Chapter 50

As the month progressed, there was a pivotal and fundamental sea-change; a lot of nights when Christian would come back to the condo, Hope wasn't there - there was always some study-group, or some campus outing to attend; behavior that was more than unusual for a socially-phobic lone ranger.

The more it happened, the more on-edge he became, and the more mercurial and combative, verbally abusive...which led to Hope going out of her way more and more, to avoid him, or put off face-to-face contact as much as possible.

They'd never even discussed anything significant since the argument about her vanishing act - never gone into the things she'd heard about him and his BDSM past; her exes; anything. All those things were just a wide gulf between them, never touched upon.

And there was something else; the art-modeling, hadn't stopped either.

"You're regressing", Dr Flynn pointed out to him one afternoon.

Christian couldn't see it. "Nonsense."

Flynn rattled on, but at this point Grey had him firmly tuned out.

Things came to a head that Friday night. Hope hadn't been able to find a valid excuse to avoid coming home, and Christian pulled her into the living room, about to make his "Hail Mary" shot.

She stared at him in disbelief. "So you want to buy me."

He corrected her, pointing towards the text on the document. "No, this is just a contract stating certain things. We will continue to be together - for an extended period - and all your needs will be looked after, if you agree to certain things."

Hope gave him a 'Don't bullshit a bullshitter' look. "And that translates out to making a purchase."

"No, you're looking at it all wrong. It's not a deed of ownership. It's a written outline of an agreement two consenting adults decided upon." He responded gently, trying to talk her down.

"Don't try to snow me with that businessman spin-bullshit", she snapped. "Don't insult my intelligence. It's you agreeing to pay a monetary amount for my company. It's prostitution."

"No, it doesn't -" he started, by this point he was almost pleading with her, getting nervous.

She didn't want to look at him anymore. "I'm going to bed", she said, heading for the guest bedroom, not the main quarters.

A couple days later, Hope fidgeted with her napkin and glanced across the table at Christian. His face was all stone, but his eyes were on fire. She kept on anyway, stumbling over some of her words, but undeterred. "...I just really don't think this is a good idea anymore for either one of us", she said finally.

The ride back to campus, was a silent one. She kept sneaking sidelong glances at him worriedly; at this point she genuinely feared him.

That evening Christian went missing.