ENGLISH LESSONS (F/M, semi-cons, romantic, spanking) It was Sean's first semester at a local private university as a music major. All throughout high school, he had practiced the piano diligently--it was all he cared about, and now finally he had a chance to study music in a formal setting. He was in heaven. Except for the one non-music class he had reluctantly been forced to take. If it were up to Sean, he would have spent his entire college career immersed in music, with not a single credit hour taken in any other field. But the university had different ideas. They required him to take a minimum number of non-music credit hours to hopefully turn him into a well-rounded human being, and not just a musical machine. Despite the wisdom of this approach, Sean resented it deeply. Consequently, his only non-music class, English 101, suffered for his lack of attention. He never seemed to be able to turn his papers in on time, and they were usually poorly written. This caused Professor Laura Kennan, his lovely young teacher, no end of consternation. Laura loved her job. She loved the cadence of words, she loved their structures, the way they could be made to dance together in bright flowing rhythms that stimulated the mind and heart. She was, quite simply, passionate about the English language, and took great pains to try to instill this passion in her students. She delighted in seeing her students learn to go beyond mere rudimentary communication, into realms that explored the sheer delight of words for their own sake. She despaired when she couldn't reach a student. And in her six years of teaching, she had never encountered anyone who cared less about the written word than Sean. Finally, after grading the latest in an endless series of Sean's miserably written papers, she resolved that she would do something about it. She was going to reach him if it was the last thing she ever did. The next day, as she was handing back the graded papers to her class, she stopped briefly at Sean's desk and tapped firmly on the paper she had just placed there. Then she went on to the next desk. Sean, who usually had his nose stuck in a piece of sheet music and didn't even bother to read her comments, put down his copy of Chopin's Polonaise and picked up the paper. "F," it began in bright, red ink. "Sean, you are in serious danger of failing this class. I have spoken to the dean of the music department, and he is in agreement with me that your scholarship is contingent upon academic performance as well as musical achievement. Failing English may result in your scholarship being reduced or even revoked. If you have any desire to pass this class, be at my office tonight at 7 pm, sharp. Bring this paper with you" Sean read the words and a knot tightened in his stomach. If his scholarship was revoked, he'd never be able to afford the university tuition. And so, when 7 pm rolled around, he was knocking on Laura's office door. "Come in," she said brusquely, and Sean opened the door. She was sitting behind her desk, which was surprisingly bare, reading a copy of Arthur Miller's _The Crucible_. When she saw Sean, she set the book down and clasped her hands together on the desk. "Good. I'm glad to see that you're concerned enough about your future here to bother to see me. Please, sit down." She motioned toward a chair in front of her desk, and Sean nervously sat down, his hands fiddling with his paper. "Professor Kennan," he began, "I know I haven't really done my best in your class, but I promise I'll do better. I can't lose my scholarship. Music is all I have." Laura smiled and leaned forward slightly. "I'm afraid that won't work. Even if you turn in stellar work for the remainder of the semester, you will still fail. I'm afraid that your only hope is to improve your performance and take on a considerable amount of extra credit work. Sean seemed genuinely dismayed by this. "But Professor, I have all the work I can handle now! I have to practice four hours a day, then there's my music history class and choir--" She cut him off with a dismissive gesture. "You aren't in the choir anymore. I've discussed it with your dean. He agrees with me that this is more important. You are going to use the time you would have spent on choir to improve your performance in my class." She stood and walked around the desk, approaching him. He looked up at her with wide eyes. "You are going to do what I say, when I say, and you're going to do the best damn job you're capable of, or I'm going to fail you and you can figure out how to pay for next semester yourself. Do you understand?" Sean was breathing rapidly now as he looked up at her. "Yes, ma'am," he finally said. He was uncomfortably aware of how attractive she was, and how she possessed an air of complete self-confidence. Sean had never had the slightest shred of self-confidence, and to see it so forcefully displayed in his professor was unnerving, to say the least. "Stand up," she said. Sean did so quietly, holding the paper in front of him as if it could act as a shield. Laura walked behind him and slid the chair he had just vacated a few feet back. She turned to face him. Sean felt uncomfortable, she was standing so close. He could smell her perfume, which mingled with the sweet scent of her hair. "Do you want to pass my class?" she asked him. "Are you prepared to do anything I say?" Sean hesitated a moment, his thoughts cascading out of control. Finally, he bit his lip and answered, "yes, ma'am." She took one more step toward him, her body almost pressing against his. "Strip," she said. Sean gasped at this. "I-- I couldn't--" he began. He was clutching his paper, subconsciously dismayed that it was not providing him any sort of protection. Laura silenced him by gently touching a finger to his lips. "Shhh," she said. "Do you want to pass my class?" Sean hesitated, then nodded. She took the paper from his fidgeting hands and set it on her desk. "Then remove every stitch of clothing from your body. Hand each item to me as you take it off, and do it quickly." With a look of dismay, Sean began to strip himself. He was shaking from embarrassment as he exposed himself to this woman, who would be able to easily see just how aroused her student was. Sean blushed as he handed item after item of clothing