She levered up on her elbows to look at herself, to try to see whathe saw. A thick, wiry bush of dark hair between her legs, and whatever else was visible beyond that. Her smooth thighs. Her long legs. Her flat belly. Her high, rounded breasts with their ever-erect nipples.

Tentatively, she laid the fingers of her right hand on her bushy mound. The hair between her legs was like a wild woman's; sometimes she felt the wiry strands between her thighs as she walked.

And always she felt her taut nipples pressing tightly against whatever she wore, making her very aware of her body.

She lay back on the bed and cupped her breasts, thumbing one nipple. Her body twinged, impacted by her sprawled legs, her nudity, her touch.

His cruelty.

If she gave in to him, her life, her sex, would never be her own. And she would mourn Gerard forever.

Her only recourse was to seduce him and fight him. Forever. Or to the end. Whichever came first.

Evie came after a while, with a tray. "Master say you eat."

"I can't sit up."

"Master say make restraints prettier." She held up two strips of black satin. "Come. I untie your one leg, and you eat something."

She felt a moment of panic. Court meant it. The bastard meant it, and he was willing to go to these lengths to make her willing to spread her legs.

She could barely eat; she had no idea what it was Evie had on the tray. She watched as the servant untied her one leg, and then, as she nibbled, deftly surrounded her other ankle with the soft, slick satin bonds before she untied the ragged shirtsleeve.

"When you finish, mistress."

But Evie wasn't done. She picked up the shredded bedspread and stripped the bed of its sheets and pillowcases, and pulled down the curtains, while Drue choked down what she could of the food.

Dear God, the curtains, too

"Mistress cannot refuse the master," Evie said gently, removing the tray at Drue's signal. "Come. I tie your leg and you wait for the master to come."

"I have no choice, do I?" Drue muttered.

"Mistress is beautiful. Master will come to love her," Evie murmured, as she efficiently packed up the bedding and trundled all of it and the tray out of the room.

The door closed.

The ominous door.

Her nipples tightened in anticipation of what was to come. Fear compelled her, closing her throat, making her tremble.

She grasped the edges of the mattress and held on. There was no point to fighting the restraints, to fighting him.

He would do what he wanted, and every slave in the place, including her, would submit to his will.

She waited, feeling every inch of her bare skin against the mattress ticking.

And she waited, her splayed legs accustomed now to the breadth of the extension he had forced on them.

And she waited, trying not to think of Gerard, and the betrayal of his love that this submission to Court's will represented.

There was something about the waiting; there was a cruelty in it and a wisdom. He had wanted her to get used to the feeling of spreading her legs for him, and as she lay there, she became acutely aware of the seductive cleft between her legs that had so entranced him.

And she could feel her nipples, so erect and pointed, becoming tighter and harder.

She felt herself stretching her legs wider apart still, as if her body were arching toward another lover.

"I wish you would take me," she whispered in anguish, and Court's voice answered, "Oh, no, little fawn. I will not take you now. You still have hard lessons to learn and memories Iwill destroy."

Her body jolted, and she heaved up onto her elbows. He stood by the little upholstered chair, dressed in trousers and nothing else, watching her writhe and yearn for another man.

And he was so prime; his shoulders were wide, his bare chest deep and covered with rough springy hair all the way down to the waistband of his trousers.

And below that, his engorged manhood poked out as hard and thick as a tree trunk.

She licked her lips nervously as he sank into the little chair. "What are you doing?"

"I'm admiring the many naked charms of mywife," he said, his voice deceptively calm. "I hope the satin bands are more comfortable. There's something about black against a woman's naked skin… it's very arousing."

"Are you aroused, Court?"

"Unbelievably."

"Haven't you seen enough?" Daring of her, she thought, licking her lips. But he was like a predator playing with her, a wolf she could never tame. And didn't want to. So why she was taunting him, she had no ideaor did she?

"Not nearly, little fawn. Your naked body fascinates me. I want to luxuriate in it, I want to know every nuance of it…"

"And when will I seeyour naked body?" she asked, her voice deliberately coy. It didn't work.

"When I'm ready to show it to you."

"You're ready now, Court. Even I can see that."

"But how hard I am has nothing to do with preparing you for the momentyou will be ready, my fawn. For now, just looking at you satisfies my lust for you."

"I don't believe that." She couldn't believe that, not with him sitting there and his sex jutting up to the ceiling through his clothing like a flagpole.

"It doesn't matter. I am the one who will decide when you are ready. My desire to rut in you can only be enhanced by the lessons I teach you."

"What are you going to do?" she whispered.

He got up from the chair and came to the bed and she could see the hard-boned length of him poking upward beneath the thin material of his trousers.

"I'm going to tie your wrists to the posts, my fawn, so that just as you are learning the lesson of spreading your legs for me, you will also learn that when I tell you to hold your breasts for me, youwill remember to do it."

"You didn't tell methis time."

"These are just today's lessons, little fawn." He grasped her one hand, tied it to the post with black satin, and then the other, and then stepped back to look at her.

"That's better. With your arms over your shoulders, your breasts are lifted toward me, begging for attention. But not tonight, little fawn. I just want to look at those incredible nipples, and maybe next time you will offer them to me of your own volition."

