It’s the pinkening, I think, that appeals to me. The blush of his blood rushing to the surface of his cheek, momentarily warming the space between his beard stubble and my open, now-caressing palm.
Or maybe it’s the chkch noise — the more-than-a-tap but not-quite-a-smack sound of closed-fingered curved-palm contact — that appeals to me the most. Skin touching skin, hand to face, with an almost-crack, the sound warm and inviting to my ear.
Perhaps it is the gasp-moan he breathes in response to the impact, his vocalizations low and growling.
Or it could be that when the sting causes his nerve endings in his face to go on alert, certain other parts of him are woken – straining toward my hands for equal treatment, surging hard and heavy and wanting to feel that nettling smack – as well.
Do I slap his face?
‘Slap’ is such an overly-simplistic term, rude and gruff and laden with negative connotations.
What I do is not any of those things.
It is firmness of touch and lightness of spirit and Pay attention! and Good boy and an unbruising mark of pink heat and ownership.
It is sensual.
Sumptuous.
Sexy.
It is not a wounding.
It is a laying on of hands.