Chapter 1
Communing with Nature
Mia conceded fresh, unexpected emotions and sensations resulting from being one with the elements through the entire twenty-four hours of a day. It had never happened before and she knew of no one who had shared this frightening communion with nature. The effect was to make her feel small and insignificant, far beyond the compulsion of the rope collar upon her neck and the rope leash trailing away to the tree. She guessed the twins had made the tether twenty feet long in the supposition she would require exercise. It had certainly enabled her to study a greater variety of botanical specimens than would a shorter span but it did not enable her to reach another tree or improve her view. For three days her world had centered around the tree to which the end of the long rope was knotted tightly and then securely wired. The wire was the most irritating thing of all, without it she could have easily gotten free within the space of an hour or so. It defeated her completely in the same way a similar wire around the cords about her wrists behind her back rendered her hands so helpless.
Mia Argent surveyed the seventy-two hours of her imprisonment knowing they had shattered her world and henceforth nothing would be the same. She had gone through half a day of rebellion. It was impossible to believe she was truly helpless and would have to stay exactly here for as long as the twins desired. Her wrists and neck chaffed from the outrage of being thus confined. She had tried hour after hour to defeat the rope and the cord without success. Mia knew herself mantled in shame when she realized the twins had been watching from a not too distant bush. She must have appeared ridiculous in all the contortions she contrived to seek freedom. They would have chuckled over the way she stood resolute and gazing around as though certain of help and striving for composure by which to defeat a captivity in which she did not then truly believe. She believed it now!
On the second day she had begun to find a rhythm, a progression, not of herself but of the universe in which she was increasingly an infinitesimal part. The sun rose, it swept in its wide arch overhead across the sky to sink and deliver her to evening and the shadows which later would become ghosts. In the changing light and temperature the foliage emitted its own succession of scents which affected Mia strangely in an elemental response. It was the same with the soil and the grass. There were times when she told herself she was picking up the perfumes of morning or of night. Ordinarily she would not have bothered to even notice but now, captive to the cord, she had nothing else to do and was realizing these natural cycles possessed her being in a way she had never known. Mia was in no way reconciled to captivity, but when her explorations to the end of her tether had revealed such tiny things of interest as an ant hills, a few beetles and a multitude of tiny, unsuspected growths, she had been forced to sit down with her back against her tree and allow herself to flow with the invisible tide of the woodland the twins had chosen. Sometimes she slept, but at others she reviewed endlessly the conversations.
"You know you'll get into trouble for this. You're thirteen and ought to have more sense."
"You always told us we didn't have any sense anyway, so what's the difference?" Their answer was glib.
"It's disgusting the way you've stripped me of everything and left me naked like this. And you've no right to tie me and tether me the way you have. It's as though ... as though ... I was a puppy dog!"
"You are a puppy dog, a pretty little girl puppy dog. Just think, darling, we've got a puppy dog twenty-four years old."
"OK, so there's this big disparity in our ages. I've never been mean enough to warrant this. Let me loose and we'll say no more about it."
Angle and Fancy did not answer. They stood surveying her in a quiet speculation which told Mia too clearly there was something else afoot in their busy, mischievous, young minds. The knowledge left her uneasy and a trifle scared. Thirteen might be a responsible age, but on the other hand ...
"Don't you see how cruel this is, this thing you're doing to me, this captivity. I can't possibly get free, I've tried and tried. You could keep me here forever!"
Mia instantly wished she had not said it. The twins nodded brightly in agreement. There was between them a vivid sibling communion needing no words. "That's right, Mia darling, at least we can keep you to your next birthday. That's only a few months away. By then you'll probably be polite to us."
"I'll be polite to you right now if you'll let me loose. Do you want money or something?"
Once more they stood and stared making their prisoner triply naked. Angrily she demanded, "Look, is there anything that strange in seeing me without clothes? You've seen me this way before - without the rope, of course."
"We like you that way, Mia darling. We'll come and look at you often, just to get our money's worth," they tittered in unison. "We know we'll maybe get into a pile of trouble over this but we think it's worth it. Don't bother to plead too much, we don't even hear."
