Julie Spanked at the Pool!

Last few posts have been all about our kinky vacation in Italy. For the most part, I was doing all of the spanking (A Spanking Vacation!), and I even got to show off my husband's bare spanked bottom briefly to a hotel maid (What the Maid Saw). There was also one occasion where a young male assistant manager at a hotel saw me bare, but it was entirely accidental (My Bare Bottom and Breast Exposed!). As the final bit of kink that stands out, it was at the same hotel where the other two things took place, and my husband gave me a little spanking at the pool in front of an older distinguished Italian gentleman!

The pool is shown above. It was at a beautiful hotel in Tuscany which is a converted monastery of some sort.

My husband and I went swimming in the late afternoon. There was only one other person there, an older gentleman reclining on a lawn chair.

David and I went down to the pool and put our towels and stuff down on two lawn chairs on the opposite end of the pool from the gentleman. The pool water was a little chilly, but swimable. David wanted to warm up in the sun a little first, but I wanted to go straight in for a swim. Rather than just jumping in, I walked to the far end of the pool at the shallow end to the broad stairs where I could go in more slowly. This meant me undressing down to my (pretty sexy!) bikini bathing suit, walking the length of the pool, and then slowly getting into the water. As I was doing this, I did notice, out of the corner of my eye, that I was being thoroughly ogled by this older Italian gentleman!

I tried to keep eyes forward and disengaged as I walked but could feel his eyes tracking me the whole way. I straightened, jutted my chest out, and walked a little more sensuously. As I was about to step in, I chanced a brief eye contact with him. He was staring right at me.

"Bella," he said, which means "beautiful".

"Gracie," I said ("thank you"), feeling a little embarrassed, and proceeded to wade into the water and start swimming lengths. I knew his eyes were still all over me, undressing me completely in his mind. He was older and distinguished looking. He was about my Dad's age I would guess. And you know all about me and my Daddy fantasies!

David, at the other end of the pool, was oblivious to all of this. When he was ready he just jumped into the pool at the deep end and swam to me. We met in the middle. He put his arms around me, I wrapped my legs around him, and he kissed me over by the side of the pool.

I whispered to David, "that old guy over there, he can't take his eyes off me," I said.

"Good taste," said David.

"Hey!" I said, "you should go over there and punch him in the nose for being so disrespectful towards your wife." I was just kidding, of course, and from my tone David knew it well.

"Ha!" said David. "You're the one who needs a swat, for teasing him like this in your little swimsuit."

"You wouldn't dare!" I told him, playing along.

"Try me," he said.

It was fairly deep water. I disentangled from him and flopped my belly up onto the side of the pool. My bikini clad bottom was just hanging out there. The natural state of my swimsuit was about like this concerning my rear cheeks.

As I flopped there, half in and half out of the water, my butt was sort of pointed towards the pool and at about a 3/4 view to the Italian gentleman. Rather than getting all the way out, I egged David on by wiggling my ass shamelessly at him.

In a big swoop of water, David jumped out of the pool and sat right beside me on the pool deck, feet in the water, with me on his left side. "Bad girl," he said as he pushed his left arm down on the small of my back to hold me in place, and with the hand of the same arm gathered up the material of my bikini and pulled it up into my bumcrack.

"No, no!" I yelled frantically as I wiggled my butt in the air. David took his time and gave me several hard swats to my bared cheeks. I was sooooo mortified! As he pulled up on my bikini, I could feel the material cutting into my pussy and my bottom hole. I was squirming like a fish on a hook, the bikini material rubbing against my clit. How tight was my bikini in back? Pretty tight! How spread were my cheeks? I don't know. Was there any bumhole visible? I Don't Know! Did the man know how deeply the bikini was cutting up into my pussy??? I DON'T KNOW!!! What an embarrassing situation for a wife to find herself in!

My husband let me go with a laugh and got out of the pool to go back to our lawn chairs to dry himself off. I was still there with my butt hanging out and my bikini wedgied between my cheeks. I continued getting out of the pool myself, and without looking back at the Italian gentleman I pulled my suit out of my buttcrack and adjusted it properly. Then I took a deep breath and turned to face him. He was staring straight at me with a big smile on his face! I didn't know what to do, so I curtsied towards him. I actually curtsied towards him! He smiled even more broadly and brought his hands together in an gentle applauding type of motion. He had not missed any art of the show. I went back to join David at the lawn chairs. I could feel my cheeks (both sets!) blushing hotly.