to her. But he truly felt mortified when he gripped his underwear and lowered it to the floor, his erection popping out for her to see. But she did not change the expression on her face. In fact, she did not even glance down there, but calmly looked straight into his eyes the entire time. Surprisingly, this fact reassured him, and he reluctantly turned over the last vestige of his modesty to her. "Face the desk," she commanded, and he did so, his body unable to disobey. She stepped behind him and touched his back. She began pushing gently, and he understood. He bent his body until his torso was draped over the desk, the troublesome paper before his eyes. "Now spread your legs." Sean did so until his upper half lay completely flat against the desk. His trembling became even more violent when she touched his naked ass and begin lightly rubbing it with her hand. "These are the rules. Your torso stays flat against the desk, understand?" Sean nodded vigorously. "Your legs stay locked in place, understand?" "Yes, ma'am," was the quivering reply. "You are only allowed to move your hands, but not, of course, to cover yourself. Now take the paper in both hands." This he did quickly, without complaint. "What you are going to do for me, Sean, is to read every word of your paper out loud. What I am going to do for you is to impress upon you how terrible this paper is while you read. Do we understand each other?" Sean could only nod helplessly. "Good. Then begin." Sean began to read the paper in a trembling voice. He had not even finished the first sentence when he felt her hand strike his left asscheek sharply. He flinched and almost stood up, but managed to restrain himself. "Continue," commanded Laura. Sean did so, and soon every other word was punctuated with a sharp blow from her hand. When he finished the first paragraph, she told him to stop reading, but she did not stop spanking him. Instead, she lectured him on what he'd done wrong. "Aside from the obvious and easily corrected grammatical errors," she said as her hand rose and fell continuously, "this is a poor opening paragraph. You have left the reader completely in the dark as to the point of your paper." Sean moaned as her hand continued its work. "A solid opening paragraph should make the reader aware of what you intend to discuss. You don't have to give everything away in the first paragraph, but you must make it clear what your point will be. Otherwise, your paper is pointless. Understand?" "Yes, ma'am!" Sean gasped between blows. "Good. Now continue." They went through the entire paper this way, Laura stopping him after each paragraph and patiently explaining what he had done wrong. Not once did her hand ever falter, and by the end of the paper his ass was a bright red, and there were tears in his eyes. The tears were more from shame than pain, but that didn't make it any easier. When she was finished with her final correction, she rubbed his ass gently and leaned over him, murmuring in his ear, "there, there, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Sean shook his head, the tears now flowing freely. Laura smiled at him and told him to stand. She handed back his clothes and watched as he put them on. "May I go now?" Sean asked when he was dressed. She smiled at him. "No. All I have done is told you what you've done wrong and what you can do to improve. Now comes the hard part. Now you need to learn to apply the things I have told you. Come with me." Shaken, Sean followed her out of the office. His heart was racing as they headed for the parking lot and approached her car. She opened the passenger door for him and closed it behind him when he was seated. Once she was at the wheel and the car was pulling out of the parking lot, Sean closed his eyes and tried to relax. He tried to make sense of all the emotions that churned through his body, but he couldn't. All he could do was keep his eyes closed and hope for this roller coaster ride to end. Sean was startled out of his confused thoughts when he heard Laura say "we're here." He opened his eyes and was startled to find the car motionless, parked in a driveway. The whole trip had gone by unnoticed, so deeply had he retreated within himself. He opened the door, stumbled out of the car, and followed her up the concrete path to her house. Laura lived alone in a modest little house that was well cared for. She especially loved to work outdoors, and Sean admired the roses and other beautiful flowers that adorned her yard. He could tell that she worked very hard at creating elegance. The inside of her house was no different. It was not lavishly or expensively furnished, but everything seemed to be balanced and in harmony with everything else. It seemed a place at once both earthy and sublime. And then he noticed the piano. In the center of her living room stood a black Yamaha baby grand piano. Suddenly heedless of where and with whom he was, he approached the piano and stared at it, lovingly caressing it. He sat down at the stool and opened it up, examining the polished keys. Only then did he remember his surroundings, and he looked at his professor. "I didn't know you played," he said. She smiled at him. "I play a little. I love the sound of a baby grand. Why don't you play something for me?" Sean was in his element now, and had relaxed somewhat. "Sure, Professor Kennan. I've got a Bach Prelude and Fugue I'm working on for a recital--" "No no," she interrupted. "Play something romantic. Do you know anything by Debussy?" He blushed a little at her words. "Yes, ma'am. Reverie." "Mmmm, I like that one. Play it for me." Sean stared at her for a moment, once again noticing how beautiful she was, then turned his attention to the piano. He placed his fingers on the keys and closed his eyes, breathing deeply while he summoned up the music from inside. Then he opened his eyes and began to play. The haunting music poured out of him. He was in a state where he didn't even have to think about what his hands were doing. They moved of their own accord, drawing an achingly sad sweetness from the strings. Laura closed her eyes and felt herself become lost in this world of his creation. When the last note faded, she approached him and sat on the bench next to him. "You put so much passion into that, Sean." She