Rhianna Anderson was uncomfortable.

She was sitting in the first class section of a Boeing airliner flying non-stop from Denver to New York, where they would connect to a flight to Bangor, Maine.  Her seat was large and soft, with plenty of room for her long legs, and still she couldn't keep still.

It was late, and her husband was asleep in the seat next to her.  She watched his face for a moment to see if he was really sleeping, and then carefully got up.

The flight was half empty, so she had no problem finding a free bathroom, and once inside she addressed the cause of her discomfort.  She peeled off her thin blouse, and with a grateful sigh, undid her bra.  It had been well over a year since she had last worn a real bra, and while the new one she had bought fit her perfectly, it still seemed binding and restrictive.  No doubt she would get used to it again, but for now it was driving her nuts.

Rhianna rubbed the skin where the straps seemed to have been biting the most, and took stock of herself in the mirror.

She looked very different from the woman that had gotten up this morning.  Her hair was brushed back and held in a ponytail, her face lightly made up with brand new makeup.  She wore a satin blouse and a thick cotton skirt; clothes that were brightly colored and smooth as silk to her skin.  Under the skirt, she wore panties, real panties cut high over her hips, and on her feet were sandals with Roman style straps that wound around her ankles and calves.

It was so very different, like she was an entirely new person.  Yet Rhianna could still see the woman she had been this morning.  The fading, all over tan, the sun bleached highlights in her hair, and the look in her eyes.

No, the look wasn't a part of the woman she had been, but whom she was now.  The look showed worry, her concern over her father and his illness.  She didn't like this look.

After a few minutes, Rhianna struggled to pull her bra back on, then had second thoughts and removed it altogether.  She would work on getting used to it later; right now she just wanted a little peace.

After putting just her blouse back on, she made her way back to her seat, aware but not really caring about how her free breasts moved under the satin material.  Wearing so little for so long had weaned her a little from that kind of modesty.

Sitting down in her seat again, Rhianna picked up an in-flight magazine and flipped through it, not seeing the pages at all.
 
 

---***---
 
 

The transition back to life outside the Compound had been harder for her than she had thought it would be.  It started as she, Matthew, and Paul rode into town.

They got curious looks from the townsfolk as they rode their horses along the side of the road, but no one said anything until they stopped in back of the Sheriff's office.  Paul figured that since he had to come down to take the horses back, he might as well stop in to see Kinkade.

As Matthew and Rhianna, dressed in winter furs, got off the horses, Paul pulled a bundle from his jacket and held it out to Matthew.

"Here," Paul said, "It isn't much.  The Compound's cash funds are a little low at the moment.  But there should be enough there to get you a couple of bus tickets."

Rhianna began to blush, and she and Matthew both looked rather embarrassed.

"Say, bro," Matthew said to his older brother, "You can keep that, we don't need it."

"Sure, you do.  You're not going to walk to Maine, are you?"

Matthew looked down sheepishly and dug in his coat.  He pulled out a plastic bank debit card.

"You've been holding out on me," Paul said with a frown.

"Come on, Paul, you know I'm not the kind of guy that puts all his eggs in one basket!"

Paul grunted.  "You got enough there for your trip?"

"Plenty," replied his brother.  Actually, the account held both Matthew's and Rhianna's combined savings, and was one of several he still held in different banks around the country.  Matthew Anderson wasn't as rich as he used to be, but he was no pauper either.  He had always planned to keep the money a secret, to be used only in an emergency.  But the kind of emergency he had anticipated was something catastrophic happening to the Compound, where a large fast influx of money could be all that stopped the place from folding up.  Matthew had always been one for backup plans, and it had been perfectly natural for him to establish one for the place that he loved.

No, a few plane tickets wouldn't make much of a dent in his resources.

"Is it legal money?" Paul asked, knowing well where Matthew's wealth could have come from.

"The government got all my...other accounts, when they put me away."

Paul stared for a moment, then nodded.  "Fine.  We'll talk about it later, then.  You both take care while you're away, okay?"

Rhianna and Matthew said they would.  Paul gave Matthew a final warning about looking after Rhianna, and then sent them on their way.

