Just Once by Julianna Keyes Page B

don’t know what he touched, but I have never known pain like that before. It felt like a live wire searing something deep inside.
    “What are you doing?” I demand, lower lip trembling. “That hurt. Too much,” I add, when he opens his mouth to argue. “Do you really know what you’re doing? Is this some…ploy you use to get girls in here?”
    His mouth twitches. “Ploy?” he echoes. “Really?”
    He sits back down on the bed and puts a hand on my shoulder, trying to push my resisting body back to the mattress. He sighs when I remain stiff and unyielding, glaring at him suspiciously. I’m suddenly aware that I’m wearing only a demi-cup bra, my chest heaving indignantly. He seems aware of it too, and I watch his gaze drop. It’s tempting to let this rage turn into something else, but smarter, wiser Kate knows that that’s a terrible idea. I snatch up the pillow and clutch it to my chest.
    Shane sighs.
    “Lie down, Kate. No one’s going to hurt you.”
    “You just did.”
    He presses more insistently, and eventually I give in and lie prone on my stomach once more. “That’s because we’re getting to the root of the problem,” he says patiently. “Your muscle is clenched so tightly that pressing on it forces those fibers to start releasing, but in order to do so they clench even tighter first. We have to force it to spasm until it wears itself out.”
    “You’re kidding, right? I’m supposed to lie here while you make that happen? We’re hoping my shoulder just spasms to death and gives up?”
    “Not hoping,” Shane corrects. “It will.”
    “You’re used to getting what you want.”
    “Only because I’m always right.”
    I roll my eyes as best I can from my position. He’s smiling slightly.
    “Here,” he says, one hand massaging my back, the other going to his belt and quickly unbuckling it. He pulls it free of the loops, and I try to sit up again. This time he holds me down.
    “What the fuck, Shane?” I squeal, face pressed into the mattress.
    “I’m not going to hit you with it,” he says, amused. I don’t need to see that eyebrow to know it’s arched.
    “That’s not what I’m worried about!”
    “What did you thi—Oh,” he breathes, voice low. “I’m not going to tie you up, either, Kate. But nice to know.”
    I scowl, cheeks burning. “Then what’s it for?”
    He holds the end to my lips. “Bite down.”
    “Bite down?” I snap. “I’m not a cowboy! We’re not removing a bullet.”
    He laughs. “Suit yourself. But don’t move or I will tie you up.”
    “I’d kill you.”
    He laughs again. I’m glad one of us finds this hilarious.
    “Stay put.”
    He shifts on the mattress so one knee is on the bed beside me and the other leg reaches the floor. He uses his considerable weight to apply just the right amount of pressure, starting with wider circles before zeroing his way back to the muscle in question. There’s no doubt this hurts, and when he gets closer and closer the pain increases, and I can’t help but whimper.
    “You’re doing great,” he whispers.
    “Shut up.”
    He keeps going. I try to distract myself from what his thumbs are doing, but I can’t. He’s digging into something that feels like it’s on fire, and every thrust of his thumbs may as well be him stabbing me with a dagger.
    “I can’t,” I mumble, writhing. “I can’t.”
    “The more it hurts the closer it is to being over,” he promises.
    “Bullshit.”
    “I wouldn’t lie to you, Kate.”
    I squeal and try to roll away.
    “Stay put.”
    I roll the other way.
    “Nearly there.”
    I buck upward on the mattress, trying to throw him off, but he’s ready, and the next thing I know he’s got a knee in my back and his devious hands are killing me. He’s killing me.
    “Stop!” I shriek.
    “Count to ten.”
    “I can’t!”
    “Ten…”
    “Nineeightsevensix—”
    “Nine…”
    “Shane!” Tears are pouring from my eyes. My shoulder is a hotbed of pain, like a barbed,