JENNIE

I felt like I had made a deal with a devil, though that analogy didn't quite explain why my stomach was curled into a million little knots. It was a sensation similar to what you felt right before diving into water so deep that you couldn't even see the bottom.

Terrifying, but not exactly a bad feeling after all was said and done.

"B-Begin what?"

"You need to repay me for four days," Lisa explained. She formed a steeple with her fingers over her placemat and watched me from overtop it. "You have options, of course."

"Options?" I found myself leaning forward to meet her gaze, despite how every instinct in my body urged me to run in the opposite direction. I was curious as to what kinds of 'payment' could be more valuable than cold, hard cash. Blood? Bodily fluids? My actual soul?

"What are they?"

"Your family name does carry a lot of weight," Lisa grudgingly admitted. "I could use that to my advantage."

In other words, business arrangements and corporate intimidation. The socialite in me sniffed.

"And the second?"

She shrugged. "Unlimited access to your family's accounts—"

"I thought you said this wasn't about money."

"It's not," Lisa insisted. "I'm sure your charming smile could open more doors than a stack of Kim millions, but they certainly wouldn't hurt."

"And that's it?" I felt my lips curve into a frown. Was I, dare I say it …disappointed?

How anticlimactic. Here I was, prepared to sell my soul, and the proverbial Devil just wanted the same old thing I'd been giving to everyone for free: dutiful little Jennie and the Kim family name.

"No. That's not it." Before I could react, Lisa reached across the table and lifted my chin with the pad of her thumb. Goosebumps erupted over my skin at the contact. She was one of the few people in years to touch me without wearing clinical rubber gloves and my body didn't know how to register the sensation.

"I must admit, Jennie," she began while her gaze searched mine. "I've brokered hundreds of contracts, but this is the first time someone hasn't taken the easiest of choices."

Easiest. I batted her hand away. "So there's more?"

I wondered what. Not business, something told me. Her scoff all but proved it.

"Nothing you'd be interested in. I make contracts with people from all walks of life, Jennie, and trust me—" That icy gaze raked me over once. "You're not the type."

"The type to what?"

Her jaw clenched and I was able to guess what even she had enough tact not to say out loud; the type to matter. So much for that 'valuable' nonsense. When it came right down to it, she saw me the same way everyone else did—as a body stuffed with dollar bills.

I tried rephrasing the question. "How else could I fulfill this contract—"

"Tell me, Jennie," Lisa said cutting over me. "Would you steal? Cheat? Kill? Fuck strangers for no reason other than being told to do so?"

My mouth fell open. I didn't think anyone had ever spoken to me so crudely, ever. I was insulted, revolted, intrigued.

"Is that—" I had to clear my throat just to find my voice again. "Is that how you have some people fulfill their contracts?"

"Yes." Lisa's gaze was fathomless. "Those who have 'natural' talents to bargain with, rather than money."

"Like …"

She rattled off a list. "Intelligence, cunning, beauty."

I flinched at her insinuation of the opposite, though I should have been used to it by now. All my life I'd been the 'Kim girl,' or 'Sexy Rosé's sister.' Never—not once—had I ever been called beautiful. After facing the truth in the mirror for twenty-six years, it didn't hurt so much to admit it now.

I wasn't beautiful, or smart, or cunning—but that didn't mean that I liked having the fact rubbed in my face by someone who looked like a perfect, blond Adonis.

"You said I had a choice," I parroted, throwing that word right back at her.

Her reply was curt, irritated. "I did—"

"Then why should my appearance matter?"

A better question was why was I pushing this?

I had no damn idea. Perhaps because something in me railed against the thought of always being written off so easily? 'Kim' and 'money' might as well have been my definition. I waited for Lisa to come clean and admit as much. But when those gray eyes narrowed, I knew that I had made a mistake.

"Get up."

Her tone was so harsh that I lurched automatically to my feet. Instinct urged me to run. Run fast, run hard and far, far away from her—screaming if possible. But all I did was just stand there, toes digging into the carpet.

With a predatory grace, Lisa stood as well. Her gaze honed in on mine. Then, she issued a command that made my blood run cold.

"Take off your robe."

"W-what?"

"Your robe." In a matter of seconds, she skirted the table to stand in front of me, unconcerned as I stumbled back. "Take it off."

I shook my head, too terrified to speak. Suddenly, this game wasn't so thrilling anymore. The tables had turned, and we had come full circle right back to the obvious scenario; she was a dangerous stranger and I was …alone.