Matthew and Rhianna went shopping, trading in their furs and leathers for modern clothing, and picking up all the things they needed for their trip.  They got many looks from people as they visited several stores, but once changed into modern garb, they were no longer noticed.

Their trip was a hodgepodge of transportation.  A bus to the nearest town where they could rent a car, then they drove straight to Denver, where they picked up this flight to New York, and where Rhianna made a brief call to her brother to tell him she was coming.  Another flight was supposed to take them to Bangor, where they would rent another car.

It would be early morning by the time they made it to Rhianna's home town, less than a day of travel really, yet to Rhianna it was like jumping both forward and backward in time at the same time.

Forward from the primitive living conditions of the Compound, and backward into a childhood environment that never seemed to change.

Exhausted from a day that had involved chimney sweeping, horseback riding, long drives in both a bus and a car, and the hassles of a major shopping spree, Rhianna finally tucked in next to her husband and fell asleep.
 
 

---***---
 
 

Geoff Summer Junior waited patiently in the domestic arrival lounge at Bangor International Airport.  His sister Rhianna had called earlier in the evening and had mentioned her arrival time to him.  He knew she was planning on renting a car and driving home, but it was very late and, to be honest, he needed a break from home anyway.  So he made the hour's drive to come pick her up, knowing that he would surprise her.

Geoff was probably the closest of his siblings to Rhianna.  The eldest Summer male, he had developed at an early age a very patriarchal affection for his younger brothers and sisters.  Yet even from the beginning, it seemed that the bond between himself and Rhianna was a little different.  No one else quite understood why Rhianna turned out so independent, why out of all the Summer children, she was the one that couldn't seem to settle down.  Geoff knew, or at least he thought he did.  When their mother died, Geoff had been old enough to see his mother more as the person she was, rather than just "Mom."  He knew of his mother's ambitions and drives, and of her sacrifices.  He wasn't alone in seeing a glimmer of those same drives in his younger sister, but he understood them a lot better.

But there was also something else, something even he couldn't figure out.  Rhianna and he just got along well, at least better than she did with the rest of their family.  She had always had a special smile for him, and it was to him she went to as a child when she had a problem she didn't want to take to their parents.  For example, it was her brother that she first told when she decided to join the Coast Guard, right out of high school.  Geoff had been very surprised, and had tried to convince young Rhianna to change her mind, or at least hold off her decision to leave until she had gone through college.  But Rhianna had been adamant, and she went anyway.

Still, it was to Geoff she wrote when she did write, and he was glad that she took at least part of his advice and went to school part time.

Her eventual move to law enforcement pleased him less, but it was a sign that his sister had found a direction in life that made her happy, which made him happy.

He was the only one though; their father was less than pleased.  Geoff Senior let his displeasure at Rhianna's decisions vibrate through the rest of the family, and any others contemplating a life outside their small fishing village soon changed their minds.

Geoff and his two brothers all got work in the family fishing fleet, while his sisters married local men and did their part to be typical housewives.  Geoff himself married the daughter of a fisherman who had worked with his dad for years, and now had a fourteen-year-old son and a ten-year-old daughter.

Geoff enjoyed family life, and now that he practically ran the family business from the safety of shore rather than going out in the boats themselves, he had plenty of time to be with them.

Still, he found himself missing his sister, the only one with the ambition to get away, and the gumption to actually do it.  He missed her more as her visits grew further and further apart.  He winced every time he heard about some new way she had been hurt.  The time she spent recovering from one of her earlier cases in a psychiatric hospital had been especially hard on him.  He began to accept their father's views that her job was too dangerous, that she had no right placing herself in that kind of danger.  It led to a strained relationship with Rhianna, something he regretted, yet felt helpless to change.  But now with this visit, he thought there might be a chance to renew their connection.

It was one reason he had passed along the news of their father to her former office.  Rhianna's last call to him over a year ago was to tell him that she no longer worked with the FBI, but that a friend of hers there would know how to reach her, as she was going some place very isolated.

