« Spanking Stories

There are two kinds of people in the world, Alice thought, as she peeked through her curtains at the news trucks lining her street. The first keep their business to themselves, the second plaster it all over social media.

She was in the first category; she didn't have a Twitter account or use Facebook. Right now, she was grateful to those who did. The outpouring of support, from girls happy to admit they took the cane from their man, had swamped her with gratitude.

Hashtag #ImAliceNorth was trending all over social media. The attempt by a single journalist to unmask the actual author of the bestseller 'Blazing Trails' had worked.

His article, 'Who's Alice North?', had destroyed her privacy two days ago. He'd called for a comment, an hour before publishing. She'd hung up without a word and resigned from her job as a Financial Administrator by email, with immediate effect, to spare her co-workers.

Nobody could have predicted the tidal wave of support her 162.5 million readers would unleash.

She'd always known there was a risk in writing a book about this private part of her life, but she'd observed other couples and felt the need and desire to share.

She'd imagined a few thousand people might read it, but she'd never predicted the explosive global sales, which had rocketed it to the top of the chart, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

The unfortunate publicity had sold another fourteen million copies in two days.

Alice North was a pseudonym, at least the North part was. She really was Alice. The news trucks would move on, but not without at least one juicy picture of the first Modern Girl.

Her publisher and her emergency PR guru were in the other room, waiting for her. Her decision had been easy. At last estimate, more than a million girls had admitted they were Modern Girls. She owed it to them not to hide.

She was going to face the world's press, alongside Harry, and give the interview they all wanted. Not the exclusive they were offering her millions for, but a straight-up, free interview to every network at once, on her front lawn.

What her neighbors would say would come next, but first they'd be thankful she'd got rid of the TV trucks blocking their driveways.

She'd never been ashamed of being caned, but would not have made the choice to expose it. The global scale of her exposure helped. It normalized it.

The success of Blazing Trails had brought her a tremendous amount of private joy. Her PR guru had said the fastest way to calm the storm was to be open, then the story would lose its excitement.

The publishers wanted her to remain a mystery to drive sales, but there wasn't much mystery when over thirty trucks had satellite dishes beaming live pictures of your house to the world.

The barrage of noise, clicks, yelling and blinding lights devastated her as she stepped onto her own lawn. She'd been warned how it would feel, but nothing could have prepared her for it.

She approached the cameras and stood in silence, Harry beside her, waiting for the jostling and shouting of questions to calm down. It took more than a minute for them to realize they couldn't batter or force her to reply. She stood in silence while they learned basic respect.

When there was only a whisper, she spoke, her voice and picture carried live to half the world. "I'm Alice North," she said, looking straight into the bank of cameras.

The noise was deafening again as journalists yelled questions. She waited in dignified silence. This was the strange advice from the PR guru and it was working. She waited.

"Thank you to the millions of Modern Girls who've come out to support Blazing Trails," she said. This was what mattered to her.

"I'm a girl and I'm not always perfect. I choose to admit my mistakes. Sometimes it doesn't matter, but when it does I bend over and take a painful caning from my boyfriend. I feel better and I love the power I have to show I'm sorry," she said.

Unbeknown to her, the hashtag #NotAlwaysPerfect was trending as she spoke.

"If you think I'm crazy or sane, read Blazing Trails. If you don't understand me, you don't have to, but read Blazing Trails."

Her publisher would be proud. The name of the book repeated twice.

"Harry didn't ask for this. I did," she said. "It's my choice to take meaningful punishments. Read Blazing Trails and you'll understand why I choose to hold myself to account."

She looked across the sea of faces. "I will answer questions. Please try to be orderly, I'm only a girl, a Modern Girl," she smiled, adding her own brand of humor to the challenging situation.

"Does it hurt?" asked a woman at the front.

"Yes, enough to be meaningful," she replied.

"Harry, do you get off on it?" asked someone at the back.

"I give my girlfriend the discipline she asks for," he replied, using a phrase he'd been learning since dawn.

"Give us an example of something you did to deserve it," asked another woman to her left.

"I'll give you more than a dozen examples. Read Blazing Trails," she said with a grin.

They each ignored questions designed to trigger salacious answers. Harry repeated four phrases to avoid saying anything interesting.

"What do you say to your detractors?" asked one national paper.

"Read Blazing Trails before you decide and then get on with your life. I am," she said.

"What do you say to the millions of girl's who've come out in your support?" asked a brunette to her right.

"I'm honored by them. I never expected it. To each of them, individually, I'd like to say 'Thank you'."

"What do your friends think?" one of the TV guys yelled.

Her PR guru had told her to smile and be generous.

She smiled. "I guess I'll find out soon. I'm Alice North and I'm a Modern Girl," she closed, turned, and didn't look back. It was how her PR guru had advised her to reach a close; on her own terms, fast, firm and not looking back.

She walked straight through to her kitchen and said, "Everyone out!" Publicists, hair, makeup, PR. They had taken over her house.

Alone with Harry, she said, "Thank you. I'm sorry I've upended our lives."

"I'm proud," he said. "You made us look good. You were sensational with the press. I do not know where you got it from."

"Neither do I," she admitted.

He held her tight, and she breathed into his shoulder. "Do I deserve the cane for what I've done to us?" she asked, feeling guilty about the dramatic exposure of their private life.

"Only for the rest of your life."

She could feel him grinning into her shoulder. He'd stood beside her in her hour of need, and it meant everything.

Glued to her TV, Hannah knew it wasn't fair, but it was thrilling. She loved Alice North. She didn't know her, but she felt she did. The smart brunette on TV met with her approval.

"Go, Alice," she yelled every time Alice answered a question.

She was the ultimate role model for Modern Girls. Hannah was proud to be a fan. She'd stayed home from work to watch. The story had been running for two days. Networks had announced the interview last night.

Elated, Hannah felt her trust in Alice returned. To stand like that, in front of the world, and handle the press, was the perfect example of a Modern Girl.

She said it out loud. There was nobody to hear. "I'm Alice North." Her respect for Alice was off the scale and her own life in perfect order.

The publisher projected sales of Blazing Trails to double. The idea of 330 million people reading her words didn't seem odd, since 162.5 million already had.

She was a multi-millionaire, her international bestseller translated into dozens of languages.

It had never been about money. She'd spent almost nothing. There were those gorgeous designer suits and a few dresses, but she still lived in the same house where Harry had first spanked her, and her cute red Mazda MX-5 was still on the drive.

A question she'd deftly ignored had been "Are you sore at the moment?" She'd blushed when her PR guru had warned her of this angle. She was often at her strongest when she was on her best behavior. It was a natural consequence of being caned. The hurt grounded her. It reminded her to be polite and well-behaved.

She'd known she had to be the greatest she would ever be for her global interview. The night before, she'd asked Harry to cane her hard, for her own benefit. Only they knew she'd stood in front of the world, in her black Armani skirt suit, six painful red lines across her bottom, truly a Modern Girl.