Mr. & Mrs. Smith were subdued when I laid out the bills & explained our situation. Old Frank Smith grimaced when I finished our presentation, then offered his opinion; "You?re in a bind, alright. There?s just too much credit & too little job security around these days." Having stated his opinion, he rose & made apologies for having to leave for his weekly card game, "It doesn?t matter if I?m here or not anyway," he said as he made his way out of the kitchen, "Momma?s better at handling these sorts of things."

"Thanks, dear. I?ll handle it alright. Have a good time!" Anna Smith called after her husband. Old Frank assured her that he would do just that, then shut the door behind him.

"They play for nickels & dimes," my mother in-law explained with a smile. "Frank is a terrible card player, but so are his friends, so they can all pretend they?re good. The most any of them can lose is twenty dollars. And they have fun."

Then, the smile left her face, & a concerned, angry expression replaced it. "Now then, back to you two..." Mrs. Anna Smith began her full attention focused on to Gina & me. "Do you know how worried I?ve been about you kids?" my mother-in-law asked intently, peering at both of us through angry eyes, made larger by the glasses she wore. "Didn?t either of you think I could do simple arithmetic? That I knew you were in trouble?" Her voice quavered a bit to lend emotion to her statement.

Mrs. Smith paused to await our responses. I dumbly shook my head. Gina made a strange squeaky sound that drew my attention, & my curiosity. I was nervous & intimidated about begging for money, but she looked as white as if she?d seen a ghost.

"No, obviously not!" my mother-in-law snorted, working herself into a fever of maternal indignation. "It seems to me that neither of you," she glared at me for an icy second to make sure I knew she was talking to me too, "has been thinking at all for the past 6 months! Especially you, Gina," Mrs. Smith accused, fixing her child with the kind of maternal, guilty glare that throws birth & every instance of naughtiness & foolishness thereafter back in their child?s face at one time. Every mother has that look, & every child hates it. Gina wavered against her mother?s regard for an admirable moment, then dropped her head in respectful submission.

Gina had told me enough about her mother?s stern side to prepare me, but I?d never seen it like this before! Until then, I had been excluded from this particular Smith family ritual. I guess I should have felt honored by the fact that being included now meant I had been officially accepted into the family, but my mother-in-law?s anger was too intimidating to feel good about.

"You should know better, Gina!" her mother continued crossly, "Of all people, you should know better than to think you could lie to me all those times & get away with it! My own daughter! I?m absolutely insulted!"

I watched from across the table, glad that Mrs. Smith wasn?t directing her attention at me. Her voice was level & low, but vibrated with the same amount of power that shot from her condemning glare. I?d expected ranting & raving about reckless spending, or maybe an "I told you so" or two, but I hadn?t expected to be scolded like thoughtless kids for lying & being too proud to ask for help. I felt guilty, foolish, & childish, but it was about to get worse. Much worse!

"Your father & I have already talked about helping you kids out. He?s very upset with the both of you, too," Mrs. Smith said, fixing me with "the look" for a frozen minute just to make sure I didn?t feel left out.

I didn?t. I hadn?t seen Gina?s usually sweet mom in this kind of outraged mother mode before. It was impressive, & intimidating as could be.

"We?re both very upset with you two kids," Gina?s mom repeated in case we hadn?t heard her before. "But you?re our kids. We love you & want to help you get straightened out." Gina & I smiled at each other briefly at the good news, then turned our faces as one to smile at Mrs. Smith. She didn?t smile back.

"We?d like to give you enough to cover your debts & expenses until Gina gets a job," she explained, then paused. She had a bombshell to drop that would change all of our lives, & she was about to let it fly. She fixed Gina with an unwavering stare, "But there is a condition."

"W-what condition, Momma?" Gina squeaked. Her voice sounded so fearful & childish that I looked over at her in surprise. She stared back as if she were trapped within the gaze of her angry mother. There were a lot of odd emotions reflected in my wife?s pretty face that I didn?t understand, but I got the feeling that Gina knew exactly what her mother was about to say, & was deathly afraid of it.

I didn?t have a hint of the bizarre door my wife & I were about to be thrust through. Gina had mentioned that her mother?s stern side included soundly spanking her when she was a kid, but she had never hinted that she?d still been "kid" enough to suffer that juvenile punishment up to the day we were married. She also hadn?t told me everything her mother had said in their telephone confrontation. I didn?t know that my 23 year-old wife was deathly afraid that her mother would carry through on her threat to turn her gorgeous, bare bottom over her knee & spank it as soundly as she?d often done before. And I certainly didn?t know that similar treatment might be in store for me!

