"I didn't want to have to do this, but you're leaving me no choice. Lay back against the pillows," he ordered. When she didn't comply, he added a menacing, "Do it now.”

She leaned back, and he took a length of rope from the drawer in his nightstand. He straddled her waist and drew her hands above her head.

With a deftness that came from lots of practice, he looped the ends around her wrists, tying them tight enough without cutting off her blood flow, and secured the ends to the eyebolt in the wall over the center of the mattress. He left enough slack so she could put her arms down and turn over. She had room to move, but she wouldn't be able to get the rope undone very easily. Jack was proficient at tying knots.

When he finished, he sat down next to her on the bed.

"I see you're a real expert," she growled at him and glanced at the eyebolt. "You use that a lot, do you? Know your way around a length of rope?”

He smiled. "I've had my share of practice with lots of willing women. Key word is willing. That's nice rope, by the way. Hemp. It's made to lie against the skin. It won't chafe you.”

"I'm not a willing woman.”

"You almost slit my throat in your apartment. You're staying tied up." He sat back and admired his handiwork. She looked damn good tied to his bed. Too damn good.

Jack forced his mind back to the subject at hand. He sat down on the edge of the bed. "Tell me what you know about your parents," he demanded again.

She sighed as though tired and fed up. Other women would be crying by now. She was pissed off. Mira might seem meek on the outside, but her spine was made of steel. "My mother was a secretary. My father worked in construction. They died in a car crash when I was three years old. I have hazy memories of them that I can't be sure really ever happened. Maybe I just wished them into existence. I know other things, but it's all secondhand stuff, told to me by my godmother." She paused. "Why?”

"Your parents didn't die in a car crash. They did die, but that's not how they met their end. I'm not going to play around here, okay? I know you're not going to believe me, but both your parents were witches. Their element was air. It's a rare ability that they passed down to you." He drew a breath. "You're a witch, Mira."

FOUR

THREE