He sat with her on the bed, cross-legged, smiling, as they had breakfast together. Every so often he set down his fork to steeple his chin in his hands and stare at Marilyn, who ate ravenously for the first time since her captivity began.
Oliver had made scrambled eggs and toast. The meal was undeniably delicious.
She took advantage of the silence to consider her next plan of action. It was important that she not lose sight of her eventual escape – true, they seemed to have some sort of macabre chemistry, but that didn't change the fact that she was being held prisoner in his basement. Marilyn shifted to reach the orange juice on the nightstand and her ankle restraint clanked loudly as if in agreement.
After a second helping that Oliver eagerly fetched for her she pushed her empty plate away and smiled.
"Thank you," she said softly. "That was so wonderful. You're too good to me, Oliver." Marilyn knew she must be obedient, keep him pleased with her; she must make a clear divide between her and them, the other women who no doubt had been in this dark basement and never left alive.
"Secret recipe," he said mischievously, but didn't elaborate as he began to gather their used silverware. The doctor set the forks and napkins in a pile on the workbench and turned back to her bed, moving slower now, watching her face. "You should have some of your present."
She realized he meant the marijuana cigarettes in the sleek silver holder at her bedside. An alarm sounded somewhere in her mind – no, no, this means trouble – but she tried to hide any trace of it in her expression.
"Yes, my present," Marilyn began nervously. "What a… nice thing for you to do for me. It makes me so sleepy, though, and it's so early—"
He held their breakfast dishes in his hands and stared at her.
"That's not a problem," Thredson said, voice flat. "Have one."
The bud in those joints was strong, she knew, far stronger than she was used to smoking, and it would render her helpless. There was no way she'd be able to smoke and keep her wits about her. It may delay her escape plan by days.
"I'd rather talk with you for a while," she improvised quickly. "I barely know anything about you, Oliver—"
"We can talk later." The impish little-boy spirit he'd exuded during breakfast had dissolved away, leaving behind a formidable darkness in its place. Marilyn looked into his face and tried to steel her resolve as he stared at her.
"I just don't think—"
The doctor suddenly flung both plates at the wall behind her head; they shattered with incredible force, splintering porcelain across the basement floor.
"Do you think I'm fucking around?" he screamed, all at once a powerful storm of pure anger. "I told you to have one, it's your goddamn present—"
"Okay!" Marilyn shrieked, scrambling for the joints on her nightstand. "I'm sorry, Oliver, baby, please, I'll have one! I'll have one!" Her shaking hands drew a stick from the silver case and placed it between her lips. "See? See? Just light it for me, baby, please."
His eruption was more than terrifying. It displayed with perfect clarity just what his lean, lithe body was capable of. Breakfast was nice, he made love like an art, but this was his true nature... this was why she needed so desperately to escape, and soon.
Oliver stood at the foot of her bed, breathing heavily as he stared her down like a predator about to pounce.
Then, just as suddenly, he was calm again. The doctor smiled and moved towards her, pulling the lighter from his pocket.
"Good," he said as though nothing had happened. "Here, inhale." He clicked the lighter and a flame sprang to life; Oliver held it to the end of the joint in her mouth and she obeyed, but the breath she took was short and shallow.
She exhaled a small puff of smoke and looked at him for approval. He frowned.
"That's not how you do it," Thredson said flatly. "I've seen you. You take in as much as you can and hold it in. Do it right."
He extended the lighter towards her again. There was no fooling him twice, she knew, and though her heart beat like a manic butterfly in her chest, she let him light the marijuana cigarette again, this time taking a deep shaky breath inward.
Marilyn held the sweet woodsy smoke in her lungs as long as she could before exhaling with a few hearty coughs. The weed went straight to her brain, causing a thick pleasant fog, yet the doctor clicked the lighter again and held it towards her.
"I can't," she began, already lightheaded, but the darkness behind his eyes stopped her dead in her tracks. Marilyn placed the joint between her lips again and took another deep breath as he held the flame steadily before her face. She couldn't hold in the smoke as long this time and dissolved into a flurry of coughs, curling onto her side. Oliver began rubbing soothing little circles over her back with his palm.
"Good girl," he whispered gently, and waited until the fit subsided. When Marilyn's breathing returned to normal he tilted her face towards him. He looked curious, excited. "How do you feel?"
She had utterly lost control of the situation. Her head was spinning as the drug began to overtake her, seeping through her body like a warm toxin. She made a breathless little noise and he took this as the right answer.
"Excellent," Oliver murmured to himself. Marilyn felt his weight lift from the bed but she could do nothing; she was overcome by the drug's effect, and it's why she barely struggled when he began to secure her left wrist into a leather cuff.
"Wait," she breathed, knowing somewhere in her mind that this was what she'd been afraid of. "Wait, Oliver, wait…"
"Shhhh," he hushed tenderly. "You're all right, everything's okay. I just want to try something." She turned her head helplessly towards him to see a smile playing across his lips.
"No, baby, please," Marilyn whispered. She was sure he was going to kill her now, he was through with her, how could she have been so stupid? He crossed to the other side of the bed and strapped her right wrist carefully. Her upper body was immobile; all she could do was lift her head and stare at him fearfully as he returned to the footboard.
