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His beard tickled as he laid a trail of kisses down between her breasts.

Tamsyn whined in disappointment, feeling horribly empty and open when his cock softened and slipped free. All her unmentionables were on display, much like her emotions, and she was too tired to protect either of them.

Merrick stepped back, studying her face before his gaze dropped between her thighs. Smug, utterly male satisfaction gleamed triumphantly in the green. “My gorgeous girl, all sullied to perfection. Well and truly marked now, darlin’,” he added, circling her tender anus with his fingertip. “There’s nothing more sating than seeing my woman dripping with my cum.”

Embarrassment flickered, attempting to spark to life, but exhaustion sat on it like an elephant on a poodle, extinguishing it.

“Think you can trust me for a minute more, little owl?” Plucking a tiny packet from the tray, he opened it and removed a small, wet square of material, using it to wipe a section of her upper arm beneath the joint of her shoulder.

She responded with a weak, breathless laugh. “Pretty sure I’m not going anywhere, even if you unstrap me, Sir.”

“At my mercy, then.” When he picked the syringe up again, her insides jittered, but she wasn’t consumed by overwhelming fear. Her mind was swimming happily in a soup of natural happy drugs and her body was too limp and useless to react. “This might sting for a second, darlin’.”

“Uh…” She shook her head as he flicked off the cap, revealing a sharp and shiny needle.

Before she could think about jerking her arm against the straps, he jabbed the pointy tip into her muscle and depressed the plunger. It was over and done in a couple seconds; she barely had time to register the fleeting pain.

Her head went light. “W-What…”

“Vitamins, Tamsyn. Just a vitamin boost.” Merrick recapped the needle and tossed it back on the tray. Giving her a kiss on her shocked mouth, he rapidly removed all the straps, massaging where they’d been even though they hadn’t left a mark.

“I… What just happened?”

*

Merrick

The question, asked in that timid voice, made him smile.

Obviously, the extent of what they’d just done hadn’t sunk in yet—in all honesty, he was still blinded by the volume of trust she’d given him over the last hour or so. He hated seeing her afraid, hated putting her in that position, but this time it seemed to have paid off.

Whether it would next time remained to be seen.

Setting her feet back into the supports, he raised the backrest into a sitting position. “What happened is, you earned another reward, little owl.”

Blanching, eyes huge and round, she shook her head vehemently. “If you make me come again, I’ll die, Sir. Literally. I will be dead, Sir.Dead.”

Well, one thing was for sure, she’d definitely learned her lesson when it came to honorifics. He needed to let Mack know that the modified anal speculum his company had designed was not only easy to use, but highly effective.

“Aftercare, darlin’. I’m talking about lots and lots of aftercare.” Stroking her thigh, he picked up a blanket from the bottom shelf of the rolling table and shook it out, draping it over her; he wasn’t quite ready to clean her up, not when that sweet little asshole looked so pretty with his cum leaking out. “Nobody’s dying tonight.”

Her huge sigh of relief made his lips twitch.

Grabbing a handful of wipes, he tidied himself up enough to hitch his pants back into position and fasten his belt. He checked all the equipment he’d used was on the tray, then slid the whole thing into a Ziplock bag ready to go for sterilization when the cleaning crew arrived; the disposable stuff was shoved into the trash can.

Gathering her clothes, sneakers, and sling into a pile, he carried them over to Fordham and dropped them in his lap. “Redeem yourself.”

“Sorry, Merrick. She caught me off-guard with that comment.” Chagrined, he rubbed a hand over his nape. “It was unprofessional; I’ll apologize when she’s not drooling into her blanket.”

Frowning, Merrick glanced over his shoulder. Sure enough, in the last thirty seconds, she’d succumbed to exhaustion, curling up in the chair with the blanket pulled up to her chin. “Might’ve pushed her too hard.”

“Could be you pushed her just hard enough.”

“No thanks to you.”

Fordham chuckled and laid his forearm on the clothes. “Come on now, let’s not be modest. It’s all thanks to me and you know it—you’d have been jacking off in the shower if she’d convinced you to take her home. Some subs need their Dom to stand up and do everything in their power to make her face her fear head on, otherwise they’ll just shy away from it again and again. Tamsyn’s one of them.”

Merrick grunted. “Tamsyn’s issues are a very fine line to walk, Ford. If I shove her too hard, she’ll break.”