VtM: Of Gods and Monsters

Working at Moreau Laboratories was many things… tedious was never one of them.  Not if one appreciated research work and trial testing.  There was almost always one project or another, and people pulled from one to work on a different one, sometimes leaving research half finished, or putting it into an entirely different team.  There were many justifications for this of course.  All of these were pointed at Dr. Moreau, the enigmatic and rarely seen private owner of the company.

Moreau personally directed down the various projects, in the form of memos and emails.  His reasons for the frequent changing of focus and such was often directed to his desire that “many hands” touch the tests, to make sure that they weren’t being personally influenced by anyone.  It was unorthodox of course, and conjecture, since he rarely made appearances and never talked about it.

He usually did show up for the annual evening Christmas party, and other various parties he would hold throughout the year. He always refused to talk business at these, and rarely talked to any of the employees directly, mostly just directing the festivities.

The research was easily cutting edge though, often extreme with it’s trials and testing, and Aubrey did have to wonder if they had violated some ethics laws here and there. Although whenever there was an inquiry, Moreau was quick to clear things up and things went back to normal.

Still, it was good money, one of the highest paid jobs in the field in Atlanta, and for one of the largest companies.  So Dr. Aubrey Lockheart could assume he knew what he was doing, and she was used to it after a few years.  New employees often complain about being thrown off by it and found it so strange compared to previous employers… still they were successful, one would only have to look at their earnings report to tell that, and the benefits were amazing.

Aubrey signed yet another non-disclosure form, and various other waivers, she was so used to signing so many of them now it hardly even mattered.  What there was to enjoy here though… was science.

One particular evening, Aubrey found herself especially engrossed in  project she had spent months on.  She was close. Too close not to know. She had spent the last six weeks gathering data for this trial run and she had no intention of letting some random new lab grunts to walk in tomorrow and get all the credit. Not to mention, she was just too damn curious. She clocked out at five and hovered around her desk until the laboratory closed.

She couldn’t help but feel her heart flutter a bit as she hid from the security as they made their final rounds, ducking into the restroom for nearly half an hour before she was convinced they had gone back to their stations.

She shuffled down the dimmed halls, stopping by her desk to gather all her paperwork and journals. She gave a huge sigh of relief as she waved her badge by the reader and it blinked green. She slipped into the lab and winced as her heels clicked loudly on the tile floor. She slipped off her shoes and continued towards her station, peeking furtively over her shoulder. It was such an adrenaline rush for her; it wasn’t often Aubrey Lockheart ‘misbehaved.’ She shook herself loose, taking a few deep breaths before pulling out her tray of DNA samples and hunkered down at her microscope.

Time passed quickly, as it often did while Aubrey was working.  Luckily, the security didn’t really do second passes and the cameras really only watched the trafficked areas. Moreau Laboratories had never had any real “incidents” to speak of after hours.

Aubrey was completely thrown off when about two hours into her late night, pre-weekend research when the lights suddenly came back on. Then behind her she heard a voice, just a few yards back.  “Shit,” she muttered under her breath as the lights came on, expecting some chubby security guard to come waddling in, but instead she heard an icy, smooth toned voice from behind her.

“Burning the midnight oil I see?  I thought that was my job.” the voice said in an unreadable, icy tone.

Startled, she jumped up with a cry, spinning around. It took her a few seconds to dawn who exactly she was looking at, and her eyes grew wide behind her glasses.  There was her boss’ boss’ boss: a face she had seen several times but rarely in person. The owner of the company, Dr. Nicholas Moreau, who was much more handsome in person. He was dressed in his own lab coat, but was immaculately groomed. It was clear that the shirt he wore under likely cost more than she made in a week.

His eyes seemed to reflect the florescent lights oddly as he smirked, but the reason for the smile was almost impossible to determine.

“Would you like to explain yourself?” he asked in a cold tone.

“Dr. Moreau!” she exclaimed, hastily finding herself running her hands over her frizzy ponytail and smoothing down the front of her labcoat.

