The Naughty One

by Michelle Love

  “All good, I hope.”

  “All good. Great, as a matter of fact. Blyss is asleep right now. Morphine was administered, so she won’t be woken up. But I want to let you know we told her the truth and she also recalled the actual events that brought her to us. When she wakes up, I’ll tell her I let you know that. She was upset when she realized you didn’t hurt her.”

  I was more than relieved. “Do you have any idea who I can talk to about seeing her on the up and up?”

  “In the morning, about nine, the chaplain might be able to bring you in with him. He’s done that on occasion. Stop by the chapel to talk to him before nine.”

  Finally, I’d caught a break. Seems my good deed was giving me some great karma. “I’ll do that. Thank you. Thank you so much!”

  With a new light on the situation, I took the little girl up to a much quieter waiting room and relaxed. I’d get to see Blyss in the light of day, I prayed.

  Blyss

  When my eyes opened, I found Troy sitting next to a man in a pale blue suit. There was a little dark-haired girl on Troy’s lap and she was playing with his cell phone. He sat her on the chair and came to me. “Hey, pretty lady.” He brushed my hair back and kissed my cheek. “I love you.”

  He took my hand and I gave a squeeze. “I love you too. I’m sorry …” His lips touched mine, stopping me from saying anything else.

  “Don’t be sorry. It’s all understandable. I’m just glad you know now that I wasn’t the one who hurt you. And the man who did that is in jail. He’ll never see the outside world again; I promise you that.”

  “When I was falling asleep, I overheard something about you and something about being critical. What was that all about?”

  “There was an auto accident just down the street from here as I was about to leave. I helped out with it, and some of the people who were brought in were in bad shape. That’s what that was all about.”

  “That makes sense. And who do you have with you?” I looked around him at the other two people and found the little girl smiling at me.

  “Hi, I’m Veronica. Mr. Troy is watching me while my mommy and daddy get better.” She gave me a wave.

  All I could manage was a nod. “Nice to meet you, Veronica. I’m Blyss.”

  “Oh, I know that. Mr. Troy told me all about you and how he loves you so much.”

  Heat filled my cheeks as I blushed. “He did?”

  “Um, hmm.” She went back to playing with his cell as the other man got up and came to the other side of the bed. “He broke the window of my dad’s car and rescued me. He’s taking care of me while Mom and Dad get better.”

  “I’m Reverend Sloan. I’ve come to visit you every day since you were brought here. I can see you’re doing much better than you were, and I heard you’ll be starting therapy to get those body parts moving again. A week in bed can take a month to get over.”

  “That long?” I was feeling more than depressed about the amount of time he was talking about.

  “Oh, you’ll be moving on your own in a couple of days,” he added. “But you’ll feel the weakness in your body for about a month.”

  “Oh, that’s better.” I looked at Troy, who couldn’t stop smiling at me. “Why do you look like the cat who ate the canary?”

  “I’m just so happy to be here with you. That’s all.” He kissed my forehead. “I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve seen you. Last night wasn’t enough.” He looked at the reverend. “Being that you’ve been around this hospital a lot, do you know when they’ll move her to a room where I can see her all the time?”

  “After she can move on her own.”

  I heard several men talking in the hallway, then they came into my room. Suddenly, it was filled up, and the three doctors who came in looked at Troy and the other two people. One of them said, “Mr. Masterson, you can go in to see the Snyder’s now. We’ve put them together. Mrs. Masterson told us she has her mother coming to take care of their daughter. You’ll be relieved of babysitting duty.”

  Troy looked anything but happy about that. “Aw, I loved spending time with her.” He went to pick the girl up, and she handed him his phone, wrapped her arms around his neck, then gave him a kiss on the cheek, which I found absolutely adorable.

  “I love spending time with you too, Mr. Troy. But can you take me to see my parents now?”

  He nodded, then gave me a smile. “I’ll be back as soon as they let me, baby.”