One conversation was much like another. All Mia gleamed from them was a realization of something permanent in this condition. The twins had planned it carefully and were still exuberantly confident. In portentous mischief they made a careful scrutiny of her bondage night and morning, the band and knots around the tree and the cords around her wrist. There was also the rope circle around her neck which she was increasingly coming to loathe. Mia knew the twins all too well and realized they might let her loose and any moment or might keep her as she was until some neighbor or relative forced the issue to compel them to come scampering to set her free. Meanwhile they could run the affairs of their home and enjoy themselves in whatever way they chose. Mia wished she had not withdrawn the expense money from the bank. They unblushingly admitted to having found it and were not using it for the purpose intended. When Mia's anger had cooled, she asked herself how mean the two younger girls really were. There was no cruelty about this strange captivity. For them it evidently had a purpose, but not for her. They were robbing her only of a day of her life and these days had succeeded each other until now there were three. Each night they tossed her a blanket but repossessed it each morning. Mia considered her diet an outrage.
"Look, you two, are you trying to starve me? Water, an apple, a little piece of cheese!"
"It's marvelous for your figure, darling. We do love your curves and we hope to have some like them one day."
"There's nothing wrong with my figure, it doesn't need starvation. And you're being beastly making me eat as though I really am a dog. Do you realize how difficult it is to feed myself when you've taken away my hands?"
"Of course we do, darling! We're thinking of making you have your dinner while we watch. You go into the most amusing contortions."
"Of course I do. How else can I manage it! And this sucking up water from a bowl ... Why can't I have a cup of coffee?"
"Because we're mean," they laughed at their refusal of her plea. "Just think, Mia dear, we can give you anything we like or give you nothing and there's not a thing you can do about it. You're not a big, wise sister anymore, you just a gorgeous pet we keep on leash so you can't go away. Isn't it lovely!"
She was always glad to see them come but equally glad to see them go. Mia had exhausted her vocabulary of threats and pleadings to bring her to the realization of total dependence on these giggling moppets. She found shame in this condition, as though she had done something wrong or was working out a penitence for misdeeds. Savagely Mia told herself her only error had been to fall thoughtlessly asleep in the garden chair and thereby giving her younger sisters the opportunity of noosing her neck and binding her wrists before she had recovered her wits sufficiently to prevail. The twins were strong and there were two of them! When all else failed, Mia tried sweet reason.
"Look, if you've got to keep me here you can do it with the rope around my neck. I can't possibly get it free, not the way you've got it wired. So why can't you let me have my hands. They don't have to be tied behind my back, it doesn't prove anything?"
"It does to us, darling. You look so sweet, so helpless and you have to do the puppy dog act when we feed you."
"But it's been three days and nights! It's horrible not being able to use my hands."
Even that rug you give me at night ... I have to sort of roll myself into it, I can't use it properly. Please untie my hands!" They appeared not to hear but studiously discussed her more female attributes in tones faintly envious and designed to tell they captive she might as well shut up. It was wickedly frustrating. Mia found what comfort she could in fantasies where she had Fancy and Angle tightly tressed to separate trees and left them there for a week. She would make certain they were very tightly tied and totally naked to receive the unkind attentions of flying insects and such tiny creatures as might chose to mount the incline of their legs. Mia was becoming well acquainted with insects and spend a good deal of her time coping with them. This coping without hands was never easy. Several species she would normally tramp upon found her flesh a desirable resting place, some regarded it as a legitimate meal. Mia's hands had only the shortest range and she was forced to dislodge her enemies by frictioning against her tree or laying on the ground and rolling over and over until they were crushed or went away. The exercise left her hot and disheveled. To date the twins had refused to bush or comb her hair which compelled her to be forever shaking it into some sort of order. She had no idea what she looked like, she was certain it was terrible.
Mia Argent had reached a point of resignation in which she no longer cared about conversation. She would answer her captor's questions with brief affirmatives or negatives, delivered in a wary hostility. Mia sensed her captivity was likely to be of long duration. She saw the twins as declaring war, battle lines were drawn and she would fight fiercely if she had the chance. But no chance was ever offered, Mia Argent was as helpless as a canary in a cage and more and more became accustomed to her tether and tied hands in this leafy, woodland scene which was her prison. She found herself more and more inclined to sitting or laying in a drowsy contemplation of the limited view. She slept and dreamed constantly of rescue. Her rescuer ranged all the way from a knight in shining armor to a member of the local police. There was also Cyril Updike. Mia supposed she should think of Cyril as her boyfriend, a term she loathed. Cyril would have been her principle hope of escape had he not been absent on a business trip likely to last a couple of weeks. Of course, she might still be where she was in two week's time. This was becoming more and more probable. But she seriously wondered if she wished Cyril Updike to behold her present condition. If he walked through the trees to see her now she would burn up with shame and mortification. She supposed that after a couple of weeks she would be grateful for anyone and would forget what shame was like.