He had talked her. Hell, he had asked her a direct question. “I uh…” she stuttered unintelligibly, suddenly seeming to forget why she had risked so much to do this. “ML43596,” she finally got out, “it was so near completion, but I was being rotated off the team tomorrow and just wanted to make sure, uh… I had all the data that was necessary to, uh…” she swallowed, forcing herself to make eye contact with him instead of staring at her socked feet on the floor, “Well, I, I mean we, were so close to gathering all the data we needed to present the report.”

“Doctor….” he paused as if in thought before continuing, his lips curving into a smile, “Lockheart isn’t it?”

He knows my name. Yes. With everything that was going on, perhaps losing her job and getting charged with criminal trespassing, that was the first thing that went through her head.

He stepped closer to her.  ”Well I must say, I find it hard to chastises diligence, especially in science.  I was down here to check on ML43596 myself. I usually check up on the research, and oversee the final stages myself, especially when time affords me to do so.  I find the research fascinating.” he cocked his head a bit. “I was the rotation that you were worried about taking over. Seems we had something in common.” he said as his head cocked the other way and he smiled at her, letting her look deep into his eyes; something about him made Aubrey's head feel swimmy .

But as he continued, the nervousness flooded back into her. Of all the toes she could be stepping on…it was the owner of the company. “I’m … so sorry…” she stuttered out. “I had no idea, I just… I really made a lot of personal progress on this one and was hoping to see it though…oh, I mean, of course… not to say that you shouldn’t. Your company and all I mean, I had no idea you were so personally involved… I would have never…”

She kept rambling on because she was too busy staring at him to organize her thoughts.  “I’m sorry.” she finally got out, forcibly tearing her eyes away as she inexplicably blushed.

He simply sat down and began his own research, and before long he was asking Dr. Lockheart all manner of questions, putting her at ease as he seemed as focused on the science as she was. Though the way he would ask her to do this or that was more like how he’d talk to an assistant, as opposed to an underling.

Aubrey was happy to help, hovering around Moreau as he got into his research, quick to answer any questions had, and quick to fetch anything he asked for.  She felt like she was dreaming.  Aubrey found herself staring at him, and when he caught her smiling at him, she felt a swell of emotion.  It was uncharacteristic for her to get so twitterpated, especially when she was focused on work.  But this was pretty much a rock star in her world, and she was star-struck.

The night wore on, quicker than Aubrey anticipated, and as morning approached, Moreau looked at her and smiled.  “Good work Aubrey,” was the last thing she remembered before she must have fallen asleep, because she woke up at home, in her bed with no recollection on how she got there.  She rolled over with a grunt as her alarm went off.  She reached over to hit the snooze button, hissing through her teeth as a pain her in neck shot up her arm. She rubbed it with her left hand as her right kept looking for the snooze button. Unsuccessfully, as her hand slipped off the clock, it landed on something unfamiliar. She slipped her hand around the stem of a rose, pulling up and blinking into the sunlight filtering in the room. “What the…”

Along with the rose, she found on her night stand a personal check for her time worked and note written in one of the most delicate handwritings she had ever seen, “See you Monday Night.”

She jerked up in bed suddenly, looking around. This had to be some sort of prank, right? The events of the night before came rushing back to her - meeting Moreau… working with him.  She stared at the enigmatic flower for a few more moments before her eyes finally went back to her bedside table.  She pulled out the note and the check from the envelope in a cloud of disbelief.  She visibly jumped as her alarm clock went off again, causing her to yelp. 

Except it wasn’t her alarm, it was her cell phone.  She pulled it off the nightstand and gaped as she saw the time: 2:34 pm?!  She swallowed as put the phone to her ear.  “Hello?”

The call was from her supervisor, informing her of a schedule change, but sounded confused as she did so. He told her that she would now be working nights, a personal request from Dr. Moreau, who said he could use some further assistance in his quality control work.  Her supervisor even had trouble saying it, and there was a twinge of jealousy in his voice as she did.

