Before he was going to leave, Eli made her go back to the room upstairs where he had defiled her already. He allowed her a quick trip to the bathroom, where she sat on the toilet and tried to bear down, as though she could force his cum out of her enough to prevent the inevitable. She even grabbed the washcloth from the shower and tried to scrub herself, but his knock on the door was impatient.

"Let's go, Ava. You've got a lot of things on this list. I need to leave soon if I'm going to be back by this evening."

She threw the washcloth back in the shower and flushed the toilet. At the sink, she lingered while washing her hands, looking at her face in the mirror, then her back, already bruising from the multitude of injuries ranging from the rugburn on the stairs last night to being pinned against floors and shelves and who knew what new places he would think up. Her arms were bruised too, wrists red and swollen from straining against the handcuffs. Mercifully, the drugs seemed to be taking it easy on her right now. She felt a constant sort of tension in her pussy like she could probably be made to cum again, but the flushed feeling that engulfed her and demanded attention had faded to something manageable, easier to suppress.

Eli grew tired of waiting and pushed open the door, waiting briefly at the threshold in case she tried to attack him with the element of surprise. He saw her inspecting herself and stepped in, pulling her back against his chest and burying his face into her neck.

"You're beautiful," he assured her, "I'm sorry for these," he traced lightly over the markings on her arms and back, "I'll try to be more gentle going forward, you're just so..." his voice trailed off and he made a loud whistling noise for effect, smiling at her in their reflection. "We're going to be so happy here, Ava."

His hands skirted along her waist again as he said it and she felt a new wave of tears. "Please, Eli. I'll stay with you. I'll take your meds and let you fuck me in every way imaginable. Just don't do this. Don't take this choice from me."

Eli's grip around her tightened, "The choice is made, Ava. I chose you. Whether you conceive or not is no guarantee. But I can't pretend the thought of you round with my child doesn't make me impossibly hard." As though to prove it, his erection seemed to come alert, poking the inside of her thigh as he watched her face for a reaction in the mirror.

More tears that would not sway him. "Please, Eli. Please. Not now. I'm still so young."

"You're 26. Prime years for breeding, a century ago you would have had 10 kids by now. Your body knows it too. It wants it even if your brain says no. It's pure biology, the urge to procreate, to bring forth new life. Oh, Ava," he sighed, "I know there's no guarantee but I hope you do."

A strangled sob welled up in her throat and her face crumpled. He held onto her, keeping her upright while she let her tears fall into the sink, bracing her hands on the edge of the basin to give some parts of her body rest from his persistent contact.

"Shh. It's natural, Ava. Don't be afraid."

"Can we wait?" she begged, "I'm not saying never, but not now. Let us get to know each other. Let things happen over time. I won't fight you, I'll stay with you. I just don't want to carry anyone's baby right now. We barely know each other."

Eli seemed to ponder her words carefully, like he was actually considering it. He leaned into her, their bodies folded together and the fronts of her legs pressed against the sink. She knew he was gearing up to have her again before he left to run errands. Maybe, if she could just reason well enough with him, he would pick up the final item she had scrawled on the list.

Ava turned to face him, tears streamed down her face and her lips trembled but she made herself stand on her tiptoes and initiate a kiss. He sighed in relief, gathering her into his arms and sliding his hands up and down her back to the cheeks of her ass, squeezing them as she deepened the kiss.

"Please, Eli," she begged with her shaky lips against his, "I don't want you to share me with anyone else right now. Just grab whatever form of birth control you want when you go out. Let us be like any other couple and enjoy each other for a while. Can you do that? For me?"

His chest rose and fell deeply, his eyes were dark, pupils blown wide with lust. She thought she had him; if she could just coax him to the finish line, maybe, she thought as her fingers wrapped around his cock, she could take him in her mouth, get him to find some other form of gratification he preferred that did not risk pregnancy. Sickened as she was by her sudden practicality, Ava pushed her hatred to the side and squeezed his shaft, pumping it a few times with her hand, then bending her knees to sink down on the linoleum floor.

Eli huffed when she came face to face with it, forcing herself to look eye to eye with the cock that had be forced on her over and over again. She swallowed her nerves and parted her lips to prepare herself for what she needed to do, but his hands suddenly grabbed at her hair, pulling her back up to standing, ignoring her whimpers of pain.

"Nice try, Ava. But my cock will be inside you every time I cum while you're under my roof. We'll let the chips fall where they may."

Fresh sobs wracked her body and she buried her face into his chest, weeping against the brown, curly chest hair there and sniffling through her grief as she tried to contain herself. At first, he held her sympathetically, but her face was pointing down and she saw his dick still hard as a rock and knew he was not leaving this house until he unloaded in her one more time.