Geoff had wanted to tell her how happy he was she had given up her dangerous work, and how he wished her happiness in whatever she did next.  But instead, his comments came out sullen, unforgiving, and their last words left them both dry.

While he admitted to himself that the illness of their father was not the best excuse for a reunion, a part of him was very happy that Rhianna was coming.  If he could, Geoff intended to mend a few fences.

The flight announcement rang out, and Geoff made his way toward the gate.  He stood back away from it, letting the other people waiting for this redeye flight move in front of him.  He had patience much like Paul Anderson; he was in no hurry for something he couldn't control.

Eventually people started walking through the gate, and Geoff stood a little straighter.  He almost didn't recognize her when he saw her.  Rhianna's hair was long, a lot longer than it was two years ago when she showed up for Christmas with it half burned off.  She was also standing taller, he thought, not so weighed down with the problems of the world.

She looked good, despite her tired appearance.  He didn't know how long she had been traveling, but travel was always exhausting.

He watched as Rhianna suddenly spotted him behind the crowd, and her surprised look was soon overcome with a warm smile that cheered Geoff up immensely.  He realized that he had been holding his breath, wondering if their meeting was going to be amiable or not.

Rhianna turned and spoke to a tall man walking behind her, and as the man turned to walk to where the luggage was being collected, Geoff wondered if the two of them were traveling together.  Maybe it was someone she met on the plane!

Rhianna kept on walking toward him, and without a word, they hugged.

"You look good, little sister," Geoff said, holding on to her tightly.

"You look older.  I didn't expect you to be here," Rhianna replied.

"I feel older," said Geoff, smiling at their childhood joke.  Rhianna had always kidded him about the gap between their ages, pretending to look for gray hair and other pranks.  He was only eight years older than she was, but to kids, that was a very long time.

The two parted, stepping back from each other.  Rhianna's smile turned into a concerned frown.  "Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm good, don't worry about me," Geoff replied.

Rhianna questioned him with her eyes, but said nothing more about it, even though he looked a lot older than he should have.  She could really see her father in his features, both men growing old before their time.  She took his hand.  "How is he?" she asked him, referring to their father.

"Let's not talk about him here; it's late and you're tired.  We can talk tomorrow."

"No, please.  At least tell me...how long he has."

Geoff swallowed.  Not many members of the family knew that information, few were aware that the old man was sick at all, or at least that sick.  It was Geoff Senior's doing, this veil of secrecy.  He didn't want to appear weak in front of the family.  The family Patriarch had no idea that Rhianna had been told.

Geoff nodded slowly.  "Maybe a month, maybe less.  The cancer was pretty advanced when they discovered it.  It was only because he fell and hit his head that they discovered it at all.  The old bastard had been faking his yearly check ups, so when we took him in after his fall, it had been the first time he had really seen a doctor in five years."

"There's nothing they can do?" Rhianna asked, her voice small and huskier than usual, stifled with emotions that surprised her.

"Nothing he will let them do," Geoff said.

A movement beside them and they were no longer alone.  The tall man Rhianna had spoken to at the gate was suddenly with them.  He put down two new looking suitcases and held his hand out to Geoff.

"Hi," he said, "so you're Geoff.  I'm Matthew Anderson."

"Er...hello," Geoff answered, taking the offered hand and giving it a short shake.  He glanced over at his sister, wordlessly asking whom this man was.

Rhianna flushed a little, not wanting to look at either of them.

"Geoff," she said, "this is...my husband."

"Your husband?" Geoff answered, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice.

Matthew looked startled.  He glanced sideways at Rhianna and saw that she was embarrassed.  It annoyed him.  Matthew had been under the impression that her family knew about him.  That they knew she was married to him.

Now it was plain to see that she hadn't told them at all.  She had lied to him.  It wasn't the lie that shocked him though, but the way she seemed embarrassed to know him, as if she hadn't wanted her family to know that he existed.  Like he wasn't good enough for them or something.

"I thought...' he began to say, but Rhianna looked over at him with pleading eyes, shaking her head.

Matthew growled inwardly, but took his cue.  They would sort it out later.

