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“What did I tell you I would do if you ruined my kitchen?!” Caryn demanded of the three girls before her, each one covered in flour. The entire kitchen was covered in it as well, along with several cracked eggs and a smattering of chocolate chips.
“Technically, nothing,” Tess spoke up, ever the diplomat. “You said if we burned the kitchen down, you’d burn our hineys. But, as you can see, the kitchen is still standing. No scorch marks in sight.”
“Your butt will have scorch marks in a minute, young lady,” Caryn ground out through clenched teeth. It was the only thing keeping her from bursting into laughter—Tess never missed an opportunity to surprise her.
“We’ll clean it up, Cari, no big deal,” Savvy piped up, flashing her house mom a charming smile.
“Oh, I know you will—” Caryn smiled, enjoying the way her three miscreants shifted before her. “—after I’ve turned six little cheeks nice and rosy.”
There was a chorus of embarrassed ‘Cari!’s, Savvy’s drawn out the longest while Scarlett went for the shrill gasp. Tess whined more for show than anything else, offering her house mom an accepting shrug.
“One of you grab the big spoon. Then get those pants down and bend over the island. I want three bared butts presented in the next five seconds. Hop to it, girls!”
Caryn clapped her hands, sending three young ladies scurrying to obey. While Savvy and Scarlett fumbled to get their pants and underwear to their knees, Tess collected the spoon Caryn requested from the utensil holder—the one whose spoons were never used for whipping up hot meals and instead whipped bottoms up hot—and handed it off with a devilish smirk. Caryn only shook her head at her biggest brat, popping the spoon against a denim-clad bottom the moment the girl turned.
“Ow, hey!” Tess yelped, scurrying out of reach of that damn spoon. Caryn knew how to wield that thing and Tess was already facing a bare-bottom meeting with it. She didn’t need any more cracks before the main event!
“Get your pants down, brat,” Caryn said, fondness lacing her words. Tess rolled her eyes but dropped her hands to her waist, making quick work of the button and zip.
The lowering of her pants took longer, expedited in the end by Caryn’s…encouragement—a perfect, pink oval in the center of a lily-white backdrop.
“Okay, okay! Jeez! Take it easy!” Tess complained as she hurried to lay her torso over the counter, sandwiching herself between her soreority sisters (much to the other two’s annoyance).
Caryn ignored the girls’ jostling and bickering as they settled, focusing on her oldest. “You’ve got to stop when you’re behind, Tess,” she advised, popping the spoon off the girl’s other cheek. Tess howled and bounced in place in a vain attempt to shake off the sting.
To her right, Savvy Roth giggled. “Especially when your behind is bare,” the red-head teased.
“Your behind is bare too, little girl,” Caryn reminded, and proved her point with two quick pops to Savvy’s backside.
“Ow! Ow! Cari!” Savvy hissed, and she too bounced at the pain.
Caryn set her sights on her last miscreant, delivering two cracks to Scarlett’s quivering cheeks. Scarlett jumped and threw an accusing look over her shoulder at her house mom.
“I didn’t do anything!” the girl complained.
Caryn simply raised her eyebrow and gestured with her spoon-wielding hand to the mess around them.
“That’s not what I—Ouch! Okay! Cari, OKAY!” Scarlett hollered, wiggling her hips back and forth as she tried to evade the rebuke.
“That’s enough from all of you,” Caryn declared, going down the row of cheeks. She watched with satisfaction as pink ovals bloomed everywhere she struck. The yips and yelps were music to her ears, spurring her on.
“You know the rules, girls—” Caryn spoke conversationally, the head of the spoon splatting against skin at even intervals. Caryn admired the way each girl’s cheeks rippled upon impact before rebounding back into perfect, firm little globes. “—Everyone needs to pull their weight to keep our home running smoothly. That includes respecting our home and taking pride in how it looks. Is that what you three were doing when I walked in just now?”
“We said we’d clean it up!” Savvy squawked, her high-pitched whine doing little to hide the sharpness underneath.
Caryn didn’t say a word—she didn’t need to. The spoon said plenty as she focused in on Savvy’s sit-spots, the skin blooming with fresh petals of color.
“Ow! Owwhow! OOooh, no no no!” the junior cried, bucking against the counter. “Not there! Cari, not there! Ouch! Ow! Please!”
“You know better than to use that tone with me, Savannah Grace,” Caryn warned, her own tone dipping low. “Do you need further attention from me at bedtime? Because that’s a good way to go about getting it.”
“Nooo, Cari! I’m sorry! I don’t n–need that!” Savvy insisted, her stomach flipping. She hated bedtime spankings—and one after a paddling? No, thank you!
