When his voice rang out with the command to stop, there was so much power in that single word that she had no choice but to do as he said.  She stood there with her back to him fighting the tears that threatened to spill down her checks.  She was so frustrated, and angry, and confused, and really freaking scared, all she wanted was a few minutes to curl up into a ball and cry by herself .  Instead she was stuck in this stupid clearing with this unreasonable man waiting for the other shoe to drop.  And then it did, he was still going to punish her.  With that Cyn felt something inside of her break and crumble into a thousand little pieces.  Numbness washed over her smothering the fear, frustration and anger, she was just an empty shell with nothing left to give.<br/><br/>From the corner of her eye she saw him gesture to a stump and felt a tingle across her nerves as it changed into a chair.  She turned to face him as he settled into the newly formed chair, but showed no reaction to his next order.  With her eyes on her feet and her arms wrapped around her to fight the sudden chill that seemed to be freezing her from the inside, she crossed the clearing to stand in front of him without a word.   She lay across his lap and closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip to make sure she didn't make a noise.  When the first  stroke finally came she flinched hard enough to bang her chin on the stump chair causing her to bite her lip hard enough to draw blood.  She could feel the rest of the strokes fall but just didn't care that it hurt and was embarrassing.  When he stopped she asked in  voice devoid of any emotion, "May I please get up?"