"The condition is that we clear the air of all the lies, & impress on you two kids that you should never again be too prideful or embarrassed to ask your family for help." Mrs. Smith replied.

That sounded reasonable to me, & I said so. I didn?t know enough to see the trap I was about to jump into. "Gina & I are both sorry for lying to you, mom," I said sincerely, then foolishly added, "And we?ll do anything to make it up to you. Just tell us what we can do."

I was a bit confused when Gina looked at me with fear flashing in her eyes. But I was totally confused when Mrs. Smith looked at me with warning lights dancing within her stern gaze.

"That?s good to hear, Nick. But do you really mean it?" Mrs. Smith said solemnly.

"Absolutely!" I eagerly replied, then ignorantly added, "Anything at all!"

Mrs. Smith?s gaze challenged mine for a long minute, then she looked at her daughter. I once more got the impression that wordless communication was passing between them. Finally, Mrs. Smith broke the silence by asking Gina, "Do you agree with your husband?"

Gina cast a quick, frantic glance my way, then lowered her eyes to stare at the polished surface of the dining room table. "Y-yes, M-Momma," she whispered, then looked at mother with wide, beseeching eyes & added cryptically, "B-But you don?t m-mean, ah... you know?"

I wasn?t sure what they were talking about, but my wife looked & sounded like a bad little girl begging to be spared from... A spanking!?

That can?t be possible!, I thought logically. Gina was a doting daughter who loved her mother dearly & would do anything for her, but I couldn?t believe she might be afraid of something as childish & fiendish as an old-fashioned spanking! No, it couldn?t be, I reasoned once more, but I was about to find out how wrong I was. And that I too was caught in what was soon to be a humiliating tornado of maternal discipline.

I watched the two women, riveted by my thoughts as the ticking kitchen clock counted out tense seconds. Mrs. Smith didn?t say a word, but she did finally nod a response to her daughter?s question.

"Nooooo!" Gina moaned before her mother?s head had stilled. "B-but, I?m a married woman, Momma! Y-you c-can?t... y-you know!" Gina whined, blushing beet red & hiding her face against her chest as her voice trailed off.

"Oh, yes I can young lady!" my mother-in-law snapped, "I know you?re married, but you were my daughter first, & always will be! Don?t you dare tell me what I can & cannot do!"

Gina mumbled an apology, then looked over at me & back at her mother with the kind of look that said she hoped I would be asked to leave so they could have some privacy. Mrs. Smith followed Gina?s eyes, then settled her glare on me alone. I tried to return her burning regard calmly, but I don?t think I managed to hide my curiosity, suspicion, & fear. I could clearly read one fact in my mother-in-law?s magnified eyes, You?re in this too!

"B-but, M-Momma?!?" Gina squealed, obviously seeing the same message.

At least she knows what she?s so afraid of! I worried briefly, squirming in my seat as both women looked at me.

"You?re both my kids now. You both got into this mess. You both lied to me. And you?re both going to get punished!" Mrs. Smith announced imperiously.

"Punished?!!" I gasped. "What are you talking about?"

My mom-in-law leaned toward me. I leaned away. "I am talking about helping my children out of a mess by giving them some gifts they desperately need: money, & an old-fashioned spanking lesson so they?ll never again consider pushing their loved ones away, & lying to them."

Over her knee... Bare bottom... Hurt so much... Always cried... Hated getting spanked...

The few facts Gina had disclosed about her spanking past clapped across my stunned brain like thunder. My mother-in-law intended to spank the both of us like naughty little kids! I?d never felt a real, old-fashioned spanking from a stern female or anyone else, but I had fantasized about it since boyhood.

But this wasn?t a fantasy, although I just sat there with my mouth open, wondering if it was until Gina began whining a series of, "Ohhh, noooo?s!", & pleas that her mother spare her the humiliation of being spanked. Her sincere fear was too real to be imagined. It convinced me that I really was sitting in my in-law?s dining room with my wife, & had just been threatened with, of all things, "a good, old-fashioned spanking!"

My first thought after that was how odd it was that my attractive, mature, 23 year-old wife clearly accepted her mother?s decision. Her pleading & whining made her look & sound like a little girl, not a married, adult, woman indignant about her mother?s bizarre threat to spank her.

