"Okay," Devin said as he came back into the room. "Let's finish your exam." "What else is there?" Carrie asked, knowing full well she wouldn't be able to argue with his answer, whatever it was. "I need to finish looking over your skin," he said, "since it seems you might have a habit of not protecting it. And I'm going to do a breast exam, since something tells me you haven't been doing that either." She looked down at her hands. "Okay." He pulled the kitchen chair close to her bedside and sat down. "Let me see your arms," he said. She unfolded her hands, which had been resting on her abdomen, and offered them to him. He took her hands in his and looked her arms up and down, rotating her wrists in each direction. "Okay, put your hands up behind your head." She obeyed, and he proceeded to inspect under her arms, both visually and running his fingers over the ticklish skin, causing her to squirm. Without a word of warning, he began to palpate one of her breasts, sending a wave of goosebumps and butterflies, nervousness yet excitement, through her body. He covered every inch of her breast, pressing in light circles followed by deeper ones, applying such firm pressure over the nipple area that she winced from the mild pain. "I know that's a little uncomfortable. I'm sorry," he soothed. After lifting the breast to view the skin underneath, he repeated the entire process on the other side, again apologizing as he pressed and squeezed her nipple firmly. Initially she was glad he was finished causing her what seemed like unnecessary pain. But to her surprise and confusion, a part of her wanted him to keep going. She couldn't explain what it was that appealed to her about letting him inflict just enough pain to make her gasp but not physically harm her. And it never had appealed to her until this moment. Was something changing in her, or had it always been there just waiting to be drawn out? Devin pulled her back out of her thoughts. "I'm going to take the sheet now so we can check your legs," he told her. He stood and pushed the chair out of the way. As he uncovered her, she pulled her arms back down from behind her head, folding her hands at her waist. Standing bent over the bed, he surveyed her legs from thigh to toe, front, outside, and inside. He ran his fingers along her inner thighs, sending chills up her spine, before raising each leg one by one to view the back. Finally, with both of her legs once again flat on the bed, Devin pulled the chair back over and sat down beside her. "Okay, Carrie," he said, placing his hand on top of hers. "We agreed that I'm in charge, right?" She nodded. "And you know I would only do what I think is best for you." She nodded again, not sure if she was liking where this was going. "You told me that night at the reunion that you had avoided routine exams for so long because being examined makes you uncomfortable." "Yes," she replied nervously. "And I'm guessing that's especially true when it comes to pelvic exams, considering you'd never had one until I did one that night." Now she knew exactly where it was going. She squeezed her eyes shut. "Yes." "Okay," he said. "So even though it's only been a couple of months, we're going to do a pelvic exam now, because I think you need to get used to them so you don't avoid them in the future." She sighed. It was hard to argue with him. She probably would keep avoiding them as long as he wasn't there to pressure her into it. And as much as the idea of Devin touching and looking at her most intimate areas still embarrassed her, a tiny part of her was just a little bit excited by the notion. She remembered the unexpected arousal she had felt during the last exam, and she wanted to feel that again. "It's going to be a little different this time," he told her. "Instead of bringing a bunch of chairs in here to rest your feet on, we're going to try a different position, okay?" She nodded. She figured there couldn't be any position more embarrassing than her backside hanging off the edge of the bed with him sitting between her knees.