The four of us were in Ray's living room: Ray and Dee on the couch, Lizzy sitting on my lap in the big overstuffed chair. It was getting late, that time of night when the hour and the alcohol lead you to some strange places, such as the conversation we were having right then, about spanking.
"I don't like it," Dee said. "He does it too hard."
Ray laughed. "You know I barely touch you," he said. Ray's a big guy, an ex-football player with a few added pounds since his college days, and he looks like a giant beside Dee, who—like Lizzy—is on the short side.
"Guys think it's funny," said Lizzy. "But it
hurts.
"
"That's why you've got the padding back there," I suggested, which got me a slap on my arm. Lizzy's small but tough. "No, I'm serious, that's probably why kids get spanked too. Stings but doesn't really cause any damage."
"Kids
don't
get spanked," said Dee. "Not anymore."
"Did
you
get spanked?" Lizzy asked me. When I said yes, she said, "And I bet it hurt like hell."
I'd actually been walloped pretty good as a kid. I said I couldn't really remember (which was about ninety percent true) so it couldn't have been all that bad.
"You didn't have Ray as a daddy," said Dee, laughing. "I bet you couldn't take three whacks from this sadist..."
"All this grief I'm getting," said Ray, shaking his head. "You hear this, Tommy?"
"I got two dollars, I think," said Dee. She stood up, wobbled just a little, and reached for her purse. "Maybe even, like,
five.
"
I laughed, and so did Lizzy, but then she got up off my lap and went through her purse too. "We got eight dollars in the pot now, boys."
"I'm not getting spanked," I said.
"Because it
hurts,
" said Dee. "Which is what we're
saying
. Thank you..."
Then everyone seemed to be talking at once, and glasses got refilled, and a few minutes later amid all the commotion Lizzy announced that we were up to twelve dollars and ten cents. All I had to do, she said, was take three whacks from Ray. "And not make a sound," Dee added, laughing.
"And what do
I
get?" asked Ray.
"Just your usual sadistic pleasure," said Dee, and gave him a kiss.
"Wait, wait," said Lizzy. "If he makes a sound, Ray gets the money. That way he's got an incentive to really, like,
whack
him."
"Damn," I said, as she and Dee dissolved in laughter.
"Damn," said Ray.
I said I was game if Ray was, and he laughed and said sure. Then I got up out of the chair, wobbling maybe a little myself, and stood in front of him on the couch to take my three whacks. It was like being a kid and trying to take a punch, a dumb game to see how tough you were.
"Whoa, wait, no, no,
no,
" said Dee. "He can't get any kind of force behind it like that."
"Over his motherfucking
knee
," Lizzy yelled, spilling her drink.
"Oh come on," I said. I expected Ray to protest, but he only grinned and sat back on the sofa to give me room.
Like I said, it was late, and we'd been drinking. So I gave in and spread out across Ray's lap. As soon as I did, the embarrassment sank in despite all the alcohol. But I knew I couldn't show it.
"All right now," said Dee.
I lifted my head from the cushion to look at them both, standing side by side now and watching with rapt, drunken attention. I said, "Remember, just three—" and then Ray's hand came down on my ass.
It surprised me more than anything else. Hard and sharp, but not brutal. Still, I had to stifle the urge to yell out. There was no way I was losing at this point.
"Huh," said Lizzy. She sounded disappointed.
"That's bullshit," said Dee.
"That's harder than I spank
you,
" said Ray, "and he didn't make a peep."
"Pants
down
," said Dee. "Otherwise—"
"No fucking way," I said.
"—it ain't a real thing. Lizzy, you agree?"
Lizzy had that sort of glazed look in her eyes that told me she was no more than twenty minutes from passing out. "Yes!" she laughed. "Down at his, like,
ankles."
"Now ladies," said Ray. "Y'all are changing the rules now."
"Oh, an ass is an ass, don't be a prude," said Dee.
Then before I could move, the two of them were practically on top of me, squealing, Dee holding me down while I felt Lizzy unbutton my jeans and then start working them down. I tried to get up but Ray put a hand on my back as well, keeping me in place. "Too late," he said, with a big booming laugh, "these girls are going to get what they want."
Less than a minute later my bare ass was completely exposed, and my jeans were pushed down to my ankles. My face was burning but all I could think to do was to pretend I was cool with all of it. Meanwhile Ray hadn't said a word.
"Fuck," said Dee, standing back. "Tommy's got an ass, Lizzy. He's so
smooth.
That's kind of..."
"Hot!" yelled Lizzy, happily. "Now beat his ass, Ray."
I closed my eyes, waiting for it, waiting, waiting.... Then I wondered if maybe the point was to make me wait, to embarrass me even more, the way my dad had embarrassed me for long minutes before he'd started the spankings—and that's when Ray's big hand struck my bare right butt cheek and made one of the loudest sounds I'd ever heard. Both girls gasped, and so did I—which may have disqualified me, but they didn't seem to notice. The pain was intense, but I didn't move, and didn't really want to move in that moment. A weird kind of warmth was spreading through me, and I understood—just before his hand came down a third time, this time squarely between my cheeks—that the spanking was turning me on. I didn't cry out somehow, but I felt tears stinging my eyes.
I opened my eyes again, ready to claim my twelve dollars and try to reclaim my dignity. Then Ray's hand came down again, even harder. And then again. And again. I cried out for real then and tried to lift myself off him but Ray easily held me down. He laid his other hand across my stinging ass, and for the first time I felt something move beneath me, inside of Ray's pants. He said, "One more for the girls," and then he walloped me with everything he had.
*
When we got home, the spanking was all that Lizzy wanted to talk about as we got ready for bed. We both inspected my ass, which was bright red with visible handprints from the beating I'd taken. She was slurring her words and could hardly stay upright as we crawled into bed, but told me that she understood things better now.
"It's so hot to
see
it," she said. "My baby's sweet... beat-up ass..." And then she fell asleep.
I went back into the bathroom and looked at myself again. He'd roughed me up good. What had been going through his mind when he spanked me? Did he enjoy as it as much he enjoyed spanking Dee? Did he enjoy it more, knowing he could be as rough as he wanted? And was he really starting to get hard from beating my ass?
It took a long time to fall asleep.
*