Manipulated (4 page)

             
“You did a bad, bad thing, Dan,” she said. Dan just quirked a brow at her, and she almost lost her nerve. “You did a bad thing. You touched your step daughter. You crossed a line.”

             
Dan smirked, and she fumbled again.

             
“You think this is a joke?” She said. For the space of half a second, she felt bad. He'd given her the most intense, wonderful sex of her life and this is how she repaid him? She soldiered on. “I'm going to tell my mother exactly what you did.”

             
This is the part where he was supposed to fall apart, supposed to give in, supposed to
beg
. He didn't. He sat, and smiled, and waited.

             
“You know she'll believe me,” Emma said. “Unless...”

             
“Let me show you something,” Dan said. He thumbed a few keys on the remote on his end table, and the TV came on. She hadn't remembered him turning it off. But instead of Iron Chef, the voice she heard was her own.

             
“Well?” She heard herself say. She whirled on her heel and saw herself on TV, standing nude in front of his bed.

             
“You're beautiful,” TV Dan said. “A perfect specimen of womanhood. Now put your clothes on and get the hell out of my room.”

             
The video paused. “You -” Emma said, “You have
cameras
in your
bedroom
?”

             
Dan laughed. “You don't develop a potentially government destabilizing encryption algorithm without a little paranoia,” he said. “Though I must admit, I hadn't thought to use them for sex until today. Must be getting soft in my old age. Now watch this.” He thumbed a few more keys on the remote, and the TV cued up again.

             
“Get the hell out of my room,” TV Dan said, again.

             
The screen jerked slightly, and TV Emma was standing two feet to the left. “You did a bad, bad thing, Dan,” she said.

             
Emma – real Emma – swallowed hard. It looked... bad. It looked like she'd tried to seduce him, and when she failed she'd resorted to blackmail. She'd seen enough movies to know how that went.

             
“The transition is a little rough,” Dan said, “You weren't standing quite in the same spot. But we've got a week before your mother comes home. I'm sure I can squeeze in an hour on the editor.”

             
She'd been beaten. He played her just as she'd been trying to play him – and there was nothing she could do about it. “Fine,” she managed. “Fine. What... happened. What happened happened. And we never have to speak of it again. We'll just... forget about it.”

             
Dan threw back his head and laughed. “Honey, we're just getting started.”