Part of her wanted to show up in the afternoon on Monday just to gloat.  To scream it from the rafters, to call everyone she practically ever knew and let them know the good news.  But a part of her still wondered if this was all too good to be true, and by the time Monday came around the pessimistic side of her had all but convinced herself that there must have been something else going on.

But she showed up right on time, as her new assignment slip from HR read, eager and excited to see Dr. Moreau again.  She made sure to present herself a bit more…. professionally than before; having spent more time in front of the mirror before work than she probably had since her high school prom.

The change in position had also come with a rather substantial raise, as she had quickly noted when the company had her overnighted the updated paperwork.  When she showed up for her shift, just as the latest workers in the company were leaving, the guards looked a bit awkwardly at her as they handed her her new badge, which gave her full clearance at all hours, and a door key, since the doors to outside were usually locked.

“Dr. Lockheart,” one of them said as he swallowed a lump in his throat, almost as if he was nervous to see her now.  Before, security had been offhanded at best with her; and rude at worst. As she passed his desk and looked back, she noted that both of the security guards had emails directly from Moreau titled “Concerning Dr. Lockheart” with the highest urgencies on them.

Clearly, Moreau had stirred some sort of pot, though when she got to her desk, she still ha an hour before he showed up.  Projects that were on the table to be reviewed and completed were in a manilla envelope on her desk.

Aubrey was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.  She slid into her desk, the creepy silence of the office not offering her as much solace as it had on Friday.  She slipped the file open and figured she would distract herself by getting right to work.

Aubrey must have drifted off, because one moment she was going over file and she thought she heard something behind her, and the next she was blinking her eyes with a slight pain in her neck as Moreau slid up beside her and said “Hello Dr. Lockheart.” with a smile on his face.

“I hope things have been to your satisfaction, my assistant.” he nodded and flipped quickly through the file that had been left on her desk.  He didn’t seem at all upset by her potential loss of work, even as she noted it was close to an hour and a half later than she remembered it being.  The man looked flush and full of life; his orange tresses framing his face.

Aubrey jumped as he came behind her, realizing she might have drifted off.  She winced and grasped her neck, standing up as Moreau came around to look at her file.  “Good evening Dr Moreau,” she said, running her hand though her hair.  “I, uh, wanted to tank you so much for all this.  I mean, you didn’t have to pay me the overtime and, uhm… assistant?”  She blinked, never having been told her ‘official’ title.  “Your assistant?” 

His head turned and his eyes flashed at her reaction, “Yes, research assistant, we aren’t talking about a secretary here.  Is that problem Dr. Lockheart?”

“No! No problem…” she shook her head emphatically. “Actually, its great.  Thank you…thank you so much.  I’m deeply grateful.  You’ve been more than generous, Doctor.”

“I hadn’t realized how useful having someone else up here could be, especially someone as intelligent and resourceful as yourself. I’ve been going over the past research you were involved in, and I must say, I’m  impressed.”

She blushed profusely as he complimented her on her work.  “Something tells me you’re not an easy man to impress,”she said, “that means a lot.”  She cleared her throat.  “I hope I can live up to your expectations.  I must say this is the most fabulous laboratory I’ve ever seen.”

“Thank you, I try to keep it up to date, only the best as they say,” he smiled at her.  “Well, we should get to work,” he said, as they started checking up on the projects, and starting their own research.  That night stretched into several as the week began to pass, and then another, and another.

Moreau was focused while he worked, but he would consistently talk with her as the nights went on. Sometimes, he would draw conclusions on the research that made no sense to her, and possibly no logical sense at all, but she quickly learned, after he snapped at her, that she wasn’t to argue about that.

Aubrey was indeed a diligent worker.  A true scientist, she was a stickler for controls, data collection, and any offer effects that would effect the accuracy of the data; but Moreau would find she never seemed to question the more delicate, ethical conundrums such as practical applications or safety protocols.  She was also a stellar employee; always at work on time and wouldn’t leave until she was dismissed. 

