Merinus gripped the side of the bed. Her legs shook as she fought to stay upright.

“I want to go home,” she panted, suddenly terrified by a thousand different feelings and sensations assaulting her. “Make them take me home, Doctor.”

“I will discuss it with Callan, Merinus,” he promised her softly, but she heard the indulgent tone of his voice. He was merely placating her. Lying to her.

She shook her head, fighting to stay upright.

“Where the fuck is Callan,” she cried out, disoriented now. She was sweating heavily; she could feel the moisture running down her face, between her breasts. Her heart was beating hard, laboring, her lungs fighting for breath. “What did he do to me?”

Her fists clenched as she felt herself collapsing against the bed.

“Let me help you, Merinus.” The doctor reached for her.

She felt his hands on her arm and jerked back, fire seemed to lance her skin, searing her flesh as she fought to get away. She stumbled over the bed, going to her knees, feeling the scrape of the hard floor as she fought to right herself.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed out.

She was crying now, her stomach cramping. She clasped her abdomen, bending over, rocking against a pain she had never felt before. She was terrified. So scared that her entire body was shuddering now. She was cold, shivering, filled with dread and on the edge of hysteria.

“Merinus.” Callan’s shocked voice echoed around the room.

Seconds later his hands gripped her arms, pulling her against him.

“What the hell is going on?” His voice was raised, furious, the dangerous growl rumbling in his touch.

“Withdrawal,” the doctor bit out. “I believe, Callan, your woman is in withdrawal.”

Callan felt fear course through his body. Merinus was clawing at him, fighting to get closer to him, crying, hysterical with fear or pain, he couldn’t say which.

“From what?” He lifted her head, staring down into her face. She was pale, her eyes dark, nearly black with shock.

“From you,” Doctor Martin stated roughly. “I don’t know what to do for her now.”

Callan cursed.

“Help me,” she whispered desperately, her tears hot on his flesh, her body shaking, her skin cold and clammy. “Please, Callan. Please help me.”

He lifted her quickly into his arms, his lips going to hers, his kiss swallowing her cry as he turned from the others. His tongue went to her mouth, tempting hers, mating with it. He knew when the need had been at its height the night before, his kiss had soothed her, eased the clawing need. God help him and her if it didn’t now.

He kissed her desperately, aching, hurting for her as she twisted in his arms, fighting to kiss him deeper, her lips and tongue mating with his, a hot moan of need whispering into his mouth, making it nearly impossible for him to control his own lusts now. But she eased. Slowly. The hard shivers that coursed over her body lessened, her whimpering cries became moans of desire.

“We need the saliva sample now.” He heard the doctor at his side. “We cannot touch her, Callan. I need

your help.”

Moving his lips from hers, Callan laid Merinus back on the cot. She was watching with dazed need, like an addict needing a fix. Dear God, what had they done to her. He gripped her jaw gently.

“Easy,” he whispered as she flinched back, seeing the doctor. “It’s okay, baby.”

The swab went around her mouth quickly.

“Your turn.” A clean swab poised at his mouth. Callan allowed the swab, watching Merinus carefully.

“No more tests,” she whispered. “I can’t stand their touch.”

“Then let me,” he asked her, his voice soft, cajoling. “We must find a way to stop this, Merinus.”

“I need another vaginal swab and Sherra needs blood. Now, Callan.” The doctor’s voice was imperative.

Merinus was shaking her head.

“Shh,” Callan moved to her side. “Concentrate on me, Merinus, and it will go quickly. Hold onto me, baby.”

He wrapped one of her arms around his neck, the other he stretched out on the bed for Sherra, clasping their hands, holding her still. Then he lowered his mouth to her. She had the softest, sweetest lips, her tongue branded his when he touched it, her kiss made him weak, made his cock throb. He felt her jerk when Sherra inserted the needle into her arm, but she didn’t fight it. The same when the vaginal sample was taken again, she endured it, focusing on his kiss, his touch, rather than the degrading tests that were required.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered against her lips when they were finished. He picked her up in his arms, striding quickly now from the lab. Damn them. Him, Sherra, the doctor. What had they done to Merinus? Withdrawal, somehow she had become dependent on whatever primal drug his kiss released into her system. Dammit, they didn’t even know what it was, didn’t know how to control it.

His arms tightened around her. He couldn’t stand this unbearable knowledge of what he was doing to her, the futility of trying to find a way to ease it.

“Now,” she whispered desperately as he entered the main part of the house with her. “I need you now, Callan.”

Her fingers were digging into his shoulders, her voice weak, pleading. He couldn’t make it to the bedroom with her. Her body wasn’t the only one affected, she wasn’t the only one steadily losing control. He laid her on the couch, ripping the damp shirt from her body then quickly shedding his jeans, before going to his knees between her spread thighs. His erection was steel hard, hurting from the need. Her scent was like a brand to his senses, hot and

seductive, just as addicting as their kisses, as the need for orgasm. He knew she was still sensitive, still sore. He fought for control. How he found it, he would never be certain. He slid into her, moving back to watch narrowly as the smooth folds of flesh parted around the width of his cock. Her vagina hugged him, sucked him in. His fingers smoothed over the silken flesh of her cunt, his eyes going to hers slowly.