  With a quick glance at the doctors, I asked, “Can you please allow him to be here more? It would decrease my recovery time; I can promise you that.”

  “We’ll talk about it, Miss Danner. For now, the rules stay in place. He can come in with the chaplain, but that’s it for now.”

  “One more kiss, then, please.”

  Troy came to me, leaning over and kissing my cheek. He whispered, “Talk them into it. I’ll be around the hospital anyway. I’ll check back around lunch to see what they’ve decided.”

  My heart lurched as he walked away, and my heart monitor caught the action. The way it sped up had my doctors looking at each other, noticing the effect he had on me. Troy did too and smiled at them before he walked all the way out. “She loves me, guys. Think real hard about allowing me to spend more time with her. It could be critical to her recovery, after all.”

  Pursing my lips, I sent him an air kiss before he turned to leave me. With a sigh, I started in on the doctors, “I want him here with me.”

  “You have to understand,” one of them said. “This hospital has rules.”

  “Move me, then. Get me out of ICU.” I was determined to find a way for him to be with me. “You have no idea how much I miss him already.”

  “Maybe you have an unhealthy attachment to the man,” one of the doctors told me.

  It pissed me off. “Look, I know none of you know a thing about me. I’ve never had a family. No one has ever loved me until Troy.”

  One of them laid a hand on my shoulder. “Miss Danner, you met that man when you signed yourself up to be sold for the summer months. We are requiring you to see a psychiatrist before you’re released from the ICU. Your confession to never being loved just goes to prove how much you need intervention.”

  “Intervention?” I was reeling from the way the men thought they could take me over. “I will gladly talk to anyone you want me to. But I want Troy too.”

  “It would be best for you two to have a bit of distance for a while.” the doctor, who was pulling my hospital gown away from one side of me, said.

  “I don’t want any distance between us. Ow!” He’d pulled the back of the gown and it pulled at my skin. “That hurts!”

  He looked at the man who had the clipboard. “Tell the nurses to change the bandages this morning. Some have slipped off.”

  “By the way, I remembered what happened to me. I thought you might want to know that.” I was rolled to one side as they examined my wounds.

  “Okay, so you know about that. How do you feel about it?” one of them asked.

  “How anyone would feel, I guess. Violated and hurt. But I’ll recover. It was me who put myself in that situation after all. I have no one to blame but myself for what happened to me.”

  One of the men made a huffing sound, then said, “Your Dom was in charge. I know how this stuff works, and you’re taking the blame for no reason. I don’t care what you think. He was in charge.”

  “I can be a force to be reckoned with,” I retaliated as I felt tugging at my back. “Ow! What are you guys doing back there?”

  “Pulling off the bandages so they can be treated again and new ones can be put on,” one of them answered me. “Toby, put down for her to be given a sponge bath before re-bandaging. I don’t like the redness of some of those wounds. And up the antibiotics.”

  Another one of them added, “Schedule a CAT scan of her liver.”

  “Am I in that bad of shape, guys?” I whined.

  “You’re getting better. But you’re in pretty bad shape, yes.
” I was rolled over and saw the doctor who’d spoken looking at me with a concerned expression. “When you’re released, where do you plan on going?”

  “To Napa Valley with Troy. He and his mother are going to take care of me until I’m better.”

  The three of them gave each other looks I didn’t like, then one of them said, “You don’t have anywhere else to go?”

  “No, I don’t. I let my apartment go before I left Stanford. I gave my crappy car away. I’m supposed to get whatever sum of money Troy bid for me at the end of the contract between us, which is at the end of summer. But even with that, I’d have to set up a place to live and things like that. Believe me, no matter what you think about Troy, I am much better off with him.”

  “Damn,” the clipboard carrying doctor cursed. “You really got yourself into a bind, didn’t you?”

  “I suppose I did. I had no idea I’d be getting myself so injured that I’d need help. But it happened and I’ll deal with it.” I was getting tired and the pain of them removing my bandages was getting to me. “Can I have something for the pain you guys are giving me?”