Moreau began to have food delivered from the best restaurants that would serve that late, which considering his prestige was apparently several, though it was always for Aubrey. He never indulged himself.  While grateful for the food, she seemed concerned, and very self conscious, about eating in front of him, especially since he didn’t anything himself.  But hunger always won out, and the quality of the food was something Aubrey wasn’t accustomed to, so she eventually began to enjoy and look forward to her midnight lunches with Moreau.

She continued to suffer from more lapses in time, but she assumed that it was her body adjusting to it’s new sleep schedule.  Regardless, Moreau never chided her on it. Other than that, the nights were wonderful.  The red-headed doctor was strange but charming, and Aubrey found her emotions running wild in his presence.

Then, after she went home, and was away from him with her own thoughts the “dreams” started.  She didn’t have to sleep for them to start: she began to get suddenly overwhelmed with emotion. She heard voices.  She saw strange things out of the corner of her eyes.  When she did finally get to sleep, her dreams were full of nightmares and insecurity.  Soon, the only time she felt truly at peace was when she was with Dr. Moreau.

This began to wear on Aubrey as the weeks went on.  She came home and curled up on her living room couch for hours sometimes, her mind playing tricks on her constantly.  She would pace around her house, looking for rats, cracks, loose planks; anything that might explain why she was becoming such a basketcase.  Between the lapses in time and the strange vision-like dreams, she seriously began to grow concerned about her mental health.  She didn't speak to Moreau about it, as it was generally not a good idea to let on to your boss that you think you might be going crazy, but she always showed up to work looking shaken; a stark contrast to when they first started working together when she was nothing but enthusiastic.

Aubrey spent some of her free time to research more about her new boss.  What Aubrey had heard about Moreau was interesting to say the least, apparently he was of European descent, recently so, his family only migrating here at the end of the 19th century.  He was apparently involved in many scientific endeavors but had a habit of not completing the work on them, thus not being involved in the final credit.  Rumors were he turned down several prestigious projects and even a couple of awards before settling down In Atlanta and with sizable capital setting up this company.  The general consensus: He was regarded by the scientific community as odd, but brilliant.

It didn’t take long for what used to be a school girl crush to fan into full-fledged admiration of Moreau.  He was a brilliant scientist with move star good looks, and in Aubrey’s mind, it didn’t get any better.  She knew very little about his personal life, and as dying as she was to know, she never got the nerve to ask him directly.   He didn’t wear a wedding band  That was a start.  He never spoke of any girlfriends or mentioned a fiance, but she had to be honest with herself: he didn’t talk about anything personal with her.  She wouldn’t have any way to know.  They only saw each other at work, and Aubrey was finding the night shift to be really grating on her sometimes.  She was sleeping more than she ever had before, often not waking up until well into the afternoon and often not feeling particularly rested either.

On the other hand, Aubrey wasn’t exactly the most confident when it came to matters of romance.  Sure, get her in a room of scientists and she could hold her own against nearly anybody, but she was smart enough to know a good majority of the reason she immersed herself so much in science was how awkward and ungraceful she was in social realms.  Not particularly attractive or social, she never had much luck with boyfriends anyway.  Sure, she wasn’t a nun: she had had boyfriends and relationships, but they were not exactly model material like, well, like Dr. Moreau was.

Moreau complimented Aubrey on a regular basis: something she certainly wasn’t used to.  He had once stopped in the middle of an experiment to say, “I've never had a better assistant, Aubrey.  You are absolutely brilliant.”  Moreau took to encouraging her enthusiasm, doing little things here and there to draw her attention; leaving his lab coat open and a few button of his shirt unbuttoned, and the occasional flower or chocolates on her desk when she arrived.  Though he never acted openly romantic with her around, or gave the gifts to her personally.  Aubrey noticed that her hallucinations began to ease up as they grew closer over the weeks.

The chocolates and the roses confused her as much as they elated her.  She blushed and grinned and smelled each flower, savored each chocolate, and generally reveled in the surrealism of it all - but when it came time to meet Dr. Moreau in the lab, he made no mention of it.  She had nearly convinced herself it was a cruel joke by one of her bitter old co-workers before working up the nerve to test the waters.  “Thank you,” she said pointedly one day after she found the small gift on her desk.  She didn’t say what for, instead she wanted to gauge his reaction to see if he even knew what she was talking about.

