Strong arms closed around me, tackling me to the ground mere feet from the edge of the woods. His low laugh clashed with my scream, and panic spiked through my heart.

Something looped around my right wrist, and rough fibers scratched my skin as it drew taut. Before I had a moment to register what was happening, Dante pulled my arm close to my chest, grabbing my other forearm so he could pin it against my opposite shoulder. Moving with the swiftness of a striking snake, he tugged on the rope that ensnared my right wrist, whipping it around my body so that both of my arms were bound tightly against my breasts. I shrieked and thrashed, but my legs kicked out at nothing. He was behind me, his powerful arms caging me as he wound more rope around my torso, thoroughly trapping my arms so that my hands were useless to fight him off.

My stomach sank, even as I thrashed. He hadn’t gone into the shed to look for me; he’d gone in to retrieve the rope that now cruelly immobilized me, rendering me helpless to resist him. He’d pushed me to this clearing by design. He’d planned this sick scene from the moment he’d told me to run.

I threw back my head and howled out my fury. The bastard kissed my cheek and released a happy hum that rolled over my skin in a toxic wave. He was enjoying my terror, my impotent rage.

I writhed, somehow managing to contort my body so that I fell onto my side. I twisted my hips and kicked at his angelic face, wanting nothing more than to break his nose and make him bleed.

He easily snagged my ankle and wrapped more rope around my calf, weaving it in a tight, diamond pattern faster than my fear-addled brain could follow. My free leg whipped toward him, and he pressed his weight against me to pin my knee to my bound chest, trapping my foot between our bodies. He continued his swift work on my other leg, lashing rope around my thigh and drawing it tight enough to edge my panic with pain.

When three of my limbs were effectively immobilized, he slowed his progress, savoring my struggles as he bound my free leg. His eyes were bright with delight, his lush lips drawn in a feral grin, as though the chase had unleashed something primal and predatory in his soul. Any civilized veneer he’d ever possessed had slid away, leaving nothing but the maddened beast that was Dante Torrio: the truth at his core.

He fisted the ropes around my torso and dragged me upright, forcing me onto my knees. The bindings around my calves and thighs shifted, the taut rope digging into my flesh with bruising force. A ragged cry tore from my chest, and I tossed my head: the only part of my body I was capable of moving freely.