“I wasn’t happy with her. It wasn’t about happiness — it was about sex.

And she isn’t the kind of girl I could introduce to my parents. You, on the other hand, were at least presentable. Even if you were a disappointment.”

“I don’t want to talk about this.”

He pulled the door out of her grasp and slammed it shut. “I’m not finished. And I don’t like being interrupted.”

Julia took a cautious step backward. “Sorry, Simon.”

“Let’s cut the bullshit. You know why I’m here. I want the pictures.”

“I told you, I don’t have them.”

“I don’t believe you.” He clamped a hand around her neck and yanked her toward him by her necklace.

“Do you really want to play this game with me? I’ve seen what Natalie has. I know the pictures exist. If you give them to me now, we’ll remain friends. But don’t push me. I didn’t drive three hours to put up with your shit. I don’t care how many strands of pearls you wear, you are nothing.”

He began to tug on the necklace, straining the knots between each pearl.

Julia brought her hands up to stop him. “Please don’t. This was Grace’s.”

“Oh, this was Grace’s. Excuse me. I spent more money on you in a week than they’re worth.” He tugged the necklace again, defiantly.

Julia swallowed hard, and he could feel her throat flutter against his fingers. “Natalie is lying. I don’t know what her motivation is, but I’m telling you that I left behind all the pictures of you that I had. I have no reason to lie to you. Please, Simon.”

Simon laughed. “You give an impressive performance but that’s all it is — a performance. I know you were mad at me because of what happened, and I think you took something for revenge.”

“If that’s true, then why haven’t I used them? Why didn’t I send them to a newspaper or ask you for money? Why would I be holding onto them for over a year? It doesn’t make sense!”

He crushed her to him and brought his lips to her ear. “You aren’t exactly street smart, Jules. It isn’t a stretch for me to believe that you have something that you don’t know how to use. Why don’t we move this conversation upstairs? I can look around for the pictures, and you can try to put me in a better mood.” He drew her earlobe into his mouth, biting it slightly.

Julia inhaled and exhaled a couple of times, trying to grasp at any courage she could summon. She looked up into his cold, blue eyes. “I’m not doing anything until you take your hands off me. Why can’t you be nice?”

Simon’s eyes darkened momentarily, and he released her. “Oh, I’ll be nice to you.” He started petting her cheek. “But I expect something in return. If I don’t leave here with the pictures, then I’ll have to leave with something else. So you should start thinking about what you can do to put a smile on my face.”

Julia cringed.

“Things have certainly changed, haven’t they? I’m real y going to enjoy this.” He pulled her into his arms and pressed his open, eager mouth to hers.

At six-thirty sharp, Gabriel excused himself from the dining room table and walked into the living room, readying himself to receive Julia’s call. The call never came.

He checked his voice mail. No messages from Julia. No new texts from Julia. No e-mails, either. At ten minutes to seven, he dialed her cell phone. After a few rings his call went to voice mail.

“Julianne? Are you there? Call me.”

He ended the call and used the White Pages application on his iPhone to find Tom’s home number. It rang and rang and rang. Then the answering machine came on. He hung up without leaving a message.

Why isn’t she answering the phone? Where is she? And where’s Tom?

A dreadful suspicion took hold in his mind. Not wanting to waste a single second, Gabriel stormed out the front door without speaking to anyone. He started the Jeep and sped all the way over to Tom’s house, trying again and again to reach Julia or Tom on the way. And if a policeman stopped him for speeding, so much the better.

Simon’s victory was so close he could taste it. He knew that Julia wasn’t a strong person, and he was accustomed to using her weakness to his advantage. When she looked him in the eye and pleaded with him to believe that she didn’t have the photographs, he believed her. It was far more likely that Natalie was setting her up, trying to deflect attention from her own vindictive game. As he held Julia in his arms once again, he gave up his quest for the pictures. Now he was on an entirely different mission.

Undeterred by the ringing of the telephone in the kitchen, which alternated with a few bars of Message in a Bottle, as played by Julia’s iPhone, Simon continued kissing her, pulling her so that she was straddling him as he sat on her father’s couch.

She was still frigid. She was tolerating his advances, but barely, her arms and body limp. She’d never liked his tongue in her mouth. She’d never really liked anything of his in her mouth, and even now she squirmed in his arms. But her discomfort excited him, and when he slid his tongue over and around hers, he felt his arousal grow and strain against the zipper of his jeans.

He kissed her until she screwed up the courage to push against his chest with her fists, and he knew it was time to move on to other activities.

As he began to unbutton her shirt, she struggled.

“Please don’t do this,” she whimpered. “Please let me go.”

“You’re going to like it.” He chuckled as he leaned around to cup her ass, kneading and groping it while she tried to escape from his lap. “I’m going to make sure you enjoy it. Then I’ll let you go.”

He dragged his mouth across her jaw line and down to the left side of her neck, sucking on a patch of skin near the middle of her throat, above the pearls. “I don’t think you want a repeat of our last fight, do you Julia?”

She trembled.

“Julia?”

“No, Simon.”

“Good.” Since his eyes were closed, he missed the obvious love bite on the right side of her neck. It wouldn’t have mattered. He’d already planned on marking her. A nice bite mark so that her boyfriend back in Canada would see what his little girlfriend had been up to. A mark that would even the score between the two of them. He vacuumed her blood up to the surface of her skin and for good measure, sank his teeth into her.

She cried out in pain.

He licked the skin softly, enjoying her taste, salty and sweet and bloody and Julia. When he was finished, he moved back to admire his handiwork.

She’d have to wear a turtleneck to cover it up, and he knew that Julia didn’t like turtlenecks. The mark was monstrous, angry and red. It showcased his large ring of teeth. It was perfect.

Julia looked up at him through her impossibly long lashes, and he watched something shift in her eyes. He leaned forward in anticipation and licked his lips. Suddenly her palm connected with his cheek with a vicious slap. In a flash, Julia flew to the staircase to escape to the second floor.

“You fucking bitch!” Simon roared as he followed, easily catching up to her. Just before she reached the top stair, he caught her ankle with both hands and twisted. She collapsed on her knees, shrieking in pain.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson you’ll never forget,” he said, moving to grab her by the hair.

She howled as he yanked her head backward.

Flailing madly, she kicked at him furiously with her uninjured foot and miraculously made contact with his groin, releasing his grip from her hair and sending him careening down the stairs. She hobbled up to her bedroom and locked the door behind her while he doubled over in pain.

“Wait till I get my hands on you, you bitch!” he shouted, clasping his crotch with both hands.

Julia braced her bedroom door with a chair and tugged on a nearby dresser. Old framed photographs clattered against one another on top of the antique as she tried to move it, while a china doll crashed to the floor.