Page 39 of Designation: Null

“Uh-huh.”

“People like sex. People with designations love sex. But, in terms of what they need to not crash, that’s where things can get unpredictable. If a submissive needs sex, then a spanking isn’t going to cut it. A submissive who has high sexual needs and gets given a spanking is likely going to crash because their needs haven’t been met.”

“A submissive with high sexual needs… have you met many of them? Do you take care of them?”

“I have met many of them. It’s the norm, Logan. And a lot of them function just fine.”

“Unless they don’t. And then they get put away.”

He might have taken Robert by surprise with that comment. “That’s rare now.”

Logan disagrees but keeps quiet. He’s unable to talk about what happens to submissives who can’t control themselves. Like Daniel.

Everyone has their limit.

12

The best thing he can do is stay away from Robert. The next two weeks, he’s on a string of missions. His scores are terrible, so his meds get changed, he gets a very terse call from his father, and by the end of the two weeks he’s managed to come up ten points. He’s gone from a sixty to a seventy. Null is technically one hundred, so he’s got work to do.

He tries to be angry at Robert but that’s a nonstarter. The most annoying thing about Robert is how unwilling he is to cross Logan’s boundaries. When he’d sat on Robert’s couch, come cooling in his underwear, and Robert said it didn’t mean anything that Logan came, he’d been stunned.

How could that possibly not mean something? Of course it did!

Anyway.

It’s right at the two-week mark that Logan reaches the breaking point. He needs to see Robert. He’s been dreaming of him, fantasizing about him, woken up with his hands uselessly playing with himself four days in a row.

And now he can’t turn his neck. Half of his body is locked up and stiff. Taking a shower did nothing. He’s emotional about it. He gets his mission swapped out (he’s already done his quota for the month; he was just taking extras to pass the time) and goes to Robert’s office.

Robert is sitting behind his desk, five different files laid out in front of him. They look old.

“Busy?” Logan asks, leaning carefully against the doorframe so he doesn’t put pressure where it hurts.

Robert looks up and smiles at him, and there’s a faint pop he can feel around his clavicle, and his shoulder relaxes half an inch.

“Are you okay?”

Logan shrugs. It hurts and he tries not to wince. Robert picks up the folders on his desk, opens a drawer and puts them inside.

“I’m interrupting,” Logan says.

“Not really. My desk is clear,” he jokes, gesturing at the empty space.

“I’m hurt,” Logan blurts out. He did not mean to say that.

Robert gets up and comes closer. “Close the door, Logan.”

The command is a pleasant breeze across his skin. “Yes, Robert,” he says, and obeys, feeling the relief of being near him, of being told what to do. How did he stay away for so long?

“How have you been? I thought you were heading out on a mission today?”

“I… no. How did you know? I mean, I was, but I can’t. I’m not well.”

“Where are you hurt, Logan?” The use of his name is intentional, but Logan can’t figure out why. Though he can’t think of much beyond the fact that Robert is here and close.

“My shoulder. And my neck. Uh, and my arm. I can’t move it.”

“I see. How did that happen?”

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