Ava turned away, pushing him from her as she reached the door but then he was there behind her in an instant, grabbing her around the waist and pushing her down the hall towards the open bedroom door and the bed waiting therein.

"No, Eli! Please! Please don't make me have your baby!"

He practically threw her onto the mattress and slammed the door behind him. She saw the keypad light go red, then looked at the cameras overhead, knowing he would have access to all of this later, reliving the moments she begged him for clemency before he impregnated her against her will, if he hadn't done so already.

He yanked open the nightstand and found the handcuffs from last night. "Do I need to use these again?" he almost scolded her, dangling both pairs from one finger.

Speechless, all she could think about was keeping his swaying cock away from her. Now that reality had begun to set in, now that she had asked, and begged, and been denied any shot at prevention, now that he had made his intentions clear as day, she found that she once again had the energy to resist, to fight back at him.

"You're trying to avoid the inevitable right now, Ava. It won't work. Honestly, you already know that the more you fight it - the better it is for me." The handcuffs clinked open and he knelt one leg on the bed, reaching for her first wrist.

Before she could think, Ava brought up her knee to his groin, colliding with the fleshy sac and leathery shaft pointing straight at her battered hole and he fell on top of her, howling in her ear, screaming obscenities as she thrashed beneath him and tried to wrestle her way free. Eli dropped the handcuffs and bit the sheets, allowing her to scramble out from underneath him and let her feet hit the floor. She tripped as she landed, falling onto her face, her weak wrists unable to do much in breaking her fall.

On the floor she lay there momentarily, considering the futility of what she had done, listening to his gasps of pain and the sound of the mattress creaking as he finally moved off the bed. She tried to crawl towards the door, naked, desperately wanting distance even as she knew it was useless.

He stood over her, legs straddling her hips and his bruised dick dangling over her. Without warning, he reached down, grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up, not caring if he caused her pain or distress this time. His fingers pinched and tugged at her nipples maliciously, his teeth sunk into her shoulder and bit down, hard.

She screamed, bucking her hips back against him, trying to buy herself more time before he succeeded again, but all in vain.

"I think you must like it rough," he seethed, sucking hard on her neck, his fingernails scratching across her chest, intentionally marking her for the next time she looked at herself in the mirror, "You enjoy when I take you hard, huh? Well, let me oblige you one more time before I go."

He yanked her up to stand, bending her over the bed and grabbing the handcuffs. His arms restrained hers as he walked her towards the side, pulling down the covers and ordering her to climb in, the metal restraints he held reminding her what he planned to do once she did.

"No," she said, already aware of how her body was responding to the treatment. Her traitorous cunt was going to fall apart on his cock again even as he raped her and impregnated her in this bed. Tears of self-loathing spilled out and he lifted her onto the mattress, forcing her to kneel with her hands braced on the headboard as he locked them onto the spindles.

"I think we'll try my finger in your asshole again," he threatened, "That seemed to make you cum good and hard. Should help ensure my seed takes root."

She threw back her head again, hoping for a repeat of her direct hit this morning, but he seemed to have anticipated that and dodged it with ease. He grabbed her throat and squeezed, "Do that again, and I may be fucking your corpse in a minute."

"I wish you would," she gasped, "Better dead than carrying your demon spawn."

The rage she sensed from behind her was bound to be taken out in the form of pain, but she did not expect him to split her open with no preparation, his hand gripping her throat as he began to pummel her without mercy.

"You will take this cock, and all that it brings... without complaint... without bribery... with... gratitude..." he struggled through his words, bringing his fingers down to her asshole and poking one inside, not bothering to prepare her or even wet them first, then rammed in another one.

Her screams of agony mingled with the sound of the headboard banging against the wall in time with his thrusts. Ava blinked away tears, trying to reason that at least she would deny him the satisfaction of seeing her cum, but perceptive as ever, without warning, he withdrew all his appendages from her and unlocked the handcuffs, flipping her onto her back now that she was too weak to resist.

"I need to take you this way to give it a better chance of success. Gotta let you marinate in my swimmers the whole time I'm gone to make sure it takes."

Ava whined at his taunts but couldn't muster the strength to fight. Her poor asshole stung from the invasion of not one, but two thick fingers, without the benefit of any form of lubricant, and her pussy was beginning to chafe. Like last night, she tried to lay still, to play dead, until he finished with her then left her alone.

Even with the pain, she felt the numb beginning of a hard-fought orgasm stir. Eli wasted no time placing a pillow under her and holding her lithe, trim waist for his thrusts. It took a second before she realized he hadn't even handcuffed her again. Her arms were just lying limp on the pillows, already succumbed to the inevitable.

