Chapter IX

"Hey, Natalie?" Prin popped her head in my office holding a stack of papers in her hands. I was dressed in a nice floral dress, with white tights and a matching headband. Cora had been helping me with my outfits recently, and I had at least five compliments a day. It really brightened my spirits! But when Prin set a piece of paper down on my desk... "What's this?" "An order you signed last week?" Sure enough, my signature and stamp were on the form. But what was the problem? Prin reached over and pointed to one of the lines. Then I saw it. 1400 orders?! It was supposed to be 140! "Call customer service, explain--" "They already shipped," Prin said solemnly, looking away from me. "Well... well, we can call--" "They have a no return policy on orders over 500, I already checked." "Right, but it was a clerical error!" "But you signed off on it, so..." So this was my fault. My stomach sank. I was supposed to review these before signing them, but I was so wrapped up last week in all the Sam stuff...

"Natalie, can I see you in my office?" There were few words more ominous than those, and hearing them in Mr. Gladstone's voice definitely didn't lighten the load of that dread one bit. Obviously mistakes had been made, obviously she was in trouble.

Prin and I looked up at the man in my doorway. His hands were situated in his pockets, pulling up the sides of his suit coat. That tone, that stare... I felt my blood run cold. He turned on his heel and walked away. Tears filled my eyes. This wasn't a little mistake. This wasn't a silly mixup. This was going to cost Mr. Gladstone thousands of dollars. He was going to fire me. I would walk in there and he'd fire me right on the spot. Prin wrapped her arms around me and patted the top of my head. "Shh, it's okay... it's gonna be okay..."

"Please tell me about the Beauton Account, Natalie." Mr. Gladstone didn't sit once they were in his office, and he didn't offer for Natalie to sit, either. Instead, he stood behind his desk, facing away, looking out the window onto the town two stories below while he asked his questions. This was clearly very serious.

Prin cleaned me up before sending me into Mr. Gladstone's office, but my eyes were still wet with tears. I was one sharp word away from falling apart. But this was a professional setting. I had to be professional. "I... um, I had a request--" "Speak up," he said firmly, and I felt my muscles tense. I took a deep breath and started again. "There was an order request on my desk... um. It was supposed to be 140 units. But someone must have typed an extra zero..."

"And did this same someone sign their name to the order to verify they had checked it over for correctness before placing it? Did this someone act as their own check and balance?" These weren't ordinary questions: these were very parental queries, this was the inquisition of the already damned.

"I didn't fill out the form! It was in my inbox, and... and..." I shook my head and wiped the water from my eyes. Fuck, Natalie, don't cry! "I should have reviewed it more thoroughly... this is my fault." And he is going to fire me. I'll have to move out of his house. Sam and I will need to find a new place to live, somewhere far away. I wonder if she had enough money saved up. I hadn't even finished paying off my debts...

"It is your fault, yes. And there must be consequences." Now was the time that he turned around, looked at the barely-holding-herself-together girl, and exhaled deeply. "If only there was a severe enough consequence that didn't involve me having to let you go... all I can think of is something corporal, and that doesn't seem fair."

Corporal? Like, jail or something? Admittedly, I didn't understand the word very well, and the confusion was evident on my face. "Um... I... I know this is my fault, and I know you should fire me, but I... I don't want to be fired. I don't want to move, or make Sam get another job, or..." It was too late. Tears were dripping down my cheeks. I wiped them away as quickly as I could. So much for professional... "Please, don't fire me... please..."

"You understand that there must be consequences, Natalie? I can’t let this go.” He was firm, she was blubbering. "Are you willing to atone? Regardless of how? If it means you get to stay?"

I didn't have a choice. Not a real one, anyway. I needed this job. It was more than a profession: it was my entire life. My income, my home, my friend, they all revolved around this one place. Somehow, I had put all my eggs in one basket, and I couldn't afford to lose the basket. "Y-yes sir... anything... please..."

"Very well, Natalie." Now he sat. He sat down on his chair, and he opened a drawer in his desk to retrieve a tube of some kind of lotion. "Come here." He pointed at his lap once, sharply, pointedly, deliberately.

I looked at the tube nervously. What was it? Lube or something? Was this a sex thing? Then, that thought filled my head and spiraled out of control. My mistake had cost Mr. Gladstone so much money. What could possibly be worth that? My body. His pleasure. I knew this game. A man, at work all day, away from his wife, surrounded by cute secretaries and coworkers. It was so natural for my last boss and I to trip into bed together. But now... "S-sir... I... I'm sorry, but I can't... if your wife found out..." Fresh tears dripped down my cheeks.