“I was wondering when you would get around to thanking me,” Moreau said instead of a typical ‘you’re welcome,’ response. “I trust it has all been to your liking?” he said with an arrogant grin as he continued working, watching her reactions out of the corner of his eye.

“I’m so sorry,” she said quickly, praying she wasn’t blushing as hard she felt she might be.  “I uh, wasn’t sure if you - I mean, I thought maybe…” she took a deep breath and just shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. 

“I’m sorry.  Just. Thank you. And of course, I loved them. You have, uh, impeccable taste,” she said with a grin.

“Of course I do,” was his response in a cold tone, but then he did something more subtle: his hand slipped over hers, pulling it away from their work to hold it for a moment as he smiled a mischievous smile, then removed it just as quickly and nonchalant as he had grabbed it.

She swallowed as his hand took hers, noting only for a second how cold it was before, well not caring.  She waited for him to say something else, but instead he just gave her a smile and went back to working.  Aubrey tried to articulate something, but gave up after several minutes.  She just threw herself back into her work, letting her brain work up the courage to say something on the backburner.  After several hours, as she was fetching a fresh labcoat for Moreau, she cleared her throat as she handed it to him.  “So, ah… we should go out for breakfast or…something… you know, once we’re done here of course.”

The doctor was bemused and a bit surprised when she finally got up the courage to ask about breakfast on the same night. Her internal conflict had not gone unnoticed.  He’d expected it would take much longer than that.  “Are the dinners here not satisfactory?  I spend a lot of money to have those brought in you know.” He said, diverting the subject and acting slightly offended.

“No!” she said quickly, immediately regretting even bringing it up.  “Just, ya know, it's a long night and - well - you don’t… uh, eat much.  No, please, I really appreciate it, I just thought since, well.. nevermind.  You’re right, no need for breakfast.  Or coffee, right, you probably sleep after you get home, hmm?”   Great, now she just seemed like a pig.  She scratched her arm nervously and buried her face in the microscope to hopefully hide how red and hot it felt.  Good job, Aubrey she chided herself.  He knows exactly what you;re trying to do, he’s just trying to find a nicer way to say no.

“Besides… what would people think if they saw me with an… employee,” he said with disdain dripping from his voice.  “Still…” he said after a long pause, as if he was considering something.  “Since you are here,” he grabbed her and pulled her into a deep kiss.  His mouth was unusually cold, but his tongue probed hers with a century's worth of expertise.  He looked deep into her eyes and that was her last memory of that intimate encounter.

Aubrey slowly sat up in her bed, the sun glaring at her from behind her curtains.  She pulled her knees up to her chest and tried to clear the fog out of her brain.  She didn’t remember coming home that night… the last thing she remembered was..

…oh god.

No.  That was a dream.  It had to be.  She… well, yeah.  It had to be: she had no memory after that.  And she definitely would have remembered … anything else.

She smiled and touched her lips with a grin.  Such a nice dream, though.

She rolled out of bed and grabbed her phone, blinking as she stared down at the date.  Wait… if that was dream how was it already Thursday?

She was confused and horribly upset at herself.  This missing time thing was starting to seriously concern her.  Maybe she should mention it to Dr. Moreau..?

Oh god… what if they had done something and she forgot?!

No… no that couldn’t be it, she convinced herself.  That wouldn’t happen.  it was just a crush and he was her boss.  Not to mention he could probably have any girl he wanted in the world.

The following night Dr. Moreau did not appear.  No meals were delivered and no messages were left.  Aubrey hovered around the lab, the dread building up in her chest. What had she done? What did they do? Was he mad?

Did he fire her and she just not remember?

