Chapter 3: Leo

Leo was the first to arrive in the Blue Bedroom on Friday evening. He had seen Jed in the Oval Office a few minutes before and the President, who had been on the telephone, had waved at him to go on up. Leo doubted that Jed would be long and he always liked having a few minutes in the Blue Bedroom by himself before the evening’s activities got underway. Leo removed his jacket and hung it in the closet, then took off his tie, rolled it into a neat ball, and left it on the dresser. Finally he undid the top collar of his shirt, breathing a sigh of relief at the relaxation it afforded him. He rolled his shoulders experimentally, feeling the slight ache in them. He might, if Jed wasn’t in too truculent a state of mind, order his sub to give him a massage. However, it might take the best part of the evening to get Jed to wind down, in which case any hope of a massage was unlikely. Leo whistled to himself softly as he crossed the room, feeling some of the tension of the past couple of weeks slip away. He loved Friday nights as much as the President – it was a time for the two of them to really let go and play, without any of the strains and stresses of their jobs intruding on them. Leo enjoyed spending his few idle moments in the preceding week planning what he would do during his hours in control on Friday evening. This week, he had something very specific in mind.

Leo opened up the large trunk at the foot of the huge kingsize bed and removed some of the items he found within. He busied himself arranging them on one side of the bed and then wandered into the en suite bathroom. He washed his hands and splashed the deliberately cold water on his face, waking himself up and firing himself for the evening ahead. Then he opened the bathroom cabinet and removed some more items he thought he might need, before returning to the blue bedroom and placing them on the nightstand. He stood back, regarded his work thoughtfully, and decided that everything was exactly as he wanted it. In the space of ten minutes the Blue Bedroom had taken on a very new aspect. Leo couldn’t help chuckling as he wondered whether any of the rooms in the Residence had ever been used for this purpose, but then decided that with its long history and the number of guests it had entertained, it was likely that the place had a past colourful enough to compete with the Friday night activities of its current inhabitant.

A few seconds later there was a loud but brief knock on the door and then Jed breezed in without waiting for a reply. Leo sighed – it was one thing for the President to barge into the office of his Chief of Staff without waiting but another thing entirely for Josiah Bartlet to do the same to Leo McGarry on a Friday evening in the Blue Bedroom. They’d had this battle before and Leo didn’t think that Jed forgot on purpose – it was just that he was still in bright and breezy Presidential mode, and hadn’t gotten anywhere near the mindset he needed to be in for the night’s activities. This happened occasionally and Leo knew how to handle it.

“Hoynes seems to think that I have nothing better to do on a Friday evening than listen to one of his little tantrums. Did you know that Sam has a date with Ainsley tonight – not a date-date – well I don’t think so anyway – but are we paying the staff too much if they have time for a social life, Leo?” All this was said in one continuous sentence without stopping for breath. Leo looked at his old friend sternly. “Leo?” Jed repeated. Leo raised an eyebrow and glanced at the door.

“Go out and try coming in again properly, Josiah. Then we can have a conversation,” Leo said. In this room, Jed Bartlet was always Josiah. Not Sir and not Mr. President for obvious reasons, and not Jed because that was a name that Leo had used for his old friend before he’d been elected and would do so again when his term of office was over. No, in this room, Jed was Josiah – a name hardly anyone used for him, but which worked very well in the context of the role he played in this room on a Friday night.

“Leo, can’t we have a conversation first, before we begin?” Jed said with a grimace. “I’ve hardly spoken to you all week and I want to know what’s been going on – not least with Josh. Those mysterious hints you’ve been dropping all week have been so infuriating. Is he here?” Jed glanced around the room as if he expected Josh to emerge from under the bed or out of the closet. Leo didn’t move.

“Josiah, in this room you do as you’re told, without question and without arguing as we agreed. There is no ‘before’ – we’ve begun as soon as you step foot inside the room. Now go out and come back in again – and you can spend a couple of minutes outside the door thinking through your attitude before you knock again,” Leo told him in a warning tone. Finally, Jed started to take notice. He looked as if he was about to open his mouth again and protest but one even more pronounced raised eyebrow stopped him.

