Gemma stared up at her partner, her lover, and a chill of sheer stark terror turned the blood in her veins to ice-water. It could not be. It must be impossible ... and yet, Mike was absolutely serious.
As the truly horrifying implications of his words sank into Gemma's reeling brain, the tightly-bound brunette wrenched at her implacable bonds, her shrill screams of fear and disbelief leaking past the ball-gag wedged so deeply between her jaws, her muscles straining wildly and in vain at the tight web of straps enmeshing her naked body.
Mike's hand brushed her bulging cheek, but Gemma jerked her head away and his eyes narrowed angrily. "You don't understand. I had to do it. It was the only way to save the business. I saw a chance to keep the company going and I took it. Roxwell had me over a barrel and he knew it. If I hadn't agreed to his terms, he would have closed us down. I had to do it, dammit, I had no choice."
His eyes softened again and he stared deep into Gemma's tear-streaked face.
"Ireally am sorry, Gemma." he whispered, "I love you, but I had to do it. I have to go now, your handlers will be here soon and they'll take you where you have to go. Don't think too badly of me, eh? You know I had to have that money. So long, honey, be brave and just do what they tell you and you'll be fine. Really you will. If there had been any other way ... but there wasn't."
Mike gave a heavy sigh and got to his feet and Gemma stared beseechingly at him as her turned and went to the door, her brain numb with the horror of her situation.
A horror which grew deeper and more awful as the door closed behind him and she was left alone. Alone, to scream and moan into her gag, to weep and writhe and fight vainly against his expert and ruthless bondage of her, until, exhausted, terrified and still tightly bound, Gemma was forced to accept that she was not going to get free without help.
Utterly defenceless, her naked body hopelessly vulnerable in the grip of a multiplicity of strong leather straps which loosened not an inch despite her most frantic and strenuous efforts, Gemma shrieked her despair and horror into her gag as the door to her prison eventually opened to reveal the handlers Mike had promised would come for her.
Three of them, two women and one man, all complete strangers to Gemma. All dressed in black overalls and all clearly expert in the handling and secure transportation of unwilling captives.
Silent and unsmiling, the three buckled a thick blindfold over Gemma's frightened eyes and rolled her writhing, struggling body onto some sort of trolley and wheeled her from the cottage to a waiting van. Six strong hands lifted Gemma and laid her in the rear of the van, adjustable webbing straps securing her, still helplessly bound in Mike's original bondage, for her journey.
Weeping and screaming, Gemma felt and heard the engine start and realised that she was on her way to the man to whom Mike, her erstwhile partner and lover had sold her. On her way to a future she dared not contemplate and which she could not escape.
Part of her brain told her that this could not be happening to her. It was simply not possible for her to be sold like a piece of merchandise or office equipment. But the bonds on her limbs, the gag in her mouth and the swaying of the van in which she was held captive, could not be denied or ignored and Gemma wept into the thick blindfold sealing her eyes as she was forced to accept that the sheerly unthinkable had actually happened!
Gemma's mind raced wildly as she tried to come to terms with her situation. Roxwell was a businessman dammit. Surely he would never be involved in anything like this? It was nothing less than kidnapping. Completely against the law. He and Mike and anyone else involved in something like this would go to jail. It had to be Mike's idea of a joke! Some sort of stupid game he was playing with her. After all, Gemma reasoned, trying to fight down the terror threatening to overwhelm her, she was a partner in the company and Mike had no right to make deals without her agreement.
Especially a deal like this one!
The van braked to a halt and Gemma trembled wildly as the doors swung open, then banged shut as the van began to move once more.
The heavy blindfold was taken from Gemma's eyes and as she adjusted to the dim light of a single fitting in the metal roof above her, she gave a breathy squeal of abject despair, her limbs tensing vainly against her bonds as she saw and recognised, the tall angular figure standing over her naked body.
"Good evening, Miss Longton."