She eventually just hunkered down to work, trying to focus on her projects, hastily wiping away frustrated tears.  Eventually, however, the work calmed her down and she barreled through the assignments.  She was starving by the time morning came around, but she was too afraid to leave the office.  She was afraid the moment she would leave to get lunch Moreau would have come in, seen she wasn’t there, and left again: so she went without.

Her shift ended.  She was tired, hungry, and the worry was weighting heavily  in the pit of her stomach.  However she stayed at her desk for nearly an hour more, dozing off until the morning shift began to trickle in.

As the crew shuffled in, her old supervisor took a moment to give Aubrey a scoffing look, but didn’t say anything.  Now it was the weekend, and she realized she didn’t even have a number to contact Moreau; just his office line that was only ever answered by a secretary.  She eventually went home, still confused and concerned, and went to bed.

Late that night, when Aubrey would normally be at work, the doorbell rang.  Aubrey shuffled to the door, concerned why someone would be ringing at such a late hour.  The thought that it might be her boss never occurred to her until she looked through through her peep hole.  Her heart skip a beat when she saw Moreau on the other side.  “Dr. Moreau!” she called, looking in horror down at her weekend wear (which was just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt) and the state of her bachelorette living room. 

“Shit,” she hissed under her breath.  Part of her wanted to race around and change, clean, but she knew he wasn’t one that liked to be kept waiting.  “Just a minute,” she called, quickly gathering some dirty dishes off her coffee table and ditching them in the kitchen before grabbing a scrunchie and quickly pulling her hair into a ponytail.  She opened the door with a meek smile.  “Doctor… I…what are you doing here?” she asked.

Gone was the labcoat, replaced by a black blazer, black pants, and a deep green undershirt.  He stood outside, the moon to his back, as she opened the door, his eyes reflecting in the strangest way.  “Hello Aubrey,” he said with a small mysterious smile as he let himself in.

Her apartment was large, in a great part of town.  But it was sparsely furnished and obviously never had the touch of any kind of professional designer.

Dr. Moreau looked around the apartment judgmentally, “This is…you know what?  Nevermind.”  He walked right up close to her, his fingers gently stroked her hair. “Besides, it’s you I came to see… that is… if you don’t mind.” He said in a tone that implied that she didn’t.

“I don’t mind…” she half-lied, suddenly feeling very self-conscious.  She looked deep into his eyes, her heart racing, suddenly filling with nervousness and uncertainty; all the lost time and other factors had her doubting every thing that happened to her.  “You weren’t at work yesterday…” she said, hoping to get some clues as to what happened.  “Is everything okay?”

Moreau didn’t miss a beat, as he closed the door behind him deftly and leaned down to put his face near hers.  “Everything’s fine Aubrey… I attended to some matters,” he smirked at her as he said, “Don’t they say something like… absence makes the heart grow fonder?”

She couldn’t help smile.  “Yes, they do say that…”  She reached up and put her hand on his cheek, swallowing hard.  “Doctor, I… ” she hated to ruin this moment…his face was so close… but she was getting frustrated and scared about her blackouts, and didn’t want anymore to happen that she didn’t remember.  “Have I been acting, uh…strange recently?”

“Not at all…” he smiled, “I mean you made it perfectly clear the first night we met how much you wanted to be with me.  That’s why I couldn’t let you go and made arrangements.  Don’t you remember, when you kissed me that first night… and every night after that?” Moreau asked with a smile.  “I mean, this has been going on for weeks… don’t tell me you are getting cold feet after all the roses and candy.”

Aubrey felt her heart sink.  She backed away from him, as hard as that was.  “…what?”  She sunk down onto her couch, her heart racing.  “Oh no…” she breathed.  “Doctor, I… something’s wrong with me.”

“Nothing’s wrong with you…”  He sat beside her and stroked her hair. “So take charge and aggressive, I couldn’t resist a dalliance with you.” he said as he kissed her cheek, “Even if I didn’t think you’d be my type, you surprised me.”  His face put on a bit more concern, “Are you reconsidering things between us?”

She felt her heartbeat pick up as he talked and touched her; even through all the concerns she was having about her mental health, he was putting some rather vivid ideas in her head.   “There’s an us?” she squeaked.