"Do you even understand what your choice is?" Relentlessly, she advanced, forcing me into a corner. My gaze darted for the panic button. I could feel my legs twitch, ready to spring for it. "Thought so." Suddenly, Lisa withdrew, leaving just enough space between us to keep me from panicking even more. "Now, which will it be?" she wondered. "Business or money?"

In an instant, I realized that she had been bluffing—dangling my own threat before me, like a belt before a misbehaving child.

That fact shouldn't have made me feel so foolish. Who would want to ravish you? A part of me scoffed. Silly cow!

"I suggest the first choice," Lisa continued, as if we'd never left the table. "I have a few arrangements that could use the Kim family name to get underway. More than sufficient to cover four days—"

I stopped listening. Almost numb, I trailed a single finger down to my waist, following the sash of velvet cinching my robe until I reached the knot holding it all together.

Business or money, Jennie? I wondered.

Then, I pulled.

"This is your only feasible option—"

Lisa froze mid-sentence, as the heavy fabric slid down my arms and pooled at my feet.

Baring myself before a stranger was nothing new. I had been bathed and dressed with the aid of servants my whole life, and months in the hospital had all but obliterated any sense of modesty I may have had left.

Still, I felt a strange sense of triumph as I stood there, shivering and utterly naked. I didn't know what kind of reaction I was searching for when I finally scanned Lisa's face. Guilt? Shock? Some damn common decency to turn away?

Instead, she caught my hands before they could creep up to cover my exposed chest and yanked them back down. Then, as composed as ever, she stood back and crooked a finger; come.

I couldn't explain just what made me take the tiniest of steps in her direction. Bravery? Sheer stupidity? An inexplicable urge to throw her off-balance the same way she seemed determined to unnerve me?

Whatever it was, I was left bared to her mercy and I didn't feel brave in the slightest.

"Turn around." She made a twirling motion with her finger and I found myself obeying the command, aware of her gaze inspecting every inch of me.

My arms, legs …

She eyed me the way a predator might a wounded, damaged bit of prey, wondering if anything useful could be salvaged.

"You're pale at least," I heard her mutter once I completed my circle. "Easier to see the veins."

What an odd thing to notice.

"For what?" I glanced at her from over my shoulder, but she didn't bother responding.

The minutes ticked by, and a tiny sliver of modesty had my hands inching back up to cover my exposed breasts before she could appraise them as well. The novelty of being bold and daring had worn off, considering that I didn't have much to validate it.

My body wasn't toned and curvy like Roseann's. When it came to the opposite sex, I could be summed up in one word: unappealing.

"Pedigreed blood. That could be a plus," Lisa said under her breath. I jumped as cool fingers grazed the line of my throat, skimming my pulse. "You've suffered no major trauma?"

"N-No." I ducked out of her reach.

"Illicit drug use?"

"Of course not!"

She nodded just once, reminding me of a doctor performing a routine physical. Now, open wide and say 'ah.' Her next question, however—while spoken in the same crisp, clinical tones—pertained to another orifice. "Are you a virgin, Jennie?"

"P-pardon me?"

"A virgin." She enunciated the word in two sharp syllables: vir-gin. "Have you ever fucked a man? Woman? Anyone?"

My answer was a breathless squeak. "Of c-course not."

Lisa frowned, annoyed by the response, though I couldn't fathom why.

My virginity had never really been a sticking point for me. Unlike the heroines in the romance novels I was sometimes bored enough to read. I didn't resent it, and I wasn't inclined to go on some dramatic adventure to lose it.

Rosé, rumored to have been deflowered by a cabana boy at age sixteen, was the romantic one. I, on the other hand, agreed with my mother on this point; sex was …necessary. Like eating or breathing, it should be done only when there was a purpose for it.

Mother had been quite open about the fact that she and my father had only 'done the deed' roughly three times during their entire marriage. Twice, give or take, to create me and Rosé, and once more on my father's birthday when they had both drunk too much wine. There wasn't a point otherwise, or so I had been told.

Therefore, I had absolutely no idea why Lisa was looking at me like that: as if I had some sort of debilitating disease apart from the one I was dying from.

"That will need to be rectified," I thought I heard her mutter before turning away. "Get dressed."

Too dazed to argue, I stooped and eagerly slipped into my robe.

Now what? I wondered as I warily followed her back to our impromptu 'negotiation' table, arms crossed tightly over my chest. Lisa took her customary seat without a word, and I just stood there. When nearly a minute passed in silence, I found the courage to noisily clear my throat.

"So …"

"So," Lisa said, swiftly cutting over me, "you will have four days to repay your current debt, and we'll go from there." She leaned back, eyes seeking out mine. "Is this how you choose to fulfill your contract, sans your fortune?"