Mrs. Smith didn?t say a word, but her look tightened into harder, sterner lines as she calmly sat watching her daughter for several long seconds. "I?m your mother, Gina," she finally said, "I love you. And I?m sorry, but you need a spanking, & that?s exactly what you?re going to get. Stop fussing." Gina stopped whining, & started sniffling as if the spanking she?d been promised had already started. I wanted to comfort her, but fear & confusion made me unable to move or speak as Mrs. Smith turned her angry eyes my way.

"You said you?d do anything at all to make up for lying to me, Nick. You are going to keep your word by accepting the good, old-fashioned spanking you deserve."

I think my mouth was already open, but it dropped further when my mother-in-law completed her declaration. I was going to get spanked for the first time in my life... Unless I chose to dishonor myself, abandon my wife & make an enemy of her mother forever?

The adrenaline running through me had my mind going at super speed, but I couldn?t think of any way to avoid being spanked alongside my wife. Divorce came to mind for a nanosecond, but that was out of the question. After all that frantic thought, the best I think to do was sputter, "B-but I-I?ve never b-been, ah, sp-spanked!"

"That will change shortly," was all my mother-in-law said, but the look in her eye & the sounds of my wife sniffling at my side made me realize that my fate was sealed. I was going to get spanked like a little boy by my mother-in-law!

* * *

"Please let me keep my panties on, Momma! Please!!" Gina whined as her mother reached up from where she?d pushed my wife?s jeans to the waistband of her green, bikini panties. Her mother didn?t reply, or hesitate to insert her fingers in the filmy fabric & slowly strip them down to the hollows of her daughter?s knees...

That was how the strangest, sexiest night of my life began. We had moved from the dining room table to the living room, complete with a chair I was instructed to carry to an open space between the two rooms. Mrs. Smith had ordered us to sit on the couch, then gone to her bedroom & returned with a stout wooden hairbrush. She?d gone directly to the chair, sat down, & crooked her finger for Gina.

My whimpering wife squeezed my hand, then rose & slowly made her way to her mother. Left alone on the couch & totally ignorant of spanking ritual, I watched in fearful fascination as Mrs. Smith set about preparing her daughter for what looked like a familiar, familial task.

Mrs. Smith seemed experienced & very businesslike. Gina seemed well-trained. Her whimpering turned to pleading as her mother bared her beautiful bottom & turned her over her knee, but she didn?t try to resist physically.

Mrs. Smith was silent until she had Gina bent so her bottom was high & perfectly positioned. Then she sternly announced, "It?s been a few years since I?ve had to warm your bottom, but I?m about to show you that I haven?t forgotten how. I have never tolerated lying from you, young lady, & I never will. Never!"

From where I sat, I could see my mother-in-law?s arm rise above her shoulder. Her hand was open, fingers slightly spread. Her palm seemed to hover & wait until she had finished her declaration, then descend in a blur that ended when it slammed against my wife?s shapely seat. A loud crack & pitiful yowl from my startled wife followed immediately, & so did many more as I watched my young wife get spanked. Soundly spanked!

The handspanking lasted for a full five minutes, & filled me with sights, sounds, & feelings I?d never known before. Fear, fascination, & excitement each surfaced as I saw my wife transformed into a little girl crying & pleading for her mother to, "Stop spanking meeee!"

"It hurts soooo bad Momma!" Gina howled, then howled some more when her mother just kept on slapping her reddening rump. Gina waved her legs so wildly that I caught glimpses of her lightly furred sex, & her head never stopped jerking & tossing, so I could see the pain she was feeling in her expression.

Mrs. Smith?s expression didn?t change at all while she slapped her 23 year-old daughter?s bare bottom until it glowed a bright red. Her body moved slightly as she fought to hold her daughter?s bounding body in the proper position over her lap, but she didn?t flinch at all at any of Gina?s heartfelt pleas for mercy or, when they came about two minutes into the spanking, frantic tears, sobs, & garbled promises to "Never do it again, M-M-Momma-aaaah-ah-owww!"

I?d never seen skin so red before in my life when Mrs. Smith stopped slapping my sobbing wife?s bottom. I had never heard my wife crying so hard, either, but I was too fascinated by the color of her cute cheeks & the way the muscles there were twitching & clenching. It was scary, but it was also sexy.