Mia spent a lot of time looking at herself. Her enforced nakedness had emphasized her female state in a way she had not previously viewed it. Every day and every night the elements made sport with her breasts and pubic hair, forcing her to reassess what is was like to be a girl. She felt certain a man would have been more resourceful and by now obtained his freedom, but she was as far from hers as ever. The lascivious chatter of the twins often made her blush but again emphasized what she was, she was a girl naked in sylvan solitude. Mia supposed it preferable to the dungeons and chains of fiction and legend but it was nonetheless complete. In a manner both fey and fanciful she likened herself to the tree to which she was attached and all the other growths. None had any choice but to live through each day and each night and to get their drama from the elements which changed them yearly and altered the temperature every day. In short, Miss Mia Argent had become one with her surroundings.
Mia's fourth day of a captivity, as she was compelled to view more and more seriously the passage of time, did no more than cement the convictions of the preceding three. Day number five took her even deeper into a tranquility of helplessness she would not have deemed possible. Her initial struggles against the cords about her wrists and the rope around her neck had stretched both to whatever small tolerance they had. They were now bearably snug, constriction nothing. Mia sometimes worked on them for something to do but not with any hope of freedom. She found herself counting the day until the weather would turn too cold for her to remain outdoors, but that was a contingency so far distance as to bring no comfort. The twins had timed things well.
The sixth day the twins, bored with repetition, thought up horrific prospects their older sister would never have thought of. Mia worked hard to discount their humor and sly jibes, but some of them had a fearful plausibility.
"How would you like us to bring Cyril Updike to visit you, darling? He'll be back in a week or so."
"You know I wouldn't like it. Don't be a pair of little beasts any more than you need be."
"Beasts? My, my." Fancy and Angel exchanged knowing glances as though confirming an old suspicion. Their chuckles were gall to the captive.
"Or, if you don't want Cyril, darling, then how about we pick just any guy who is around handy?" The two teenagers were almost overcome by their own hilarity. "Think of what he could do for you. You'd have to lay down, you know and then he could - well you know the word. He could do it to you as often as he liked." Hilarity broke into open laughter. "If we got the right guy, maybe he would give us money. Would you like that?"
Mia disdained to answer, but her voice was husky as she retorted, "Don't be so horrible, you're making me want to cry. Don't you realize how awful it is to be helpless like this? I never know whether you're just teasing or you really mean what you say." Mia twisted against her bonds in an ineffectual seeking for words with which to touch the shinning eyed maidens who seemed to have no mercy. "I know you can do anything you like to me or with me," she said miserably, "but have you forgotten I'm your sister? I thought we liked each other."
"Oh, but we do, darling. We love you like this, you look so beautiful and you're all ours! We're never going to let you loose. If you don't want a man then how about a dog? I'm sure we could find you one who would love licking you and they have such wonderful tongues."
"Don't be disgusting! That was a horrible thing to threaten me with. If you bring a dog anywhere near, I'll kick him to bits!"
"We could hobble your ankles, darling. Or better still stretch them wide apart and tie them that way. Fido would have a marvelous time with you dear little thingummy."
There were joking. They had to be! Mia felt positive this last thing Fancy and Angel would never do, but their next threat held greater plausibility. "Remember Mary and Jane, Mia darling? Suppose we brought the two of them here and let them enjoy you. You know, give them carte blanch? I'm sure you wouldn't be bored."
Mia knew it best to simply ignore. If her younger sisters got her going there would be no end to it. She would be on the run, constantly fearful and apprehensive. Without overemphasis she said quietly, "Sure they'd have a marvelous time. They'll abuse me and use me in all sorts of horrible ways. But they would also go to Momma and Poppa and they wouldn't keep their ugly little mouths shut. You'd both be in trouble."
"We're sure you're absolutely right, Mia darling. We're such lucky girls to have an older sister to give us good advice. So how about we shorten your tether so that you have to stand next to the tree all day. We can easily lengthen it again at night so you can lay down. Do you think that would help you to treat us with more respect?"