"Did he enjoy the show?" asked David. "Did you?"

"I believe he did," I answered, "and yes..." I said to the second part of his question.

We sat there for a bit longer reading. The gentleman got up before we did, packed up his stuff, and headed back towards the hotel. On the way out he paused, looked back at me, waited until he caught my eye, and then tipped his sun hat at me. I blushed and looked down.

So much naughty fun! Hope we made his day.

"Let's go back to the room," I told David after the gentleman had left. "I need to be spanked and fucked," I told him in no uncertain terms!

When we got to the room I went through some "what ifs" with David. "What if you would have invited him to our room to see me spanked properly?" I asked David as he peeled off my bikini.

"It would have been nothing more than what a little tease like you deserved," he answered.

When I was naked David pulled me across his knee.

"Prego, Senor," said David ("please, sir"), "I apologize for my wife's behavior at the pool." And then David started spanking me with his hand. "She's a bad girl, she's always teasing the men around her. Flaunting her body in her skimpy bikini, and enjoying the reactions she gets. So naughty." He kept spanking me as he said that. I closed my eyes and imagined the Italian gentleman watching me get spanked completely naked across my husband's knee.

"Now young lady," said David to me. "Close your eyes and crawl over to the Senor and finish what you started with your mouth on his cock. Little teasers should not get away with teasing without consequences."

David took me off his lap and guided me to the floor as I kept my eyes closed. He then pulled me by my hair in the direction of the chair as I crawled on all fours. David sat on the chair pretending to be "Senor", and guided my mouth to his cock.

"That's it," said David as I sucked him, pretending to be the Italian gentleman, "teasing sluts need to pay up."

"Now stop that and get up on the bed. Head down and ass up," said David. I was not sure if it was him or the Senor who said it, but I did as I was told, pussy already dripping.

"Please Senor," said David, "please enjoy my wife."

"Gracie," said David pretending to be the man. "Sposa bellisima" ("beautiful bride").

I knelt there naked on the bed, with my head down on the sheets and my freshly spanked bottom high in the air. I had my eyes tightly closed as I imagined the older Italian gentleman sliding in behind me, feeling the drippy wet state of my pussy with his hand, rubbing his cock against my cunt, and then pushing it home deeply into me as he grabbed my hips and thrust. It was not hard to imagine all of that as my husband did all that "in character".

"Bellissima, bellissima," he said as he rammed his penis into my pussy (David's Italian is very limited). But the little bit of Italian did enough to allow me to imagine it was the older gentleman, my Daddy's age, my Daddy, fucking me! He came into me quickly, shooting his hot sperm deep into me.

"Make my husband clean it out," I told my Italian Gentleman who had just spermed me so thoroughly.

David flipped me onto my back, crawled between my legs, and licked me to several toe curling orgasms, consuming what must have been a fair amount of sperm mixed with pussy juices in the process. Ha ha!

What a naughty sexual imagination I have!

My Bare Bottom and Breast Exposed!

As you read in the previous blog articles, my husband absorbed the brunt of the spanking (and the ass fucking) during our vacation, and was embarrassed by having a maid briefly see him naked in the corner after a spanking.

Well he was not the only one who was embarrassed! I got plenty embarrassed myself in two successive days at the same hotel. It was a serendipitous hotel!

The first incident was no big deal, but it was very embarrassing for me and very funny.

David and I were both naked in our room. He was lying on the bed and I was just coming out of the bathroom heading towards the bed to join my husband.

Suddenly there was a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK and a male voice that said something in Italian right outside our door. David went to put on his robe. I was a bit in no-man's land. I veered from going towards the bed and moved towards the door so I could speak to the man through the doorway. Before I could get there I heard a key in the door and the door starting to unlock! Oh no! Rather than speak up (I don't know any Italian!) or try to block the door with my body (that might have worked out badly!) I instead scampered quick as I could back towards the bathroom. The door fully opened and I was only half way there. I looked back, not imagining he was yet anywhere near inside, and our eyes met! I was COMPLETELY NAKED! He said, "Oh! Scusi!" and immediately went back outside and closed the door. I RAN the rest of the way to the bathroom feeling EXTREMELY EXPOSED!!!!