sighed and took his hands in hers. "So much passion. Why can't you put that much passion into your writing?" Sean was quite flustered now. "I--I don't know, Professor--" She interrupted him again. "Please, call me Laura." "I don't know, Laura. I guess I just don't feel the same way about writing that I do about music. It just doesn't interest me very much." She smiled at him. "I think with the right approach, you could come very quickly to love the written word." She stood up. "Follow me." She led him upstairs to her bedroom and closed the door. Sean was trembling as she pulled him to her and kissed him. He started to put his arms around her, but she stopped him. She turned him around so that he faced her chest-of-drawers. "Do you see the rose?" she asked him. There was a single, perfect rose in a delicate crystal vase on top of the chest-of-drawers. "Yes, ma'am--I mean, Laura." "Here are the rules. No matter what I do, no matter what happens to you, you are to stare at that rose. You are not to let anything distract you from that rose. You can blink, but you are not to close your eyes for more than a second or two. You are to stay completely focused on the rose. I want you to examine it, to study it. I want you to notice as many little details about the rose as you possibly can. Do you understand?" He was shivering. "Yes, Laura." Without another word, Laura began slowly stripping the clothes from his body, noticing every reaction he made. She undid each button of his shirt, kissing his neck as she did so. His breath was hot and rapid, and when she had stripped the shirt from his body, she pressed her ear up against his chest to listen to his heartbeat. She knelt and unzipped his jeans, sliding them down his legs, letting her fingers stop and caress and squeeze. She smiled at the bulge in Sean's underwear, then kissed it. Sean gave a little cry at that, but he kept staring at the rose. Laura left the underwear on him for the moment. She stood, bent over, and kissed his nipples. Sean moaned and touched her hair. At this, she stood up straight, grabbed his wrists, and placed them on top of his head. "Keep these here, understand?" Sean nodded. Laura stood behind him again, clawing gently at his back. She traced little figures with her tongue on his neck, and Sean could not stop the moans that escaped his lips. Lower and lower danced her fingernails, making him undulate against his will. Her fingers passed between the elastic of his underwear and the smooth skin of his lower back, and then she roughly grabbed an asscheek in each hand and squeezed. For half an hour she tormented him like this, light caresses, nibbles, her tongue tripping the nerve pathways of his passion, her fingers sculpting his flesh. And Sean lost himself in the beauty of the rose. She gave him a hard swat to his still-clad ass, and whispered in his ear. "Ready to write, Sean?" Sean groaned. His cock was so hard and so alive and so unsatisfied, and she had spent the past half-hour stimulating everything else, and he needed to come more than he needed to breathe, and she wanted him to write? But there was nothing to be done other than sit upon her bed and accept the proffered notepad and pen. He stared at her, almost as if he were seeing her for the first time, noticing the few wayward strands of raven hair that fell across her face, the purse of her full, red lips, the delicate curves hinted at by her clothing. He watched her as she walked to the rose, her hips swaying ever so gently. She reached out and caressed the rose as she had caressed his flesh, and he shivered in sympathetic resonance. "Sean, I want you to write about the rose. And I don't want you to hold anything back. Don't force the words. Don't try to write anything fancy, or imitate things you might have read, or write what you think I want you to write. I want you to write directly from the heart." She turned and faced him. "I want you to write in a rush. I want you to paint me a picture with words. Not of the rose itself, but of how you saw the rose. I'll return in ten minutes, and I expect you to have poured your soul out on that paper. Do you understand me?" She smiled ever so slightly as she said this, sending chills down his spine. "Yes, Laura." With that, she left the room, closing the door behind her. Sean sat for a minute, trying to collect his thoughts, trying to ignore the throbbing between his legs that demanded his immediate attention. He tried to focus his concentration on the rose, how he had felt about the rose as she was touching him. He put his pen to the paper and began to write. "It was something so beautiful," he began. "The rose called to me, almost. It was like a fire on top of your chest-of-drawers. It felt like it would burn me." On and on, Sean let the words write themselves until he was barely aware of what he was doing. He lost himself in this world almost as easily as he lost himself in his music. "And then it seemed like I was falling into the rose, and the petals were opening up to hold me." It wasn't the greatest prose ever written, but it was infinitely better than what he usually wrote. And most importantly, for the first time in his life, he felt involved in what he was writing. Sean didn't even notice when Laura returned. Only when she put her hand on his shoulder did he shake himself out of his reverie. He looked up at her, smiling, and offered her the notebook. She took it from him and read, and Sean was amazed to see a single tear escape her eye, trail its way down her cheek, and fall to the paper. Laura set the notepad down. "Oh, Sean, this is wonderful." Her voice was husky and full of emotion. "You really opened yourself up. You infused your writing with passion. I don't care what you've learned or will learn from any other teacher, writing without passion is a waste of trees. You've learned your most important lesson, Sean." She leaned over and kissed him, probing his mouth with her tongue, and then he pulled her on top of him, and their kisses became deeper and more deeply felt, and Laura quickly had her clothes on the floor next to Sean's, and Sean's eager cock was released from its cotton prison, and they began to flow together, to writhe together, until the whole room was suffused with the sweet aromas and sounds of passion.