Mercifully, Jessica had only had to stand topless by the side of the highway for a few seconds. Moments after Jessica had followed Dylan out the passenger-side door, clutching her large, naked boobs tightly and ducking down whenever a car sped by, Nick had emerged and tossed Jessica her blouse (though not her bra, which he stuffed in his back pocket, leaving it dangling out visibly like a trophy).

Shannon slammed the driver’s-side door and stormed around to face Jessica, who was hurriedly and clumsily attempting to button her blouse up over her naked torso.

“I have had it up to here with your attitude,” Shannon yelled at her, “Nick may have patience for your bullshit, but I don’t. If you don’t start cooperating immediately, you are out. You understand?”

One of Jessica’s buttons broke off as she fumblingly tried to fasten it with her shaking hands. She looked up at Shannon, lower lip trembling.

“We are gonna drive you right back to campus,” Shannon continued. “No! Better yet, we are gonna leave you right here by the side of the road and let you hitch back! Shouldn’t be too hard wearing that trashy top.”

“That’s not gonna be necessary, is it, Jess?” Nick walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulder reassuringly. “You’re just a little shy. I understand. But you just gotta remember. It’s no big deal. I know you can get through this. You don’t want us to turn around, do you?”

Jessica thought about her mother, how disappointed she’d be if Jessica failed to get into Theta Theta Psi just because she couldn’t handle a little hazing. She also thought about what Shannon had said about those pictures getting out if she didn’t follow through with the initiation. She looked at Nick and shook her head.

“I’m sorry,” she told him meekly.

“That’s the spirit,” said Nick. “Ok, so after your punishment, we can get back on the road, and it will be like this little bit of disobedience never happened.”

Jessica’s eyes grew wide.

“Wh-what? No. You mean-. . . It won’t happen again, I promise. I won’t– . . .” Jessica lowered her voice. “I’ll keep my hands down when you tell me . . .”

“Oh, I know you will, Jess,” said Nick, affecting a tone of understanding. “But you have to admit, you were awful uncooperative just now. I think Shannon’s right. You need some discipline.”

Jessica tried desperately to swallow the lump that was rising in her throat.

“I’m gonna need you to bend over the hood of the car,” Nick said casually.

“B-but . . .No, please, I—”

Suddenly, Nick’s demeanor shifted. The playfulness and understanding disappeared, and he grasped her shoulder roughly, looking her sternly right in the eyes.

“Listen to me. We don’t have all day here. If you don’t go bend over the hood of that car like I told you to right now, we are gonna leave you here just like Shannon said. You’ve got five seconds. Do it! Five . . .”

It was the tone of Nick’s voice more than the threat of being left behind that startled Jessica into instant compliance. It was the tone of authority, a tone that she had always been conditioned to obey. It touched deep chords within her psyche. It was the tone her father had used, and the pastor who ran her youth group and . . .

Without having consciously made the decision to do so, Jessica found herself walking over to the long, silver hood of the Volvo and placing her hands on its engine-warmed surface.

“Good job, Jessica,” Nick said soothingly, following her over to the front of the car. “Now bend over. All the way over the hood. Let’s get this over with.”

Jessica glanced over her shoulder. Matt was adjusting something on one of the camcorders. Jessica looked to Nick pleadingly.

“Please. Just . . . no cameras.”

“Sorry, Jess, that’s part of the deal,” Nick replied, “Dylan, grab the hi-def and get some shots from around front.”

Nick placed a hand on Jessica’s shoulder and guided her gently downward, over the hood of the car. Jessica let it happen, too frightened and confused to do anything else. Nick nudged her downward until her breasts, hanging loose behind the thin material of her blouse, made contact with the hot metal.

“Put your arms behind your back,” Nick commanded.

Jessica choked back a sob, but she complied. She took her palms off the car’s hood, causing her breasts to smoosh down against the metal surface as her torso accepted her full weight. Nick guided her arms into a folded position behind her back.

Jessica lifted her chin and looked up and down the highway. It was not a busy stretch of road, but every minute or two a car would pass. She hoped against hope that this humiliating scene in which she was a participant—a busty, braless college student submitting to a public spanking over the hood of a car from a bunch of frat boys—would not attract too much attention from passing motorists.