  “Can you give us an idea of what your pain level is, from one to ten?”

  “Seven. A solid seven. I think some Ibuprofen will suffice.”

  “We’ll make that decision,” one of them said. I heard him whispering to the others.

  Another one said, “Put her down for some oral Ibuprofen.”

  I sighed as I realized just how much control they had over me. I was at their mercy, it seemed. So when they rolled me back over, done with the examination, I let them have it. “Okay, I’m not one to be victimized. The man who did this will not affect me for long. Worse things have happened to me in my life. Things I had no part in. I had a part in what happened to me. Believe or don’t believe it, I don’t care. I want Troy. I know he’s paying the hospital bill. I’m sure if you want me to be watched over full time, he can pay for that extra care to be done in a private room. I want him, end of discussion, or I’ll seek to be moved and complain about no one listening to me.”

  With sad nods, they all left me. I suppose they thought me a lost cause, but they didn’t know Troy and they didn’t know me. I wasn’t about to make any rash decisions about the man. I just wanted him around. I trusted him more than I had ever trusted anyone. And I knew I had to take responsibility for what had happened to me.

  I could blame Troy. It seemed everyone else was. But what good would that do? The truth was, I’d begged for what I got. He was my Dom, and he felt he needed to give me what I’d asked for so repeatedly. How could I ever blame him for what another man did to me?

  The answer was, I couldn’t. It was my fault and I’d accepted that. It also meant I needed to take my time with Troy. Not jump into things. I was too quick to go with my impulses and that had left me in a bad situation—one where I had to depend on others just to survive. I wasn’t about to keep making rash decisions.

  I hoped like hell Troy would understand that and not force anything on me, like making a commitment to living with him. I wasn’t ready for that. Anyone could see that.

  Troy

  After reuniting Veronica with her parents and her grandmother, I felt good about leaving her happy and smiling. But when I walked out of their hospital room, I was in for some pretty rude remarks from one of Blyss’ doctors. “Come with me, Masterson.” It was Doctor Toby. That’s all I knew him by, as I’d heard the other doctors call him that. “You and I need to talk, man to man.”

  “Or should you say, Dom to Dom?” I asked him as I stepped up to walk beside, rather than behind, him. He exhibited many alpha traits and his authoritative manner was a dead giveaway.

  “Just come on,” he muttered as we went to a private area. He closed the door behind us and it seemed we were in a dressing room. Different colored scrubs lined the shelves, giving me the impression people went in there to change.

  “I’m sure I know what this is about. You think I’m a terrible Dom for Blyss.”

  He spun around and caught me by the collar of my shirt. “You’re the worst mother fucking Dom I’ve ever met. Now you shut the fuck up and listen to me. That young woman is a physical mess because of your lack of proper care.”

  My tone was even. “Let me go before I fuck your world up, Toby.”

  He held on for only a moment before the fire in my eyes told him to do as I’d said. “I don’t want this to get out of hand. I just want you to fucking disappear. I’ve never seen a Sub who had been done so wrong. And she was completely innocent, Masterson. When you got her, she was as innocent as they come. You had an obligation to take care of her, and you failed her so miserably that she’ll wear the marks of your mistake for the rest of her life. Leave her here and go away. I’ll make sure she gets put into a rehabilitation facility.”

  Narrowing my eyes at the man who thought he knew better than I did about what Blyss needed, I proceeded to set him straight. “I’m not leaving her. I’m taking full responsibility for what happened to her. But you need to understand that BDSM is behind us both. I’m going to marry that woman and nothing bad will ever happen to her again. Hell, I didn’t want to take her to the club at all. She wanted it.”

  “Since when do Subs tell their Doms what to do?” He walked away from me and threw his hands up in the air. “She runs you, Masterson. Everyone saw it that night at the show.”

  “I agree. She did run me. But things are going to be different from here on out. Like I said, and like you ignored, BDSM is behind us.”

