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world.
                  So many questions and no answers. Her mind whirled and ached. She wanted to lay down and sleep, but she settled for resting her head back against the seat.
                  “We’re taking a private jet,” Alistair said, reaching up and stroking her brow. “There’s a small bedroom on board. You can take a nap and when you wake we’ll be in paradise.”
                  “Okay,” she whispered, overwhelmed by how attentive he was. She was used to being taken care of by Trent—but everything came with a price—and started keeping a mental tally of what she owed Alistair for being kind.
                  She studied his face. Did he prefer to be paid like Trent, with her mouth around his cock while he choked her? Other times Trent took his payment out on her body, using any blunt object he could find to shove inside her, humiliate her. Then he’d be gentle and kind again, touching her lightly, making her come. She savored those moments. They got her through the rest—the payments and punishments.
                  “What are you thinking?” Alistair asked, bringing her out of the past to the strange and unknown present.
                  She wasn’t sure how to ask what they were like together, what the rules where, so she shook her head. “Nothing.”
                  She figured she’d find out soon enough.
                  They boarded the plane and buckled in for take-off. Once up in the air, she fidgeted in her seat. She wanted to get on with her life—whatever that was.
                  “Come on,” Alistair said, standing. “I’ll show you the bedroom.”
                  He held out a hand and she took it. He led her to the back of the plane where he opened a door. Inside was a bed and no room for much more. She followed him in. “I want you to know,” he said, taking her by the shoulders, “I’ll provide you with everything you need. You recover and I’ll take care of everything else.”
                  There it was. The invoice. Bethany hated owing payback, so she dropped to her knees and reached for his zipper only to be jerked up onto her feet again.
                  “What are you doing?” Alistair gripped her arms, hard, then let go.
                  She didn’t understand. “Paying you back for taking care of me.”
                  His eyes widened in confusion and…horror? “We don’t—that’s not…” He groaned in frustration. “You don’t need to pay me back for loving you, Bethany. I do that freely.”
                  A lump of humiliation crawled up her throat. “I can’t expect you to do that,” she said. “I don’t know you like I used to.”
                  He closed his eyes and exhaled in defeat. “That doesn’t change how I feel about you.”
                  Bethany slumped down onto the end of the bed. “I don’t know who I am anymore.” The tears rolled unbidden, down her cheeks. “I don’t know who you want me to be—who you expect.”
                  He eased down beside her. “I only expect you to be whoever you are. I know you’re not the same woman who I left at home the day I went to Seattle to film. You’re the woman she kept hidden away deep inside. The one she was afraid to let out.”
                  “I don’t understand.”
                  “What your ex did to you in the past…let’s just say this last trip to the hospital wasn’t your worst from my understanding. You’re lucky to be alive. You ran from him, Bethany. Ran for your life. When you got away, you vowed never to be that vulnerable again. You locked yourself—this woman you are right now who remembers nothing I’m telling you—locked her away, shut her in a closet and refused to let her out. But she’s you. You’re