After that, David was curious, fully put on his robe and went outside to see what was up. It was a male assistant hotel manager, quite young and handsome, who was doing room inspections. He explained what he was up to and apologized to David. David laughed and said it was no problem at all!

Here was the assistant hotel manager's view into our room when he opened up the door (I took the photo to show you guys the lay of the land).

The bathroom is way, way down at the end of the hall! At the moment I looked back, I was not quite yet at the chair.

I imagine, he had a couple of views of me very similar to the following.

Mostly he just saw my bare butt scampering towards the bathroom.

There was a brief moment where I turned to look and our eyes met. I'm pretty sure he saw the profile of my bare breast and my instantly red face! I don't think he could have seen my pussy...

A strange, attractive, self-assured young man dressed in a sharp uniform, used to dealing with the maids and ordering them around no doubt, ACTUALLY SAW ME like that!!!!

David laughed his head off afterwards and I was absolutely MORTIFIED.

I'm not sure why, I've been to nude beaches and everything, but this was somehow different, being caught so unawares.

So that was my first incident being embarrassed. There was another as well, that involved me being spanked at the pool in front of an older Italian gentleman. I'll recount that one in the next blog post!

What the Maid Saw

For the whole vacation in Italy I was hoping for an occasion where my husband's spankings (as described in A Spanking Vacation!) could be made a little more "public" as we are both into that sort of excitement play. Well the stars lined up beautifully at one particular hotel. Not only was he "displayed" with a nice red rump, but at the same hotel, I was as well! On two different days in two different ways. In this post we'll talk all about him, and I'll leave the adventures involving myself to the next post.

This photo is not exactly what the maid saw, but it is pretty close!

Imagine being forced over a prayer bench like that by your wife, having to display your spanked bottom to the hotel maid and your "parts" as well? The maid being told you are being punished for some trivial transgression. Imagine her laughing and laughing at that. Going over to touch your butt to feel the heat, then giving it a smack or two of her own. Then grabbing your balls and giving them a good painful shake before getting on with her chores with you on full penitential display.

Imagine further that before she is done, your wife goes over to you, grabs you by your ear, pulls you down across her lap and then spanks the bejesus out of you with her handy paddle. Soon you are kicking and howling and crying like a three-year-old while the maid, having finished her chores, stays to look on approvingly at a wife properly seeing to her little man, smirking at you the entire time.

What the maid saw?

Well, unfortunately, none of that happened, but the maid did briefly see his bare spanked butt before she ran away!

It was a lovely hotel outside a small town in Tuscany in an old converted convent with gorgeous views of the countryside.

The rooms were furnished in a very antique lived-in style. I took some photos to set the stage.

This first photo above is the view from the front doorway into the room.  The bed is to the far right as you go in, hidden from view here. Through the doorway at the end is a staircase down to another door (pad-locked), and off to the right as soon as you go through that same doorway is a closet and then a nice bathroom. Note also the crucifix at the end of the hall (We are soooooo doing time in purgatory...). You can also see the chair in view. A very nice "spanking height" for me (all the chairs in Italy seem miniaturized compared to Canada). I could sit at the end of it and have my bare feet very flat on the ground to support his weight over my lap

This second photo below is just around the corner from the one above, showing the bed.

The thing you can just barely see here, to the right of the mirror and tucked into the very corner of the room beside the bed, is a softly upholstered prayer bench that will play a very important part as the events unfold.

It was the early evening, still before dinner, maybe just before 5pm or so. We had come back from our adventures and had showered, after which was usually the time for some kinky play. He was naked and I was in a loose hotel robe. I had just finished giving david a hand spanking across my knee while sitting in the chair, and we had moved over to the bed where I was doing some slow and gentle tease and denial on him.

That's when we heard a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK and a woman behind the door saying something in Italian. I my gosh! What purrrrfect timing!

I yelled out "momento per fafore!", which means, "one moment please" (I don't speak Italian at all, but have a few handy phrases).

I turned to my naked and hard husband who suddenly looked extremely panicked! He knew what I was thinking. He was starting to get up to make a dash for the bathroom. He ultimately wants the humiliation, but in the moment he panics and resists. Fortunately, my brain was working better than his.

"In the corner," I whispered to him, sternly. "Kneel on the stool, hands on your head."

