“I do appreciate your candor,” Jean said eventually. “I like you, Brock. I truly do. And I hope you’ll respect my decision and not resort to s...eaking around.”Brock felt Merie tense and squeezed her arm slightly again.“I do respect your decision about this evening,” Merie said evenly. “Allowing me to stay overnight somewhere is your decision to make. And we won’t be sneaking around. I have reached the age of consent in our state. I don’t need to sneak around. We simply thought it would be a far. Only very rarely was I taken out of my Isolation Suite, and that was only when the equipment involved was too large to fit through the somewhat wider than normal doorways this place used everywhere except for office doors. I lived in hope that they'd have to take me to the surface to put me into a particularly huge machine, but that never happened. I was only ever taken across my level to the far bank of elevators. One of its cars was particularly large, being used for transporting the animals. While he went to the cabinets, I squirmed trying to relieve the pain but nothing worked. My entire butt felt raw.Mr. Grayson returned with a rubber ring. It was a big circle with nothing in the middle."Open your mouth," he said.My mouth WAS open because the pain of my butt caused me to do so but I focused and opened my mouth wider. He put the ring under my lips on one side stretching it then painfully forced the rest of the ring between my teeth and lips on the other side. My mouth was open. By then we’d arrived in Joplin and I was looking at street signs, making my way to our destination.“Look. Let’s just have some pizza and maybe get to know each other a little better and have a nice time. That’s all that has to happen. I don’t want you to be afraid of me.”“I’m not afraid of you,” she said.“You’re just worried I’m after your body.”“Well? Isn’t that really what men want?”I looked over at her.“Well, you’re good looking, and intelligent. That’s attractive, but it doesn’t mean I’m.