“You’re in a mean mood tonight, Leo. I can tell,” he grumbled.

“That’s Mr. McGarry or sir to you, Josiah,” Leo told him firmly. “And yes I am, so maybe you should think twice about what you say when you step through that door a second time.”

Jed paused just long enough for it to be a moment of rebellion, but Leo waited him out as usual. Patience always won the day with Jed Bartlet – he relied on Leo’s patience, no matter how much he tested it, and right now Leo could sense something more than just playfulness in Jed’s manner; no, the President was going through one of the usual struggles he had in checking his status and his ego at the door and coming down and back to being himself again – only this time there was an added dimension to that anxiety. Jed was worried about Josh, and how the younger man would fit into their Friday night sessions. Leo deliberately hadn’t told Jed much about his conversation with Josh – Friday nights were his responsibility and he decided how they were conducted. He didn’t think it would do Jed any harm to have that lesson drummed home and so he had been deliberately obtuse when Jed had asked him about it. He had also forbidden him to speak to Josh about it as well – and he knew that Jed would follow his orders on that, even though his old friend was itching to know what was going on. For a man who was kept constantly informed about every single thing of importance that was happening in his country and around the world, Leo thought it might do Jed good to know that there was one area where he not only had no control but also information was given to him on a need to know basis. And he hadn’t needed to know – not yet anyhow. Leo had every intention of filling him in on his conversation with Josh – but only when he’d spent a couple of hours working with his mouthy, opinionated sub and had him in the right frame of mind to listen.

Jed, in typical Jed fashion, spent a good five minutes outside the door before knocking again. Leo knew this wasn’t because he was psyching himself into the right mood for their session – no, it was an act of rebellion of and by itself, as Jed took a perverse delight in making Leo wait. Leo knew all of Jed’s little tricks for avoiding the one thing he wanted most on a Friday night. It was hard for Jed to give up control, and he needed to test Leo’s resolve, his strength and his ability to take charge and be the top that Jed needed him to be. Leo hadn’t failed any of these little tests yet and he didn’t intend to. Jed would settle, and come, eventually, to heel. It might take a little while but it would happen, and then his old friend would feel much more comfortable inside his own skin.

Leo sat down on the bed, making himself comfortable, with the pillows tucked up behind his back. He put his glasses on, picked up the book he had placed on the night-stand, opened it, and began reading. It was a novel – he had banned the President from talking shop during their Friday night sessions and any kind of official papers were banned for the same reason. If anyone needed to contact the President or his Chief of Staff on a matter of national importance, Leo had a cell phone switched on which he left on the nightstand along with the other items. It wasn’t his usual cell phone which might ring just if Mallory wanted a chat or Margaret needed to check something in his diary – he kept his personal cell phone switched off, and the other one had a number known to a select few people who could be trusted to call only in a genuine emergency. Leo figured that even the President of the United States deserved a few hours a week to himself, insulated from the pressures and demands of the constantly ringing phone and high level meetings. The trouble with top level politics was that it was sometimes hard distinguishing the genuine emergency from what might merely be a minor crisis; and Jed wasn’t always the best person at identifying the difference. Leo had insisted that Friday evenings were sacrosanct as much as was humanly possible – a time when Jed really got the opportunity to recharge his batteries in peace and quiet, away from all the hustle and bustle of his job.

A couple of minutes later there was a knock at the door.

“Come in, Josiah,” Leo said, lowering his glasses fractionally and glancing up from his book. Jed opened the door, and stepped into the room – this time more quietly. He stood there for a moment, his eyes crinkled up slightly with irritation when he saw Leo calmly reading and not at all put out by his sub’s attitude. Leo knew that sometimes Jed acted out because he wanted a response – Friday nights were when he could let go, and sometimes that meant behaving in a more extreme and petulant manner than President Bartlet ever would. Leo was used to it and more than knew how to handle this side of his lover’s personality.