“That’s your one warning—” Caryn continued, zeroing in on Savvy’s thighs. She watched as pink blotches appeared on the delicate skin. “—for all of you. Is that understood?”
A chorus of ‘Yes, ma’am’s with varying degrees of sogginess answered her. Savvy’s was the most pronounced, and Caryn noticed tears were already trickling down the girl’s cheeks. Scarlett’s voice wobbled, and Tess had lost all trace of her usual, bratty lilt.
Caryn moved to Scarlett’s bottom, giving her the same attention as Savvy before. Scarlett yelped and twisted and stomped her feet. She, too, began to cry. Then it was Tess’s turn, her thighs coloring just as prettily as the others’. Tess stiffened and pounded her fists against the counter—she was always Caryn’s ‘toughest’, resisting her tears until she just couldn’t.
“I don’t ask a lot from my girls—” Caryn began, returning to the fullest parts of the presented bottoms. She layered two hard swats across each cheek, going right down the line: Savvy, Tess, then Scarlett. “—but I do expect you all to show respect: to me, to each other, to yourselves, and to our home. You three fell short of that today—and that’s okay. You know I don’t fault any of you your mistakes. But I’m going to be here to hold the line, girls, and paint these little bottoms red each and every time you need me to.”
Caryn had taken her time during her lecture, making sure those three little bottoms were red and hot and stingy. By the end, she had three sobbing little girls on her hand, each one stammering out apologies and promises to do better.
“I know you will, babies,” she cooed to them as she set the spoon on the counter. Their tears of remorse turned to ones of relief, and Caryn went down the line, speaking soothing words to each young woman, her hand now dousing some of the fire she had lit.
“You can get up whenever you’re ready,” Caryn told them after several minutes had passed.
Tess was the first to bounce back—she always was—her tears slowing and then stopping. She straightened from the counter, took a moment to rub her bottom, then carefully righted her clothes (and still hissed and hopped when they pressed against her scorched skin). She flung herself into Caryn, burying her face in the crook of the older woman’s neck, and whispered a final sorry. Then she moved away, giving her sisters their time with their house mom, and went to fetch the broom.
Scarlett and Savannah stood at roughly the same time, tear tracks drying on their faces. Neither looked at Caryn as they eased their clothes back into place. Scarlett calmed faster than Savvy, stepping forward to get her own hug from their house mom. Then she, too, moved off to start cleaning up their mess.
Which left Savvy, subdued and sniffly, standing before Caryn. The girl shifted from foot to foot, wringing her hands together in front of her as she chewed at her lip. She was the picture of a well-chastened girl.
“What’s all this, honey?” Caryn questioned softly, reaching out to tilt the younger woman’s chin up. Bright green eyes glistened with renewed tears, setting Caryn’s mom-dar on high alert. This wasn’t like Savvy—Gwen was Caryn’s big cryer. Savvy usually took her licks and moved on (not quite as fast as Tess, but still.)
Savannah’s chin wobbled and several tears slid past long, copper-colored lashes. “I…I’m just really sorry,” Savvy said in little more than a whisper. She looked young—so much younger than her twenty years—little, and lost. “I didn’t mean to be disrespect—” Her voice cracked and she swallowed past the lump in her throat, “—disrespectful. Honest, I didn’t.”
“Oh, hey,” Caryn soothed, and pulled the hurt kid into her arms. “I know you didn’t, kiddo. It’s okay now. It’s dealt with and we’re moving on—clean slate.” She rubbed her hand up and down a trembling back, and placed a kiss to golden-red hair.
Savvy took a shuddering breath, squeezing Caryn tightly as she laid her head on the woman’s shoulder. She smiled when the warm arms around her held her just as fiercely in return, then shut her eyes and basked in the moment.
She could have stayed like that forever, but a gentle hand patted her bottom and dragged her back to the present. She groaned as Caryn drew back, holding Savvy at arms’ length. Warm brown eyes stared back at her, and (not for the first time) Savvy thought Caryn was seeing deep down into the very center of her soul. She didn’t hate it.
“I’ll hold you for as long as you want and need—later. For now, go help your sisters clean up. I’ll be in my Study,” Caryn said. Turning to address all three, she added, “That goes for all of you. And girls?” She waited until she had three sets of eyes focused on her, then said, “I want this kitchen to shine as bright as those hineys of yours. Got it?”
Caryn spun on her heel then, not missing the groans and grumbles that followed her from the room. The giggles came after, when the three young women thought she was well out of earshot. Caryn smiled. She really did love her life. Her kids and all of their chaos made Caryn…complete.