“Ok, you take your spanking like a good girl, and I’m just going to give you five swats over your jeans . . .” Nick said.

Over her jeans? Jessica’s heart skipped a beat. The thought that Nick would make her pull her pants down had never occurred to her. Especially not out in public like this, by the side of the highway where anyone could see. She rested the side of her face on the car hood and shut her eyes, trying not to think about that horrible scenario. Please, just get it over with, she thought.

Nick left her side briefly to fetch the paddle. When he returned, he placed a hand on Jessica’s lower back, and Jessica felt the flat surface of the paddle being rubbed experimentally up against the seat of her jeans. Jessica gulped and tried to brace herself.

WHACK! Jessica gasped. Even over her jeans, the blow was painful. Instinctively, her hands flew up to clutch at her ass.

“Hands in place, Jess, or this is gonna get a lot worse,” Nick said sternly.

Giving a whimpering nod, Jessica folded her arms once again behind her back. Once more, Nick placed the paddle softly against her ass, gauging his target.

Just before the paddle pulled away for another strike, Jessica became aware of an object hovering just inches from her face. She lifted her chin to look deep into the lens of a video camera that Dylan, leaning over the other side of the hood, was using to record close-ups of her reaction to her punishment. She was just opening her mouth to say something, to lodge some feeble protest perhaps, when . . .

WHACK! The words in Jessica’s throat became an incoherent squeal as Nick sent the paddle crashing into her buttocks. Tears welled up in her eyes and she tried to hide her face from Dylan’s camera.

Just then, she heard a vehicle drive by. Looking up, she was dismayed to see it slow down as it passed. Jessica moaned in shame.

Nick, meanwhile, gave her bottom a couple of soft pats with the paddle. “You getting this?” she heard him say to Matt, and she knew that her posterior was being chronicled in just as much detail as her face.

Another vehicle passed, just as Nick was raising the paddle. To Jessica’s horror, it gave a loud honk, to which Nick replied with a cheer and a wave of the paddle. Jessica looked up to see a blue pickup truck. It, too, slowed, and for a brief second, Jessica made eye contact with the man in the driver’s seat, just before . . .

WHACK!

“Oh!” Jessica gasped, “Oh god . . .” Her hands once more flew towards her burning ass, but, before Nick could rebuke her, she regained composure and returned her arms to their folded position.

“Please . . . No more . . .” she begged.

Ignoring her, Nick pressed down on her back even more firmly and cocked his arm once again.

WHACK!

The burn on Jessica’s bottom was excruciating.

“Are you gonna be a good girl for the rest of the trip?” Nick demanded sharply.

“Yes . . .” Jessica croaked.

“And you’re gonna do what I tell you to? No matter what?”

“Yes . . .”

“Ok. One more,” said Nick.

“Please . . . Don’t . . .”

WHACK!

Jessica cried out again, her yell of pain devolving into a staccato series of sobs. Nick slapped the paddle down beside her on the car with a clank. Jessica’s arms fell to her sides, but she did not raise herself from the hood, determined to get control of herself first.

“There.” Said Nick, “I hope that taught you a lesson. Did that teach you a lesson, Jessica?”

Jessica closed her eyes and nodded silently.

“What was that lesson? One word.”

“O-Obedience . . .” Jessica stammered, still not rising from the hood.

“The next time we have to do this, you’re going to pull your pants and panties down, and I’m going to spank you on your bare bottom. Do you understand that?”

Jessica’s pulse quickened, and her eyelids sprang open in fear. She nodded.

“Good. Let’s go.”

Shannon, who’d been smoking a few feet away, tossed her cigarette onto the asphalt and walked back around the car. She slapped Jessica’s ass as she passed her.

“In back, Rushie. Move.”

As Jessica lifted herself off the hood of the car, Dylan kept the camera trained on her face. “Hey. Hey Jessica, look over here,” he muttered under his breath like a paparazzo. Jessica kept her eyes determinedly downwards. Crossing one arm across her chest and rubbing an aching ass cheek with her other hand, she trudged submissively towards the back of the car.