"I'm still going to make you cum, Ava. That's the best way to make sure it takes."

"Good luck," she muttered but knew it was pointless. Somehow he would wrench another climax from her, and he smiled as he bent his mouth to her breasts, seeming to have forgotten his urge to hurt her with his fucking in retaliation for refusing to welcome it.

His tongue glided along the round shape of her tits, tracing the soft orbs and nibbling on the tips, sucking them deep into his mouth, worshipping them, fantasizing about how they might soon grow.

"These will feed my children," he said in wonderment, grinning at the response it triggered from her again. She summoned one last shred of willpower, pushing out her chest to move his face away.

"I will starve your offspring before I sacrifice my body to feed them. I will smother them in their sleep. You will not use me like this and then expect me to play mom. I hate you. If you force me to have your baby, I will hate it too. Don't ever forget that."

She thought she had seen him angry before, she thought she already knew what it was to grow cold with fear at the blankness in his eyes. But the way he regarded her in that moment, his cock buried so deeply inside her, she knew she had gone too far; she might have crossed the final line to make him kill her. A tiny part of her was almost relieved in the midst of paralyzing fear.

He reached up, calmly, slowly, and clicked the handcuffs back onto the headboard spindles. His thrusts slowed, shallow and methodical, like he was biding his time. He gathered more pillows, and for a moment she thought he meant to smother her, that she would die with the feeling of his cock inside her as the air was sapped from her lungs. He arranged them next to her, then gripped her thighs painfully, forcing them further apart as he began to increase his pace. Ava strained against the handcuffs again, glaring at him in stubborn refusal to accept this. He might have his way in the end, but she would make him remember she had fought it every step of the way.

"You're not even man enough to win a woman into your bed without drugging her," she goaded, blind hatred making her wish he would just kill her and be done with it, "A real man would woo a woman, fuck her tenderly, they would decide to have a baby out of love, but you aren't capable of that, are you? So you'd rather abduct—"

His hand on her throat gripped so tightly she gasped, only for him to squeeze tighter, choking the last bit of air she had taken in from her lungs. She couldn't speak, she couldn't breathe. Her nails clawed at the headboard ineffectually, her chest burning with the need for oxygen.

His thrusts became hard and bruising, his eyes manic as he snarled in her ear, "You. Will. Bear. My. Child. End. Of. Discussion. " A final taunt, his other hand jamming his thumb into her ass at the same moment the lack of oxygen made stars burst across her eyes and the walls of her sight began to cave in.

She couldn't scream when she came this time, but she knew a moment of relief afterward when she felt him still his hips, spurting inside her again at the same time her pussy milked him for every last drop as she sank into blissful unconsciousness.


Ava wasn't sure how long she was out when she finally woke. She tried to roll over to give relief to a crick in her neck but the handcuffs still held her fast to the headboard. When she tried to move her legs, she felt something restraining them as well. She looked down her body, left naked but covered in a thin sheet. Silk scarves had tied both of her feet to the bottom posters of the bed, her lower half was propped up on the other pillows he had grabbed when she dared to hope he might smother her. It was impossible to move, and her body was situated so that most of what he deposited inside her had no chance to leak out. He had told the truth when he said he would make her marinate in it.

She tried to cry out in defeat, but her throat hurt too much. It burned from his treatment, the way he had squeezed like he might lose control at any minute and drain the life from her once and for all. Again, she tried to move her legs, her hips, anything to shift these pillows out from under her and give gravity a chance to aid her.

At last, she succeeded in wiggling one off to the side, then another. The bottom pillow had been pressed almost flat into the mattress and after several more attempts, she relented, laying there spread eagle, tied to the bed with nothing but a sheet for warmth.

She wondered how long Eli had been gone, whether he would be back soon. Everything ached – her back, her shoulders, her arms and legs, especially her pussy. Her breasts and stomach were covered with hickies and teeth marks. With a sick laugh, she remembered how affronted he had been at breakfast when she thought he meant to hit her. How would a strike to the face be worse than this?

Sleep eluded her, although a few times she managed to doze off, waking with a start to imaginary jiggling of the doorknob. She watched the door for several minutes afterward each time, then remembered that he was probably watching her every move somehow through his cameras. She laid back against the pillow and tried to turn her neck but her mobility was so limited like this.

"Are you just going to leave me here all day?" she said out loud, her raspy voice breaking the silence, eyes glaring towards the camera in case he happened to be watching.

To her horror, a tinny, mechanical version of his voice answered back.

"I thought I was letting you rest. Giving you time to calm down. Are you anxious for me to get back?"

Again with the taunting. She looked up at the ceiling and gave a weak scoff, "You left me unable to move and every part of me is sore. The least you could do is give me some clothes to sleep in and put the covers over me."