“You wax?” he whispered, drawing his finger over the glazed skin until he could circle her swollen clit. The pearl pulsed beneath his finger, begging for his attention.

“Yes.” Her head tossed as he touched the sensitive flesh, as his cock slid in to the hilt, throbbing at the entrance to her womb.

“Why do you do this?” he asked her, gritting his teeth against the tightening of her inner muscles over his flesh.

Her eyes opened, dark, seductively, her lips parting as she moistened them with her tongue. His hips bucked against her.

“A friend convinced me to try it,” she panted, grinding against him, her breasts arching to his hands, her breathing harsh as he caressed her swollen nipples. “I like it.”

“Why?” he gritted out. “Tell me why you keep it like this.”

He slid nearly free of her body, his teeth clenching, perspiration dampening his entire body as he slid into the tight depths once again. Her muscles clenched, hot, milking his flesh. He had to keep his sanity. His control.

“It feels better,” she gasped. “Freer.”

“I feel nothing but hot satin against me, Merinus,” he gritted out. “You destroy my control like this. Hot velvet inside, silk and satin out. You make me mindless.”

He leaned over her, the fingers of one hand sinking into her hair, his lips nibbling at hers as he drew back, then inched in slowly.

“Oh, Callan.” She shivered against him, her hands clutching at his back, her nails biting into his flesh. “I need you harder. Please, do it harder.”

He resisted temptation. He wanted her slow and easy first. He wanted to take her to the edge of madness where he seemed to teeter each time he touched her.

“Feel how tight you are, Merinus,” he groaned against her neck, his tongue lapping at the perspiration there. “Feel how my flesh stretches you, fills you. You were created for me alone.”

Her cunt tightened on him, her muscles spasmed as he whispered the words against her neck. He pulled back, his hand tightening in her hair, the other holding her hip, keeping her still as she fought to buck against his body.

His lips tracked to her breast, swollen, curved so sweetly, her nipple poised like a ripe little berry atop it.

He licked it, allowing his tongue to rasp it, his teeth to grip it as she jerked against him, trying to force a deeper contact. And all the while his cock moved slowly inside her, pushing past tight, slick muscles, pulling back, dragging the emerging barb across her tender tissue.

“You’ll kill me,” she panted. “What in the hell is that, Callan?”

“What does it feel like?” he murmured against her breast. He was terrified to tell her, afraid disgust would ride the heels of her desire if he did so.

“I don’t know. Intense.” She gripped him hard, making him grimace as he dragged his flesh nearly free of her, then pushed forward again. “Firm,” she panted. “It feels like a little finger raking over—me.” Her cry of pleasure electrified him as he felt the barb emerge further. He wouldn’t last much longer. Control. He stilled, deep inside her, fighting for breath until he felt the small protrusion relax marginally. Damn, this was killing him. The sheer pleasure of the elongated growth scraping over her flesh was almost soul destroying. There had never been anything like it.

“Why did you stop?” she whimpered, pressing against him as he drew her nipple into his mouth for a quick taste.

“Slow and easy, Merinus,” he growled.

“No.” She shook her head. “Fast and hard. Oh God, Callan. If I don’t come soon I’m going to die.”

She was dazed, beseeching, clenching around him, her soft cream sliding over him. He wouldn’t last much longer. The barb was pulsing, a demand of its own, his cock was throbbing, demanding action, demanding the fierce hard friction that sent him spiraling into climax.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” He kissed her breast again. “I know you’re tender.”

“No. I’m dying.” He felt her legs lift, encircle his hips and his control disintegrated. Merinus cried out as the thrusts began. Hard, hot, driving into her. The thick expanse of his cock stretched her, biting at her flesh, whatever the hell that little thumb of silken torment located on his erection was doing to her, would kill her. It scraped over the walls of her cunt, caressing nerves she never would have known existed, swelling against her, pulsing, separating from the driving flesh of his erection.

Her legs tightened around his hips, driving him deeper within her as she fought for breath. It was so good. His scrotum slapped at her buttocks, the flesh of his lower abdomen raked her swollen clit. She felt fire in her vagina, in her womb, burning her, searing her. Her muscles clenched around him, loving the feel of the rough rasp of whatever it was that stroked the inner walls of her. It was hot. Oh God, it was killing her with pleasure, like a hard tickle. That’s what it was. A strength destroying tickle that locked her muscles, stole her strength.

“Merinus, baby,” he groaned against her breast. “I can’t control—”

The little thumb lengthened, raked, locked his cock deep inside her, then impaled the ultra sensitive tissue in the very depths of her cunt. It moved, pulsed, tickled and stroked until she exploded. She screamed, feeling the hard jets of his semen as she climaxed around his flesh, her hips arching, her clit erupting in pleasure, lava thundered through her veins, bubbling with the fierce ecstasy as she pulsed

around him, milking his cock, soaking his flesh.

His hips jerked against her, his rumbling growls vibrating against her breasts as he breathed harshly at her shoulder, groaning in the throes of his own frenzied release. Then slowly, she felt the pressure ease. Once again it was only his cock, thick, softening only marginally as he pulled free of her.

“Once I rest,” she said drowsily. “You’re gonna tell me what that was, Callan.”