Spanking is one of my favorite things to read about, both because I enjoy getting and giving spankings, but even more, because how a person reacts to a spanking can tell us so much about them. The eyes may be the window to the soul, but for spankophiles, a spanking can be a window into equally powerful revelations.
Erotica authors can make spankings playful, painful, punishment, reward, ritual, initiation; the possibilities are endless. They can be purely physical, or they can tap something deep inside, bringing out raw emotion, longing, desire, unlocking secrets that can’t be unearthed in any other way. But there’s no one-size-fits-all spanking. What’s sexy to one person may be abhorrent to another. Some have very precise and specific ingredients that go into the perfect spanking; for others, it’s on a case-by-case basis. You can’t simply magically intuit what type of spanker or spankee someone will be without some clues to guide you.
If you stumbled across a spanking taking place, even if you watched closely, you might not know exactly which category it fell into; is it being enjoyed or endured? Is the spankee getting turned on or simply waiting it out until they get to whatever happens next? Is the spanking a sexual act, or something else? Writers have the power to get inside the heads of those on the receiving or giving end of those firm, hard smacks and let us find out what exactly makes this something characters crave (or cringe over)? When I am right there with a character who’s having the time of his or her life because of a spanking, I’m in reading heaven.
Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1
It’s no surprise, then, that in my new anthology, Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, spanking makes a few appearances. One of the most intriguing to me is “Restitution” by Ria Restrepo, about a famous pop star, Ella Lopez, who’s caught shoplifting and is being interrogated by a police officer under the watchful eye of whoever’s observing and monitoring their every move through a two-way mirror, helping to negotiate what her punishment will be. She’s told that she’ll be let off the hook for the shoplifting if she takes 20 bare assed spankings from Officer Hernandez. Heart pounding, she agrees. Here’s part of what happens:
“I want you to sing for me, little diva. Call out the numbers.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, my voice raspy and unfamiliar.
He shifted away from me and I held my breath, awaiting the first blow. When it came, it was hard, punishing, brutal—everything I thought it would be. My body lurched forward, jostling the table enough to knock the water bottle onto the floor.
“One,” I cried out on a pent-up gust of air.
Then came the next smack on the opposite cheek, and I called that one out too. There was a mean sting on my skin when his large hand first made contact, followed by a deep ache in my flesh as it absorbed the full force of the strike. He spread the slaps around, alternating sides, occasionally landing near the juncture between my thighs—those were the best ones.
Each time, pain roared through my body, making my nipples throb and my cunt clench in sympathy. But it was a delicious torture that built with the burn until I was on fire. I could feel my juices sliding past my cunt lips and onto my thighs. I couldn’t believe it; I was going to come, just from him spanking me.
I asked Ria Restrepo to share a little behind the scenes insights into just how this story plays out, including what factors went into Ella being able to orgasm from being spanked. While this may not work for everyone (nor is that everyone’s goal), knowing what it took for Ella might set the stage for it happening for you.
Here’s what she told me: “Ella ultimately gets off from the combination of physical, emotional, and mental stimuli she experiences. She finds pleasure in pain, so the sensation of a firm hand smacking her tender flesh is highly arousing. But being dominated by a man she’s attracted to, knowing her spanking is being watched, and the taboo nature of a police officer abusing his authority in such a way all heighten Ella’s arousal. It’s often said that the brain is the greatest sexual organ and that’s definitely true in ‘Restitution.’ Ella is very aroused before Officer Hernandez ever lays a hand on her.” This buildup was another thing that made me want to publish her story. Ella’s body is primed, and the reader’s mind is also primed to be fully appreciate every aspect of her spanking—and what comes after it.
Something I especially think Lady Smut readers will appreciate is that Restrepo’s tagline for her BDSM erotica is “strong women who desire stronger men.” In other words, kink for her isn’t about submissies being truly degraded or seen as somehow lesser, but about owning up to—and sometimes asking for—the kind of treatment they want from a dominant. Sometimes what seems like “suffering” is actually delight; in Ella’s case, she’s being punished, but it’s clear that she is getting off, literally, on the harsh blows being delivered straight to her bottom, from a man who’s strong in more ways than one.
I asked her how her tagline plays out in “Restitution” and she said: “The best dominants aren’t intimidated by strong, independent women. They value a woman’s willing submission and work hard to earn her respect, admiration, and trust. Having a strong woman, who can stand on her own two feet, kneel before them in supplication is a cherished gift.”
She went on: “In ‘Restitution,’ Officer Hernandez may have authority over Ella by virtue of his position as the police officer who arrested her, but his dominant nature goes deeper than that. There is an ineffable quality truly dominant men possess—it’s in their demeanor, the way they stand, the way the walk, the glint in their eye. They exude confidence in their ability to understand what a submissive needs and give her exactly what she desires. Therein lies Officer Hernandez’s true power over Ella and makes him ‘stronger.’”
I love Restrepo’s concept of submission and that she makes sure to link women who submit with women who are independent. In this conception, dominant and submissive are yin and yang, each valuing what the other brings to the dance of BDSM. Her story would have been something else entirely if I felt like Ella was truly being manipulated into doing something she didn’t want to do, if the “punishment” only worked one way—to get the spanker off. Because it’s so clear, as you read in the passage above, that her body is singing with each strike of his hand, the power play works perfectly.
I also appreciated the detail Restrepo used in the short but powerful spankings scene. She didn’t belabor the story, but gave the reader just enough to perfectly capture exactly how Ella was being spanked, and where, and to let us know that the man delivering those blows knows precisely what he’s doing. While of course her story is pure fiction and not an actual instruction manual, I do believe that readers interested in pursuing spankings of their own could glean a thing or two about the art and joy of taking a spanking from Ella.
Want to find out what happens after that spanking? Read “Restitution” in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, out now in print and ebook form. You can also hear me and other contributors read from the book this Tuesday, January 19 at 6:30 p.m., at Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk Street, San Francisco.
Have a sexy story you want to get published? I’m accepting short story submissions by women authors from around the world through April 1 for Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 2, and the guidelines can be found at bweoftheyear.com.
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