Page 19 of Seducing Serena

“Oh, sweetheart, it’s over. You’re all right,” Ford murmured.

Her brain had grown fuzzy and he was the only thing keeping her on her feet. She wished Noah was here as well, but he had gone off somewhere.

“Serena? Talk to me,” Ford said as she staggered toward the hallway where she knew their room was located.

But she couldn’t talk to him. She couldn’t form words. It took all her concentration to stay on her feet and put one foot in front of the other.

He seemed to understand because he stopped asking questions and just helped her down the hall and into their room. She didn’t remember dropping her tablet somewhere until they were back in the room and she was sitting on the side of the bed.

“My tablet,” she said, her tongue feeling too big for her mouth. She wasn’t sure she’d even said the words aloud.

“We’ll get it back, honey. Don’t worry,” Ford assured her as he knelt in front of her, staring up at her hard. “Right now you need to lie down and rest.”

Serena didn’t argue or wait for him to pull her filthy shirt off. She simply relaxed and fell over on her side. She then pulled her legs up to her chest like the little pill bugs she used to torment as a child. When Ford stood and moved away from the bed, the fuzzy bubble of shock closed completely around her and she was oblivious to anything happening around her.

When Ford and Noah had told her they were taking her to a BDSM resort for a week of fun and games the last thing she’d expected to happen was being involved in a fight with a complete stranger.

Was she to blame for the incident because she’d left their room to spend a few minutes by herself? They’d been at the Ranch for two days and although they had definitely enjoyed some sexy times, Serena still felt like she was failing at being their submissive.

Would Ford and Noah decide to go home and forget these past few days had ever happened? If they did, could she go back to just being their renter and coworker? Would they force her to move? Would she have to find a new job somewhere else?

She sniffed as a single tear burned its way down the side of her face.

CHAPTER11

Serena continued floating in the gray fuzziness until she heard Ford talking to someone. Was it Noah or someone else? Opening her eyes, she found Noah’s face just inches from hers. He was smiling at her though she could see the worry in his eyes.

“Hi,” she whispered. She felt too weak to do more than lie on the bed like a pile of mushy grits.

“Hey there, sugar. How are you feeling?” Noah brushed a kiss on her nose before gently picking up her bruised hand and settling an ice pack over her knuckles.

She sucked a sharp breath as the cold cut through a bit of the fuzziness that had settled over her. “I’m feeling kinda fuzzy.”

“I bet you are. Is it shock fuzzy like you had on day two of the job? Or did that punch do more damage than just the bruise your hand?”

Serena took a new inventory of her body and the pain she felt. While the knuckles on her right hand hurt, she also had a headache, but she thought that was due more to hunger and stress than the incident.

Holding the ice pack to the top of her hand, she straightened her legs and slowly sat up. As she did, the headache eased a little. At the same time, her stomach rumbled loudly.

“It’s just shock fuzzy, I think,” she said.

They’d dealt with this kind of shock before. Her second shift on the job, she and her partner were called to pick up a dead body. What dispatch had not mentioned was that the man had been dead for several days and lived in a rat-infested apartment building.

She’d gotten fuzzy with shock that day, too. It had taken a cold shower and a sugary soda to begin to clear her head. When the captain offered to let her go home she’d refused, and sucked it up, finishing out the shift.

“Drink this, honey,” Ford lifted a bottle to her lips.

She opened her mouth and jolted at taste of orange juice that was too sweet and had something else added to it. Something beyond just sugar. After three swallows, she pushed his hand away.

“What did you put in that?”

“A couple packets of sugar and a little vodka,” Ford said with a smirk and a shrug. “I figured if the sugar didn’t pull you out of it, maybe the alcohol would.”

Serena blinked and shivered as the drink hit her empty stomach before surging out to every cell in her body. All at once her mind was clear as ultra-filtered water. And she was hungry.

Looking from Ford to Noah, she smiled. “Thanks, guys. I’m back from Fuzzyland. I never got to eat my donut. Can we go get breakfast and find my tablet now?”

“We most certainly can,” Noah said, sounding relieved. “But from now on, you will not leave the room without one of us with you.”

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