Present Tense (Out of the Fire #3) - Candace Blevins Page 0,21

the butt plug to make sure she didn’t push it out as well, and she took a breath and pushed, hoping it would get rid of the marbles.

They burned again on the way out, and she squealed a little, trying to get a handle on the fiery, raw nerve endings.

“Three,” James said from behind her.

Eunice gave her a tiny nod. “Good enough for now. I view tensing your ass as a sign of disrespect.”

Eunice walked out of sight. Fabio pushed a short stool in front of her and sat on it, his face inches from hers. He rested a hand on her cheeks and turned his head to the side. “Earplugs, so you don’t blow my ears out when you scream.” He moved his cheek back, so it was against hers. “You aren’t human, so Eunice won’t treat you as one.”

Terror struck a blow to her heart. “I can’t heal fast.”

His hand caressed her other cheek. “We know. He won’t split you open. He knows what he’s doing. I’m here to help you remember to relax. You won’t always have this. Wiggle your fingers for me.”

She wiggled them, and then a line of fire imploded on her butt cheeks. The initial strike hurt badly enough, she knew it was going to push her over the edge a second before the brunt of the pain slammed into her. She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. The blood in her stomach had already emptied into her bloodstream, else she’d have thrown it up.

Fabio centered his face in front of hers, his gaze on her eyes, and put both hands on her cheeks. She focused on the heat. The warmth. The tenderness.

“Relax, bad girl. Don’t give him a reason to make that one not count. Relax your ass, your thighs, your lower back. Wiggle your fingers. You can do it.”

She fought to force those muscles to release the pain and tension. Or at least the tension.

When it came time for Eunice to hit her the final time, it was actually the eighth strike, though they were calling it the seventh. Tears streaked down her face. Her ass hurt dreadfully, bad enough she’d forgotten how much the balls of her feet hurt, and how badly her holes burned from the flaming pepper mixture on the plug and marbles.

Her entire lower butt cheeks throbbed to the time of her heartbeat, which was erratic as fuck because she’d lost all control.

But her fucking ass was bloody well relaxed. She might not be allowed to cuss in Aussie, but she’d damned well fucking do it in her thoughts.

Before they had a chance to order her to relax after the final stroke, the top of the stock mechanism was gone, she was off her feet, flipped over, and James was holding her like a baby, carrying her to a sofa. “Get the fucking shoes off her, Fabio.”

She heard Eunice walk out of the room, and then flexed and pointed her feet once the torture-shoes were off. Her sobs came in hiccups, and she curled into James.

Kelsey cried and sobbed into his chest first, and then Fabio’s, because the men took turns soothing her and talking to her.

Eventually, they helped her squat to get rid of the rest of the marbles. They used baby wipes to clean her up, and rubbed a soothing cucumber-mint concoction on her that mostly canceled out the pepper mixture. They took care of her, loved her, held her.

But the strap on her head stayed in place until she was sent downstairs to get dressed again and freshen up before she went to work for the first time. She collected the clothes she’d left on the bar, and went back to her suite to redo her makeup and put her clothes back on.

8

Collosa parked his Jeep Wrangler in front of the Drake Security building and blew out a breath. They were meeting Aaron at midnight for her intake interview, which meant they had thirty minutes to show her around the building.

Problem was, she was doing a lot of nodding and mmm-hmmm’ing, rather than talking. It made sense — penalties for speaking with her Australian accent weren’t pretty, so she was planning to refrain from speaking.

She couldn’t keep it up forever, but he didn’t want her doing it at all. Still, about the time he’d decided not to mention it, Fabio had texted him that they should let it play out and see how long it took for her to give it up