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“What did he do?” Julian asks.

“If I tell you, you can’t get all macho man on me.”

“I won’t kill him. What happened?” Julian asks again.

“He… Kept me tied up while he took my ass,” I say bluntly. “Only… He does this sick shit where he forces me to get off and mocks me and calls me names the whole time.”

“Are you injured at all?” Calder asks.

“No. Thankfully, he never goes that far,” I say. “Something other than my bullshit, please. What did you two do tonight?”

“Me, technically,” Natalie says as she walks back into the room.

“It was about safe words and finding boundaries,” Julian says. “It’s a part of the training, so submissives know what it feels like to reach their limit and learn how to handle that. Sometimes a sub will get caught up in wanting to please their Dom and not call it in fear of failure.”

“So, you are her dominant?” I ask.

“I amadominant, notherdominant,” Julian says.

“What’s the difference?”

“I have not collared her, so she is not mine. She is just a student learning from dominant people. There are also female dominants that work with the subs,” Julian says.

“Domme Bea scares me,” Natalie says.

“Bea scares me too,” Calder laughs.

“Bea… Are you talking about Beatrice?” I ask.

“Yeah,” Natalie says as Julian searches through the first aid kit.

“She’s so mild-mannered, though,” I say. “She calls me ma’am,”

“You are her boss technically,” Julian says. “She is different in this environment. This is going to sting a bit.”

“Okay… Ow!” I hiss when Julian dabs the cut with an alcohol wipe. He leans down and gently blows on my skin, and I relax. “I think having my hot Dom boss blow on my ass is about the strangest thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“You think I’m hot?” Julian laughs.

“That’s all you picked up from that statement?” I ask. “Thank you for helping me… I didn’t know what else to do. I still don’t, but…”

“We meant it when we said you were always welcome at our place,” Calder says. “Although we will put you in the guest room instead.”

“You two live together?” Natalie asks.

“Yeah. We have since we were five,” Julian says.

“You don’t have to take me in like a stray,” I argue.

“You are not a stray, and we want to,” Julian says, smoothing a bandage over the cut on my ass. “That’s going to have to be changed out in a few hours. The rest of this we can put a salve on. It’s going to bruise in a few spots, but you’ll feel better in a few days.”

“Thank you for tending to my ass wound, Juli,” I say.

“You’re welcome, Liza,” Julian says. “Are you okay if she goes? I don’t want her having to drive home too late.”

“I’m alone in the office with you two every single day. I’m okay. Sore, but okay.”

“Can you tell Ryan he is leading class tomorrow, and I’ll text him later about it, please?” Calder says to Natalie.