She didn't elaborate, though…maybe she should have?

All of a sudden, I felt woefully in over my head. Here was a stranger who'd claimed to have sold me her blood and I had just signed the legal document she shoved onto my lap. Not only that ...

She saw you naked, a tiny, indignant part of me huffed. Jennie Ruby Jane Kim, what the hell has gotten in to you?

I dug my toes into the carpet rather than give her the satisfaction of watching me dart back to my bed in hopes of waking up from the nightmare.

"So, to repay this 'debt,' I would have to lie, cheat, steal or…" So much for being brave—I couldn't even get the word out, fuck. Vulgar! My mother scolded from the grave. Instead I made a little sound at the back of my throat. "Mmhm …with strangers?"

Lisa seemed mildly amused. The corner of her mouth twitched, and she leaned back even further, lacing her fingers together behind her head. "There are people out there whose names aren't as weighty as yours," she began in a lofty tone. "Whose money isn't a weapon they can use to evade whatever irritates them. Yet …they have other 'assets' that are just as valuable."

Her words pierced me right through the chest: in other words, apart from the Kim name, I wasn't important. The knowledge made me feel …well, certainly not worth a fortune. More, resigned. Lisa might have been insane, but she—better than anyone else—had illustrated perfectly just how the world saw me.

And I was sick of it. I was sick of being seen only as Jennie Kim—sick of being tied to my parent's name. If Lisa, the insane doctor with the 'magic' blood, wanted me, then she would get me: the great, dull calamity that was Jennie.

Nothing else.

"Yes," I blurted suddenly.

"Yes, what?"

"Yes." I sucked in a breath and released it in a rush of words, "that is how I want to fulfill my contract."

"No." Lisa sat bolt upright. Those golden eyebrows arched, and her mouth deflated into a hard, flat line. She almost looked …surprised, before a cold expression wiped any trace of emotion away.

"N-no?"

"No." In a blur of shadow and ivory, she stood, drilling into me with eyes so dark they bordered on ebony. "Your name or your money. Pick one."

I staggered back, catching myself on the end of my chair. "B-But …why?"

Her excuses were quick and succinct. "This isn't a game. You're inexperienced and untested. I would have to train you myself—" Which, judging from her tone, was the most unacceptable condition of all.

"You said I could choose," I pointed out, raising my voice as hers deepened. "You said that other people have done that to fulfill their contracts."

"Other people," she snapped. "Not you."

I stomped my foot—actually slammed my heel into the carpet like a petulant child. "But you said!" My voice ricocheted off the walls, echoing back to me. "You said that you wanted my soul. Me! If you want the money and the Kim family name, then you can go dig up my parents. This is me, and this is all I have to offer you."

My lungs screamed for air. I couldn't seem to catch my breath. All the while I was left to wonder what in the hell had gotten into me—Jennie Kim didn't argue—especially not with dangerous, strangers about her 'self-worth'. I had to resist the urge to curl up in a ball in the face of Lisa's expression. Her jaw tightened, and for once, she openly displayed a real emotion—anger.

"There will be a car waiting at six o'clock," she hissed after a moment of unbearable silence. "Don't be late by even a second, or you will pay dearly."

My mind spun as I realized what I had done. What I had negotiated for.

"For what?" I rasped as she turned and headed for the door.

"You got your wish," Lisa called back. "Your name and money are now off the table. All you have is yourself." A gruff laugh told me how valuable she thought that was. "You should have just played the role of heiress. It suits you better."

Yourself.

Suddenly drained, I sank into my chair, but when I spoke again, my voice was surprisingly steady. "You'll …train me?" It was funny how that was the only thing that really stuck out from her venom-laced tirade. "To do what?"

"Whatever a client demands," Lisa replied from the threshold of my bedroom. "You didn't just sell me your body, Jennie; you sold me your will, your dignity and mind. That is what the desperate bargain with when they aren't lucky enough to have been born with a silver spoon engraved with the name Kim shoved down their throat. When I'm through with you, there won't be a single thing that you can stick that pert little nose up at."

I stiffened. What kinds of things did girls like me 'stick their pert little noses up at' anyway?

I was oddly curious.

"The amount I gave you should be enough to last you through the rest of the day," Lisa went on, returning to the apparent root of our problem; my life and her blood. "I'll replenish your dose tonight. Do you understand?"

I nodded weakly. Tonight. Dose …

"Six o-clock."

The reminder was the last thing she said before the door slammed behind her, and I was left alone to contemplate my fate, now that I had now that I had stubbornly gotten my way.