"Your baby would never hurt you," Oliver said huskily, slipping onto the bed on all fours. He gripped her knees in his strong hands and spread them apart, slowly, savoring the sight before him. "I just… want to try something."
She scarcely had time to think before the doctor dipped his face to the folds between her legs and began to touch them with his tongue – slowly at first, tentatively, as if he wasn't quite sure what he was supposed to do.
Marilyn cried out at the wet heat of his mouth and bucked impulsively into him; Dr. Thredson pulled back, smiling, and held her knees in place.
"You can scream if you like," he told her in a voice thick with lust. "The walls are soundproof." Then he returned to the slick folds of her loins, working with more certainty now, his tongue strong and insistent.
She moaned loudly, her head rolling back on her shoulders. The weed made her weak and pliable and, in truth, unbelievably aroused. His mouth on her was like hot luscious sin.
"Oliver," Marilyn whimpered as he made his way towards the aching bud at the apex of her thighs. She pulled instinctively against the wrist restraints but got nowhere; for some reason, the fact that she couldn't move was thrilling and pushed her pleasure to new heights.
At the sound of his name the doctor made a low sound in his throat, his hands squeezing her knees as he worked his mouth tirelessly between her legs.
She could barely think, her head was spinning, a deep powerful heat was surging through her very core, she couldn't move, all Marilyn could feel was his strong hands holding her still and his deft tongue in her most sensitive of places, oh god, what was happening to her?
His lips closed around her swollen clitoris and the doctor began to suck gently; it sent her over the edge at once. She did scream - a strangled cry of pleasure ripped from her throat as she came violently, her privates pulsing in perhaps the strongest orgasm she'd ever had.
Her release didn't deter him; Oliver continued licking like a man possessed until she came again, then begged him to stop, breathlessly insisting she couldn't take any more.
At last he lifted his head from her crotch, grinning devilishly, lips slick with her juices.
"But we're just getting started," Thredson said, and began to remove his pants.
Nearly an hour later they lay together in the bed, naked and utterly spent. Marilyn had pulled one of her wrists free of the restraint during their lovemaking but the doctor hardly seemed to notice. He was regaining his stolen breath and tracing small circles with his fingertips over her abdomen.
"I wish every day could be like this," Oliver mused, "but I have work to do at the asylum. After tomorrow you'll be alone during the day." His dark eyes flicked to hers and she sought the correct answer as fast as she could. The weed still hung heavy in her brain like smog but she could think more clearly now.
"I'll miss you," she murmured, beginning to run her fingers through his thick hair. He leaned into her touch like it was something he craved.
"I know you will." Dr. Thredson laid his palm flat on her stomach and stared at it for a long moment. The silence made Marilyn nervous so she shifted a little, then smiled when his gaze met hers again.
"I could keep house for you," she suggested hesitantly. "While you're at work - I could clean, you know, have dinner waiting-" He shook his head in a gesture that was becoming more and more familiar to her each day.
"No." She couldn't help it; she felt her eyes prickle with hot tears at the idea he was going to leave her here, alone, for days at a time. Oliver mistook her despair for disappointment at the loss of her womanly duties and cupped her cheek in his free hand. "Maybe someday, Marilyn. Right now, it's just too risky."
"Can you at least," she said shakily, her chest hitching with unshed tears, "take this off my wrist?" She shook her left arm against the leather cuff. He smiled the way one smiles at a spoiled child asking for another dessert but lifted himself up onto his elbows to better reach the strap.
"Oh, poor thing," he murmured, and for a moment Marilyn wondered if he was making fun of her. Then he released her and held her wrist delicately in his hands, moving his thumb along the red marks the restraint had left behind.
"Thank you," she whispered. Another silence passed between them before she took a deep breath and placed both her hands on Oliver's firm bare chest. An idea had begun to bloom in her brain.
The doctor's eyes drifted closed at her touch; she inched her fingers slowly through the dark wiry hair across his torso and he all but purred, sidling his body closer to hers.
"Baby?" Marilyn ventured, and when he looked at her with gentle eyes she realized this was the only way she'd ever get anywhere with him, but it was a good way, it was a way that worked. "How can I... prove myself to you?"
He stiffened a little, dark brows meeting in a concerned frown, but she kept her hands moving in careful little motions across his skin.
"I want to show you," she said earnestly, dipping her head towards his so their lips nearly touched. "that I'm different from them, that you can trust me." The weed still coursing through her system made the words flow freely, the seduction of this darkly handsome man something almost natural. Marilyn caught his lower lip in her teeth and sucked it gently.
He wasn't expecting this; Oliver let loose a surprised little moan and grabbed her waist, pulling her hips close to his. She noted with some amazement that he was already becoming aroused again.
"I know you're different," he mumbled breathlessly when she released his lip.
"I won't run," she assured him, slipping her hand below his waist to caress his growing erection.
"You might," said Thredson but his eyes drifted back into his head as she touched him where she knew men could be most easily controlled. Marilyn put her lips next to his ear so her breath would be hot and send shivers down his spine.
"I won't," she insisted, and he opened his eyes to inspect her face for lies.
They remained this way for a long time before Oliver wet his lips and said, "What did you have in mind?"