It doesn't quite register at first. He's aroused by what? I blink a few times in his direction, look down at his fingers wrapped around my wrist, then raise my eyes to his.

"Hunh?" My voice comes out as a squeak. "You can only what?"

When he cups my face in his big hands I try to squirm away, but he's too powerful.

"I can only get hard and orgasm if a woman's unconscious. Sleeping women are the most beautiful. Some psychologists have told me that it's due to some unresolved Oedipal complex issues."

My skin feels suddenly too tight. I can't stop shaking.

"You were so unbelieveable last night. You were a living and breathing creature worthy of accepting my love. A perfect vessel, so to speak. An empty vessel, one that I could control."

Even though he's holding onto my face, I begin to retch. He lets go and I run to the bathroom — all the while thinking about why I'm even bothering to vomit in the toilet. Why not just puke over his shiny wood floors? He deserves that and so much more.

Gasping for breath, I slump against the glass of the shower and begin to cry. When Sebastian appears in the doorway, I slide down the glass and into a ball, bending my knees and wrapping my arms around my legs. I want everything to disappear, starting with him.

"Stay away from me." I'm trembling and wondering how the fuck I'm going to get out of here.

He shuts the lid on the toilet and sits.

"Juliette. I'm sorry that you're scared. And I apologize for leaving a mark. I'll try to be careful next time."

"Next time?" I cry.

"I'm afraid this is the deal you made when you decided to sell yourself to help your brother."

A deal with the devil...

Through my tears, I snort in derision. "My brother would rather die than have me be... raped by you while I'm unconscious."

Making a tsk noise with his tongue, he rests his hand on the top of my head and pets me, as if I'm a cat. "That's such an unpleasant word. We can debate over whether it's rape. I'd argue no, because you've agreed to everything I've asked of you, and I'm giving you so much. Haven't I treated you well? I'm sure you'll come around and see my way of thinking eventually."

"Are you fucking kidding?" I glare at him through tear-dappled lashes. "I'm out of here. And going straight to police. You're a pervert. You drugged me against my will and deserve to be locked up. I don't care what you do to Ash. He'll understand."

Struggling to keep the robe around me and not flash him while I stand up, Sebastian also gets up. And presses me into the heavy glass door of the shower. He strokes my face and I jerk my head away. He tries to stroke the other cheek and I again jerk to the side.

"Look at me," he hisses, taking my jaw roughly in his hand. "You sold yourself to me to help your brother. And now you're going to have to stay with me."

"Fuck. You." I say between gritted teeth. "You'll be in prison in no time."

He chuckles and the sound sends a spike of fear through my chest. "Hardly. For one thing, it's the word of a girl who's already been picked up for prostitution versus that of a doctor. And no one will ever believe that you didn't down a few pills with your expensive champagne to get high. At least that's what I'll tell them."

Again I try to squirm away. His hand slides to my throat and squeezes. He's probably right. Who's going to believe me? I realize that I need to stop fighting, at least for now. Otherwise he'll kill me. Just cooperate until I can leave, then I'll get away. Find Griffin and we'll make a plan. He'll help me, defend me, believe me. Won't he?

Sebastian presses his lips to my ear and I whimper when his hot breath hits my skin.

"I know all about your relationship with Griffin, liebling. And his little stunt of calling an ambulance last night only made me angrier, because it prevented me from consummating our relationship. I was just about —"

I gasp. "What? He what?"

"Did you tell him to call? Don't pretend or lie. Someone called 911 and said there was a woman here passed out and in need of medical attention last night. I'm sure it was Griffin. Who else could it have been? I was just about to slide off your pretty little panties when they banged on the door. Thank God I was able to tell the paramedics that I'm a doctor and everything was under control."

How did Griffin know I was in trouble? Did he really call? I'm so confused. It doesn't take much to imagine what Sebastian was doing to me when I was unconscious, and I whimper. "Did you fuck me?"

"No, libeling. Unfortunately not. I hadn't even removed my clothes — I was enjoying taking my time with you. After I persuaded the EMTs that you were in good care of a medical doctor, you vomited on the duvet. So much vomit. I had to get you and everything cleaned up. Rather, I told Lena to do it, because I was so angry with you and with Griffin. By then I wasn't in the mood for making love. You were groaning and moaning and flopping around, and that was a massive turn-off, along with the smell. I slept downstairs on the sofa in my library."

"Holy shit, you just called it making love. That's twisted. You're a sick fuck."

He smirks and strokes my jaw with his thumb. "If you or Griffin go to the police, if you do anything but obey me, I'll call off my lucrative little deal with your boyfriend. There's still time. And then he'll never get his sister back, and I suspect he'll blame you forever for her death. Is that what you want?"

I'm sobbing even harder. I can't help it. I hadn't wanted to show emotion, but this is too much.

"How did you know about us?" I whisper through my thick tears.

"Other than your frightened and shocked look the other night when Griffin was sitting here, enjoying my expensive scotch? I knew last year, my dear." He squeezes my throat and I struggle to inhale. He could so easily crush my windpipe. I'd be dead within seconds.

"Please. Just let go of me and I won't leave. I won't tell anyone. Please?"

He smiles and releases me altogether, but he's still standing close.

"See? Isn't that better?"

I nod, trying to cooperate.

"You know he's the reason I wanted to be with you?"

I shake my head and Sebastian puts his hands on the shower glass, on either side of my head. I'm trapped. He presses his lips to mine and I nearly gag. Instead, I start to cry again.

"Because of Griffin, a person who was very special to me died. I told you about the other woman I had an arrangement with. Her name was Nadia. The one in the painting. I had the famous Russian artist fly here to paint Nadia while she was asleep. She was the first woman who allowed me to do what I wanted. What I needed. She was accepting of my fetish. I believe she even enjoyed it, as will you."