"Noooo," he whined. "I'm naked," he said as if I couldn't see that.

"You sure are," I confirmed with what must have been a glint in my eye.

As he was getting into position, I re-fastened my robe around me and went to open the door for the maid. I opened it and there she was. So perfect. A pretty, youngish, hotel maid. At this stage she was still at the door, she could not see my naked husband at all, who was by now cowering on the prayer bench with his nose in the corner. This was her initial view into the room, but with me in a robe standing there.

"Turndown servitz?" she asked in her cute Italian-accented broken English.

"Si, grazie," I said sweetly. She turned to her cart that was just outside the room, and picked up an armful of towels.

I thought I would try preparing her for what she would soon see, not knowing how much English she spoke. "Please don't mind my husband," I said to her. "He's in the corner, being punished. Just ignore him."

She looked at me oddly. I got the distinct impression she did not understand much. I tried a bit of broken Italian, "mia sposa," I added, which I thought meant "my spouse", which I gather it sort of does, but is more commonly "my bride", which is sort of fitting also! Perhaps a native Italian speaker can help us out here in the comments.

[I knew the phrase from my wedding, where it was raining, and an older Italian lady who was attending said "sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata", which means "a wet bride is a lucky bride" (could not agree more!)]

The maid looked at me oddly again. I continued, "ummm... punito?" which I sort of guessed, but is correct for "punished". Now she looked really confused. She had no idea.

She carried the fresh towels in front of her and walked straight towards the bathroom. Unbelievably, she completely missed seeing david in his corner (he was quiet as a little mouse and trying to make himself look very small, squeezing into his "corner of shame").

I went over to david and patted him on his bottom. "She hasn't seen you yet," I whispered to him. "She will as soon as she comes out of the bathroom..." I went back to sit in the little chair and look casual as I browsed on my iPad.

The maid came out of the bathroom holding some dirty towels. As soon as she saw david she sort of jumped and gasped and said "Oh! Scusi signora!" She was apologizing to me for seeing my husband doing corner time in the nude with a a dusky red bottom! This is exactly what she saw (the photo was taken a few moments after she had left).

How utterly humiliating for him for the maid to see him like that! Hands on his head, nose in the corner, naked. Clearly a penitential position. His bottom was not heavily marked, but it was a dusky rose from his earlier hand spanking. It cannot be seen so clearly in this photo, but in real-life there was no doubt his bottom had been spanked!

"Just ignore him," I said casually from my chair.

"Si Signora, si signora, scusi, scusi," she said nervously, as she passed by me with the used towels back out to the cart outside the room. She deposited the towels in her cart and started closing the door, "Scusi, scusi," she repeated as she closed the door and left.

Hey! She had not turned down the bed! And where was my night-time choci? :-)

I felt a bit bad that she had not played along more. I was worried I may have offended her, but on balance I did not get that impression. As she was apologizing profusely there was a hint of a smile on her face. I would have loved had she stayed and fixed the bed linens while looking at his bare ass and smiling, but I realize that was probably beyond the pale. If she was caught doing that, I'm sure her superiors would have had something to say. As it was, she exited as quickly and as discretely and professionally as possible, and was therefore completely blameless. But I'm sure she had a good story for her girlfriends that week, and for the other maids in the hotel!

As soon as she left I still had my iPad in my hand, and david was still cowering nude in his corner.

"Well, well, well," I said to him. "What a spectacle you made of yourself," I said. "In front of a pretty young hotel maid no less. You should be ashamed of yourself! By the end of the day, all the maids in this place will know that you're a spanked husband."

CLICK!

I had turned on camera mode and left the camera noise on so that he knew I snapped a photo of him.The one you already saw, repeated here, was this first one.

"Honey, no..." he complained. "Someone might see it," he said referring to the photo mixed in with our holiday pics.

"Someone's already seen it," I countered. "Bend over the top more. Let's see you like that."

He needed to get up and move the prayer bench a little away from the wall, and then he bent over. He did not do anything, but somehow his balls just stuck right out!

CLICK!

I should have showed him off more like that! I wondered if I could make it more...

"Bend over more, put your arms right down towards the floor."

He had to move the prayer bench again, and then he bent right over it. Again, he did not do anything but his cock and balls just went out like that. Ha ha!

