Page 17 of The Beast's Baby
“Hey,” she said when he was heading out. “Will you tell me more about what exactly it is you’re trying to do? What Phase One has been about?”
He furrowed his brow as though he questioned her motives for asking. She supposed he had every right to be suspicious since she hadn’t shown much interest before. She had to convince him that she was the sort of woman he would typically want, didn’t she? Someone who would listen and nod and be deeply intrigued by anything that came out of his mouth. It was a different game, pretty much the same rules, and she knew how to play it like an expert. She’d once gotten a trip to Aspen out of a guy simply by batting her eyelashes and smiling whenever he said anything half-eloquent.
She couldn’t bat her eyelashes at Jay, though.
She’d tried that. No dice.
So, she would have to do this, be open, be interested.
If she played her cards right by the end of their conversation, he wouldn’t be able to resist her even if he tried.
And he would no longer want to try.
He’d fuck her and then he’d save her.
He’d already shown her that he was willing to do both.
She felt a soft pang of guilt for being so ready to use him for her own purposes, but then reminded herself that this was exactly what he was doing. To him, she was nothing more than a subject to be studied. Her body was the tool by which he aimed to save the world. And to his mind, he felt she should be flattered by this.
He was a dickhead.
“Alright,” he said. “Cora has said she wants you more involved now that you know the big basics. I can tell you a bit more about the trial itself, if that’s what you really want.”
“Excellent,” she said. “Shall we have some lunch then?”
“Alright,” he agreed. “I’ll stay for lunch. You get ten questions, okay?”
She smiled blithely. “Okay,” she said.
Chapter 6 - Jay
“I don’t want to do it,” he said, hoping Cora would see reason.
“Why not?” she asked. “You said it yourself that she’s an attractive woman.”
He could tell she wasn’t backing down. Either he slept with the subject—as the subject had required it of him in order to partake in the trial without being forced into it—or he was fired.
The issue was, of course, that this particular subject was particularly important to the trial. She was the only naturally born female werewolf in it. They couldn’t cut her loose, they had to have the results she would garner.
So, he could choose between letting her get raped or having sex with her himself.
He wanted her. His body kept making that clear to him. But he couldn’t stand her. She was so very obviously trying to manipulate him, thinking that simply because he had stepped between her and a perceived danger, he’d easily do it again. She just wanted an ally, someone who would grow loyal to her, someone she could use.
Perhaps she didn’t even need to manipulate him. There was every possibility that whatever instinct that had taken over, that had made her protect her from Christopher’s advance, would take hold again. But he wouldn’t be following that instinct for her sake, but for his own. Because adhering to it was simple decency, wasn’t it? It was the type of person he was and always had been. Simple. And wouldn’t sleeping with her for her own protection fall under that same category of decency. Well, wouldn’t it?
“This is fucked up,” he answered his own question, using the swear word for the first time in conversation with Cora. It only made her cock an eyebrow in agreement. “I’ll do it if you agree to switch every single camera off,” he said. “In the room and in the corridor too. I mean it.”
She smiled then.
“Of course,” she said. “We’re not into that sort of thing here.”
He relaxed a little. He hadn’t been sure how Phase Two would be approached. He wasn’t told everything all at once, but discovered as they went along, and he’d wondered if the documentation of Phase Two would be visual and audio, the way Phase One had been, as well as based on tests. Apparently, it wasn’t, which was a relief on many levels of his own moral standards.
This was good. This, he could work with. No matter how fucked up the situation truly was.
He went back to his desk, trying to gather his racing thoughts. How should he play it? Should he… bring flowers? Try to make Isobel feel special? Or would that merely annoy her? It probably would, he concluded. In fact, the mere thought made him feel like a proper douche. He couldn’t trick her into being okay with it. He’d have to trust in the fact that she kept insisting she wanted him to be the one to initiate this phase with her, and no one else.
“Why?” he’d asked her the day before.