“Reading anything good?” Jed ventured, filling what Leo knew was, to him, an unbearable silence. He needed to take Jed into that silence and calm, and let it work its usual magic on his frenetic lover’s overactive mind. Leo didn’t answer Jed’s question, just gazed at his sub thoughtfully. Jed stood there, uncertainly; Leo knew Jed wouldn’t move any further into the room until he was given permission, but Jed wasn’t anywhere near enough into his Josiah mindset to just stand still yet. Instead he shuffled uncomfortably, thrust his hands into his pockets, took them out again when Leo frowned at him, put them behind his back instead, gazed at the ceiling, then back at Leo again. Leo remained completely still, never taking his eyes off his lover. Not yet able to meet that firm gaze, Jed glanced around the bedroom and his eyes alighted on the items Leo had laid out on the bed. He gave an exclamation.

“Damnit, Leo, you must be really pissed off with me. What the hell have I done to deserve all this?” He whistled, gazing at the implements with incredulous eyes. Leo noted, with some satisfaction, that the layers were starting to peel away. Jed had a strange attitude towards spanking; he invariably wanted it, just as invariably hated it, fought Leo over its intensity, and yet at the same time did his best to egg his friend on to harsher levels than Leo would ever give him. Leo knew that ultimately the only kind of spanking that worked with Jed was to be totally, completely in control of it, to never allow his lover to dictate the terms, to not even give Jed an inkling that he could either provoke Leo into using more force, or wheedle him into stopping early either.

“Is this to do with Josh?” Jed asked plaintively. “Are you pissed off about your meeting with him? Did something happen that I should know about? Why isn’t he here? Is that why you’re pissed off?”

Leo sighed. “You’re doing way too much talking, Josiah. Don’t make me order you to stay silent. You know how hard you find that and how painful the consequences can be when you invariably forget.”

Jed made a clicking sound of impatience in the back of his throat. “You’re such a hard ass, Leo…” He hesitated, fought an almost visible battle with himself, and then finally wilted under Leo’s stern gaze. “Sir,” he amended with a sigh.

Leo inclined his head, removing his glasses as he did so and replacing them on the nightstand. “I think it’s time you undressed, Josiah,” he said.

Jed nodded, and quickly undid his tie and pulled it away from his collar. Leo watched, enjoying the moment – Jed never had a problem with nudity and was always completely matter of fact about his undressing, but for Leo one of the highlights of the evening was watching his lover strip away the trappings of their everyday life, until he was standing there butt naked as Josiah, his lover, and his much loved, if somewhat difficult, sub.

“Okay, so it’s been two weeks,” Jed said, pulling his shirt out of his pants and unbuttoning it. “I know you always like to make up for lost time when we miss a session, although I would like to point out that it’s your fault that we missed last week as you decided you’d prefer to be sunning yourself in Florida. Maybe you think my evening with Josh went to my head or something. Maybe that’s why you’ve brought out the full army over there.” He gestured with his head at the implements on the bed. “But it’s been a good week. It has been a good week, hasn’t it, Leo…uh, sir? I’m not especially tense this evening. Probably won’t take more than a couple of taps and then we could do something more…” He grinned at Leo, “recreational,” he finished. He removed his cufflinks and then glanced around the room for somewhere to put them. Leo got off the bed and held out his hand, and Jed gratefully deposited the cufflinks in it. Leo went over to the nightstand and found the little pot that he always used to house both Jed’s cufflinks and his own – when he removed his own cufflinks which wouldn’t be until later. In all the time that they’d been doing this he didn’t think Jed had even noticed that Leo always put their cufflinks in this little porcelain pot. At this stage of the proceedings Jed was always far too caught up in what was going on in his own head to notice this kind of minutiae.

“I thought it had been a good week anyway,” Jed said, somewhat plaintively, in the absence of any comment from Leo. He folded his shirt, put it on the armchair along with his tie and then perched on the edge of the chair to take off his shoes. “Not like last week, but I don’t have any lingering, you know, concerns or anything left over from last week. I think the way this week has gone has wiped out last week’s problems. Okay so we still have the fallout from the Crossley fiasco to deal with but…”

“Josiah, what is the number one rule in this room?” Leo interrupted. He didn’t raise his voice but his cool, crisp tones were enough to break through the stream of consciousness currently emerging from his lover.

