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discipline?”
    “But not this! This is abuse.”
    “This is only one method of getting your attention.” He paused. “There are others more painful.”
    “Screw you!” She wrenched at the chain, and cursed when she achieved nothing but hurting herself.
    He pushed her thigh. She swung to the side, increasing the strain on her arms and shoulders. Yelping, she bit her lip and swore. He pushed harder. Her toes left the floor for an instant while she scrabbled for balance. Pain shot from her fingertips to her toes.
    “Okay, okay,” she gasped.
    “Does this mean you are staying?”
    She hesitated.
    “If you want to leave, now’s the time. If you’re going to stay, you put yourself in my hands.”
    He’d said that before. His hands. The image of them, tanned, strong, with long slender fingers flashed through her mind. She’d liked the look of them and now, without her willing it, she wondered if there was any tenderness in them. Tenderness? In him?
    He pushed her again. “I dislike being kept waiting.”
    “I dislike being hurt!” she retorted as she scrabbled to keep her balance. “All right.”
    She took a deep breath. “Look, can we work this out? I’ll do what I have to do and you treat me with courtesy.”
    “Courtesy. We can do that. If and when you earn it.”
    She blew out an exasperated breath. “And who will decide that? You?”
    “Exactly.”
    She swore under her breath, calling him bastard among other things.
    “I have excellent hearing.”
    “And sight no doubt,” she muttered. “Like a big, black buzzard.”
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    He laughed. “Are you suggesting you’re dead meat?”
    So he had a sense of humor. That and nice hands wouldn’t get him very far. Still, it was better than nothing. “Get me down from here.”
    “Only if you’re leaving. Are you?”
    “No. I’m here to stay.”
    “Good for you.” His approval eased some of her discomfort, but he made no move to release her from her cuffs.
    “You’ve made your point. Now get me out of this.”
    “Not yet. Now it’s question and answer time. Remember, nothing but the truth.”
    He paused, as if waiting for her to protest again. “Why are you here?”
    “I’m wondering that myself!”
    He placed the flat of his boot against her thigh. “Try again.”
    It didn’t take a genius to realize that he held all the cards. Until he let her down, she was at his mercy. But when he let her down… She held very still, composing herself, planning ahead. “To lose weight.”
    “Anything else?”
    “To keep it off.”
    “How are you going to accomplish that?”
    “Diet and exercise,” she recited by rote. She’d heard the same thing from every diet counselor she’d ever consulted.
    “Have they worked for you in the past?”
    It was if he could read her mind. “At the beginning, yes.”
    “Then what?”
    “Do I have to spell it out?”
    He gave her a little push. She gasped out, “Then I get bored and cheat!”
    “Is that your plan here?”
    “No. I mean, how do I know what will happen?”
    He chuckled. “With your success rate, I can guess that’s exactly what you expect to happen.”
    He laughed? He laughed at her!
    “But—” She felt the change in the air around her as he stood and came closer. The mask left her sightless, but enhanced her hearing and her sense of smell. She detected a clean, forest scent that was oddly appealing, considering how much she was beginning to loathe the smug bully. The heat from his body warmed her naked flesh. Her muscles quivered in the age-old dilemma of woman versus male. Stay or flee? But she was tethered, unable to help herself.
    “That is not going to happen at Sweet Discipline ,” he said softly. “You will learn new habits of treating yourself with respect, treating your body with care, and if you have to 27
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    absorb pain to do that, I will accommodate you. You will learn by instruction and practice to control impulses, your desires and satisfying those