Chapter 6: The Next Morning

POV: EVE

Eve woke to sunlight streaming through floor-to-ceiling windows and the immediate, brutal awareness that something was very, very wrong.

Her body ached. Not the pleasant soreness of a good workout, but something deeper...intimate. Her thighs trembled when she tried to move. Her core felt tender, used, claimed in ways she'd never experienced.

And she was naked.

Completely, utterly naked in a bed that wasn't hers, wrapped in sheets that smelled like expensive cologne and sex and something darker she couldn't name.

Dimitri.

The memory crashed over her like ice water: The bar. The whiskey. Climbing into his lap. Begging....oh God, she'd begged him to touch her. His fingers inside her. His mouth on her. Coming so hard she'd screamed his name.

And then... nothing. Blackness. Had they...?

She sat up too fast, and her head spun with the remnants of alcohol and pleasure and regret. The room came into focus slowly....masculine, massive, expensive. Dark wood and leather furniture. A door that probably led to a bathroom. Another that must lead out.

Out.

She needed to get out.

Eve swung her legs over the edge of the bed, hissing at the soreness, and stood on shaky legs. Her dress from last night lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. Her shoes were nowhere to be seen. Her purse...where was her purse?

She grabbed the dress, started to pull it on, and that's when she saw it.

A folder on the nightstand. Cream-colored, expensive-looking, with her name written across the front in elegant script.

Eve Thorne

Her hands shook as she picked it up, opened it, and started to read.

AGREEMENT OF OWNERSHIP

This contract, entered into on [last night's date], between Dimitri Valentino (hereafter "Owner") and Eve Thorne (hereafter "Property")...

Property.

The word made her stomach drop.

She kept reading, each line worse than the last:

Duration: Six (6) months from date of signing

Terms: - Property's body, time, and choices belong exclusively to Owner - Property will make herself available at Owner's beck and call - Property will obey all instructions given by Owner - Property will not engage in sexual or romantic contact with any other person - Property's location, schedule, and activities require Owner's approval - Owner reserves the right to punish Property for disobedience

Compensation: - Owner will provide financial support, protection, and pleasure - Owner will ensure Property's safety and well-being

Termination Clause: - Either party may terminate this agreement before the six-month period - Party initiating early termination must pay the other party $50,000,000 (fifty million dollars) for emotional damages

And there, at the bottom, in handwriting that was definitely hers but that she had zero memory of producing:

Eve Thorne

She'd signed it.

She'd signed away six months of her life to Dimitri Valentino.

Fifty million dollars. Fifty. Million. Dollars.

She didn't have fifty million dollars. She didn't have five million dollars. Her company was successful but not that successful. Her divorce wasn't even finalized. Her assets were tied up. She was, for all intents and purposes, broke compared to that number.

Which meant...

She couldn't leave.

She couldn't afford to leave.

She was trapped.

"No," she whispered, her voice cracking. "No, no, no, no, no."

She had to get out. Had to think. Had to find a way to fix this before....

Before what? Before Dimitri woke up and expected her to honor this insane contract?

Yes. Exactly that.

Eve pulled her dress on with shaking hands, not bothering with her bra or panties....wherever those had ended up. She grabbed her purse from a chair in the corner, checked for her phone (dead, of course), her wallet (still there), her keys.

She could leave. She could go to her apartment, charge her phone, call a lawyer, figure out how to break this contract. There had to be a way. Contracts signed while intoxicated weren't legally binding, were they?

She moved toward the door on silent feet, her heart hammering so hard she could hear it in her ears.

The bedroom door opened soundlessly. She stepped into a hallway....tastefully decorated, more expensive art on the walls, thick carpet that muffled her footsteps.

She could hear... nothing. No sounds of movement. No indication that anyone else was awake.

Good.