Her expression turned mutinous. "You've already dictated the terms, Court. I won't abide any other considerations on top of that."

"Two conditions," he said inflexibly, ignoring her. "You never,ever hide your naked body from me"

She made an angry motion.

"… and number twoyou willnever deny me anything I demandin our bedroom."

Her heart swooped down to her toes. She closed her eyes and clenched her fists. She wanted to kill him. He'd bought her and now he had stripped everything from her, right down to her clothes.

He owned her, body and soul. There was nothing left of her now that didn't belong to him. And if she had thought to hold him off with words or with a puny wall of cotton, she had underestimated his determination to get most use of his newest possession.

He was her master and she was nothing more or less than a body to service him:his slave, to his whims, his control, his lust.

For all the days of your life… Her breath caught as the impact of those words struck her. Linked to him forever, never to know any other love, any other life.

"Did you hear me?" Court murmured, his voice deceptively, dangerously, low.

Her voice caught. "I… heard you."

"Did you? Youheard me? Youknow what I wantyouheard what I want and you haven'tyet complied? Isthat what I'm to understand, little fawn? That my wishesaren't paramount with you? That the two small inconsequential requests I have made are to be disregarded altogether by you?"

"I" She almost choked. Themaster was speaking, his voice like iron, his eyes cold, his expression impassive. He meant to exert every measure of control, to make her understand that he could do with her whatever he wanted, because he had paid for the right to do so.

Off the auction block and into his bed. What was the difference after all?

"I want you nakednow!"

That tone brooked no argument, no resistance. And still, she couldn't bring herself to reveal her body to him. She cowered on the bed, feeling an overwhelming sense of betrayal.

Forgive me, Gerard… my love, my love…

"Get used to it, little fawn." He started toward her slowly, each step measured by his soft, lustful, dangerous words. "You will be naked for me from now on. There won't be a bolt of material or a piece of clothing in this room that you can use to cover yourself from this moment forward."

Closer he came, and she scrambled across the bed.

"I will dictate what you will wear, when and evenif, and I will be the one who dresses youif I ever let you get dressed again for the rest of your life…" Implacably, inexorably, he followed her around the bed as she backed away from him.

"I bought your naked body, my fawn, and it is mine, and Iwill have you anytime, anywhere, I want, and nothing you can do will prevent that."

He was within inches of her as she crouched by the locked door. He hunkered down beside her. "What you won't give me willingly, Iwill take. And you'll be confined to this room, naked, until my wishes are clearly understood."

Black devil… beast! How could he treat her so? She gathered every reserve of strength she possessed and got to her feet.

"You willnever have me," she hissed defiantly.

He looked up at her. "Oh, but I will, little fawn. And this will be the hardest lesson you will ever have to learn. The masteralways gets everything he wants."

He rose gracefully to his feet. "I want you naked. Are you still going to resist me, Drue?"

"Someone should," she muttered, pulling the bedspread closer.

"But not the ungrateful drab whose father's life and reputation I saved. You should be naked and on your back, spreading your legs and begging me to stuff myself into you. Any other woman would have kissed my feet and any other part of my body I desired in gratitude for what I did."

He inched closer to her. "But not you. Oh, no, not the princess of Oak Bluffs. All that money and I can't evenlook at your naked body."

He was as close as a breath now, hot and engorged with lust, anger, and pure wanton desire. "You thought you could remain pure for that coxcomb, Lenoir, didn't you, little fawn? You thought I'd just lift your skirts and pump myself into you and that would be the end of it and you still could remain loyal to him. That's what you thought, wasn't it?Wasn't it? But that's not nearly how it's going to be."

He closed his hand over the edge of the material that covered her shoulders. "My house. My bedspread. My money.My naked wife. Let go of this thing,now… "

She resisted. She couldn't help herself. She could not willingly submit to him. And to the fury in his voice and the anger in his eyes. And the strength in his hand as he ruthlessly stripped the bedspread away from her body and stepped back.