Silence gave her time to ponder whether he was already back or somehow communicating with her from wherever he was. With a jolt, she heard the doorknob jangle for real this time and lifted her head to look down as he opened the door.

He was dressed, thankfully. Chinos and a dark blue polo shirt reminiscent of what he wore in the office on Fridays, his horn-rimmed glasses giving him the appearance of some sweet, nerdy guy who persisted in asking her out whenever their paths crossed in the breakroom. Her heart constricted at the thought that she had fallen for this nice guy act, that he was really nothing like he gave off, and that now she was trapped here with him, entirely at his mercy.

Eli whipped off the sheet and stared down at her naked body like he was unfazed. Maybe he had succeeded in wearing himself out by now, maybe he would give her a reprieve for the rest of the evening.

He stepped closer, looking at his handiwork in the form of her bonds as well as the puddle underneath her, the extra pillows he'd wedged under her during her unconsciousness pushed off to the side.

"Tsk. Tsk. Did you think that was going to make much of a difference?" he chided her, "You were out for several hours like this."

"Thanks for keeping me informed about what you did to me while I was unconscious," she muttered, "Did it ever occur to you that I might be in pain from being left like this for that long? Or any length of time at all?"

His eyes darkened, but his temper remained calm. He lifted a plastic bag in each hand and smiled, "I got most of your list."

"Wonderful, maybe you could be kind enough to un-handcuff me since you're in such a generous mood?"

He laughed at that, setting the bags on the bed beside her. She spotted what looked like lingerie in one and a bag of bagels in the other.

"If I untie you, are you going to keep fighting me?"

Ava heaved a sigh, "If I stop fighting you, are you going to keep raping me?"

"Depends. I haven't taken you once without managing to make you cum. Plenty of 'real men' as you said, can't be bothered to bring their women to climax at any point in their relationship, yet they still seem to carry on happy together. I manage to bring you more pleasure than you know what to do with and you resent me for it?"

She looked at him wide-eyed, mouth agape, "You force hyper-sexual drugs into me so my body has no choice but to cum. Don't flatter yourself that you're doing all this for me. Not by a longshot."

Eli rolled his eyes and ran his hands through his hair. The glasses somehow made him seem less menacing, but she knew exactly what he was capable of now, regardless of what he wore. He looked down on her like she was being the unreasonable one, then looked at the bag as though to remind her that she needed to cooperate to be given what he had retrieved.

"Well? Can I be let go now?" she snapped.

His gaze gravitated over her curves, hand grazing her legs as it trailed down to where the scarves held her fast, "You're going to need to ask more nicely than that."

Ava glared. More mind games from a sociopath demanding courtesy from her while he offered none.

"Please. Can you let me go? I'm very sore."

His fingers paused on the knots tied around her ankles. "Better. Now, before I start, let's be clear. If you kick me again like earlier or repeat any of your former stunts, I'll leave you tied like this for days. I've been very patient, but I have limits, and you went way over them this afternoon."

All she offered was a quiet nod, but then his hands began to work open the knots holding her. He massaged her ankle after the first scarf fell onto the duvet, working to rub her feet and restore more feeling to them. When he set it on the bed he looked over his shoulder at her as if to remind her not to kick him before he untied the other one and then did the same.

"Can I trust you enough to undo the handcuffs?" his tone was light, teasing. She wanted to kick him but remembered his threat.

"Yes."

He freed her wrists even more slowly than he had her ankles. He massaged her arms as he released them, then pulled her up to sitting and worked the muscles of her neck and shoulders, watching her for any lewd reactions, but seeing only her flinch at his touch and the sullen glare she leveled at him.

"You're feistier when the meds wear off," he observed, "Interesting. I'll have to make note of that."

"For your other unwilling test subjects?" she asked.

"For research purposes. Not everything I do revolves around you, you know."

That comment chafed for some reason, "Sure feels like it does when you've spent every moment since I walked through the door violating me against my will."

He ignored her comment and pulled a lingerie set from the first bag. Red and black lace push-up bra, matching thong panties which she viewed with revulsion.

"Not to your taste?" he chuckled, "Maybe this one then."

Another matching set, this time white and soft, with wispy little wipes that draped from the bra and panties encrusted with rhinestones along the waistline. She wanted to complain – when she asked for bras and panties, she meant an 8-pack from the nearest department store and a few yoga bras, not matching sets that gave off honeymoon vibes.

"Thank you," she managed to say through gritted teeth.

"You're welcome. Now here—" he began to pull out the other things on her list. Bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter, even the bottle of truffle oil she had listed to make him take longer. A paper bag she recognized from that coffee shop by their office sat towards the bottom, out of curiosity, she opened it, eyes widening when she saw what was inside.

