Claimed

She wanted to scare him.

She wanted to hurt him.

She wanted to kill him.

As she lunged, James lifted an arm to deflect her attack, while he reached for her with the other. The point of the knife slid along his shoulder, leaving a red line in its wake.

“You cut me!” James roared. “You fucking bitch, you cut me!” His hand closed over her wrist, squeezing and twisting until the agony of his grip forced her to let go.

The knife clattered to the floor.

She saw his fist hurtling toward her in the second before it made contact with her cheekbone, and then the floor slammed into her face.

~*~

James examined the wound in the mirror, his lips pressed into a grim line. The cut was deep and hurt like hell. He daubed gently at it with a damp cloth and applied some antibiotic cream.

It should heal okay without stitches, though it would probably leave a scar. His heart, however, would never heal from what had just happened. He stared down at the wrinkled piece of paper. The spiteful, cruel words hit him anew like a slap in the face each time he read them.

I hate James. I hate James. I hate James.

The hours, days and weeks of his constant, undying attention, of his firm but loving hand, and she had written those words! All her apparent strides in learning to embrace her life as an obedient, submissive and loving wife had been a fucking lie. She was still the same willful cunt she’d been before, just waiting for the chance to stab him in the heart, both literally and figuratively.

James went back into the bedroom. Kelsey was locked in the closet, where she would stay until he could calm himself down enough to deal with her. He felt bad for hitting her in the face like that. He’d been beside himself with pain and rage, but still, he knew his temper needed work. A responsible husband punished his wife, but never with anger.

He sat at the computer and logged onto the new site he’d discovered, a chat site for men who subscribed to the obedient wife lifestyle. Earl, the moderator and owner of the site, was online. James typed a direct message to Earl, a wise man with thirty years of experience in wife obedience training.

James: Hi Earl. Can we chat privately for a few minutes?

Earl: Sure. What’s up, James?

James: I just had an incident with my wife. She was very disobedient.

Earl: Not good. What happened?

Did he tell Earl what Kelsey had actually done? As far as Earl knew, theirs was a consensual relationship. If he admitted the extent of what had happened, he might end up sharing more than was wise.

James: She was noncompliant with a writing assignment I gave her. When I rebuked her for it, she raised her hand to me. She struck me.

Earl: Raising your hand to your husband is a very serious infraction. A woman who does that clearly doesn’t know her place. Not to be too harsh, James, but when a wife behaves like that, it’s because the husband is too lax. You have failed in your teachings. She is not learning her lessons properly.

James: I put her in the punishment closet. I was afraid to do much else at this point, because I was acting out of anger. I know how important it is not to punish your wife in anger, but rather to wait until you are calm and rational.

Earl: That’s certainly true. I admire your restraint. But remember that important adage about sparing the rod. Grave actions call for a grave response. She must learn that under no circumstances must she ever raise a hand to you. The lesson must be burned into her consciousness. I have found with my own wife that adding humiliation to the punishment makes for a more lasting impression.

James: How do you mean?

Earl: Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but some women, especially women who engage in our lifestyle, get a kind of thrill, sexual or otherwise, from corporal punishment. It becomes an almost erotic experience for them. But if you were to add a humiliation element, say, for example, if you were to take a video of her doing something private and post that video on our website for others to comment on, that might make more of an impact.

James felt his cock harden at the thought of displaying his woman for all the world to see. Prudence quickly intervened, however. Kelsey was officially a missing person, after all.

James: We’re kind of private that way. I wouldn’t want to splash her face over the internet.

Earl: Who said anything about her face? Put a hood over her head. That could be part of her humiliation. It’s dehumanizing. Make her do something normally kept private, something she wouldn’t want the world to see.