“I call you sir?” Jed asked.

“No. That’s not the number one rule – it’s an important rule but it isn’t the number one rule,” Leo replied. He folded his arms and waited.

“Uh, okay – we don’t talk shop. That’s fine. Did I just talk about work? I didn’t mean to. Now you’re not going to punish me for that, Leo, sir, are you?”

Leo gazed at his friend thoughtfully for a moment. “You know,” he said eventually. “I think I am.”

“It was just…I’m nervous. You’re making me nervous, sir. One tiny slip up and…”

“Josiah – you don’t question my decisions,” Leo said firmly. “I decide how to punish you, for how long, how hard, and what for.”

Jed made a little face but Leo noticed that those words had an effect on him. He looked a bit more relaxed, as if he was finally starting to give up control and accept that Leo was the one in charge here tonight, and he therefore didn’t need to be.

“Hard ass, just like I said,” Jed muttered under his breath but Leo chose to ignore it.

Jed finished undressing, laid his pants carefully over the armchair and then stood up. Leo returned to the bed and sat down again, rearranging the pillows behind him.

“Come over here, Josiah,” he said, patting his knee.

There was a horrified silence. Jed looked at him in a way that was positively comical and it was all Leo could do not to laugh out loud.

“When you say, ‘come over here’…where exactly d’you mean?” Jed asked. “Sir,” he added for good measure.

“I mean come over here,” Leo replied pleasantly, patting his knee again.

“You didn’t mean over your knee though, right?” Jed questioned. “That was just a ‘come over here’ gesture wasn’t it? Not a ‘come over here and get over my knee’ gesture.”

“No, it’s definitely a come over here and get over my knee gesture,” Leo said, patting his knee again.

“Leo!” Jed protested. “You are not going to put me over your knee and spank me like I’m a little kid! You are NOT!”

Leo gazed at his sub with every ounce of steeliness he could muster. He had known this would be hard for Jed – spanking usually took place with Jed lying flat on the bed, bent over the armchair, or braced against the wall. He had never ordered Jed over his knee before and it was very interesting seeing the reaction. Still, he intended to insist.

“Josiah, you have ten seconds to get your ass over here, or, I can promise you, there will be trouble,” Leo predicted, with a good deal of certainty. Jed crossed his arms over his chest in a flat out refusal, but Leo wasn’t remotely worried. Jed had experienced the emotions of topping last week for the first time but he was still a novice in that field; Leo was a master. He had chosen the over the knee position deliberately. It hadn’t been something he had felt necessary before, but this week was different. Having witnessed at first hand Josh’s need for and enjoyment of the submissive role, and how sweetly and beautifully he surrendered and offered himself to him, Leo could well imagine how intoxicated Jed had been by his experience last Friday. Now, more than ever, Jed needed to know that there was someone who could take him down and remind him that he wasn’t superhuman – that he had needs too. Leo had decided that the over the knee position would serve two purposes – on the one hand, it would leave Jed in absolutely no doubt about the fact that he had no authority whatsoever over Leo during their Friday evening sessions, but in addition to that, it would also serve to bring them closer together after missing their usual Friday night session last week. Leo didn’t like the President to go too long without the pair of them re-establishing their unusual connection. Jed started to get antsy when that happened; he’d have trouble sleeping, and be more prone to illness. For someone with a serious medical condition like Multiple Sclerosis, it was important that as few strains as possible were placed on Jed’s health – and for some reason, his Friday night sessions with Leo helped keep Jed’s immune system healthy.

