This is the third in a series of posts. The first is In the Corner; the second is Out of the Corner. But you don’t have to read the first two to enjoy this one.

After the very hard spanking, he cuddled her on his lap for a long time. The he patted her bottom – gently, but she still said, ouch. “Up,” he said. “I’m going to fix some tea. You want some?” He already knew that she did.

”Yes, Sir, please,” she said softly, still feeling very content in her submission.

When he returned, tea in hand, he smiled. She had settled herself on the floor in front of his chair. He put both the steaming cups on the table next to him and sat back down. She rearranged her position so she was kneeling between his legs. He stroked her head.

”Comfortable?” He asked.

“Yes, Sir.”

”So tell me,” he said.

Her mind was blank – “Tell you… I don’t…” and then it came back to her. “Tell you about asking?”

”Yes. This is not the first time you’ve been spanked for not asking for help. Help is meant to help you. Why don’t you ask?”

She sighed softly, gathering her thoughts. “I don’t know about other people, maybe they have different stories. But here’s mine.

You know that when I was growing up, my parents were really busy. They weren’t – they didn’t neglect us or anything, but they were busy. And I was the oldest, so they kind of expected me to help take care of the other two. I didn’t mind that, you know, I’m four years older than my sister and six years older than my brother. And I loved them. So I mostly didn’t mind taking care of them when I needed to.

“And I was pretty smart, so I did well in school and didn’t need a lot of help. Really I didn’t need a lot of attention. They were really proud of me for doing well in school and being able to fix dinner or help the kids bathe and get dressed, get ready for school, put them to bed sometimes. I could change diapers an burb babies with the best of them. And other things, laundry and such.

She paused and got a sip of her tea.

“So they expected me to know things and to be able to do things by myself. And that’s not bad – I mean, you know it makes a person competen. I’ll never be helpless, I can depend on myself.”

“Yes,” he said, smiling, “You can do hard things.:

“But when I did need help, it seemed like I was asking for too much. Like it bothered them. So they’d help, but Dad would shake his head and say things like, “I would’ve thought you could do this yourself.” Mom would look at me like she was disappointed and say, “You don’t know how to do that? Here, I’ll help you, but I would’ve thought you already knew how.

”You know, I figured this out when I was in therapy, after my first marriage ended. When I was working on figuring out where I went wrong in my marriage, I realized that they were pleased and proud of me when I could do things on my own, but it seemed like I was a burden if I needed them to step in. So I learned that asking for help wasn’t good.”

He nodded. “So even when you were quite young, you learned that it wasn’t all right to ask for help.”

“And really, our culture teaches women that we’re supposed to put other people’s need first. We’re supposed to take care of everyone – well, not everyone, but the people we care about, the people around us. Their well-being, even their happiness is our responsibility. And that’s ok.” She laughed. “Well, it’s kind of ok. It worked real well for my ex-husband for a long time. He wasn’t a Dom you know,” she laughed again, “Just dominating.

”But he didn’t think I should need help either, so for a long time, I tried to take care of just about everything. I didn’t do too bad either. But I got tired of it. We were both working and – anyhow, it was just too much. You know how that ended.”

“I do,” he said, “and I’m glad that it ended and that you’re here. ”

She looked up at him, worried that she was talking too much, but he was listening, like he always did. She rubbed her cheek against his thigh and smiled at him.

”So it’s different with you. I think I’ve always,” she paused, it was still hard for her to say this, “I’ve always been submissive.” She paused, glad that she had gotten that out. “But it’s not good for submissive women to marry vanilla men. There is always an urge to serve and to please, but it was never enough. Well, I don’t know about other vanilla men, but for my ex, it was never enough.

Plus, what he valued about me was literally how I could serve him. Like cooking, cleaning, and sex whenever he wanted was all he really cared about. And you know, cooking and cleaning are not even my strengths! But for him, my work, and who I really was, were just secondary and not important.”

He stroked her hair, “I know, that was not good for you.”

She settled under his hand, feeling herself relax again. It was still painful to remember how dismissive her ex had been of who she was.

“Being your submissive gives me so much pleasure. And you take care of me too. And want me to take good care of myself! Well, you know how things are between us.

”But,” she snuggled closer to his legs, “I’ve had so many years, most of my life, knowing that I shouldn’t ask for help, that people will feel burdened and resent it, that I still halfway believe it. I feel afraid that I’m going to ask for too much and you’ll get fed up and leave. I know – I know, Sir, I know right now, sitting here at your feet, that you’re not going to do that. But it’s going to take me longer to know it when I’m feeling overwhelmed already. Does that make sense?”

He leaned toward her and stroked her face. “It does make sense,” he said. “I’ll be thinking about this. Maybe there are other ways I can help you remember to ask for help when you need it. And,” he grasped her hair in his hand, tilting her head toward him, “I don’t mind if I have to keep spanking you when you forget.”

She grinned, “You are too good to me, Sir.” Then she grew serious, looking up at him, filled with a tremendous desire to serve him, to please him, she said, “Do you think I could – would you like me to,” she nodded at the bulge in his pants, “to taste you, Sir? To see if I can please you with my mouth?” She bit her bottom lip, then rubbed her thumb against it,

He smiled, moving her thumb aside, he stroked her bottom lip with his thumb. She took a deep breath and a little sound of pleasure escaped her.

“Yes,” he said. “Let’s see if you can also please me this way with that mouth.” He leaned back in his chair and let her begin.