"I don't care what you do. All I want is to be free. If you had a streak of decency you wouldn't keep me like this any longer, it's been six days and six night."
"But, Mia sweetness, your captivity has only just started! You mustn't get all excited. We've been watching you and you've been sort of settling down. We can see you when you can't see us and don't know we're watching. We've often seen you settle down comfortably and bet you've been getting the most wonderful thoughts and getting all hot and bothered."
"What do you know about being hot and bothered at your age?"
"Have you forgotten already! Well, perhaps you have, after all it was eleven years ago and after all the men you've slept with ...!"
"That another beastly thing to say. I don't sleep around and you know damned well I don't."
"But you have been - you know that lovely word, darling, the four letter one, we know it's been done to you more than once."
"Well, so what? I'm not a virgin. You won't be a virgin either when you reach my age. I don't see how it has anything to do with keeping me a tied up prisoner with only a tree for company."
"But, Mia dear, if you're lonely there's always that nice boy who comes to look after the garden. We can always send him out here and tell him what to do."
It was hopeless. Mia knew she could never win, the twins held every card and she held none. In her heart, Mia Argent knew she would welcome any male visitor, not for what he could do to her but for what he might do for her. He could set her free! Almost certainly any man would set her free, it was inconceivable any of them would leave her bound as she now was in this woodland loneliness. If nothing less compelled them it would be respect for the Law. She shrugged and leaned back against the tree while the giggling duo, these teenage nymphs who were her sisters, shortened her tether to no more than two feet long, secured anchored at the level of her neck to compel her to stand until they decided otherwise. Fancy and Angel went away laughing to leave their older sister to her new travail.
It was innocent at first. Mia had often stood like this as a relief from sitting down or walking aimlessly within the radius of her rope. But now she had been robbed of choice. It was not long before the enforced, erect stand became onerous and imposed its own, unkind weariness. The rope around the tree had been wire again with the pliers thoughtfully brought by the twins. There was nothing tight about anything but she could not leave the tree or do ought but stand, sitting and laying down had become something of the past. Thinking of the bright eyed couple who had left her thus, a tear actually trickled from Mia's eye, everything was becoming simply too, too much. She was no longer sure the twins knew what they were doing. The sixth day passed and when Fancy and Angel came that evening they found their older sister far more eager to please and far less prone to acid comment. In a hope of lessening her ordeal, Mia told them simply, "OK, I've had enough. Look, if you're going to break me, you've done it. I'll do or say anything you want. Just tell me what you want and I'll be obedient."
It did no good. The twins, although visibly impressed, changed nothing of her routine. The tether was lengthened to its full span and the blanket was tossed contemptuously as on other nights. But in the morning, after she had been fed, she was once more compelled to stand and her tether shortened to insure a dreary and a tiring day. At day's end and in this termination of a full week of corded captivity, the older girl fell to her knees upon release and pleaded abjectly, "All right, I don't know what you want but I'll do it, I'll be it, I'll say it. Please don't make me stand like that again."
They gazed down at her, entranced, seven days had brought them victory. But there was always something more, "Would you kiss our cunnies, darling?" The young voices were breathless.
"Yes."
"And will you ask us to kiss yours?"
"Yes, I'll do that too."
"My, my, you are upset! We thought you'd say no to that one, expected to get a blast ... Suddenly the captive girl was enveloped in loving arms and was deluged by loving lips. Loving hands sought places they should never go but in the space of only moments they were laughing retreating to the house. Watching them go, their captive sister knew herself more baffled than ever. She was shamed by her surrender and what she had promised, but there was evidently more to it than that. The twins had something up their sleeves!
The eighth day brought change.
For the first time in this captive Mia heard an unmistakable sound that she had long prayed for - a heavy, male footstep! The tether on her neck was not long enough for her to circle the tree but she listened in intent eagerness and when she deemed the time was ripe, cried out, "Help! Help! Oh, please help me, I'm her tied to a tree."
The footsteps stopped then quickened. A few moments later Mia found herself gazing, with mixed emotions at a man she recognized. He was the eccentric artist everyone talked of and hinted about. His name was Ryan Gentry, it was understood some of his work actually sold. They gazed at each other in surprise. Mia became increasing conscious of a blush. The man said, obviously pleased, "Well, I'll be damned!"
