine in response. She was too busy sucking as much air into her burning lungs as she possibly could, which was hard enough with the gag blocking her mouth and her nose in the process of locking up with snot as a by-product from all the tears. She was proud that she had made it this far, but she had to admit that she was at her limit.

"Hngh, mff, mff. Hngh, mff, mff!" One high note, followed by two low ones. It wasn't the safeword (which was just three separated frantic sounds of any kind, repeated as needed, so it would also work in cases when she was too overwhelmed to figure out tone pitches) but their signal that she needed a short break and to check in with Emily.

Within seconds Emily had walked around the bench to her front and taken the gag out. Another big splotch of drool fell from Zoey's lips as she took the chance and breathed out with all her might. The insidious thing about getting low on oxygen was that you instinctively sucked in as much air as possible, to the point that you prevented yourself from getting the air out again. And with your lungs already filled to bursting, you could try and breathe in all you wanted, it wouldn't do you any good.

"Looks like that did quite a number on you. Are you okay?

"More or less." Zoey took another couple of deep breaths to steady herself. "But I'm not sure I can take any more. You have no idea how ticklish I am."

"I think I have a pretty good idea by this point." Emily's grin was wide enough that Zoey could see it even through her blurry eyes. "I suspected that it would be an effective way of torturing you, but I guess I still underestimated just how effective it would be."

"So effective." Zoey laughed. It felt good to laugh out of her own free will for once, even if it hurt her sore throat. "I swear, if I had any secrets, I would've spilled them all by now."

"One of these days we'll have to try that out. Give you a password or something and find out how long it takes for me to torture it out of you." Emily gently cupped Zoey's cheeks with her palms, using her thumbs to wipe the worst of the tears from her eyes. It wasn't perfect, but it brought the world at least somewhat back into focus for Zoey. "Does that mean you're done for tonight? Or did you just need a break and some air?"

Zoey considered it. A few minutes ago she would have said that she was done, with the night and possibly even with life in general. However, now that she'd had a chance to cool down, it seemed a shame to call it off already.

"I can go on," she decided. "But please, no more tickles for now. It's so bad."

"Sure thing." Emily moved in for a quick kiss. It was messy as hell, but also a so much needed oasis of love in the desert of mind-melting cruelty.

When Emily pulled back again, the mischievous smirk was back on her shiny lips, though. "When you say 'for now', does that mean that tickling is not off the table in general? Because if so, you better believe that wasn't the last time I made you scream like this."

Zoey's heartbeat quickened again. Of course Emily would use any and all weaknesses against her if she allowed her do, especially one that was so devastatingly effective. But as Zoey had already established for herself (and as the hot tingle in her crotch confirmed) that was exactly the point of their little games.