Midnight Bride The CEO's Temptation

Crystal was reaching the end of her rope. Tears ran down her eyes, and she wiped them away with her sleeve. "Is there anything that I can do to change your mind?" she begged.

Nathan met her eyes, and a shark-like Cheshire grin appeared on his face. "I will give you five million dollars a night," he said. "If you perform to my satisfaction for five nights in a row, then I will give you the money that you need to save your friend's Father's life! Do we have a deal?"

Crystal didn't want to be a prostitute, but if selling her body was the only way to get the money she wanted, she was willing to do it. She nodded her affirmation, and then she walked out of the office. Her head was in a haze, and her thoughts were all a jumble, but she was brought back to reality by the sound of her cell phone ringing.

It was Serenity. Crystal had sent her friend her: GPS coordinates in the hopes that they could determine her location. She hoped that Serenity had some good news for her, but she was sorely disappointed.

"I can't find your location," Serenity said sadly. "I'm sorry..."

"I see." Crystal fell into deep thought. She had hoped to escape by herself and not let Nathan or Eric know where she was going. Crystal sighed. All she wanted was her original life. It had been simple, but at least she had been free to live it as she pleased.

Serenity: "What are you going to do?"

Crystal: "Eric said that he could take me out of here..."

Serenity: "What about Professor Davis?"

"He..." Crystal paused. After everything that had happened over the past few days, she couldn't think of a way to sum it up quickly. Finally, she said, "Serenity, I just want to go home..."

Serenity: "Fine. Let's get you home. Are you hiding something from me? What happened to Professor Davis?"

Crystal: "It's nothing... I simply want to live alone..."

Serenity: "Crystal, no matter what happens, you have to remember that I'm always with you, and I have your back."

When Crystal heard that, she began to cry. "Through all of this, you have been the only one I could trust and count on," she said. "I cannot thank you enough for your friendship and support."

"That's what friends are for," Serenity assured her. "Anyway, there was something else I wanted to talk to you about. I finally remembered where I'd seen the cufflink you were going on about.

Crystal: "Where?"

Serenity: "Do you remember my cousin Nancy Carter? She married a Kuerto man, and on her wedding day, our whole family went to Kuerto to attend the ceremony. Anyway, the groom - my brother-in-law - had the same cufflink as yours!"

"I do remember!" Crystal exclaimed. "Before she got married, we had dinner and drinks together." A picture of the tender, weak, mild-mannered woman appeared in her mind. "Do you have Nancy's address?"

Serenity: "You don't want to go there, do you? Kuerto is far away..."

"I would like to go there," Crystal answered with certainty.

Serenity: "Alright. I'll send the address to you later. When do you want to depart? I can have Nancy pick you up at the airport."

Crystal: "That would be great. And the sooner I can leave, the better. I had planned to go to a completely strange place anyway, to start a completely new life, and Kuerto sounds perfect!"

****

That evening Crystal went to her and Nathan's room to present herself to him. She knew that he was expecting her, so she was surprised to find that the door was locked. She had the key, though, so it presented no problem.

Nathan had given her the key when they had moved into the villa. It was a key with an infrared recognition system, and it could open all the doors in the manor.

"Including the door of my heart..." Nathan had said. Crystal remembered that night. He had pressed her hand on his heart and sung to her a love song. All men are liars - she thought bitterly - Liars and pigs! She tried to set aside the hurt in her heart as she unlocked the door and pushed it open.

Inside the room, the reading lamp was still on, and Helen was lying on the bed. She looked like she was asleep. She didn't see Nathan, so she was going to leave, but then she felt a hand on her arm. A familiar mint fragrance drifted into her nose. It frightened her, and she took a step backward. Her instinct was to run away, but the hand clamped around her wrist and twisted it behind her back. "Nathan," she whined. "You're hurting me..."

Nathan: "For a million dollars a night, I should be able to hurt you as much as I want. Or do you renege?"

"I do not," Crystal whispered.

Nathan: "Okay! let's do this."

Crystal: "You don't mean here, do you?"

Nathan: "What's the problem? This is our bedroom."

Crystal looked at Helen and said, "But Helen is sleeping..."

"I'm not worried," Nathan said as he pulled her towards the sofa. "If you are, then maybe you don't need the money as badly as you led me to believe..."

Crystal gritted her teeth and sat down beside him. She had no choice but to do as he bid her. Without his money, she could go nowhere.

Nathan took out his checkbook and a pen, and he wrote out a one-million-dollar check with Crystal's name on it. But he did not sign it. Instead, he held it in the air, waved it in front of her cold eyes, and said, "If you make me happy, I'll sign my name on this."

Crystal glared at Nathan. She had never hated anyone as much as she did Nathan at that moment. She wanted to kill him, but she knew that she couldn't. She needed the money too much. "Fine," she said. "But I still don't want to do it here with Helen sleeping there."

Nathan smirked and said, "You have no choice.. Not if you want the money…."