"Quiet, Natalie, don't allow your perverted thoughts into this space - this is discipline." So the tube? It was hard to see from Natalie's point of view, but it was a warming ointment that was going to make this hurt so much more than it should have. "I'm going to administer physical punishment appropriate for a girl with an attention span so diminished she'd let such a mistake happen. In short, I'm going to spank you."

...spank me? I looked up through wet eyes with surprise, with... disbelief. He was going to put me over his lap and spank me? I looked around the room nervously and then again at Mr. Gladstone. "That's... it?" "That's it." I mean, it wasn't what I thought my work day would entail, and it was certainly not allowed by Human Resources. But he should fire me. To keep my job... "I don't want Cora to think it's sexual... she's really nice to me and I don't want to upset her..."

"Cora will be listening on the phone. So there'll be nothing untoward: just a practical and lenient punishment for a bold mistake." Too lenient, to be fair, but this was not going to be a one-off affair. Although Natalie didn't know that yet.

"I guess, if she's okay with it..." Gosh, this was silly. I mean, he was my boss! And he was going to spank me like I'd acted up in pre-school. But this opportunity was too good to pass up. I took one shaky step toward Mr. Gladstone, then another, until I was right in front of him, looking shyly at his feet.

"Lay over my lap, head on this side.” He gestured, while dialing his wife’s phone number so she could be privy to everything that happened in the room. Natalie looked left and right and the man cleared his throat. "Don't make me ask twice, Natalie."

"This isn't like, a sexual thing... right? I mean, if you and Cora like--" He stared up at me with obvious irritation. I swallowed hard and decided that maybe it was best not to argue. I'd already gotten one lucky break today, and I didn't think Mr. Gladstone was generous enough to give me a second. So I bent over his lap, putting my weight on the tops of his thighs, and leaving my butt high in the air. All of a sudden, I felt very small. From this angle, over a man's lap... my cheeks grew red.

“Hello,” Mr. Gladstone said into the phone. “Yes, dear. I’ll put you on speaker.” He sat the phone down on his desk and turned his attention to Natalie. Mr. Gladstone pulled the girl’s tights down, her underwear too, and left her bare ass exposed to the touch - but make no mistake, there was nothing sexual here. There was only the strange cold wetness of the ointment, which felt very nice at first... and then the sting of his hand colliding with her bare cheek. Hard. Once. Twice. And before three, something else began to happen, too - the ointment started to get very warm, then very hot.

The humiliation was staggering. I thought this would be quick and easy, but even as he shimmied the tights down my thighs I was sick with anticipation. Then the spankings started. Rough, sharp, violent swats on my bare skin. I bit my tongue to keep quiet. Then it started to burn. To really burn! "Ow, ow, ow..." I kicked my feet as a fourth spanking came down on my bottom. I wiggled and fussed on the fifth and sixth. By ten, tears were dripping down my cheeks and I was begging him to stop. But he didn't. "Please, please, please! Please no more, please!"

"Natalie, I'm not sure that you've learned your lesson yet - you're due forty more before I'm satisfied." That number made her tense up as expected and she began to wail and beg and cry, and once her tears had stolen her words, Mr. Gladstone offered his alternative. "If you don't think you can handle forty more, I can maybe agree to giving you ten each morning until I feel like you don't need the reminder. And we can be done for now."

FORTY! I was shivering on his lap at the mere thought of one more. My skin felt like it was on fire. My body ached with every stress of my muscles tensing. My head was ringing from the speed tears rained down my cheeks. I couldn't do forty more... "P-please... done for now... please..." Mr. Gladstone pulled up the seat of my panties - a childish white with bunnies on them - and then my tights. He stood me up on my feet and I trembled in place, tears dripping off my chin. I... I didn't expect it to hurt so badly...

"Ten spankings each morning from now on, until I'm satisfied you won't make any more foolish mistakes. Hopefully the little bit of soreness will help keep you on your toes." Unseen to Natalie but brimming with glee, Cora was on the other end of the phone call, pleased as punch.

For most of the morning, I stayed standing while doing my paperwork. Every once in a while, one of my coworkers would come in and check on me, but I assured everyone I was just fine. Finally, after lunch, I sat down in my chair and checked my email. A mass letter, from Mr. Gladstone to the entire Grand National company. "Due to a clerical error, an order went through for ten times the amount required. The responsible party will retain their position, and is working extra hard to make up for their mistake. Let this be a reminder to verify all forms are correct before submitting them." I had to read it three times. Working extra hard... that made me sound like I was fucking him. I put my head down on the desk, overwhelmed with anxiety. What was I supposed to do now...?