Her eyes teared from the gagging, topped off with embarrassment. She covered her nose and mouth, sitting up and turning away. Before she could scramble from her own bed, I sat up on an elbow and took hold of her arm, just above the elbow.

"Hey... don't..."

She tried to pull away, but I hauled her up next to me, pushed her down on her back and rolled my chest on her, while reaching across her for a hand full of sheet.

Her mind was panicked, frozen, locked up. She struggled, but was totally ineffective. When I pulled the sheet to her face to wipe her nose like a little...