The ten seconds passed, with neither man budging but with both of them counting down the time limit that Leo had imposed. Then, on the precise second that Jed’s time was up, Leo got up and crossed the room towards his recalcitrant sub, every single movement of his body full of intent. Jed held up well until Leo was two steps away, and then his gaze faltered slightly. Leo knew that look all too well; Jed wanted so much to give in, to give everything up to Leo, but it was hard for him, and this battle of wills was all part of the necessary process involved in getting the President to where he needed and wanted to be. Leo reached out to put a firm hand on Jed’s shoulder and Jed flinched slightly, as if he expected that hand to punch him instead. Leo sighed inwardly – the shadow of Jed’s father could appear at the most unexpected and inopportune moments. Leo understood that during their Friday night sessions Jed, in many ways, returned to the status of the kid that he’d once been – the kid who couldn’t fight back when his father punched or hit him. He was also aware that on some level they recreated that relationship here but in a way that was good and felt healthy for Jed. Leo was aware of all his lover’s many demons; Jed still wanted his father’s love, and while Leo’s love was not a substitute for that, he did know that in some sense Jed’s longing for his good opinion came from his desire to be loved by his father. He didn’t play on that – their relationship was about a lot more than the pop psychology of Jed’s abusive childhood; a hell of a lot more.

“Hey. No. That doesn’t happen here,” Leo said firmly but gently, caressing Jed’s shoulder with his fingers. “Nobody gets punched, nobody gets hit. You might get your ass spanked here, Josiah, but nothing else. You know I wouldn’t let anything else happen to you.”

“I know that, Leo…I don’t know what that was…just an old instinct I guess.” Jed made a face. Leo put his other hand on Jed’s shoulder, slowly, so that his friend could see it coming, and he caressed the other man for a good few seconds, never taking his eyes off Jed’s face. Finally the muscles under his hands began to relax.

“Good,” Leo smiled. He leaned forward and gently kissed Jed’s mouth and his lover moved into the kiss eagerly, returning it with need. Leo pulled him close, enjoying the feel of Jed’s naked skin next to his own clothed body. His lover came willingly, and they kissed, hungrily, for a long time. Suddenly those two weeks without a Friday session seemed a very long time indeed and Leo’s hands dropped lower, wrapping around Jed’s back and then lower still, caressing his ass. Jed was completely compliant in his arms, much of the fight leaving him. Only when he was satisfied that his lover was completely reassured, did Leo pull back.

“You didn’t mean it about the over the knee thing, did you, Leo?” Jed said when he was released. “You were just teasing, right?”

“No, I wasn’t.” Leo smiled pleasantly, resumed his grip on Jed’s shoulders, and turned him abruptly to face the wall. He pushed Jed so that his face was pressed up close to the corner and then gave him a very hearty swat on the backside with his hand. “And it’s sir, Josiah. Please remember. There will be one stroke of the paddle for every time you forget from now on.”

“I’m not doing it on purpose!” Jed protested. “I just forget! It’s not easy remembering.”

“Sure it is. I remember to call you sir every day in the office – it’s very easy,” Leo told him. “You’re just not focussing, Josiah, and you’re not focussing because you haven’t really given in and accepted that in this room, on this evening, what I say goes. You’re a smart man – the sooner you get your head around that fact the sooner we can get onto the good stuff.”

“Ah, the good stuff.” Leo couldn’t see Jed’s face but he could tell by the tone of his voice that his lover was grinning. “Why don’t we skip this stuff and go straight onto the good stuff, sir?”

Leo shook his head, trying his best to keep his own grin from sounding in his voice. “Okay,” he said.

Jed spun around with an expression of amazement – combined with sheer anxiety – on his face. However much he protested, Leo knew that he needed this and Jed knew it too – hence the anxiety. He relied on Leo never to crumble, never to give in, to take everything he threw at him and still be there, steadfast, and in charge.

“Really?” Jed asked.

“No, of course not really,” Leo snapped. “Now turn your face to the wall, Josiah. You can stand there until you agree to get your ass over my knee for a spanking. I have plenty of time. I’m fully clothed and I have a novel to read. You just take as long as you need.”

And so saying he returned to the bed, sat down, made himself comfortable, put his glasses back on, picked up his novel, and began reading again. There was silence for a while, but Leo didn’t kid himself that it would last for long. When he glanced over at his sub, he found that Jed was quoting something to himself in what sounded suspiciously like Latin. Leo ignored him, both exasperated and amused by his lover’s behaviour. He had known it would take quite some time convincing Jed to do this, but time was something they had plenty of and he had no doubts whatsoever that his lover would finally give in. Jed needed this too much to hold out for long.

