Ritual of Thorns
The night began in silence.
I lay on my front, naked but for my collar, the cool air brushing over my skin as candlelight flickered across the room. Around me, white roses - fresh, pure, and hauntingly delicate - were draped in a careful pattern. Their scent wrapped around my breath, dizzying and sweet. Beneath them, thorns pressed into the sheets, and into me.
Master called it The Ritual of Thorns. A celebration of discipline after one year of my surrender, and devotion. Not punishment. A rite. A gift.
He entered with quiet authority, his footsteps slow, deliberate. He didn’t speak, he didn’t need to. His presence was grounding, magnetic, inevitable. I stayed still, arms stretched above my head, thighs parted slightly. Offered. Ready.
The cane landed first with a breath of air. Then fire.
“One,” he said, calmly.
I whispered it back.
Each stroke had its own place, its own purpose. He never rushed. With each line he painted, he built something, layer by layer, across the canvas of my bum. Twenty… thirty… forty. My body trembled. The petals crushed beneath me released their fragrance more wildly, mingling with my sweat, my tears.
Fifty. He paused, brushing hair from my face, pressing his lips to my shoulder.
“Halfway, my Lilly.”
My skin burned, but I nodded. I needed all of it. Not to be tested—but to be known. Seen.
Sixty… seventy… eighty. My voice grew hoarse, but I never stopped counting. He never stopped watching. His gaze anchored me, even as I began to drift, suspended between pleasure and pain, restraint and release.
Ninety-nine… and then one final kiss of the cane. Deep. Perfect.
I exhaled, shaking.
He lay beside me, hands cool against the heat of my stripes, fingers tracing each welt like a story only we could read. The white roses clung to my skin, some petals now stained faintly pink.
"You bloomed beautifully tonight, my Lilly."
And I did.
Marked and surrounded by roses, I drifted into the sweetest surrender, knowing I was cherished. Owned. Celebrated.
This was not punishment.
This was devotion.