"How did you know I liked these?" she asked, teeth sinking into one immediately, taking it in enormous bites.

Eli grinned, self-satisfied. "You go there every week on Friday and order the same thing. I've watched you from my window and even paid for your order a handful of times. Don't you remember?"

Ava's eyebrows furrowed, "They just said it was someone 'paying it forward', an anonymous beneficiary."

He smirked, pointing to himself and mouthing the word, 'Me'.

She swallowed the last bite and felt cold. A key-lime raspberry scone had been her guilty pleasure for most of the 6 months she had worked here, and now she felt like it was tainted even months ago by this man and his obsession with her. She looked and saw 3 more in the bag but her appetite was now gone. A chill ran through her and she remembered asking him for lounge pants and a shirt.

To her dismay, the bags were now empty. "No clothes?" she asked bleakly.

"I told you that I would get you clothes for good behavior. I don't recall you showing me good behavior on my way out."

Ava balled her hands into fists, looking at the lingerie he had bought, then at his smug face.

"So this is just a punishment disguised as a favor then?"

"Not at all. You'll have more chances to earn some clothes. I might even let you go on a little shopping spree on my computer, with my supervision of course."

She took a deep breath. Don't cry. Don't cry. Don't cry.

"Can I at least have a robe or something? It's freezing in here."

"I could warm you up again if you're cold."

"Never mind." She looked out the window, watching the skyline outside and feeling his breath against her back as he leaned in close to her neck. "Do you want me to show you around the rest of the place?"

She looked back at him, his eyebrow quirked playfully.

"Sure." If she was going to be forced to stay, it was better to know the full layout. That gave her more opportunities to use it to her advantage if the opportunity arose.

"Well, you've already seen the first floor, the basement is mostly just laundry and leaky pipes. I could show you the rest of this floor and the third. Give you a better feel for your new home."

Her stomach turned at the way he just casually implied this was her home now.

"If you give me something to wear, even your clothes, then yes. I would like that."

Eli considered it for a minute. "Deal. Wait here while I get something."

Ava sat obediently on the bed, rubbing her wrists and ankles, looking at her bruised thighs, and trying to ignore the burning in her ass and neck. There was no mirror in here, but she imagined she would have significant bruising there from his outburst earlier. When he came back in and threw her a white button-up dress shirt and boxers, she grabbed them eagerly and donned them without argument.

It felt strange, they were oversized and baggy, but he watched her as she buttoned up the shirt over her bare chest and whistled at the final look.

"Very sexy," he pronounced, reaching for the collar to adjust it, his hands lingering on her shoulders, thumb stretching out to trace along her jawline.

She blushed for some reason, looking down at the floor and feeling like any other woman who spent the night at her lover's and needed to borrow some clothes. Until she remembered.

"This way," he took her hand and led her to the door, once again letting go long enough to turn his back and hide the code he plugged in from her sight.

"Eventually, I hope to dispense with the codes between rooms, after you've adjusted of course. It would make things much easier for both of us. More comfortable for you especially."

Ava just listened, following him out as the keypad blinked green, looking down the master staircase to see the elaborate wood paneling and crystal chandelier. More outdated décor, even though the downstairs looked like something from a magazine.

Eli gestured to the first door on the left, "You already know the bathroom. Do you need to use it before we start?"

"Seeing as I haven't had anything to drink since you roofied me twice last night, no. I think I'm good for now."

He ignored her, shrugging his shoulders and putting his arm around her waist to guide her toward the next room on the left.

"This is the other room I mentioned to you, of course, if you'd rather be closer when the time came, we could arrange that."

She stopped at the threshold, refusing to look inside, "You speak about this as a matter of certainty. You know how many years and hundreds of thousands of dollar people spend because they struggle to conceive. I might be infertile." Never had she hoped such a thing might be true until this moment.

"Are you on the pill?"

Ava looked at him, remembering her OB appointment last month when she'd asked to have her IUD removed because of her excessively heavy periods. She had planned to go on something else after a couple of months when her hormones leveled out, but as she wasn't entertaining frequent partners, she had felt no rush. If only she had waited a little longer, she could have played dumb when month after month it didn't take. She would take being laid up for days with her period right now over being forced to carry his children.

"I thought so," he read her silence for what it was, "The odds of you being infertile are very low at this age. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. When was your last period?"

"Okay, what the fuck?" Ava couldn't help herself, "I think I'd rather stay in the other room and stop this little tour if it's leading to conversations like this."

His smile was dark - like he was imagining all sorts of perverse things to do in that bedroom with her if she took that option. To put space between them and try to dodge the question, she stepped into the room he had already designated for a future nursery, her hand hunting for the light switch. Eli found it first, it was an old push-button one, and the lights came on.

