Page 13 of Healing the Heart

Doc rushed forward to see to her, but Eric stopped him with a hand flat on his chest. “This scene is over,” he announced, fury making his voice cold and clipped. “Val, see to Fiona. Jordan, Doc, to my office. Now. Masters Kai and Jerry will accompany you.”

“Excuse me, master,” Val called. “But I’m afraid we need Doc to stay in a professional capacity. She’s cut in two places and bleeding.”

Doc dispatched one of the subs to the bar for the first aid kit. When he turned back, two other subs had stepped forward to help. They were releasing Fiona’s cuffs while the subbie guardian pulled the extra-large ball gag out of her mouth. She swallowed hard, took a ragged breath, then screamed, “Red,” so loud it echoed off the third-floor ceiling and brought all activity at every station to a dead stop.

Except for Doc, who was seething with fury. He turned on Jordan and, regardless of his hands, dropped the abusive asshole where he stood with a powerful right cross. Then he bent, gripped the front of his shirt, and all but shouted in his face. “You took away her safeword, asshole. A rule you should have learned in orientation. You don’t gag a sub unless you provide another way for her to tell you to stop.”

He dropped him, furious and disgusted.

When Jordan’s head hit the floor with a thud like a watermelon, Noah didn’t give a flying fuck. He left him where he lay to tend to Fiona.

“I’M OKAY,” SHE SAIDbetween sniffles and stuttering breaths. “I just want to go home.”

“Let Doc see to your cuts first, honey,” Val urged softly. “After that, Eric and I will take you home.”

She felt movement behind her and whirled around, terrified it was Jordan. The quick movement intensified her all-over body aches and the burning pain on her lower cheeks and thighs. Her hand flew to her head as a wave a dizziness struck, and she wavered unsteadily. Val reached for her, but she wouldn’t have been able to catch her if she started going down. Doc was there, however, and swung her into his arms.

His deep voice boomed orders. “When the emergency kit gets here, have them bring it to me upstairs in the guest apartment.”

“No! Put me down.”

“Hush, sweetheart,” he murmured soothingly as he moved through the crowd. “You can trust me to take good care of you.”

Jordan had alluded to as much—the sadist. She should have never believed him, and she wasn’t about to make the same mistake with his friend. Fiona squirmed to get free, but he held her firmly as he strode toward the back of the playroom.

“Be still,” he insisted with more bite in his tone. “I’m taking you upstairs to see to your injuries, and you certainly can’t walk there.”

“I don’t want to go with you. Besides, I’m too heavy to carry,” she insisted.

“Fiona, stop this, right now!” he ordered sharply, leaving no room for argument. “I am your physician. And what I say goes.We’ll get you upstairs, cleaned up, and tended to, then we’ll deal with the rest.”

Tended tocould only mean one thing; he’d be staring at Fat Fiona’s bare butt. In pain and humiliated by her foolishness and misplaced trust in Jordan, she now found herself at the mercy of a man much like him. The emotional wounds he’d inflicted were still raw. It was simply too much.

She couldn’t hold back any longer. Tears streamed down her face as she sobbed in misery and self-pity.

Val, who rushed alongside them, breathless from trying to keep pace, was seething and focused on payback. “That man needs to be strung up by his toes and beaten until he bleeds. It’s only just.”

“First things first,” Doc replied. “Where’s the medical kit? She may need sutures.”

Fiona cried harder, imagining him stitching up her butt.

“Eric is bringing it. He sent me ahead with you because both guest apartments are in use. You can take her to ours, but I’ll have to let you in with the passcode.”

In the elevator, on the ride up to the third floor, Fiona tried to get control of her emotions, but all she wanted to do was go home, curl up into a ball, and cry until she had no more tears left. Since that wasn’t happening, she kept her eyes shut tight trying to block everything out.

Although she didn’t want his comfort, Doc’s arms remained firm and constant. When her breath hitched, and her body shuddered in the aftermath of her torrent of tears, she thought she felt his lips brush her hair. But the doors slid open, and they were moving again, and she couldn’t be sure.

Val ran ahead and opened the door for them and led them through the apartment. Fiona didn’t lift her head from Doc’s shoulder or open her eyes until he laid her on the bed on her belly.

“Stay with her while I wash up,” he ordered as he headed to the bathroom.

She gazed up at Val, her vision blurred. “I feel like such a fool.” Her throat raw and scratching from the gag and crying, she choked out the words. “And I’ve never been more embarrassed in my life.”

“Oh, Fiona, don’t be. This isn’t your fault. Jordan is the one to blame. He’s been a member long enough to know how this works. He needs to be kicked to the curb and his membership permanently revoked. I’m hoping that’s what’s keeping Eric.”

“Agreed,” Doc said, returning with a basin of water and a wad of towels under his arm. “But let’s focus on keeping her calm while I get her wounds tended.” The mattress shifted as he sat down beside. “I need to get this skirt off you, Fiona. I’ll be as gentle as I can.”

She felt a tug on the zipper in back.

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