My wife bawled for a good minute, then quieted down enough for my mother-in-law to ask if she was sorry. Gina spent 20 seconds assuring her that she was. Mrs. Smith scolded Gina again as if she wanted to remind her why she was bare bottomed up over her knee. Then she picked up the hairbrush & used it to paddle my wife?s bottom until she was the sorriest, dishonest daughter on the face of the earth.

Gina danced around like a whirling dervish when her mother released her from her lap. She?d kicked her panties off during the handspanking, so nothing restricted her feet & legs. Her skirt swirled upward as she turned quickly, revealing the trimmed fur at the top of her thighs. Her hands were on her bottom, holding up the skirt in back, & the contrast of white skin against the dark, dusky red of her entire hindquarters was startling.

"You know where you belong, Gina," Mrs. Smith said after letting the girl perform her dance of pain for a good, long minute.

Gina sort of whimpered an acknowledgment, then turned & quickly went to stand with her face against an open portion of the living room wall. Her hands gently slid from her bottom to grasp the hem of her skirt & pull it up above her hips in back. Her angry red rump seemed to be pointing right at me, warning me. Gina?s spanking was over, but mine was yet to come!

* * *

I cried when I was 12 & lost the championship game in little league. I had been so embarrassed about it that I hadn?t cried since. But Mrs. Smith & her hard hand & hairbrush ended that streak that night. By the time she finished spanking me, I was crying & pleading even harder than my wife had.

Seeing my wife get punished had clued me into the sights & sounds of a spanking, but it no way prepared me for how it felt.

My mother-in-law had seen her daughter to the wall, then crooked her finger at me. The daze I was in deepened as I realized what her simple gesture meant. I was about to be undressed by my mother-in-law & bare bottom spanked like a naughty boy. My daze deepened more when my wobbly legs took me to my mother-in-law?s side, but then pure humiliation overwhelmed me as she casually reached out & began to undo my jeans. My own mother hadn?t seen me naked since puberty!

I didn?t recognize the pitch of my own voice when I screeched, "Oh, nooooo! You can?t!!", & reached down to stop her.

"Oh, yes I can!" She barked back, slapped my hands away, & quickly unzipped my fly.

"Noooo!" I protested again, returning my hands to grasp the opened front of my pants.

"I?ll allow you that bit of defiance because this is your introduction to my way of parenting, Nick." Mrs. Smith said, then added in the most threatening tone I?d ever heard, "But you had better take your hands away this instant!"

I obeyed her command & felt her hands go about baring me. Embarrassment gradually grew to complete & utter humiliation as I felt Mrs. Smith pull down my pants & underwear. The most awful moment of all came when she sat back up after yanking my briefs to my ankles, because I realized my t-shirt didn?t reach down far enough to cover my genitals, so they were at the exact level of my mother-in-law?s eyes. I reached down & cupped my hands over my shame, but I knew she had seen all I had. I felt totally ashamed.

Mrs. Smith wasn?t impressed by my display or my feelings. I felt her hand grasp my elbow as she tugged me forward & down until I fell over her lap. I?m the same size & build as my wife, so I fit just as well, & found out how vulnerably exposed you are in that awful position. My mother-in-law pulled up the back of my t-shirt, increasing my shame, & then I felt her arm press down in the small of my back. She raised one knee under me to elevate my hips, & all but my toes were lifted off the floor. I knew I was helpless.

"I?ve always treated you like one of the family, Nick. You are my daughter?s husband, & as far as I?m concerned, that makes you my son. I never expected to have to introduce you to the Smith family remedy for dishonest children, but that is exactly what I am about to do." I gulped so loud that I know my wife heard me all the way across the room, but my fear really crested when my mother-in-law added ominously, "I am going to give you a spanking you will never forget, young man. Never!"

I had heard the same speech before my wife?s spanking & thought I was prepared for the resounding slap that followed it, but I quickly learned that it?s impossible to prepare for the first, excruciating slaps of a stern, spanking woman?s hand! It hurt in a uniquely painful way, burning & stinging & spreading like she had dripped boiling water on my backside. I had decided that I would show my wife & her mother how brave a man I was, so I limited myself at first to grimacing & grunting as my mother-in-law slapped my bouncing bottom with her incredibly hard hand.