Ava turned and looked around. The room was not as large as the one she was forced to stay in, and the carpet was old, but in good condition. White beadboard ran along the walls and more lace curtains hung in front of the only window. A lone desk and chair were in front of it, not a scrap of paper or deskwork to be seen on the surface. The walls were painted dark green.

"What do you think?" he asked like he was legitimately seeking approval from her for the possibility of bringing a child he forced her to bear into this house and wanted to know if she liked the room for it.

"It's a nice room," she admitted, "Maybe I can move in here."

Eli sighed and rolled his eyes. "This house used to be an office for a law firm. They mostly operated downstairs, hence everything was updated and refreshed before I bought it, but the two upper floors were largely untouched. I meant to get around to renovations, but, you know... work keeps me very busy."

Along with abducting coworkers against their will.

He gestured for her to come out with him and gave one last, lingering look at the room as if picturing a crib in the corner already. Ava tried to look away, waiting until he finally pushed the light switch and closed the door.

The way he looked at her when he saw her standing there. She worried he was planning to try and have her again right now, as she stood on the same spot he'd forced her to ride his cock last night after he carried her up the back set of stairs. He seemed to be thinking similarly and smiled, resting his hand between her shoulder blades as he guided her towards another door next to the one that led down to the kitchen.

It was the second set of stairs, this one leading up. Eli nudged her softly to indicate she should go first which she did. At the top was a large open room set up like a large living area, and three doors mirroring the setup just below.

"Old servant's quarters," he explained, "Repurposed decades ago into a home gym and office. And another bathroom, of course."

He opened the room above the would-be nursery and turned on the light. This one was larger, more like the room she had been mostly confined to, also with a desk but this one was clearly often used. Multiple computer monitors beeped and flashed at her, the chair was much nicer than the one downstairs, and more built-in shelves housed a collection of artifacts, many looked to be dinosaur fossils suspended in amber.

Curiosity got the better of her. She stepped inside, walking towards the shelves and reaching out to touch the artifacts, then looking back at him in fear after realizing he might punish her for doing so.

He smiled and nodded, leaning in the doorway with his arms crossed in front of him, watching her as she gingerly picked up a round amber fossil and peered inside wordlessly.

"It's from the late Cretaceous period," he told her, looking out the open window and watching the twinkling lights of early evening rush hour, "I've got a few more like that if you would like to see them."

"Wow. To think these were waiting to be found for millions of years. Incredible the shape it's in."

He stepped closer, looking eager to share his knowledge with her. "You don't know this, but I work with Sir Benjamin Lockwood. He was one of the founding business partners of Jurassic Park."

Eli was thrilled as he saw recognition dawn in her eyes, "Jurassic Park? You mean on the island with the dinosaurs they managed to clone?"

"Isla Nublar, yes. Although, we've had reports of increasing volcanic activity on the island. We may have to move the dinosaurs off-site in the event of a potential eruption. They would have to be temporarily housed a couple of hours north of here, at Lockwood Manor."

Ava set the amber back on the shelf, stepping to look at the almost perfectly preserved bones of a partial dinosaur skeleton in a glass case. It was small species, she didn't have much knowledge of dinosaurs to even guess which one this was.

"Compsognathus, or compy, as we call them."

He opened the front of the glass case and took her hand, holding it as he encouraged her to touch the compsognathus' bones, to trace the curve of its spine. She stared in open-mouthed awe. "I wish I could have seen some in real life."

She did not see the way Eli's eyebrows arched at her comment. Her hand jerked away from his and the skeleton - worried that she might break the latter, a surely priceless artifact sitting in the office of a man who may or may not even have taken possession of it legally.

"Where did you get these?" she breathed, looking at an ammonite fossil on the shelf below.

"Are you interested in dinosaurs?" he watched her in utter fascination, in a way that, for once, had nothing to do with her looks or the pleasure he derived from her. She was not stupid, or he wouldn't have gone to such lengths to get her here. She was intelligent, warm, and friendly. Those were the qualities he valued most in women, but she had rebuffed his advances several times and with each refusal, his obsession with her had begun to grow. He told himself that she would never see him as anything more than her nerdy superior, and when she finally acquiesced he sprang into action. It had been a hasty plan, with untold potential for failure, not that he ever let that on to her. He knew, truly, that with time, and patience, he could make her want him. He could make her love him, and whether she believed it or not, a baby would be key to that.

"Eli?" she asked, drawing him back to the present. He shook his head, "Sorry, what was that?"

"Can you take me to Lockwood Manor? Can you show me the dinosaurs?"