Roxwell's calm greeting contrasted starkly with the smile playing on his thin lips and Gemma screamed in awful anguish as the truth crashed into her reeling brain.
Mike was not playing a practical joke on her! She really had been sold to Roxwell and as the millionaire's eyes glittered with suppressed desire, Gemma shrieked for help and fought her bonds madly in her efforts to tear free from the leather straps pinioning her and cover her shamefully exposed nudity from his hot gaze.
Roxwell watched her futile struggles impassively, his face unreadable and as Gemma at last grew tired and her furious exertions diminished, he nodded slowly.
"As I suspected," he said softly, "It would appear that Mr Bowyer has not been entirely honest with either of us, my dear."
Gemma's bulging, frightened eyes fixed on his calm face, her nostrils flaring as she sucked in great gasps of air.
"He led me to believe that you were a willing participant in our little deal, Gemma. That you had agreed to my terms, in return for my assistance in financing your company's short-terms difficulties. I take it that that was not the case?"
Gemma threw her head from side-to-side, her eyes filled with horrified anger at the duplicity of her business partner and Roxwell nodded again.
"I see," he said heavily, "That is most unfortunate Miss Longton. You see, I have already made arrangements to transfer the agreed sum from my bank into the account of your company."
He paused, as if considering what to do and Gemma panted, her eyes wide as the millionaire rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"It would, of course, be possible for me to have the transaction stopped," he said at last, "But my word has always been my bond and I did agree to your partner's deal."
His cold grey eyes stared down into Gemma's gagged face and the brunette gave a great shudder of despair as he continued, "In my book, a deal is a deal, my dear. Which means that I shall hold Mr Bowyer to the terms we agreed. Both Mr Bowyer and, I am afraid you, Gemma. For, as I am sure you know, the legal position is that the terms entered into by one director of a jointly-held company, are deemed to have been agreed by all directors. Even if, as in this case, you were completely unaware of the agreement."
"Gemma gaped up at the tall man standing over her and her belly gave a massive lurch. Legally, she knew Roxwell was correct, but surely he could not mean to hold her to an agreement she no only did not know about, but which was certainly illegal, morally unacceptable and completely unenforceable in any Court in the land!
Roxwell correctly interpreted the emotions flitting over Gemma's face and gave a brief bark of mirthless laughter. "Oh yes," he chuckled, "I know what you are thinking, my dear and you are quite correct. There is no way such an agreement can be held to bind you. Mr Bowyer had no right to enter into such a deal...but he did. And I accepted the deal he offered. The agreement cannot bind you Gemma, but you are not bound by an agreement, but by leather straps! Straps which will continue to bind you for as long as I choose!"
The icy chill in Gemma's belly spread to grip her entire body in a numb cocoon and she fought not to give in to blind panic as the horrifying implications of his words sank into her brain. He was not going to let her go! He intended to hold her to whatever deal he had come to with Mike! Whatever the deal was! And whatever her unknown part in the deal might be!
Roxwell mistook Gemma's frozen shock for acquiescence and he smiled, "Good Gemma. If you continue to behave and not fight, I'm sure you won't have any trouble settling in as a bondage slave."
The news of her fate exploded like a bomb in Gemma's mind and the dimly-lit interior of the speeding van filled with muffled screams of horror and snorting gasps of exertion as Gemma wrenched and jerked at the implacable leather and webbing holding her a prisoner.
Roxwell's thin face darkened in a frown of annoyance as Gemma fought to escape and she whimpered helplessly as his fingers clamped her jaw and she was forced to stare up at him.
"Keep still," he hissed, warningly, "And stop whining. You don't seem to understand yet. I own you! I paid good money for you as a bondage slave and you had better learn to obey. If you don't you'll suffer! The deal was that I would pay fifteen thousand into your company and, in return, you would be mine for a year. Bowyer agreed it and you, no matter how much you fight or protest, are going to honour the deal, girl! Twelve months. One whole year to pay your debt. And pay it you will, make no mistake about that!"
