Page 115 of Lesson In Faith

Again and again, he rutted into her, his voice strained as he gave her the truth as he saw it. “No one gets to call you a bad girl but me. Not even you. There’s not a bad bone in your body. The only person who gets to punish you is me, little owl. Never without a damn good reason. Even if I do, you’ll always be my good girl, Tamsyn. Always.”

The bed was squeaking with the force of his thrusts as he tried to pound his reasoning into her brain as efficiently as his cock hammered into her pussy. At least, he thought it was the bed; some of the noises she was making were similar.

“What are you, Tamsyn?”

“Y-Yours, Sir.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” he muttered under his breath. “Whatareyou?”

Her body jolted and jerked beneath his, utterly at his mercy. When she turned her face to the side, there was a profound sense of male pride at the sight of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth. “Y-Your good girl, Master Merrick.”

Fuck, he wanted to do this all damn night. Plunging over and over into her hot, wet core; reveling in her tightness, the ripple and squeeze of her muscles around his shaft; listening to the sounds she couldn’t hold back, that she made because of him.

Instead, he growled in approval of her answer, words lost to him as tingles spread across the base of his spine and infiltrated his nervous system. Balls drawing up, his thrusts becoming more manic than smooth, he tilted her hips to strike her sweet spot and send her over the edge again.

This time, when she screamed and thrashed beneath him, he speared into her without mercy, bottoming out against her cervix. She yelped repeatedly, but it didn’t stop her coming like a fucking asteroid colliding with the earth and literally wrenching the cum from his balls as though it was liquid lava spurting from his cock.

Pressing her into the mattress, Merrick cursed the godforsaken condom, grunting profanities against the latex sheath, imagining the day when he fucked her just like this without a barrier to stop his seed flooding her womb and knocking her up.

For several long and blissful moments, his mind went blank, totally consumed with the power of his orgasm and the strength of emotion behind it. He was awake, aware, but just… existing on a higher plane for a few wonderful minutes.

When he finally recovered, he brushed his lips over her ear. “Always my good girl.”

*

Tamsyn

Did he know how many ways he broke her?

Physically, she was a wreck—her body was humming on another level, practically vibrating in the aftermath of whatever the hell Merrick just unleashed on her. She was exhausted, feeling torn apart on the outside and battered to within an inch of her life inside; she didn’t want him to move, not when she knew how bruised and sore that oversized weapon of his was going to leave her.

Mentally, he’d gouged out large chunks of pre-established beliefs and reprogrammed her worst habits using pain and pleasure as his curriculum of choice—unlike Jedidiah, whose sole method ofteachingwas pain, pain, and more pain until the lesson was learned.

And then there was the emotional aspect.

What he made her feel was… unimaginable. No matter what he did, she never felt like her life was in danger. On the contrary, it was as though everything he put her through was designed to do just the opposite. She was safe, secure, protected.

Always my good girl.

He loved her.

“Love you, Merk.” She slurred the words, breathless and exhausted.

“Love you too, little owl.” He kissed the tiny hollow behind her ear, then shifted carefully, extricating himself from inside her as he started to soften.

“Don’t…” she whispered.

Merrick hesitated. “Don’t?”

“Don’t leave…” No, that wasn’t what she meant. “Don’t pull out.”

“Darlin’, wish I could stay right here for the rest of my life, but my cum is gonna starting leaking out of the damn condom into this unprotected pussy if we’re not careful.” He nuzzled her neck, his beard tickling her oversensitive skin. “Can’t say I’m opposed to watching this flat belly swell nice and round with my baby, little owl, but if I’m gonna be a dad, I’m gonna put the effort in. Lots of raw, unadulterated fucking. Breeding you over and over until my cum does it’s damn job.”

Tamsyn stiffened at the thought of being pregnant, years of brainwashing haunting her. Memories of women trying and failing to conceive for their husbands, only to end up with their lifeless bodies being thrown off the cliff for nature to dispose. Children like her left motherless and at the mercy of their fathers, trained to become the next available hole or to continue the atrocities.

“And then there’s this reaction,” Merrick murmured softly. “You need to be willing and ready for it, Tamsyn. Open to being a mother and loving a child. The community taught you to believe if you don’t conceive, you die. The upbringing of your child is taken out of your hands. I don’t doubt the elders use the safety of the kids as a leash around your neck, relying on a mother’s instincts to protect her babies to keep you at heel.”

His ability to understand the community was remarkable, really. She supposed it was a good thing that he was able to source her triggers so easily, even when it made her cringe at the idea that he knew so much about the depth and severity of the abuse she, and others like her, suffered for years.