She grabbed the bracelet. “I may have stumbled badly, sir, and for that I apologize, but I still very much want to…to be your humble property.”
“Oh? What makes you so sure?”
She didn’t know what to say.
“No, you don’t really know. This is not some simple fantasy to tickle your prurient fancy, Laney Priestly. You were warned by two men I trusted to drop your goal of finding me—you should have heeded their warning. You have no idea what you’ve stumbled on, what you’ve demanded of your life by confronting me this way.
“There is nothing romantic or idealistic about serving me. It can be hard, miserable, demeaning work, that will give you very little of the s****l pleasure you seek. If you thought this was a game of s****l pretend ”—oddly his words mocked the scene on Marquis Island with Al