Jed clearly grew bored of the Latin and started to hum instead. Leo smiled. The very fact that Jed was standing, butt naked, facing a wall, told him that his lover would eventually come around to doing what he’d been told. Jed might not like the idea of an over the knee spanking but if he ever had any serious objections about what Leo told him to do then he knew he could call a time out or simply get dressed and leave.

“Have you come to a decision yet, Josiah?” Leo asked, breaking into the tuneless humming.

“I’m still thinking on it,” Jed replied, waving his hand in the air.

“Well don’t take too long,” Leo said. “Much as I’m enjoying the view, I should warn you that for each minute you delay you’ll get three whacks from the paddle.”

“Okay,” Jed said brightly. Then, a few seconds later. “Leo?”

Leo ignored him. Jed cleared his throat.

“Sir, could you perhaps explain to me why you want me in such a…well, humiliating position? If I could understand it then maybe it’d be easier for me to come to a decision.”

Leo raised his eyes to the heavens, an expression that was lost on his sub who couldn’t see it but which made Leo feel better. Now his hand was positively itching to spank some sense into his lover.

“Well, I’m sorry, Josiah, but no explanations are on offer. You do as I tell you because I’m in charge,” he said firmly. “This isn’t a process of negotiation.”

The important thing about being Jed Bartlet’s top was understanding that the spanking itself was only part of what Jed needed. First of all he needed to give up control, and submitting to a spanking was one way in which he did that. Jed Bartlet was the smartest man Leo knew and as a sub he put those brains to fiendishly good use if you let him. If he got Leo to explain, then that gave Jed a chance to argue and if he argued, he knew that as an expert debater he stood a reasonable chance of winning his argument. Leo had no intention of being drawn into that trap. Apart from anything else Jed needed to know that what Leo said went during these sessions and no amount of wheedling or smart talk would change that.

“So, that’s eight minutes. I make that 24 swats from the paddle,” Leo said, raising the stakes.

“That was never eight minutes!” Jed protested.

“I’m counting from when I first made you face the wall,” Leo replied implacably, waiting for the inevitable explosion.

“What? That’s not fair!” Jed protested, turning to face Leo.

“Who said I was fair?” Leo raised a malicious eyebrow. “Josiah, you’re my sub and I’ve decided under the rules we both agreed on that I want to spank your ass and I want you over my knee when I do it. There isn’t anything for you to consider except how quickly you can get said ass over here and over my knee.”

Jed was silent for a moment, and then turned back, pointedly, to face the wall. Leo flicked open his book again and pretended to read. In reality he hadn’t read any of the book since the session had begun but there was no way that Jed knew that. He kept one eye on his sub, and the other on the clock. After a further couple of minutes he broke the silence again.

“That’s 30 swats now, Josiah,” he said calmly.

There was silence for another few seconds and then:

“Leo?”

He ignored it. Then, a few seconds later:

“Mr. McGarry, sir?”

“Yes, Josiah.” Leo shut his book and replaced it on the nightstand, judging that the time had come.

“I’m going to do as you say but I just want you to know I’m not happy about it,” Jed said.

“Noted.” Leo rolled his eyes again, and rearranged the pillows. Jed turned slowly, and, equally slowly, began walking towards the bed. Leo removed his cuff links, put them in the little pot on the nightstand, and then began, just as slowly, rolling up his shirt-sleeves – a performance that wasn’t lost on his sub, who eyed the action warily, clearly knowing what it presaged.

“I don’t know why this is necessary, Leo, unless you’re on some kind of power trip,” Jed grumbled as he came to a halt beside the bed.

“Over my knee please,” Leo ordered. Jed shot him a very hostile glare.

“I am way, way too old to be going over people’s knees,” he protested.

“You aren’t going over people’s knees, you’re going over my knee,” Leo replied imperturbably. Jed made a face and knelt on the bed.

“Leo,” he said softly, his face close enough to kiss. “You really don’t have to do this.”

