It's not the wickedness, the sex part. That's in everyone and that can be fine. It's deeper.
"It's basic.
"It's Evil.
"And you always feel it, some part of you does, when it grazes you.
"Always."
She was quiet for several seconds. Then she sighed, took a sip.
"The good news is that the last stage is rare."
Jack Crow spoke for the first time. "Why is it rare?"
"Because most people are dead by then," replied Davette, looking at him.
And Jack nodded back, as if he had been expecting the answer.
"So," began Felix once more, "were you an addict now?"
She looked at him. "Pretty much. But within the next week of that... The next ten days...
A week, she would think later. A week, ten days...
That's all it took for her former life to disappear.
Within a week she had learned what it was like to be teased. Within ten days she understood the end of the leash. Her life had shrunk to a single nighttime dot. She never went anywhere alone. She never saw the sunshine. She never talked with anyone besides Ross, Kitty, Aunt Victoria, and the servants. She did write one letter. To her college. Less than a month before graduation and she wrote them to say she wouldn't be coming back.
No life.
He teased her by being especially charming one night, giving her more than her share of attention. He was witty, he was tender, he burned her with that look. Then, abruptly, he left.
She lay awake until dawn. Steaming.
One night he didn't show at all. The two women sat around talking, wearing their most knock-out attire - for Ross preferred them to be either overdressed or naked - all night long waiting for him to show up.
But he never did.
It wasn't as if he had actually promised to be there that night. But he had been there every other night. Even if just to tease them. By the end of the night the two friends no longer spoke. They merely sat in front of the great fireplace in silence. Each of them knew then, Davette thought later. Each of them knew it was madness and darkness to continue. And if he hadn't shown up, if only for just a few nights, they would have been free. Or at least aware enough to instinctively flee.
He was back the next night, apologetic and charming and, later, as awesomely rapturous as ever.
They were his.
His property.
His toys.
And what good are toys if not to play with?
"You can make any man desire you," Ross said, smiling, from the center booth at Del Frisco's.
And they were all attention because it had been that kind of a night. For the very first time, he had taken them out!
Long black limousine. Long-stemmed roses. A gorgeous, tuxedo-clad Ross escorting them through the front door of the famous restaurant. Del, himself, there to greet them and lead them into that classic dining room with its carved deep mahogany and deeper rugs and immaculate diamond-bright crystal and the people! The way they stared at the three. Stared and (the ladies just knew it) envied. Davette was wearing her best and she had never felt so beautiful or attractive or, well, glamorous... in her whole life. Kitty was pretty show-stopping herself, though a trifle pale, and the service they received managed to be even better than Del Frisco's usual standard. The waiters positively swarmed around them.
"You can make any man desire you," Ross repeated. "Any man. Not just desire you. Crave you!" As he said the last he had leaned forward across the candlelight and beamed energy at them and they had shivered.
Because it was so exciting! To be out again and in the glitter. To feel so desirable - and Ross had seen to it they felt that way before they ever left Davette's house. They felt like movie stars, like... sirens!
"Let me tell you how," said Ross next. "First, you have to want him. Or, at least, imagine you do."
And so it began.
They were in his world now. And everything he wanted to be thrilling and acceptable was so. Every suggestion seemed fun or at least... harmless. A harmless secret between the three that somehow didn't really... count. ("ibis will not go on your permanent record.") It was easy to believe it didn't count. It was all so unreal anyway.
"Imagine," Ross purred, "that those two men in that booth over my left shoulder were so dynamic in bed that you could not resist them."
And so the women glanced over his shoulder at the two men