She shook her head, her eyes filling up with tears as she was on the brink of panicking.  “Doctor, I don’t remember.  Any of that.   Weeks? Oh god how could it have been weeks??   I just remember our kiss the other night after I tried to ask you out and then…”

She paled a bit.  “Oh my god…” she breathed. She looked up at him. “Did we have sex?!” she asked, scandalized.

“Not yet.” Moreau said as he pulled her into another kiss, his tongue probing her lips in the most sensual way as his fingers roamed her body.  His lips moved to her neck, whispering softly in her ear while his hands stroked the side of her face, “I don’t know Aubrey, maybe you are going crazy… but if you are… isn’t this what you wanted?  The pay, the prestige, me…” he kissed beside her lips, teasing them with his tongue. “Maybe crazy is good… if it gets you what you want.”

His kisses were intoxicating and she couldn’t help herself from kissing back, running her fingers through his thick red hair.  A part of her, a very bad, selfish part, thought Moreau had a very good point.  She didn’t want to stop, especially considering where it looked like this was going.

But she couldn’t. She gently put a hand on his chest and pushed him away.  “Doesn’t that concern you?” she asked. “It’s not….me.  Seducing you. Do you really think I’d be dressed like this if I thought youd be coming over?” she tried to joke.  She looked on the brink of tears. “This is serious. I don’t remember.”

“Fine,” Moreau said with a bit of a sigh as she pushed him away.  “Does this concern me?  no it doesn’t.  I’d say pretty  clearly this is your issue, not mine.  Maybe this is a part of you that you’ve had all along, one that is just helping you get what you want.  Not something to fear… unless you were happy with your old life I suppose.” Moreau said as he moved closer again his hands wrapping around her.  “Some have called me crazy.  I welcome it.  Thinking differently from the rest of the cattle of this world.  As I see it, you have a choice…” he said with a bit of a smirk.  ”You can reject it… fix it… try to put all the pieces back together again and end up right where you started for who knows how long.  I’ll go home and you can have your lonely weekend and your lonely rest of your life…”

Moreau leaned in closer.  “Or… you can embrace it, let whatever it is help you get what you want… and - think of it this way - it’s you right now… don’t you want to be you right now?” he asked as he pulled her into another kiss.

“I…” she hesitated, looking over at him with obvious desire. She hadn’t been wholly unhappy with her old life. I mean…

…well…
…she had a good job. A decent job.

Not as good as this one.

Moreau was right, to a point.  She could still … fix herself tomorrow. But Moreau seemed unconcerned so why should she be?  He was warned, and he still, for some reason, wanted her.  And he was so amazing.  She'd never been with a man nearly this attractive. She could be selfish for once in her life.

She began to return his kisses, unsure at first but increasing with confidence.

Moreau kept her locked in a kiss as his hands slipped under her blouse and deftly unhooked Aubrey’s bra.  He slid it out skillfully from under her blouse, claiming it like a prize but going  no further.  “Do you want to sleep with your boss Aubrey?” Moreau asked with a sly grin.  “What would the office gossip say?”  He kept his smile, deepening it, even as his tongue teased her neck.  “Not to late for me to stop… but if you want me to continue… I want you to admit how twisted you are.” he grinned as his hands teased her body.  His voice was compelling and convincing.

Her eyes slipped closed as he kissed her neck.  “I don’t think,” it was hard to articulate sentences with his hands on her, “it’s very twisted to want you,” she purred.

  “I didn’t say it was twisted to want me.  Of course it’s not.  That’s probably the sanest thing about you… I just want you to admit to me that you are twisted…” Moreau kissed her again but he was still being insistent.  “It makes me hot…” he whispered into her ear.

Well in that case…She was already going crazy.  She told Moreau she was crazy.  Worse case scenario… well, she could blame it on the crazy.  “I’m twisted,” she said after a moment.  “Totally twisted, and totally want you.”

“That’s my girl.” Moreau said as he pushed her back down onto the couch so the real fun could begin.