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“Good girl.” Adding emphasis to the two words, he stroked a hand up her back in reassurance. “Accidents happen, little owl. Mistakes happen. We can make amends for them. As long as no one is seriously hurt, we can move past it.”

“But I hurt you,” she mumbled, her breath catching on theyou.

“You panicked and rushed things, but you’re not gonna do that again, are you?” He continued stroking, wishing she wasn’t so fucking scared her muscles quivered like jello. “My dick has had worse… well, actually, no, it probably hasn’t,” he amended with a quiet chuckle. “It would like to avoid another calamity like that in future. But trust me, little owl, it’s gonna feel a whole lot better when it’s inside you.”

A hard shudder rippled through her back, followed by a silent sob.

Merrick hesitated. Some subs were plagued by a wrongdoing, unable to reconcile the deed without paying penance for it. She’d been raised in a world where an act against the community was dealt with swiftly, severely—that alone would be enough to cement foundations of trauma beneath her newly found submission.

It was something he needed to keep his eye on, in case it developed into a darker method of coping.

“Darlin’,” he said slowly, “do you need me to punish you to make you feel forgiven?”

Head hanging low between her arms, Tamsyn whimpered.

“Tell me,” he urged, unwilling to press this tactic if it wasn’t beneficial. “Use your words, little owl. What do you need—”

“Hurt me,” she choked out. “Hurt me the way I hurt you.”

Fuck, that was the answer he didn’t want to hear. An eye for an eye really wasn’t his style, especially when his hurt was born through a simple misadventure. On the other side of the coin, perhaps it was time she learned how asking for something without specification or careful thought was a bad idea, even with her Dom.

Leaning over, he yanked open the beside drawer and plucked out lube and a condom. A strong, firm pull on his cock reassured him there was nothing broken, just bruised if anything, before he ripped open the foil packet and rolled the latex protection over his erection and doused it in lube.

Cupping her mound in his hand, he found her wet and swollen, her labia slightly parted to give him easy access to her entrance. Fingering her lazily, he worked her open until her fluttering muscles relaxed. “Gonna teach you a lesson, Tamsyn. Gonna be a hard one if I’m honest. Can you guess what it is?”

“How not to break your penis?” she asked flatly, already resigned to whatever pain she imagined he was about to dole out.

Sighing, Merrick shook his head. “What are your safewords?”

“Red, yellow, green. Sir.”

She didn’t need to say she had no intention of using them; he heard it in her tone. She was prepared to endure whatever punishment he gave her in silence. A self-flagellation she didn’t deserve, one he wouldn’t allow her to inflict.

Situating himself on his knees between her spread legs, he removed his fingers and burrowed his crown into her tight opening in their stead. “This is a lesson in faith, little owl. Faith in yourself, faith in me. Asking me to hurt you in order to right a balance… it’s unnecessary, but I get why you need it.”

Wrapping his fingers around her hips, he thrust gently, feeding a couple inches into her heat. Testing the stability of his bruised cock, he decided there was no real damage done aside from tenderness and a humbled ego.

Her pussy welcomed him back with tentative flutters, her snugness wrapping around the tip of his cock.

Banding an arm around her hips, Merrick made damn sure she couldn’t escape. He leaned forward to press a kiss between her tense shoulder blades. “Relax and take your punishment like a brave girl, Tamsyn.”

Before he could second guess what she needed, what she wanted, and damage her by being distracted by doubts, he mounted her with a sharp drive of his pelvis, spearing his cock into all that tight, wet heat like a stallion.

Shock detonated through her, freezing her muscles as a garbled scream stole the peace of the morning. Her pussy seized, clamping down on him in an effort to keep him out. While it probably felt catastrophic to her, he measured every ounce of force behind the initial thrust, reading her body to ensure her health and safety remained his only priority.

Even though she felt so fucking good.

He eased out an inch, drove in again, wrenching another cry from her.

She struggled to keep her arms locked, to obey his order for hands and knees. How the hell she could think she deserved punishment was beyond him—no matter what he asked of her, she always strove to deliver his request to the best of her ability.

Yes, she’d pushed the boundary line this morning; he’d expected nothing less from a woman who was finding her sexuality, her freedom, her… fuck, her everything. It was exciting, from his perspective, to watch her spread her wings and find the courage to do something daring like straddle her well-endowed Dom and take him cowgirl-style.

Merrick rutted into her, careful not to batter her into submission. Not yet. If she needed the illusion of punishment to absolve her perceived sins, he’d give her that. If she needed him to break her and put the pieces back together, he could do that, too.

Tamsyn whimpered, trying to stem her cries.

“Oh, no, darlin’.” Voice stern, he smacked her flank with his free hand. “Bad girls don’t get to keep their pain quiet. My bad girl gives it all to me, doesn’t she, so she can be my good girl again.”