Mrs. Smith seemed to take my silence as encouragement to spank harder & faster. Each sore spot on my wriggling rump was smacked again, & then again. Gritting my teeth to keep from venting the pain in my ass became harder & harder. Then when my mother-in-law landed a scalding series of slaps to my lower cheeks & thighs, I threw shame to the wind & spit out a series of strangled, pain-soaked squeals. My constant cries of pain led to cowardly pleas, including my own variations on the theme my wife had started shortly before: "Stop spanking meeee!" & "It hurts soooo bad Momma!"

Momma Smith didn?t let my howled pleas affect her any more than Gina?s had, so she kept on slapping my scalding seat until my ass burned & stung so badly that I was sure she was spanking the skin right off of my hindquarters. She wasn?t, of course, but it sure felt that way! And that made me feel as miserable & sorry as a bad boy being punished by his mother, which is exactly what she wanted me to feel!

My wife & I teased each other later about which of us cried harder & louder during our spankings, but deep down, I knew it was me. I surpassed her histrionics during the hand spanking, & couldn?t stop crying throughout the scathing scolding I got before Mrs. Smith began giving me terrible tastes of her hard, wooden hairbrush.

With my bottom hot & throbbing with pain, my face wet with tears, & my constant sniffling to keep my nose from running, it was hard to concentrate, but I remember cringing at my mother-in-law?s tone of voice as I hung over her lap during the scolding break. I was crying as freely as a small child might, & very ashamed of the fact. My mother-in-law had managed to make me feel like a naughty boy, but I was a 23 year-old, married man.

I suppose I still had some pride left at that point, but none remained after the first ten cracks of my mother-in-law?s hairbrush. Her hand had felt hot & horrible on my virgin backside, but the brush felt a thousand times worse. Momma Smith used full arms strokes that quickly renewed my tearful suffering & sent me to bad boy hell long before she stopped. I know my hairbrushing wasn?t any longer than Gina?s, but it seemed an eternity before the brush stopped scalding my heated haunches. I had blubbered myself to the point of exhaustion by the time she stopped, but I found the energy to do my own humiliating dance before my mother-in-law?s eyes when I was ordered off her lap & to the wall to join my wife.

Gina was gazing at me when I looked at her.  However, her eyes were not narrowed nor were her lips tight.  On the contrary, she smiled at me with such love & pride that I blinked my eyes to make sure I wasn't imagining it.  Then, as hard as it was with my lips quivering, my nose running like an open faucet, & stray tears still trickling down my flushed cheeks, I returned my wife's look of adoration.

In spite of our humiliating positions & lack of spoken words, my wife & I agreed that we would not only be all right, but that we would be a better & stronger couple because of the ordeal we'd endured together.   We had suffered through the same soulful submission over her mother's knee.   We had seen each other stripped of every shred of adult ego & pretense.   We had survived &, in a strange way, forged a bond  few couples could ever claim.

In one way or another, Gina and I talked about that spanking for weeks afterward, but my in-laws never brought it up. Mrs. Smith gave us the money and a final lecture the night of the spanking, and that was it. It was as if Gina?s parents considered the matter settled and done.

My wife and I talked about that too, and she said that her parents were like that. Once a spanking matter was settled, it was over. She said that was the main reason she was glad her mother?s punishment of choice was spanking. It was embarrassing and painful, but it was quick.

I had only been spanked once, but once was enough for me to be able to grudgingly agree with her. I had been absolutely miserable during the spanking, but after the traces of pain eased in my seat and memory, it seemed a brief price to pay to repair my life with Gina. My feelings toward my mother-in-law for what she had done to me eased too, and I realized that she had spanked me out of love and concern, just like her daughter. It felt nice to be protected by a parent. A parent who would always be there for both her kids.

Gina felt the same. She said she couldn?t remember a spanking she hadn?t earned, and that they had helped her to, "Avoid trouble since another spanking was only that far away!"

I didn?t know how prophetic my wife?s words would turn out to be. But I found out soon enough, and many times since.

* * *

"Come here, Nick." Momma Smith?s stern voice brought me back from my memories.

I reached down to gently raise my pants above my tender ass and fasten them, then padded my way to where my Momma-in-law waited to give me a warm hug and tell me that all was forgiven. I hate every minute I spend suffering over her knee, but I love the hugs and feelings of intimacy and trust that exist between my Momma-in-law and me. And Gina too. I?m not the only one in the Smith family who gets spanked!