He released Gemma's jaw and the trembling brunette wept in black despair as she faced the nightmare prospect of spending a whole twelve months as a captive!
His long fingers darted to her small, tautly-presented and defenceless breasts and Gemma squealed in shock and outrage as her nipples were captured and rolled and squeezed despite her most frantic attempts to evade the unwanted stimulation and the twin, coffee-brown buds of her nipples responded to Roxwell's touch!
Held open by her bondage, Gemma was an easy target for her purchaser's desires and her helpless body juddered and writhed in sexual arousal even as she wept and screamed her vain protests against the fingers which invaded and explored her until her naked flesh ran with sweat, leaping to his touch as her arousal ran wild and overcame the despairing resistance of her brain!
Judging the moment to perfection, Roxwell sat back, taking his hands from her quivering body and leaving his helpless victim teetering on the brink of her climax.
Gemma's eyes bulged with a terrible need, her body aflame with furious heat and she sobbed and whimpered, frantic for the release she craved and yet terrified by the strength of the passion so easily inflicted on her by Roxwell. In bondage, she could not resist the searing lust forced upon her and she wept in shame as her tormentor gazed down at her, savouring and enjoying his power over her and the intense longing so clearly written on her gagged face.
"You respond well, Gemma," He told her, "As a good slave should. Now if you wish me to make you come as the slave you will inevitably learn to be, you will blink three times."
Gemma's jaw clenched as she bit down hard on her gag, fighting not to submit but her feeble resistance crashed in shattered ruin as Roxwell brushed a finger across the delicate, engorged and intensly-vulnerable softness of her clitoris.
Instantly Gemma arched her hips in abject submission and gave a soft moan of surrender as the caress overcame her resistance.
"Blink three time, slave," Roxwell demanded and Gemma obeyed helplessly, her belly churning with blazing heat as she accepted defeat.
"Very good slave. Now, climax to my bidding."
Fingers captured Gemma's throbbing nipple, others slipped over her clitoris and sex and the devastated, soon-to-be-enslaved brunette screamed in ecstatic surrender as her body convulsed in giant pulses and scalding love-juices sprayed into her belly.
Lost in the swirling heat of her orgasm, Gemma moaned in shame and humiliation to the knowledge that she had climaxed to order. To a man she barely knew and hated and feared in equal measure.
How could it be? How could she have reacted so shamelessly and so helplessly? How could she have lost control so completely? And how could she possibly endure a whole year of slavery to him? A whole year of total sexual submission?
There were no answers, for, even as Gemma wept and spasmed in her orgasm, Roxwell replaced her blindfold and she was left to her shame and her submission and her misery as the van sped on into the night, bearing Gemma, her new owner and her handlers into a future she dared not contemplate.
CHAPTER 2
With her limbs still clamped in the tight embrace of the leather straps buckled on her body by Mike, her one-time business partner and lover, Gemma was still utterly helpless as the van braked to a halt for the second time and its doors thrown open. A mute, blind package of naked girl, she whimpered in horror as several people climbed in and expert hands began to release the webbing tie-downs that held her in the centre of the floor. Unable to move, let alone make any resistance, Gemma gasped and panted as her bound body was manoeuvred onto what she could only assume was the same trolley that had been used to transport her from Mike's cottage to the van as she sobbed in despair, guessing that she must have arrived at wherever Roxwell planned to hold her captive. Lying on her left side, her limbs cramped from her lengthy bondage and horribly aware of a gentle breeze playing across her naked flesh and cooling the damp patches of sweat staining her body, Gemma strained her ears for any clue to her location.
The feet of her captors crunched on gravel, then scuffled across concrete or brick but aside from this, the night was quiet. Ominously quiet, for Gemma realised that there was no sound of traffic or of any of the other noises which are always present in the vicinity of cities or towns.
She must be far away from civilisation ... and far from any possibility of help of rescue!