“Josiah,” Leo replied, equally softly. “I really do.” And with that he took hold of Jed’s arm, and pulled him expertly over his knee.

Jed’s body was stiff and unresponsive at first so it took Leo quite a few seconds to get him into position and to get them both comfortable, piling pillows up around Jed so that he had something to rest on and could breathe easily. He knew that it wasn’t always easy for Jed to accept this kind of affection before he’d been spanked but he was in charge here and he liked giving affection throughout a scene, so he spent several minutes stroking the naked body that was lying over him like a blanket. Jed was heavy, but Leo was fit enough and wiry enough to be comfortable with the weight, and his lover was supported by the bed at both ends. Leo arranged him deliberately so that Jed’s nose was practically buried in the lined up row of disciplinary implements that had shocked him so much earlier – a fact that wasn’t lost on his sub.

“You aren’t really going to use all these on me are you, sir?” He said, his tone becoming much more deferential and relaxed now he had stopped having the internal battle with himself about whether or not this was going to happen.

“I don’t know, Josiah, but I thought it would be a good idea to have them to hand just in case,” Leo replied. He continued stroking his lover’s offered body. He hadn’t expected to be so affected by having Jed over his knee when he spanked him. He had never spanked him in this position before and there was something very intimate about it. He enjoyed having this naked body, lying like an offering in front of him. He stroked Jed for quite some time and then, without warning, he began tapping his lover harder. Jed made a little noise, acknowledging the change in pace. Leo smiled, and continued with the warm up. He loved being able to feel the noises Jed made as well as hear them, and particularly enjoyed being able to study the white imprints his hand made as it came into contact with Jed’s buttocks. The white faded in a second to be replaced by a glowing pink colour that fascinated Leo. He rarely had any opportunity to express the sensual side of his nature, and his Friday evening sessions with Jed had been an eye opener for showing him just how much he enjoyed playing with his lover; fondling, kissing, stroking and yes, even spanking him. The deeper they went into this kind of territory, the more fulfilling it had become for both of them.

Leo finished the warm up and began spanking in earnest now. Jed gave a low growl and bunched his fists into the pillows.

“I was right, Leo, you are on a power trip,” he complained between pants.

“I make that an extra 4 swats with the paddle for calling me Leo after I ordered you not to in addition to the 30 you’ll be getting for your disobedience,” Leo commented amiably, not stopping the spanking for even a second.

“You do know I could call the security guards in here and have you arrested for assaulting the president, don’t you?” Jed said, his voice sounding decidedly high pitched.

“Go ahead,” Leo replied. The president’s security detail were under strict orders not to disturb them during these Friday night sessions unless either Leo or the President went to the door and actually asked them to come in. They hadn’t been happy with that injunction but had, reluctantly, agreed to it. What they made of the noises that emerged from this room, Leo did not know, but at least their confidentiality was assured. One thing he had noticed was that they were all particularly deferential to him on Saturday mornings. “If you want your security guards to see you upturned over my knee getting your ass spanked then that’s your call, Josiah,” Leo commented.

“I’m not saying I will, I’m just saying I could,” Jed pointed out, and then he gave a surprised yelp as Leo stepped up the pace to the highest level and dropped a really hard spank on the top of Jed’s thighs.

“You know I think you have way too much breath left over for talking and not enough for breathing and yelling,” Leo told him, making sure that every hard spank counted from then on. He continued for several minutes during which time Jed’s body gradually started to unwind, like an uncoiling spring, until his movements stopped being considered and instead became entirely spontaneous. Leo smiled – this was good. This meant that Jed was at last starting to stop perceiving the world with his brain and starting to connect with it on an instinctive level instead. He waited until Jed was thoroughly loose limbed and making loud, growling noises in the back of his throat and then paused for a moment.

Jed looked up, startled – he had been so lost in the sensations of the spanking that it had taken him awhile to realise it had stopped. Leo stroked his lover’s hair gently and then rubbed warm circles on his back with his hand.

“I’m going to use the paddle in a moment, Josiah,” he said in low, deep tones. “Are you ready for that?”

Continued in Chapter 4