Olivia kissed each of her five stepchildren goodbye, gently reminding them to behave for their mother. She exchanged a few words with Kathy and watched as the car pulled out of the driveway and coasted down the street. Olivia smiled as little Eli blew her a kiss from the back window and returned the gesture before turning to go back inside the house. With growing anticipation, Olivia went to the bedroom, stripped out of her clothes, and knelt naked in the corner with her hands behind her back grasping her elbows. She heard Elliot walk up behind her and Olivia's body instantly relaxed when she felt the familiar leather collar being gently fastened around her neck, enveloping her like a much loved security blanket as she sank into her submissive headspace. Olivia never wore her collar when the children were home and since Elliot had been away working in Rome for the last three weeks, she had missed having the unwavering guidance and consistent nurturing that her beloved Master provided her with.

She knew full well that she was going to be punished; she had known it ever since their phone conversation a week ago, but that was fine. After so many weeks apart, she needed him to take her over his knee and reestablish their dynamic; he firmly in charge and she willingly submissive to his authority. Elliot walked away and she could hear him moving about the room preparing things. Elliot reached into the bedside table drawer and laid out the arnica cream on the table, easily accessible to be used later. He retrieved a straight backed chair from the kitchen and brought it into the bedroom, placing it in the center of the room. He retrieved the heavy paddle from the closet and placed it on the seat of the chair. With all of that accomplished, he sat down on the bed.

"Come here, little girl."

Upon hearing her Master's voice releasing her from her captivity in the corner, Olivia crawled over to where he sat and knelt at his feet, gazing up at him adoringly. She noticed the chair and the paddle, but she also noticed the arnica and felt safe knowing that he was going to punish her but that he was also going to be there to take care of her after it was over. Olivia's insides trembled as she watched him roll up his sleeve.

"Why are you being punished, Olivia Margaret?"

"Because while we were on the phone last week I cursed at you and hung up on you, Sir."

"I understand that you were angry with me, and you're allowed to be angry with me. But when there's a problem, you need to communicate with me and tell me what you're thinking and feeling, not curse me out, hang up on me, and ignore my texts."

"I'm sorry, Sir. I will do better." Olivia expressed genuine remorse, feeling guilty that the first thing he had to do on his first day back home was punish her.

"Good girl. Up and over." Elliot pointed to his lap.

Olivia stood to her feet and obediently draped her naked body across her Master's lap in the familiar position. She winced and whimpered as his strong left hand crashed down onto her bare bottom over and over and over, using almost all of his strength to send a message to his naughty submissive wife that her behavior was not going to be tolerated. Olivia's lower lip trembled and tears filled her eyes as she thought about their phone call last week. She'd been angry, but she could have and should have handled herself much better. Even if he was over four thousand miles away, he was still her Master and husband and required her respect just as he had always given her respect. When Olivia was crying freely and her bottom was deep cherry red, Elliot paused and listened to his beloved submissive cry.

"Stand up and into the bathroom with you. We're going to teach that disrespectful tongue of yours a lesson."

Olivia cried harder as she struggled to her feet and let him guide her into the bathroom. Briefly, she considered begging for mercy, but ultimately decided that it was better to just be obedient. She still had a paddling coming and she didn't want to make him add anything else on top of it, she just wanted to get this awful punishment over with so that he would hold her.

"I'm sorry, Sir!" Olivia sobbed as she reluctantly planted her sore, spanked bottom on the hard porcelain of the closed toilet seat lid.

"I know you're sorry, baby. Open." Elliot placed one hand on the back of her neck as if drawing her to him.

Hearing her Master call her 'baby' gave Olivia a small amount of comfort as she squeezed her eyes closed and obediently opened her mouth, trying not to gag on the foul taste of ivory as he thoroughly scrubbed the inside of her mouth for several endless minutes. She then sat and cried brokenly for several more minutes with the bar of soap in her mouth as he held her hand to support her through it, gently praising her for being his brave girl. Finally, he removed the bar of soap from her mouth, but he did not kiss her head like she had been hoping he would. Her punishment wasn't over yet.

"You can rinse your mouth after your paddling."

Olivia sobbed as she obediently bent over the back of the chair, holding on tightly to the seat. Elliot picked up the heavy paddle. He placed his right hand on Olivia's back to help keep her bent over and brought the heavy paddle down sharply on her already spanked bottom.

"Owwwwwwwwww!" Olivia yelped through her sobs. She hated that thing.

It seemed to last forever, but finally Elliot heard the sound of Olivia's sobbing change and he knew the lesson had been learned and it was time for the healing to begin. He tossed the paddle aside as if it had burned him and rushed to comfort his sobbing wife, gently rubbing her heaving back.

"It's over, baby. It's all over and forgiven. Stand up when you want to." Elliot assured her lovingly.

Olivia sobbed for several minutes before she slowly stood upright, careful to keep her hands away from her crimson bottom. Elliot gently led her back into the bathroom where she spent several minutes rinsing her mouth with water until the soapy taste was as diluted as it was going to get. Then he gently brought her back into the bedroom and over to the bed.

"Lie down, sweetheart." Elliot instructed kindly, and kicked himself when she began to sob even harder, afraid that he was going to continue punishing her.

"Your punishment is over now, little one, I promise. You've been very brave and now your punishment is over." Elliot assured her as he guided her to lie down on the bed.

Olivia calmed a little when she saw the arnica in his hand and sighed in relief when she felt the cool lotion being carefully rubbed onto her punished bottom. With that accomplished, he sat on the bed and gathered her into his arms to cuddle her close to his heart, letting his beloved submissive sob in the arms of her Master. She very slowly calmed as he rocked her and soothed her with tender words of love.

"That's my good girl."

Olivia beamed through her tears, lying her head against his shoulder. She loved making him proud. Her sobs eventually died down to quiet crying, which eventually died down to sniffles and whimpers. When she was calm, he reached up to remove the collar from her neck, but she stopped him.

"Just a little longer?" she asked hopefully, gazing up at him adoringly with red, puffy eyes. She had missed the security of her collar while he was away.

In response, Elliot just cuddled her closer and kissed her head. The children wouldn't be home for hours, so the collar could be removed upon her request. He held her and rocked her while the two talked quietly, filling each other in on all the news they had missed while they were apart, and he promised to take Olivia away on a vacation to Rome as soon as they could arrange for them to both have some time off. Olivia smiled; they had been working really hard and a vacation sounded wonderful.

"Maybe we can arrange for Kathy to take the kids for two weeks. I'm still traumatized from the time we lost the twins at Disney World. I don't even want to think about what would happen if they were running loose around Rome!" Olivia smiled.

Elliot laughed and kissed her deeply.