  “How do you think that’s going to help her? I mean, yes, she doesn’t have the attitude to be a Sub, but how is being with you going to help her? She needs help. The poor thing is all alone in this world.”

  “She’s not alone. She has me. And we’ll make our own family. I love her. I know it’s hard for you to understand, but it’s not your call. If she doesn’t want me, then that’s between her and I. You doctors can mind your business. I didn’t hurt her. Not intentionally. And you better believe I’ve learned from letting her guilt me.”

  He glared at me. “And how the hell did she guilt you into sending her into a private room all alone, might I ask?”

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but since you’re all up in mine, she begged me to punish her.”

  “Okay, but why send her alone?”

  “I wanted to give her some time being restricted to see if she’d cool off. I had no intention of going through with the punishment I’d told her I was going to administer. I was about to talk to Grant and the other owners about my plan, but that maniac got to her first. Had I known anyone was watching her like that, I’d never have left her alone. I would’ve had the trainer stay with her until I got there.”

  It was amazing to me how fuming mad the man was as his face turned red. “If you stay, she’ll just become more attached to you. You’re like an addiction to her. We all can see it. Why can’t you? You don’t rule her. She rules you the same way a person does any drug they’re addicted to. They keep that drug around so they can have it when they want it. That’s what you are to her.”

  “I am not. And you don’t know shit about her. I want to see her. I want to be with her. She needs me more now than ever.”

  “She has highly trained and qualified nurses and doctors to care for her. Tell me, what you can add to that?” He looked down his nose at me, pissing me off.

  “She doesn’t love you people. She loves me. Now, let this be a warning to you. I will see her. I will take her with me when she’s released. And you will mind your business and treat her the same way you’d treat any other patient. You’re being overprotective because of your dominating status. I need you to see that and take a step back from the woman who is technically still my Sub.”

  He looked down, contemplating my words. I could tell. He knew he was wrong for stepping on my toes about Blyss. Had we been inside the club, his interjection into our business wouldn’t have been tolerated.

  “She’ll be here for a
week or more. During that time, I expect you to seek some counseling. I’m ordering her to have the same. If you want to be the best thing for her, you’ll need to work on yourself. You can’t let guilt run you. She wants things she can’t handle. It’s your job to make her understand what you do is what’s best for her. Would you allow a child who wants to play with knives do it, just because they desperately want to?”

  “You’re right. I know you are. I know what I have to do with her. I did allow things to interfere with how I normally run a Sub. Blyss is special. I really have never seen her as a Sub. And I’m not about to look at her as one now. I am, however, going to look at her as someone who needs my love and protection. I will make her understand her limitations.” I put my hand on his shoulder. “You and I are brothers, in a way. We know what it’s like to hold people’s lives in the palms of our hands. And we’ve used that knowledge to help women test their limits. Blyss’ limits are far less than the women we’ve dealt with. I know that. I know that better than anyone in the entire world.”

  “I hope so. For her sake.”

  “If you think what happened to her under my watch is bad, you have no idea what could’ve happened to her if someone else would’ve won her. I will take care of her. That is a promise.”

  “I guess we’re done here, then,” he said despondently. I could tell he wasn’t a hundred percent behind Blyss and me being together, but it really wasn’t up to him. It was up to her.

  As he walked away, I grabbed him by the arm. “Dom to Dom, I’m asking you to grant me more visitation with my Sub, Toby.”

  He looked at me for a long moment before he nodded. “Give me half an hour to arrange it, then you can go see her. I’ll give you one-hour visits, three times a day. No more than that. She has a lot of other things to do besides see you.”

  “Thank you.”

  I watched him leave, then fell with my back against the wall. He wasn’t wrong for calling me out. I had to give him that. He was a good man and most likely a great Dom. I was the Dom who had fallen to the wayside. I had changes to make. Many changes. But Blyss wouldn’t be something I dropped from my life. Never her.