CLICK!

Oh now that's the money shot! That's how a truly penitent husband should be required to do his timeout in front of other women!

And oh my goodness, but aren't those balls nice and big? Don't you want to just give them a good hard squeeze and smack, sticking out back there like that? And yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is an erect penis poking out behind them! Imagine being erect after a thorough shaming like that?

I had him lie face up on the bed and take his dick in his hand. I told him to jerk off while I watched. I got comfortable lying up on my side beside him while I watched him "do it." I egged him on with a monologue.

"Oh my Gosh! That pretty Italian maid saw your bare spanked ass! You were totally fucking naked with your spanked ass out. She saw you kneeling in the corner, with your hands on your head, and knows that I spanked you, like my little bitch! You know she's going to tell everybody, right? Everyone around here will smirk at you as they see you going around. And I'm putting those photos in the holiday highlights album. Can't wait to show them to Mom, tell her what a little bitch you were on our holiday, tell her how the hotel maid saw your bare ass doing corner time..."

"OH FUCK!" he yelled out as he came in gushes all over himself! Ha ha!

A Spanking Vacation!

As you guys know, I was off on vacation in Italy with my husband for the past couple of weeks. Work had been very busy for both of us leading up to this vacation, and our kinky lives had suffered as a result (which you can tell by the relative infrequency of my blog posts as well!). I feel I have a duty to keep my husband well taken care of in this regard. As a result, for this vacation, I wanted to make up for lost time, and so packed my hairbrush and my trusty strap-on dildo, and was determined to make it a thoroughly "femdom" holiday.

As we were packing to leave I held up the wooden hairbrush and asked contemplatively, "what do you think, should I bring it along?"

"Yes Ma'am!" he answered enthousiastically.

"If I do," I clarified for greater certainty, "I'm going to spank you every single day with it..."

He gulped, and said more sheepishly, "yes ma'am."

"And I guess I'll bring this as well, so I can make sure to keep you well-fucked also," I added.

"Oh gosh, yes ma'am," he conceded.

What do you blog reader boys think? Would you like a wife like me? A wife who takes care to pack her hairbrush and strap-on and is determined to give you a good seeing to every single day of your vacation ("like it" or not)?

I decided to start as I intended to carry on and finish. We arranged for an airline limo to pick us up from our house in Toronto. As usual, the limo arrived ten minutes early and was just waiting outside. "Let's go!" said david, spotting the limo through the window.

"Need to take care of one quick thing first," I said with a smile.  I unzipped my carry-on bag and pulled out the hairbrush. "We still have ten minutes," I said. "I spank until he rings the bell," I told my husband. Ha ha!

But it was no joke. I sat on our sofa with the hairbrush and our luggage all ready to go. I made him drop his pants and his underwear and drape himself across my knee. Then I gave him quite a spanking! No warm-up, just SMACK SMACK SMACK with the back of the brush, turning his butt cheeks a dark red.

It was a VERY LONG ten minutes before the doorbell finally rang. I tossed him off my lap and went to answer it as he pulled himself back together again.

As we were driving to the airport in the limo, I saw him squirming in his seat. I asked him, "is your butt sore?" He blushed like a teenaged girl as I asked him that out loud so the limo driver could hear us.

"yes ma'am," he answered sheepishly, confirming his submission to me.

When we arrived at the airport, the driver hopped out and moved our luggage to the curb for us. I paid him and added a tip. He did not say anything beyond "thank you," but I did notice a smile on his face. I wonder if the limo driver knows my husband is spanked?

We flew into Rome and decided to take the train into town. Should have taken a cab direct to the hotel, as the time and cost would have been about the same. It was still early, and so the hotel stowed our bags and we set out for some sight-seeing followed by lunch.

Once we returned, we got the room (a very beautiful one) and we had our long-awaited showers. I was done first and put on a hotel robe. When he came out of the bathroom in just a towel, I said "Spanking Time!" He smiled. Our hotel room in Rome had a clothes brush in the cupboard and featured a nice low settee to spank him on. I tried taking advantage of whatever natural "pervertibles" the hotel rooms had to offer.

I stripped him bare naked and had him back across my knee. I used my hand to spank him a bit first, and then I picked up the clothes brush and laid into his backside. It was another, proper, spanking. This would be his reality for the next two weeks. A proper spanking every single day! Poor baby had trouble sitting the whole vacation.