She clutched the torn, ragged edge of the binding against her breasts, as if that would protect her from him.

He pulled it out of her hands and threw it on the floor, and then she had nothing but the cool gleam of his possessive gaze to cover her, from her burning face, downward to her taut-tipped breasts, downward still to those private places even she didn't know.

She froze as he walked around her to view her from every angle.

"Well, well, well, aren't you the hot-tailed little piece, my fawn. Who would have guessed that under all that virginal muslin and lace there was a naked body that looked likethis."

And it was all his, his to teach, train, discipline, and do with what he would. No one else would ever have her now.

He was face-to-face with her again, his burning eyes two narrow slits as he gazed his fill of her naked breasts. "I think maybe I didn't pay too much for you." His voice turned steely. "Don't move, Drue. I don't think I can get enough of looking at you."

She could barely stand itthose knowing eyes, the huge obvious bulge between his legs, the feeling of vulnerability, and of being stalked by something more primitive and more powerful than she. He could devour her. Hewould, in ways she didn't even know about.

"Just… just get it over with," she ground out.

"No. No…" He was circling her again. "You are something to savor, my fawn. Those round, high breasts, those hard, pointed nipples, those hips, those buttocks… I want to take my time with you. Days and days, I just want to look at you…"

"Courtplease…"

"No. I want you to live naked in my house from now on, and I will tell you what I want and what to do. And you'll do it, Drue. I promise you. You will do it. And you won't have a moment to think about anyone or anything else. Now, turn and walk away from me. I want to watch the movement of your buttocks when you walk."

"Please don't"

"Please don'twhat? Touch you? I haven't, although I want to, most powerfully. Force you? I haven't. I won't. It's enough for me to have you naked and at my mercy. Now,walk."

Oh, yes, at his mercy; precisely. Definitively. And all those references to Gerard… they made her blood turn cold.

He knew

Dear God, how did he know?

And if he knew… she had no choice but to do everything he wanted, anything he wanted to protect Gerard and to conceal the fact she loved him.

Her whole body felt like lead. She didn't know how she was going to do this, how she was going to let Court even touch her.

She swallowed, turned, so that for one instant the curve of her breasts and the tight thrust of her nipples were outlined in the light, and then she slowly moved away from him.

Don't think about anything or anyone else. Don't feel his eyes on you or the heat washing all over your body. Don't… don't… don't

He watched her through hooded eyes. She was so perfect, flawless, her buttocks soft and rounded and flaring into those swaying hips that were made to be grasped tightly as a man centered himself to penetrate her.

He wanted to grab her right then, right there, and ram himself into her; a thousand fantasies played in his mind as she stopped at the wall and waited for his next command.

Oh? It was going to be like that, was it? A tiny act of defiance that he would squash right now.

"Turn and come back to me," he ordered, and she swiveled around and started pacing toward him.

Her breasts bobbled just a little, her nipples begging that he look at them, marvel at them, lust for them.

He'd never been so hard in his life. He couldn't contain the iron-bar jut of his manhood. He didn't want to. He wanted to do exactly what she desired: throw her on the bed and embed himself in her to the hilt and beyond. He wanted to feel the bones of those hips grinding against him, and the hard-soft play of her breasts and nipples against his naked chest.

He wanted… all those things and more, more, more…

He itched to slide his fingers between her legs and make her moan with pleasure. She was that close to him, and that far, and not nearly ready for such an assault on her senses.

Her lips were moist from her having tongued them over and over in her nervousness. He wanted to suck them, he wanted her to tongue him all over his body and then root for his manhood and suck him dry.

Instead, she was standing before him, naked, abashed, trembling, virginal, her bosom quivering, her nipples more tempting than fate.

He could not allow himself to feel sympathy for her. She wanted to "get it over with," that was all. She wanted to save her immortal soul for Lenoir. He could see it in her eyes. And that made it easy for him to make the command.