I squeeze my eyes shut. This cannot be happening.

"Unfortunately, Nadia was also a party girl. Like you."

But I'm not...I almost say. But what I am or am not doesn't matter right now.

"She liked going out and dancing. Taking ecstasy from time to time. I didn't mind, really, as long as she was available for my needs."

In my mind, I'm screaming. Looking at him is impossible. So is killing him with my bare hands.

"One night we went out together, to an afterparty at a club. Griffin was there. Your Griffin. I've known him since he was small, because his father is a dear friend. Amazing man, his father. Anyway," Sebastian pauses to stroke my hair, and I'm shaking so hard that my teeth are chattering, "The three of us spent the evening talking. A week or two later, Nadia tells me that she ran into Griffin in a bar one night and that she went home with him. Of course I wasn't pleased, but there was nothing I could do, since I was paying her, like I pay you. Back then I didn't think to ask her to marry me. I thought I could find someone more respectable. That was stupid, on my part."

I'm sobbing now, and dry heaving. He doesn't seem to mind, because he kisses my cheek and licks my tears.

I try to squirm away by sliding down the glass shower door, but he roughly hoists me back up.

"Nadia ended up falling for Griffin. Hard. Oh, he didn't feel the same way about her. He was what, twenty, or twenty-one. He fucked anything that moved back then. Maybe he does now, who knows. One night, I told her she couldn't see him. I'd given her some pills, valium and Xanax, hoping we'd have a night of fun. But she left my home, upset. She was driving to him on the beach when she got into a car crash and died. It's a sad story, I know. I cried, too, my dear. I was devastated. You and Nadia would have been friends, I think."

So he essentially killed her. Sick. He's the sickest man I've ever met. Worse than all the villains in every horror movie I've seen. "Please let me sit."

He steps aside and I sink onto the closed toilet seat. He takes my chin in his hands and tilts my head up so I'm forced to look at him. His eyes are cold and flashing, and I can't believe how fucked up this has gotten in the blink of an eye.

"When I first saw you at the college last summer, I didn't know you were with him, of course. I merely thought you were a beautiful young girl, and fantasized for weeks about what I'd do to you if you were deep asleep in my bed."

Holy shit, this is bad.

"And then one night, I saw you out. At the restaurant, the one where we had our first date. You were with Griffin. I was jealous, of course. Irrationally so. I'd tried to replicate what I'd had with Nadia so many times, but never came close. All because of Griffin and his selfishness. So I wondered how I could take you away from him, because he obviously adored you. And why wouldn't he? You're adorable. That's what you don't understand, is that I genuinely like you, Juliette."

"I'm honored," I mumble sarcastically. "Thanks."

He chuckles. "And you're even funny. I love that about you. I truly do want to marry you."

I'm going to kill myself before that happens.

"Anyway. I knew I'd eventually run into you at the school, since you'd enrolled as a pharmacy major. Then I heard about Griffin's trouble in Amsterdam on the news. I made sure your professors and guidance counselor encouraged you to attend that party. And even though I thought Griffin was dead, the idea that I could have his girl, that could make you my beautiful, inanimate object, was like a karmic justice. I was going to get in touch with you regardless of your little brush with the law. When you needed my help, and when he called me to say he was alive and asked me to procure pills for him, well, that made everything so much sweeter."

He lets go of my face and I slump back toward the toilet tank. Crouching down, he opens the bottom of my robe and puts his hands lightly on my bare knees. That simple touch makes me feel violated all over again and I recoil.

"I have a lunch meeting." His eyes flicker over me. "You're free to go home, of course. But tonight we must attend a function together. I'll pick you up at eight. Please, wear something formal and fix the puffiness under your eyes. And remember: if you say anything to Griffin, or anyone, about this, Zoe won't be coming home. From what Griffin tells me, those men in Amsterdam are pretty serious, so I wouldn't be surprised if they killed Zoe and Griffin if he doesn't make our deal happen."

I glare at him.

"Do you need money for today?" he asks gently. "Perhaps you want to go shopping?"

I squeeze my eyes shut. How can his tone change so quickly? Why is he such a monster? I shake my head instead of spitting in his face. Which is what I want to do.

"See you tonight." He presses a kiss to my forehead and walks out of the bathroom, shutting the door.

My body is too weak to hold me up, so I again slide to the floor, into the corner. Again I wrap myself into a ball and feel the cool marble tile on the bottoms of my feet. I don't want to leave now and risk seeing him again — I don't know how I'll be able to stand looking at him at all after today — and so I rock, back and forth.

Minutes pass. Maybe a half hour. Or an hour. To say that I'm catatonic would be accurate. Emotionally dead.

Who should I tell? Will anyone listen? Will he face any consequences?

And then, the bathroom door opens. I whimper and look up, expecting it to be Sebastian.

Instead, it's Lena. Oh great, now I have to deal with her.

She pauses and looks down at me, her green eyes kinder than I've seen in the past. With a soft step, she approaches slowly, as if I'm a wounded animal. Lowering herself to her knees in front of me on a fuzzy white bath mat, she puts her palm on the top of my bare foot.

What the hell is this? Now she wants to make friends? Or is she part of this sick fetish game of Sebastian's?

"Juliette," she says in a soft voice, her accented voice thick with concern. "I'm sorry about what Sebastian did to you."

I shrink back. He said she'd cleaned me up after I vomited, but what did he tell her? "You know what happened? That he drugged me? Violated me?"

She nods. "I know about everything. Because he's done the same thing to me."

____