Cristina’s confused gaze searches mine. “Um, nice to meet you.”
“This should be pretty straightforward,” Dr. Davidson says. “If you can show me which room we can use.”
“Cash, can you show Dr. Davidson to the master bedroom?”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s going on?” Cristina asks as she watches the two disappear.
I wait until the others are out of earshot to tell her, knowing she’s going to give me a hard time.
Once we’re alone, I reach into my pocket to take out a syringe. “I brought one of these.”
I know she recognizes it because she backs away instantly. “What’s going on? What’s that for?”
“I’m hoping not to have to use it,” I say, tucking it back into my pocket and matching her steps as she backs herself into a corner.
“What do you want, Damian?”
“This is the thing I told you last night that we have to take care of.”
Her breathing has picked up and she has her hands up against my chest to ward me off.
“What thing?”
“I need to be sure you’re clean.”
“What? What does that even mean?” It takes her all of two seconds to put it together, so she raises her eyebrows and stares at me. “Like sexually?”
“Dr. Davidson will run some tests.”
“What?”
“You heard me. Just to be sure. I took some measures—”
“So, you think I’ll just go in there and spread my legs for that man so you two can be sure I’m clean?”
“He’s a doctor.”
“No way. I am not doing it.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No, Damian. Period.”
“I have a meeting to get to. Are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way? Easy way is you walking in there and letting the doctor do what he needs to do, hard being I carry you in unconscious.”
“How about this, I’ll make it even easier. I’m not sleeping with you! I will never sleep with you! So send the doctor home and go to your meeting and leave me alone.”
“Never say never, don’t you know that?” She scoots under my arm, but I catch her wrist before she can get away. “Besides, I think you will sleep with me. I think you can’t wait.”
“You’re delusional. Let go of me!”
I gather her arms behind her back and grip both wrists in one of my hands. I weave my fingers into the hair at the back of her head and encourage her to look up at me.
“I don’t want to give you the sedative.”
“Then don’t.”
“Then walk in there and do as the doctor says.”
“No.”
“It’s not a request.”
I tuck one hand into my pocket and take out the syringe.
“Please, Damian! Don’t make me do this. I won’t forgive you.”
I uncap it with my teeth and toss the lid. “Last chance.”
“I’m clean. I’m…oh my god.” She twists and turns. “Let me go.”
“How do you know?”
“I know!”
“Have you been tested recently?”
She snaps her gaze to mine, eyes filled with hate. “No, I haven’t been tested recently. Maybe you should be the one who’s tested because you’ve probably slept with more women than I can count on my fingers and toes together.”
“That’s irrelevant. I’m clean.”
“So am I!”
“Don’t make this hard. I don’t want to use the needle.”
“Then don’t!”
“Cristina—”
“God. I can’t believe…I’m a virgin, you fucking bastard! I’ve never had sex before!”
I stop because I guess even considering the requirements as she grew up, I knew it wasn’t realistic especially after seeing her birth control pills. Last night I was messing with her. I didn’t really believe that she’d be a virgin.
“Satisfied?” she asks.
I’m confused.
“You’re hurting me. You already left bruises on my jaw. Let me go!”
I loosen my hold on her wrists.
“Do you need him to check to believe me?” she spits. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? More humiliation for me.” She’s angry and crying at once, and I’m guessing the tears are from stress as one more brick of the realization of her circumstances, of the inevitability of her fate is mortared into place.
“No, I wouldn’t like that,” I tell her. I’m not my father, I want to add, but don’t. “Why are you on the pill, then?”
“How do you know I am? Oh, that’s right. You looked through my things, and I guess you just assumed I sleep around.”
“Why?”
“None of your business, creep.”
“Tell me why.”
“Because I get really bad cramps, okay? Happy? Is it enough? Have you had enough? Or do you want more? You have me. Against my will. What else do you want to take?”
“It’s enough, Cristina.”
“Asshole.”
“I said it’s enough.”
She draws in a deep breath, and I can see she’s holding back a flood of tears, although she’s about to lose her battle.
She sits down, scrubbing her face with her hands, and looks around her at this foreign place. In a house where she’s not quite welcome but also not permitted to leave.
I don’t know why this bothers me. I don’t know why her being upset like this is fucking with me.