“How did he find you?” His hand smoothed her dark hair down her back, the motion incredibly soothing. Her trembling was beginning to subside.

“I answered an ad, on…on Craigslist,” she admitted with a whisper.

“Sonofabitch.” His jaw tightened again. She could feel it. His arms around her tightened too. “Finally!”

Katie opened her eyes to see Patrick had reappeared holding a glass filled with milk.

“You stay right here.” Liam put her gently on the bed. It was covered in black silk-sheets, duvet cover. Except for the red heart accent pillows. Somehow she found those sweet-and strangely amusing. It made her want to giggle and she did, trying to stifle the sound with her hand.

“What’s the matter with her?” Patrick whispered to his brother as Liam took the glass of milk over to the dresser. There were candles there, unlit, and a decanter filled with amber colored fluid.

“Shock,” Liam said shortly, pouring from the decanter into the milk.

“I don’t understand,” Patrick whispered, looking back over his shoulder at Katie. He was looking at her like she had three heads or something. She hugged the blanket more tightly around her, even pulling her feet up underneath, as if she could make herself completely disappear. “She gave her consent. Everything was fine, and then all of a sudden…”

“It can happen. That fast.” Liam turned to his brother, holding the milk glass in his hand, cloudy with alcohol. “I’ve told you time and again, Patrick-you’re a top. You’re not a dominant. You can’t do what I do.”

Katie blinked up at Liam as he approached, holding the milk out to her. “Drink this.”

She reached for the glass, studying the liquid with a frown. She knew what Lori would say-could hear her friend screeching in her head about being drugged and raped and dismembered-but when she looked into the man’s eyes, she trusted him. Utterly. Completely. She took the milk and began to drink.