“Hey, slut,” Merc said. Her voice, deep and distinctly feminine, immediately grabbed my attention. “Heh, thought you’d fall for that. Quit overthinking this ‘paw day’ stuff and get a load of these.” She placed her left foot on the right edge of my desk to give me a far closer look at it. She’s some kind of lizard-dino thing. “Dromeosaurid,” she interjected. Of course she could interrupt my train of thought. Her toes drummed on the laminated particleboard to demand my attention. While the lighting wasn’t great, the slightly-metallic sheen of her scale-textured something-something-technobabble skin made every detail shine. She doesn’t know what exactly it’s made of either; it doesn’t matter nearly as much as how good it looks and feels. Merc cleared her throat and tapped her foot more forcefully to remind me of where I should be paying attention. Her digitigrade paw leaned more heavily onto my desk. Her three toes splayed under her weight; the vicious claws pierced small marks into the cheap wood just by bearing down upon it. “Think about what they’d do to your skull,” she commanded. “Your face is too pretty to break, but if I curled my toes around your head…” Merc bared her teeth and let me finish the thought myself. “How about you give ‘em a kiss?” Merc commanded. Though she phrased it as a question, her tone made it clear she wasn’t asking. I hesitated for just a moment too long for her liking; she grabbed my head with a clawed hand and shoved it against her foot. “Kissssss.” Her voice dropped into a low, guttural hiss. My compliance was automatic; I didn’t register that I’d smooched one of her toes until after the fact. For all the high-tech work that went into creating Merc, the results seemed perfectly biological. Her skin gave just slightly to my touch. Her body was pleasantly warm, as if heated by the sun on a long day. “Good.” Merc acknowledged my subservience. “You should do that more often. Often as you… no, **I** want.” I blushed. “Now,” Merc continued, “Since you’re supposed to be wrapping up for the night, I think you’re going to join me. Let’s go.” She pushed off the desk and jumped backward, showing off the power in her legs. Her tail curled gently around my neck to pull me away, and I wasn’t about to argue with a lady threatening me with a good time.