As if reading her mind, Rafael Luna said against her ear, “Scream if you like, chica, for no one will come. The celebrations will last for days, and so, perhaps, will you. Would it not be entertaining, to lie in your wide bed for the next few days and explore all the ways that pain can add to pleasure? Yes, I can see that you want it…fight me if you like, for then I will have the pleasure of subduing you….”

Ginny did fight, desperately, and with a savagery dredged from panic, but it did her no good. Luna countered her ineffectual blows with an openhanded viciousness that left her dazed, her mind reeling. She was only vaguely aware that he had stripped away her garments, leaving her only in a thin chemise that hid little of her body from his prying eyes.

And, humiliatingly, he tied her to the four posts of the bed, using silken drapery cords to bind her wrists and ankles, leaving her spread-eagled on the mattress.

Vulnerable, exposed to his lewd gaze, she lay helpless and waited for the inevitable. In a way, it was much worse than anything she had endured before, this waiting and knowing what was to come. She had seen men at their worst, and knew that Luna had waited too long for this moment.

Rafael Luna came to stand beside the bed, smiling down at her. “You are even more lovely than I had hoped. Such soft white skin…. I will make you ready, make you want me as I want you.”

“You will never make me want you!”

“Little liar, I will soon prove to you the foolishness of your thinking. You will be surprised, I think, to find that your body responds to me whether you wish it to or not.”

Straining futilely against her bonds, Ginny shuddered as his eyes narrowed at her, his expression intent as she raged at him.

“You’ll never keep me! When Steve learns of this, you will wish you had not been so foolish.”

“Pah! I have taken care of your estimable husband, and he will not be learning of this unless I tell him! Perhaps I will take you with me when I visit him, and he can watch while I take you. It would only be fair, as he once took a lady from me. Do you not think so, chica? He thought nothing of that, but I was in love with her. I swore vengeance upon Steve Morgan then, but I did not know it would be so sweet!”

“Is that all this is? Vengeance?” She tried to turn her head to look at him, but he moved to stand slightly behind the bed, tightening her bonds. Silken cords dug painfully into the flesh of her wrists and ankles. “Then you have risked much for vengeance, because Steve will kill you for this one day.”