During this spanking he got very emotional and held onto my ankle and ass hard as he absorbed his painful punishment. As I spanked he sort of frantically thanked me over and over again for his spanking and yelled out how much he loved me as his little legs kicked and his ass turned fiery red. So sweet. We'd see how much he loved me after two solid weeks of daily spankings!

 (still a lot, as it turned out :-)

After his spanking I decided I should take him in his rear end as well. I told him to go to the bathroom and get himself ready to be fucked while I put on my strap-on. When he came back I bent him over the bed and proceeded to give him his highly embarrassing (for a "man") seeing-to.

It never gets old, me sticking a hard dick in his ass and fucking him after his spanking as if he was my little lady (he certainly moaned and squealed like one). After a nice hard, five minute ass reaming I gave him a bit of a reward. First he went to the bathroom to clean himself up. The Italian bidets make this much easier for him!

When he returned I put him face up on the bed and stroked and sucked on his cock languidly. Once he was super hard and drippy I made him go down on me. I always find he does a better job when he's in this highly sexually excited state, or maybe that's just me? At any rate, he gave me a series of great orgasms. After that I went back to him and handjobbed him several times to the very point of release. I channeled some of the "tease and denial" videos I had studied, and laughed at him while I backed off at his desperation to cum.

I eventually allowed him to dribble out a nice cummy, but it was entirely hands off for me. I just watched as he could hold it no longer and dribbled the cum out of his cocktip.

And that was just our first day!

I pretty much kept my word and spanked him at least once a day on our vacation, and sometimes more than once.

Some of the spankings and submissions were more fun and flirty, and several times he went over my knee for "good boy" spankings where I lubed up my thighs and allowed him to get himself off humping my knee while being hand-spanked and fondled.

Other spankings were very intense and emotional where we went deep into our kink.

It was a fun vacation and david and I very much got to "reconnect" in our spanking kink in the lovely old world Italian setting amidst beautiful art and glorious food and wine.

While I was looking for occasions to make things more "public", there was only one occasion where that got to happen, and a hotel maid saw his bare butt! I'll describe that in another post.

There was only once when I got spanked (preceded by a few swats in public at the pool in front of an older gentleman), and one other time when a cute hotel manager saw my bare butt scampering to the bathroom! I'll describe that also in a separate post.

Quick Update

Hi y’all. Just a quick update from me to let you know that I’m still alive and blogging! Work has been very busy for both of us for the past several months, but now we are on well-earned vacation in Italy, and summer is coming. So yay!

I am typing this painfully on an iPad from a hotel room in Florence without a keyboard so will keep it short and just tease.

Each hotel room seems to have it’s own supply of spanking implements, from wimpy slippers, to bath brushes, clothes brushes, and wooden shoe horns, and I have been making great use of them all! david is being well seen to at every stop. Soooo much spanking! Literally every single night and certain mornings and afternoons as well. His poor backside!

Of course I also packed my trusty hairbrush (an “essential” in my carry-on bag), and my strap-on dildo (in checked luggage!). Sooo much butt sex for him! Soooo much pussy licking for me! And, in case you’re wondering, I’ve been spanked exactly once so far, so it’s been pretty “femdom” for the most part.

Also I’ve been practicing these long hand job sessions on him with a lot of tease and denial, and several very deliberately “ruined orgasms” for him.

Not “ruined” at all, but one way I’ve had him cum twice now is by spanking him hard first, then standing him up and hand jobbing him repeatedly to the point of being super close to spurting, then greasing up my lap with baby oil (another travel essential), taking him across my knee, and hand spanking him as he writhes there, rubbing and humping himself to an eventual orgasm on my lap. Then he has to get down on his knees and clean me up with his tongue (hope the baby oil won’t hurt him too much!), and that leads to a nice pussy licking for me.

We have had some semi-public fun as well, which I will detail when we get home. Three incidents so far. One, which was totally accidental, was having a cute Italian hotel manager see my very bare backside running into the bathroom as he opened our door to do a room inspection! The second was me getting swatted on my backside at a pool while an older Italian gentleman looked on. And the third was a fortunate timing with a visit from a maid for “turn down” service where I got to embarrass hubby beautifully.

Ciao for now!