"Please let me go," Mia pleaded humbly. In case this man would not recognize her in her nakedness, she hasten to explain, "I'm Mia Argent. I think we met at the Randell's garden party. I've been tied like this as a silly joke. Please untie me and if you could cover me up ... ?"
It was not to be that simple. Mia sensed instantly the stories about this man were true, the stories of an endless succession of alleged "models" to frequent Gentry's home were probably true. He was surveying her now in obvious admiration. His voice was devoid of excitement.
"Of course, I remember you, who wouldn't! Ever do any modeling?"
"No, never. But never mind that, please untie me?"
Gentry was in no hurry to comply. He stood surveying her nakedness with a gaze both approving and assessing. "Pity you haven't modeled, but you're a natural, we won't have any trouble. I'm glad I decided to walk this way to the village."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Gentry, but I'm not a model. If you would be kind enough to cut these ropes ... ?"
"Hmmmmmm, not sure I should do that." Gentry was obviously deep in thought. "Supposing I did, would you come home with me?"
"What! Like this! I couldn't!"
"Well, then you might as well stay here."
They stared. Mia hoped her blush was of a lesser proportion that she feared. Optimistically she suggested, "Please don't tease me, Mr. Gentry. I've had to stand like this for so long, I'm tired. I'd be so awfully grateful if you'd use your pocket knife."
"What and nothing at the end of it!" He grinned at the amiably but without sympathy. "I'll like to paint you as you are. That's a picture in a thousand! I suppose it's those two moppets, those two sisters of yours, who are responsible, aren't they?"
"Well ... yes. They let their mischief run away with them. I do have to apologize."
Once again the stare. Mia longed for hands with which to cup her breasts or shield her pubic patch. Despite of embarrassment, she decided against turning around to face the tree, it would be absurd and would probably offend. In genuine shock she demanded, "You're not telling me you'll go away and leave me like this, are you?"
"Yes, why not!"
"Why not indeed! A girl gave nothing so she received nothing." Gentry was evidently a pragmatist of the first order. Dully, Mia asked, "What would I have to do or promise to persuade you to free me?"
"Hmmmmmm, nothing." Gentry was infuriating casual, "You're no good to me so I'm no good to you. I'll be bidding you good day."
"But, please ..."
"Well, maybe tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow I'll take another walk and see how you feel. I never argue with my girls, they have to want to do what I want them to do. Think it over."
Mia watched him walk away. It was pure heartbreak. It seemed impossible a man could treat her thus. If the twins were watching they would laugh their heads off and be slapping each other on the back in their delight at her discomfort. Mia's sense of captivity intensified a hundredfold. She leaned back against the tree, shook her head in irritation at the confining rope and worked her wrists angrily against the cords. She had never felt more possessed by her two young sisters than she did at this moment.
Mia said nothing of the incident. When the twins lengthened her tether and threw the blanket for the night, she kept silent about Gentry's visit. There was no profit in telling them, there was always the possibility he might return in a more charitable frame of mine. If only once she could get free, Mia was certain no power on earth would bind her again. It was a tiny hope, but she cherished it. When the twins, sensing something hidden, made demands Mia shrugged them away and told them only that she had spent a miserable day and would they please untie her hands.
"What is it, darling, there's something. C'mon tell us!"
"There's nothing at all, you're dreaming. You needn't look so pleased with yourself, Angel. And you, Fancy, wipe that grin off your face. You're going to be so sorry for this when I get loose."
"But, darling, you never will get loose. And as for refusing to answer our questions, has it occurred to you we do have ways and means ..."
It had not occurred to Mia at all that coercion could ever be applied by these shining eyed nymphets. She suddenly realized her vulnerability. She supposed that Fancy and Angel could do anything they pleased with her. All she could do was kick and they could put an end to that with the greatest of ease. Miserably she exclaimed, "You're being mean, deliberately trying to frighten me."
"We could tie your elbows tightly, Mia. We think that would be very uncomfortable."
Mia kept a hurt and dignified silence. There was no use encouraging the two girls. It was best to let them expend their mischief in words rather than deeds. It would be terribly easy for them to give her more hurt and more discomfort as reprisal for some real or imagined slight in the past. The captive suddenly realized that, by the standards governing such situations, they had been treating her with relative kindness.
"We could tie your feet, too, you know, darling. Then you'd be in a real fix."
"In fact, we could tie you to that tree so you couldn't move at all. Or how would you like it if we whipped your bottom, we could y'know?"