He regarded her warily. She seemed to have struck a chord with him. If she could convince him to take her out of here somewhere, anywhere she could have access to another person, she might be able to convince someone to help her. The sooner the better, she thought, her mind counting the number of days it had been since her period, and her stomach clenched in fear.

"Not anytime soon," his eager enthusiasm seemed to be gone again, replaced by the familiar perverse man who unrelentingly assaulted her for the past 24 hours and clearly planned to continue doing so for a long time to come.

"Any potential dinosaur evacuation is still several months off. But that can be another reward for good behavior. Down the line, way down the line."

Ava guarded her expression, not wanting to show him the desperate hope she had felt at the idea she might eventually be able to convince him to take her out of his house.

Eli stood in front of her, smiling down and rubbing her arms in his sleeves. "I love seeing you in my clothes like this," he grinned, "Makes me think about how easy it is to take them back off again."

He went to kiss her but she stiffened and put her hands on his chest, "Please, I'm so sore. It hurts."

To her shock, he looked concerned. "What hurts?"

"Everything, Eli! Every part of me is sore. Even on my horniest day, I've never had so much action. I've barely eaten, or drank, or slept. Please, I just need a break. Just a few more hours, at least. I'm begging you. I think I'll start bleeding if you make me go again right now."

His eyebrows furrowed like he didn't believe her. "You've been wet every time we've—"

"We've gone at it like rabbits for almost 24 hours, Eli! Hell, even rabbits probably take more breaks than you've given me. I'm still so hungry, and thirsty, and tired. Please..." she started to sniffle again, big, fat tears leaking down her cheeks, "Please just wait a little more. Like after dinner."

Eli cupped her cheek in his palm, eyes boring into hers, surmising her for sincerity. His hand roamed down to the waistband of his boxers on her and slipped inside. Ava couldn't help but sob, thinking he was ignoring her pleas yet again when he made contact with her sex and felt around disbelievingly.

"You're right," he seemed to admit it with great difficulty, "I've been a brute. Not feeding you enough when you've been burning calories right and left. I'll order us takeout for dinner. Anything you want. You like sushi? You usually get sushi for lunch on Fridays, right?"

She was too relieved that he wasn't going to fuck her again to even register the implication that he seemed to have her weekly schedule and menu memorized.

"Yes, sushi is my favorite. Maybe a nap, too?" her hands were gripping his arms tightly, her eyes suddenly begging to close from so many outbursts of tears.

"Of course," he soothed, pulling her head to rest against his chest, "A good nap. Some food and drink. We can fuck later tonight. When you're more up to it. I'll just show you the other two rooms and we can head back down."

There were two more doors in his office, one being a small closet, the second leading to a Jack-and-Jill bath with adjoining doors that led back to the main room at the top of the stairs and another connecting to the final room, Eli's de facto home gym. This one had windows that faced the street and no curtains or blinds. The windows appeared to be newer and she looked out at the city sprawling below her, as well as the sidewalk 3 stories below where a few people strode on about their day, oblivious to the woman imprisoned in the house they passed by.

Ava pinched the bridge of her nose and rubbed her eyes. Eli was pointing out pieces of gym equipment, the treadmill, weight machine, elliptical; when he noticed and came up behind her, trying to see what she looked at out the window.

"What is it?" he asked, folding his arms across her and holding her close. Another falsely intimate moment she might have cherished under different circumstances.

"I'm just tired," she said, "It's a beautiful day outside. I should have taken more time to notice, before..."

"You'll have more days in the sun," he promised, bestowing a quick kiss on the top of her ear, "You just need time to adjust here first. Things will get better for you - for us, soon enough."

There was no point in arguing, she had already seen where that got her plenty of times today. She nodded and folded her arms over her stomach, blocking his hands from any wandering fantasies about how his efforts might have it swelling in no time.

When he led her back down the stairs she went first once again and once on the second floor he shut the door they had come from and opened the door for the servant's staircase descending down into the kitchen.

With every step, she could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head. It reminded her that she never got to actually wash her hair in this morning's shower. She wanted to ask him if she could shower alone before he let her rest, but the idea of him picturing her naked for any reason seemed likely to push his restraint in waiting several more hours before having her again.

In the kitchen she found herself standing in front of the fridge while he opened it, peering over his shoulder into the mostly empty space.

"I don't, uh, have many visitors," he offered by way of explanation for the plethora of takeout containers, "And I'm often out of town up at Lockwood Manor."

Again with the mention of that place. Ava hadn't been keeping track of his comings and goings as he had with her, but she felt like she saw him pretty regularly. When had he been driving 2 hours north on a regular basis?

He pulled open one of the drawers and took out a block of brie.

