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didn't matter anyway since Shipe promptly blindfolded her.
She straddled his lap, her knees to either side of his hips,
naked but for the collar he'd fastened around her neck—a
narrow strip of black lined by metal rings to which her cuffed
wrists were individually attached. She felt Shipe carefully
touch the sharp point of a pen next to the stiffening tip of her
right nipple, inking a small dot to first one side and then the
other. He then put the pen aside.
His fingertips touched lightly beneath both breasts and he
shifted away from her before grunting with grudging
acceptance. "That looks about even."
She felt the cold swipe of a damp cloth passing over first
one rosy tip and then the other, and though she couldn't
smell it, the strong alcohol of the antiseptic flavored the air.
She could almost taste it as she breathed the smell across her
tongue.
"Hold still," he said, and her stomach tightened when he
fastened a clamp over the tip of her nipple to line up the dots.
"I'm sorry." She ducked her head, not liking the feel of the
clamps but trying her best not to move.
"Your sorrys are like your thank yous," Shipe said
distractedly, and she felt his breath brush her chest as he
leaned closer. "I don't need to hear either. But I do need you
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to hold still, or these are going to be lopsided. And I," he
turned the clamp slightly to the left, "will be very cross."
Mercy felt both his hands come to rest on her breast: one
holding the clamp and the other, she knew, holding the
needle.
"I do this for all the girls here," he said, making a last
adjustment with the clamp before shifting away from her so
that he could better see both dots at the same time. "Any
time a master wants his Personal pierced, I do it. It's a fun
hobby that just happens to fit in really well here. Good thing,
I suppose, that you're not really mine. Otherwise God only
knows how many holes you'd end up with."
She felt the prick of the sharp needle against her nipple.
"Ready?" he asked.
And in a trembling voice, she said, "Yes, sir."
The needle punched through her flesh in one quick,
practiced stroke. She winced at the sound more than she did
from the minute puncture of pain. In truth, she barely had
time to do more than catch her breath, and then it was done.
"Perfect," he said. "Now you're going to feel a little tug."
Now Mercy did gasp as he quickly pulled the needle
through the hole, looping a surgical steel ring in its place,
slipping in one side and out the other before she had a
chance even to hunch her shoulders. A drop of blood
splattered down upon her bare stomach, and the metal clamp
took hold of her left nipple.
She whimpered. A dull, burning ache suffused her right
breast, and the building heat overtook her until she barely felt
the clamp.
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Judgment II: Mercy
by Denise Hall
"Absolutely beautiful," he said, and paused what he was
doing to cup her chin between thumb and forefinger and
press the gentlest of kisses upon her lips. "In a few months,
when these have had time to heal, you're going to look even
more pleasing walking with these two lovelies on the end of
my leash."
Praise from him was so rare. Despite the pain, his words
made her blush. She almost missed feeling the prick of the
second needle at her left nipple.
"One more. Ready?"
His praise also gave her courage, and she drew a deep
breath. When she nodded, the second needle immediately
punched through her flesh. This one hurt worse than the first,
and her muscles accidentally spasmed, her legs squeezing
around his hips, her shoulders hunching as if she could pull
her breast out of his hands. She caught herself and quickly
pushed her chest back out again, biting her lip and fighting
herself to hold still.
"Not bad," he said, a note of admiration in his voice. "I've
had hardened Personals kick and cry while I did this to them."
Mercy managed a weak smile and panted through the
worst of the burning pain.
"Here's the tug." He pulled the needle through her nipple
and quickly followed it with the ring. As he sat back, his
fingers lightly touched the outsides of both breasts and he
examined his work. "Absolutely beautiful." He covered each of
her nipples with a bandage and fondly kissed her lips one last
time. "You're going to make every Lesser in the Pit as green
as your tunic. Your first assembly, too. And contrary to
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by Denise Hall
popular speculation, it's not going to be you on the block.
Now isn't that a stroke of good luck."
Mercy didn't need to ask who was slated to suffer the most
feared punishment in all of Judgment. Her eyes were swollen
shut and she could barely breathe through her nose, but
there was nothing wrong with her mind. Mahogany was going
to be punished for what she'd done.
True to his word, Master Shipe cut the front from her
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