Chapter 11: An Evening with Dr. Jim Halsey

Ruth Burnside quietly finished putting away Cecilia's papers and locked her file cabinets. She pondered the strange events that had transpired over the last 24 hours. It was about 9:00 p.m., exactly 24 hours since she had received that ominous e-mail from the director of the department concerning her computer. The e-mail had brought about a day of crisis in the life of the scholarship student, but fortunately that crisis now was over. Tomorrow Cecilia would be safely back in class, and Burnside would have to sign an acknowledgement of the written reprimand. No big deal. She had been reprimanded before and always got past it.

Burnside knew the three professors on the ethics panel. She had nominated one of them and had voted for the other two. She knew them well enough to have been able to predict how they would vote. Brenda always voted to expel, Bob usually voted in favor of the student, so the committee's director always cast the tie-breaking vote. Normally he simply deferred to whatever the professor in question wanted, which in this case, was to leave Cecilia Sanchez enrolled.

Still, the committee's vote was a serious matter. Cecilia's life literally hung in the balance, because Burnside correctly suspected her student would attempt suicide if she were expelled from the university. Going into the meeting Burnside had no guarantee that Cecilia would be allowed to stay enrolled, so she had to take the hearing very seriously. Burnside was a pessimist by nature, so she always prepared for the worst outcome. She was hugely relieved to have managed to keep Cecilia enrolled, but at the same time remained very angry at her. More than anything else was the hassle of having to re-write the midterm. There were other unpleasant concerns facing her, including the reprimand and invariable department gossip and discussions behind her back about her choice of a scholarship student.

Burnside somewhat sympathized with Cecilia, because the girl had no way of knowing that a few mouse clicks would set off such a crisis. She had found out the hard way something that she really wasn't supposed to know, because the university examination tracking system was a strictly kept secret. Burnside expected Cecilia not to say anything to other students about the examination tracking system ... which she had forgotten to mention before the chastised student left her office. She typed out a quick e-mail to Cecilia with that detail; under no circumstances was she to discuss the tracking system with other students.

Burnside heard a knock on her outer office door. She was expecting her visitor, so she grabbed her purse and locked up. The visitor was Dr. Jim Halsey, her co-worker, her friend, her mentor, and her lover.

Halsey was 15 years older than Burnside, which made him 62. However, he still was full of vigor, in excellent physical shape (Burnside could attest to that), and a long way from retiring. He was dressed, as always, in a very expensive dark suit. His steel-gray hair and sharp features gave him a very severe appearance to his students, but his blue eyes always glinted mischeviously at Ruth. Jim Halsey was the only person in Ruth Burnside's life who dared address her as "Ruth". Everyone else, everyone else, including her other lovers, always addressed her as "Dr. Burnside"

Jim Halsey kissed Burnside's hand, and then took her hands and lightly kissed her mouth. Burnside's heart pounded, however. She knew she was in trouble and facing punishment from her lover, in spite of his courteous manner of greeting her.

He asked her how the ethics committee meeting went. Burnside responded in detail, because every professor wanted to know what the ethics committee reasoning was whenever it rendered a decision about a student's continued enrollment. Burnside recounted Cecilia's actions in detail, partly in hopes of getting her lover's perspective on how trustworthy he thought she really was. After listening to Burnside for a while, Halsey finally countered:

"You know Ruth, my girl, this incident is your fault. You understand that, correct?"

"Yes sir. I understand that I was irresponsible and my student suffered as a result."

Burnside's next words indicated the unusual nature of the relationship she had with her old lover. "Sir, am I to be punished for my carelessness?"

Halsey caressed Burnside's cheek with the back of his hand and looked her in the eye.

"Ruth, my girl, what do you think? Were you irresponsible enough to warrant a severe punishment?"

Burnside's heart pounded from that familiar mixture of fear and arousal she always felt before she faced a whipping from her lover. She was terrified, but, as always, also felt warm tingling all over her body and an anxious, comfortable warmth between her legs. She was about to be punished by the only man she loved, and that knowledge drove her wild with sexual pleasure.

"Sir, I've been irresponsible. I violated my contract. So I'm letting you decide what's best for me."

"Well, my girl, we both know what's best for you is a punishment on you bare body. You've earned it."

"Yes sir. I've earned a punishment on my bare body. I'll submit to you, sir."

With that Ruth Burnside, one of the most feared professors in the economics department and dressed in one of her best teaching outfits, got on her knees and kissed her lover's hand. That same hand soon enough would be inflicting both intense pain and intense pleasure on her unprotected body.

The two professors, Dr. Ruth Burnside and Dr. Jim Halsey, walked arm-in-arm to his car. Burnside's house was relatively close to the university, so normally she walked any day the weather permitted. Halsey lived somewhat further away, so normally he drove. On any evening Ruth had to stay late, he always gave her a ride home. Tonight he would come into her house, the two would have a glass of wine, and then there would be a night of discipline and lovemaking.

Ruth Burnside had met Dr. Halsey during her final year as an undergraduate. She was an exceptional student who caught his attention, having completed her Bachelor's of Arts degree in just two and a half years with a GPA of 3.8. Halsey could tell the young woman was very different from most of his other students. She had a very serious, intense manner of carrying herself, a detail that intimidated many of her classmates. He could tell that she had not come from a privileged background and was not surprised to learn that Ruth had financed her studies with a stint in the Navy. Yes, she did indeed have the military in her personality. He knew, having been an officer in the Army himself before becoming a professor.