"There should be some crackers in the pantry; possibly a small unopened bottle of fig jam from the last time I hosted a work function here. The prosciutto went bad weeks ago though. Sorry."

How could he be so quick to apologize for not having all the fixings of a charcuterie board on hand but not for violently fucking her against her will nearly a dozen times in 24 hours? Shaking her head, Ava followed the direction he pointed and found the pantry. It was almost as barren inside as the fridge, but amidst some cans of chicken noodle soup and baked beans she found the unopened box of crackers and fig jam.

She heard the jangling of a drawer behind her just as she turned. Eli was holding 3 takeout menus with various Japanese logos on the front, "Our sushi options," he pronounced, then indicated the cutting board and specialty butter-spreading knife he set out on the counter. Even a typical butter knife would have been a better potential weapon.

"Help yourself and let me know what you decide for sushi. I need to make a call real quick. Remember, no funny business."

Ava arched her eyebrows and looked at the unopened brie, "I've never made one of these before."

He chuckled, "You'll figure it out. I have faith in you."

How nice. Not.

Eli went into the living room to make his call. Ava tried to work quietly so she could overhear, but he spoke in a deliberately low voice, casting his eyes over at her every few seconds, likely to make sure she wasn't searching for sharper tools than he had procured for her.

Much as she wanted to cut his throat, she didn't want to risk being trapped in here forever if what he said was true. She could kill him, probably with enough forethought and luck, an opportunity would arise. But how would she make it out of here, then? Her best chance was to convince him to leave somewhere and take her with him, but he seemed well aware of that, hence his vague promises of taking her outside after she 'adjusted,' though how he would determine she had or had not was anyone's guess. As she peeled open the package of brie and started smearing it on the crackers followed by the jam, she chewed thoughtfully and tried to think of ways she could make him believe she was acclimating sooner than expected. If she could manage that before her period was due, she might have a chance to prevent the worst-case scenario.

He looked serious on the phone. He was one of the most powerful men in the company, after all. The conversation went on longer than she expected. She almost finished the whole sleeve of crackers in her desperate hunger. Thirsty now, she started to cautiously open the cabinets, looking for any vessel she could drink from. Eli glanced over and noticed, immediately standing to his feet.

"Yeah, can you hang on one second, Tim?" he covered the receiver with his hand, "What do you need?"

"A cup?" she half-whispered, unsure why she was trying to accommodate his need for privacy when she should be screaming for help from the person on the other end of his call.

"Top left cabinet next to the fridge," his unnerving stare before sitting back down suggested that if he saw her with anything else in her hands it would be to her detriment.

Ava found the glasses where he said and filled one from the door of the fridge. She down the thing in 5 gulps, barely stopping. Once more she filled it, then downed the glass, and then another refill until her stomach felt sick with how bloated it was.

Her hands slipped down to see the paunch of her normally flat stomach and she almost grinned. It would serve him right to see her start to thicken up here as his prisoner, but that momentary hope was doused by cold reality when she remembered what was likely to be the reason for her waistline expanding.

Eli's voice stopped. His conversation seemed to have ended.

Ava looked up from her hasty meal, brushing crumbs from the creases of his dress shirt, half-empty water glass still in her hand.

From the couch, Eli watched her with those horn-rimmed glasses of his, lips cracking into a smile. "Sorry that took so long. Here-" he patted the seat on the couch next to him where he had eaten her out only this morning for three consecutive orgasms, "Come sit."

Remembering her goal to try and earn his trust enough that he would leave the house and bring her with him, she obeyed, leaving the glass on the counter and walking towards him with open palms outstretched as if to show that she was not plotting anything.

His own hands reached for her when she stopped in front of his knees, pulling her down to sit uncomfortably close to him, forcing her to lean into his chest with her ear right over his heartbeat.

"Let's both take a short nap," he purred, kissing the top of her head. She remembered the sushi menus left on the counter, she hadn't even thought to look at them. The room was dim, outside the sky was just beginning to shade towards late afternoon. There was no telling when she might wake up if she let herself fall asleep now, but Ava didn't want to rile him up again and take her chances with that, so she tried to wiggle into a comfortable position, prompting Eli to roll onto his back and pull her with him.

Ava found herself lying atop him almost sensually, but for the moment, at least, his erection seemed dormant. She tucked her head under his chin and tried to relax enough to doze off. A blanket she hadn't even noticed slung over the corner of the couch was tugged over her, and she felt warm and snug, as much as she could considering the circumstances.

"This is nice," his voice was deep but softer. He must be tired too.

It wasn't how she would have chosen to get the rest he had promised, but as she lay there on top of him, finally full but still sore in a multitude of places, she closed off her mind enough that when she shut her eyes, sleep mercifully found her.