When Angel and Fancy tired of their baiting and dark and fearsome implications, they left their captive for the night. But the bound girl now had more to think of. Suppose they could be that cruel! Mia knew herself powerless to resist. She shivered at the thought of the twins taking more punitive measures to break her will or mold her to whatever concept was in their minds. It was an uneasy, young woman who, fighting bound hands, contrived to roll herself in the rug and wait for darkness and beyond the darkness, for ... ?
The twins were as good as their word. After watching the shameful eating of the captive's breakfast they produced a roll of wide, white adhesive tape. Mia fought but her struggle was brief. Fancy clutched the tether and by its compulsion on the captive neck forced their unwilling prisoner to stand still and do what they called "behave." With tears of shame and chagrin filling her eyes Mia stood for the fresh indignity of the binding of her elbows. She had never had any previous idea they could be joined, actually touch, but while one girl exercised control, the other wound the tape with tremendous skill. Perhaps they had practiced on each other, so well did they execute the binding. When the adhesive tape had been wound and wound again, the captive found herself more hurt and helpless than she had ever been. It would be not only her elbows but also her shoulders as they were wracked. The elbow binding had other effects on your young, firm body. The distortion caused her taunt breasts to protrude far more than they had ever done before and far more than was natural. Mia looked down at her twin treasures in dismay.
"Look what you've done to me!" she exclaimed angrily. "I'm all ... all ... well, anyway, I'm all wrong. I'm tied so tight everything moves. And look at the effect it has on my breasts. Besides, it's hurting."
The twins giggled. "You're tits must like it, look at the way they're sticking out."
Neither blandishment nor threat changed the youngster's minds. Fancy and Angel were enthralled by what they had done to their big sister. The transformation of her torso above the waist had exceeded their expectations. The captive got but one benefit. When the twins departed, hugely amused and chuckling in glee, they forgot to shorten the tether to the tree, Mia could still walk her ten or twenty paces if she so desired. She took these first few steps then stopped in an overwhelming knowledge of helplessness. She struggled angrily against the fresh binding on her elbows, but that was useless, it achieved no more than a fluttering of her stressed shoulders. Miserably she knew she was going to have to come to terms with the two moppets in whatever they desired of her. It seemed impossible they could simply wish to keep her tethered and bound as she was forever. Surely they would get bored! But no doubt the strictures joining her arms now were the first steps in a new, more restrictive captivity. Mia wanted to cry, she was always wanting to cry and she chided herself for weakness. In the end, she returned to her tree, leaned against it and wept. After having endured her new bindings for a couple of hours, she had forgotten Cyril Updike, her previous status as head of the house and the visit from Ryan Gentry. Mia had but a single desire: freedom!
Mia's taped elbows were a constant nag. No matter how she turned or twisted they gave her no comfort. Instead their nagging increased to where the bound girl knew she must somehow impress the twins with the urgent need for release. It was while she was twisting and turning in total absorption in trying to find nonexistent comfort that the male voice shattered her world.
"Well, well, something new has been added, I see."
Mia stopped her struggle in shame. She scrambled hastily to her feet and stood there under Ryan Gentry's regard. She was in no mood for pleasantries and wasted no time in turning her back for him to see the new, restrictive bond upon her arms and plead, "Look what they've done to me now! Please, I'm in pain-you can't refuse ..."
"I certainly can," Gentry said cheerfully. "Don't you realize how beautiful you are like that? It's a new one on me and I'm certainly going to have to use it with my next model. The effect of those bindings on your arms is out of this world! And look at your breasts!"
"Don't you dare look at my breasts! If you can't look me in the eye, I'm going to turn my back on you."
"It's already turned, dear girl."
Mia bit her lip, she was doing everything wrong. If she failed to handle this man right he might easily go away and leave her bound. But Ryan Gentry spelt freedom. She turned in abject surrender and asked, "What do I have to do or promise you to persuade you to set me free?"
Gentry was an attractive type, early thirties, expensively yet casually dressed. His features were good. The unhappy girl felt she should be able to discern weakness, but none was there, nor was here cruelty. Ryan Gentry was simply amused at having discovered a naked young woman with a good figure in an unorthodox situation. His eyes were laughing as he drank in the helpless femininity so neatly bound and delivered to him free of charge.
Beneath his laughing scrutiny, Mia did the last thing she desired.
She wept.