Dr. Halsey helped Ruth organize the paperwork and applications she needed to get into graduate school. The young professor and the student took a liking to each other, but at first it was the result of shared interests and shared experiences. Halsey was going through a divorce at the time, while Ruth Burnside confided that she had left the Navy because she became pregnant while at sea. Halsey was the only person to whom Burnside ever willingly shared that detail of her life, apart from a few doctors, nurses, and social workers.

There was another detail about herself that Burnside was able to confide with her professor, that she had to give the child up for adoption. It wasn't her financial situation that forced Burnside to give up her baby; it was her violent temper. She knew from the beginning she did not have the personality to raise a child. She took the only logical step she could think of at the time, she made arrangements for the child to be adopted before she was born. Within three hours of giving birth the baby disappeared from Ruth's life, adopted by a wealthy couple from New Hampshire.

Ruth spent the next two and a half years studying, desperate to catch up and graduate at the same age as most of her classmates. She didn't do badly; she started her studies at age 21 and finished them at age 24.

Shortly after Ruth graduated she began to explore her sexual fantasies by joining a Chicago sex and fetish group. The first time she went to a meeting she had a huge surprise; Dr. Jim Halsey was there, wearing a tuxedo and carrying a leather paddle. Ruth and Jim discovered another common interest, a love of S&M. That night they stepped away from their roles as student and professor. They entered a playroom and closed the door. Halsey took Ruth's hand and lightly kissed her cheek. Then he pulled her skirt off and gently lowered her panties. She went wet immediately. He could smell her arousal, and to make sure about it, he ran his finger over her very wet vagina. He held the wet finger up in triumph.

"Ruth, my girl, you know what you need from me."

"Yes sir ... its what I want, and only you can give it to me."

With that Halsey forced the young woman to bend over the back of a sofa. He studied her pleasantly shaped backside for a few moments, and then started spanking her with the paddle. He started gently at first, gauging her desire for a more serious punishment. She kept her bottom in position as the scent of her arousal assaulted his senses. He struck harder and harder, as the satisfying CRACK! ... CRACK! ... CRACK! ... of the paddle filled the room.

That was the beginning of their relationship. For several years they navigated their awkward situation, fulfilling their conflicting roles as professor and graduate student, as friends, as lovers, and as fetish partners. They kept their relationship secret from the outside world and were forced to keep each other at arm's length emotionally. Each gave the other permission to have other lovers and fetish partners, partly to avoid suspicions about a relationship that violated university rules prohibiting liaisons between professors and students. In the end the arrangement worked out admirably for both of them, because they could maintain their independence and freedom, and yet still know that each was a stabile presence in the other's life.

Ruth Burnside and Jim Halsey loved the world of pain and sexual pleasure. Ruth was mostly a dominant and enjoyed punishing other people. Her submission to Jim Halsey was a mystery to her, because she never felt the desire to submit to punishment at any other time in her life, and never from anyone else other than Jim Halsey. But with her lover she had discovered the frightening truth about herself; she enjoyed pain, if it was inflicted by the right person. The only right person to inflict that pain was Jim Halsey, the only person she trusted for pain and discipline.

Jim Halsey was much more of a switch than Ruth. Sometimes he liked to play a dominant role and inflict punishment, and sometimes he liked to submit and be punished. Over time he and Ruth took turns role-playing and punishing each other, but he could tell that Ruth really did not enjoy role-playing. She needed something more real, not pretend.

Finally the two lovers worked out an arrangement that satisfied both their needs. Each would hold the other accountable for everything having to do with their careers, research, publications, and over-all responsibilities teaching. Each granted the other permission to inflict punishment for any mistakes or irresponsible acts. Once one of the lovers declared that the other deserved a punishment, the offender had to submit immediately and unconditionally, and remain submissive until the punishment was declared completed. The element of role-play was removed, because the punishments were real, only to be given for real offenses. The lovers took responsibility for disciplining each other and each had to submit to their mutual relationship.

Tonight it was Ruth's turn to be punished, for having allowed Cecilia to use her computer unsupervised. It turned out that both guilty parties would be punished that night; the student by her professor, and then the professor by her lover. It was for that reason Burnside was kneeling in front of Halsey and addressing him as "sir". Whenever he was at fault for something, the roles were reversed, with him kneeling and addressing her as "ma'am".

Upon entering her house, Burnside quietly pulled out a bottle of wine and two glasses. She filled both glasses and dimmed the living room lights slightly. She knelt in front of Halsey and handed him a glass, taking the other herself. Saying nothing, the couple drank their wine, in a symbolic act that would initiate her punishment.

"Very well, young lady, you will stand up and turn away from me."

Burnside did as instructed. He placed a scarf over her eyes and lightly tied it. Over the years he had discovered that depriving her of the sense of sight during the preparation of a punishment heightened her anxiety and her arousal. He slowly undressed her, allowing her to feel more and more vulnerable with the removal of each piece of clothing. Finally she stood naked in the middle of a pile of fallen clothes.

Halsey stood back to admire his lover's large breasts and fit body. Burnside worked out aggressively on a daily basis and had the figure of a much younger woman. Her arms and legs were trim and muscular, her stomach was flat, and her bottom and breasts just beginning to show the effects of her age.

Halsey went into one of Burnside's back rooms and returned dragging a piece of furniture that looked something like a gymnastics horse. It had a padded leather surface and rings attached to the bottoms of its metal legs. The piece of furniture was Burnside's favorite punishment bench, or "horse", where she had restrained innumerable students and lovers for punishment. Now it would be her turn to bend over that bench, to stretch herself as best she could for a severe whipping.