"I will never offer youanything," she spat, pulling her arms against the restraints. "You're crazy." But he wasn't crazy; he was herhusband, for God's sake, her master, and his sole drive was to completely dominate her before he spent himself in her.

He stood right beside her head and she saw that his erection was even harder and more elongated than it had been before.

"Tomorrow, my naked wife, tomorrow we will test you to see what lessons you've learned."

"I know what you want," she whispered.

"You couldn't possibly, little fawn. Not yet."

"Take me."

"No!" he growled.

"You want what's between my legs."

"Oh, little fawn, youdo have so much to learn. Here is a lesson: I want what I want to be mine. And tomorrow, I will see about making sure everyone knows you're mine."

"If you take me"

"You still won't be mine, my naked wife who still craves another man's sex. So you seeI have many things still to teach you. And what my body wants, what my penis wantsthat doesn't matter. All that matters is subjugating you."

She felt a tremor go through her body. Her nipples hardened. She felt a spurt of wetness between her legs as she understood. This was all about Gerard. Dear darling Gerard who never would have used her so cruelly.

He really knew about Gerard. She felt her bones go weak. How long had he known? It didn't matter; nothing mattered. All that mattered was that she couldn't afford one lovely thought about Gerard from now on, not one, or Court would know it.

"Court"

"Your nipples fascinate me, Drue. And you see how lifting your breasts makes them all the more enticing to a man. I've never seen such pointed nipples on a woman. They beg to be fondled and sucked."

"Do it," she breathed, watching the effect those two words had on his flexing erection. It spurted harder, longer.

He controlled himself with an effort. "But that's not what you want, my naked fawn. Notwho you want. Not yet."

The threat… it was a threatit was why he had chosen to treat her this way. Why why why…

Damn him, damn him, damn him She pulled, she raged, she writhed, she moaned…

He moved away because he felt his iron control slipping. He didn't need to touch her. He didn't need to fuck her. He just needed to get out of that room before she understood the power thatshe wielded.

"Not yet." His voice echoed as he eased out into the hallway, closing the door behind him as an exclamation point to his surrender. "Not yet," he groaned, gasping himself as he gave in to his explosive need and shot his boiling lust down his rock-hard leg.

Not yet… as he sank, spent, to the floor.

Sometime during the night, a servant untied her; she wasn't aware of the moment, just of the freedom from constriction, and the ability finally to turn and roll onto her stomach.

Finally. Even though it felt as if the satin bonds were still wound around her wrists. In her dreams, Gerard didn't notice them. In her dreams, he held her, coddled her, protected her…

Sometime in the morning, she became aware of a presence in the room. Not in the bed beside her, but at the foot of the bed, watching her, ever watching her.

Not Gerard…

She moved her body languidly, knowing he was watching, waiting, wondering of whom she was thinking as she stretched.

"Spread your legs."

She rolled onto her back and extended her long sleek legs outward to show him that this lesson was nothing to her, nothing to learn, nothing to do. But when, during the night of dreamy passion with the evascent Gerard, she had decided this course, she didn't know.

Whatever, it suddenly was easy. So easy.

"Sit up."

Slowly she raised herself upward, sliding down to the foot of the bed so that she could still splay her legs while she cupped her breasts and lifted them toward him, all the while watching the thickening length between his legs.

"Very good, little fawn. It is time for me to claim you as my own naked wife."

Her breath caught. Now, now, he would take her and the thing would be done and he'd leave her to her own devices.

He rose up and came toward her, his spurting erection directly in her line of vision, his extended hand holding what looked like a collar with two very long straps appended from it.

"What is this?"

"This is the first thing you will be permitted to wear, my fawn. Your legs go through the straps so that they are positioned just inside your thighs. You are to wear the collar and thongs at all times whether you are dressed or naked as reminder to you who owns you and who will possess you in good time. Put it on."

She shot him a defiant look and then slowly slipped her legs through the straps, and then stood up, pulling them tightly against her inner thighs, which made her mound more prominent.

"Like that." He could barely say the words; the sight of those leather straps defining her feminine bush and pushing out her high, pointed breasts sent a lightning bolt of desire to his groin. "Put the collar around your neck."

It was a wide, supple leather collar decorated with golden studs and a hook closure. She locked it, and he gestured for her to move away from him so that he could examine her minutely.

It was perfect, the thin leather straps taut against her pale skin, conspicuously outlining her sex and her breasts, and culminating in the symbol of his owning her: the thrall collar.

"Evie!"

Evie slipped into the room.

"Lock it."

Evie came up behind her, and a moment later, Drue heard the almost noiseless click of a lock; she heard him groan, she saw his body convulse before he mastered his sex, and she reached back and touched a tiny padlock, the key to which Evie gave him before she exited the room.

The vision of her collared and strapped to his specification aroused him unbearably: she could see that he was not fully in command of his wayward penis.It wanted her. It flexed and stretched and elongated and thickened almost as if it were enticing her as she sashayed around him, letting him view her from every angle.

He particularly liked the way the straps crossed her buttocks and disappeared invitingly into her crease, and then reappeared to tightly confine her femininity.