Geoff was not so circumspect.  "I had no idea," he said after a moment.  He smiled but he still looked surprised.  "I guess congratulations are in order."  He shook Matthew's hand again, this time with more feeling, and moved to hug his sister.

Matthew managed to give his new brother-in-law a smile, but his anger showed to his wife, who averted her eyes while she hugged her brother.

"Well," Geoff said upon parting, "dad will be happy about that at least.  He's been griping about you not marrying for years.  In fact, that helps a lot!"

"Why?" Rhianna asked.

"Well, he doesn't know you are coming; he doesn't know I called you at all.  You could tell him that you were just here to introduce Matt to the family, he needn't know that you know about his condition."

"At least until I confront him about it," Rhianna said evenly.

Geoff paled a little.  "Well, if you can avoid doing that for a couple of days, it'll help.  Come on, let's head to my car.  You're staying with us at the house."

"It's okay, we can get a room," Rhianna said.

"No.  You're staying with us!"

Rhianna nodded, and silently followed the two men out of the building.
 
 

---***---
 
 

"Get undressed," Matthew Anderson ordered.

Rhianna nodded.  You didn't need to be psychic to tell that Matthew was angry, and Rhianna didn't blame him.  She had held out on him, and her family.  She began to remove her clothes.

The Anderson's were in the Summer family home, the place where Rhianna had grown up.  It was now occupied by her brother and his family, and her father; and upon their arrival at the house, Geoff showed them straight to their room.

"Everyone's asleep anyway," Geoff told them, "even dad.  You can meet them all in the morning."

"I hope your wife, at least, knows we were coming," Rhianna said to him

"She knows, but the kids and dad don't.  Breakfast is at 7:30, but I wouldn't worry if you overslept."

Geoff gave his sister another quick hug, and with a nod in Matthew's direction, left them alone.

They were actually in Rhianna's old bedroom, a room she had shared with her older sister Janet.  It was now very different, one large bed instead of the bunk beds they used to have.  But the room still carried the same vibes, or at least Rhianna thought so.  She didn't find it very hard at all to picture in her mind's eye how the room used to look.

Matthew had held on to his anger quite well during the drive back, but he needed to know why Rhianna had done what she did.  He actually wasn't as angry as he pretended to be, more hurt than anything else.

He stood still, arms folded, until Rhianna divested herself of her clothes.  He watched as she stood naked before him, head down, the only things covering her skin, her two leather wrist bands.  She was a magnificent creature, strong in her beauty even under these circumstances.  He could feel his arousal build at the sight of her, even through his anger.

He drank in her beauty, knowing full well that underneath Rhianna's apparent contrite exterior was a building anger of her own.  Even after all this time, it was hard for her to accept her submissiveness, her deferment to Matthew's will.  And while he seldom pushed her farther than she was comfortable, he had made it clear from the beginning that he WAS going to be in charge.  In many ways, their relationship hadn't changed much from when he first knew her.  For a time she had been his slave, submitting to his will voluntarily.  And while for her it had been only play acting for the most part, it had definitely aroused some deeper feelings inside her, feelings she could never shake, and wasn't even sure she wanted to.  She found it easy to submit to him, even though they were no longer Master and slave in the strictest sense.  She simply felt the need to submit, and Matthew in his turn was a natural Dominant, taking and molding her submissive tendencies so they brought pleasure to them both.

At times, Rhianna cursed her submissive feelings, yet still could not overcome them.  Not with THIS man.  She loved him too much.

Now was such a time.

"Undress me," Matthew said to her.

Rhianna almost looked up.  While they played bondage games an awful lot back at the Compound, it wasn't often that they involved the domination aspects of the lifestyle.  There simply hadn't been a need to get very formal about things that Rhianna was happy to do for him anyway.  But there were times, especially when Matthew was angry with her about something, when he demanded a level of obedience far beyond that of the average woman at the Compound.  A level only found in deeper BDSM relationships.  And when Matthew was this way, Rhianna found herself helpless to respond otherwise.  She hated this weakness in herself, yet at the same time she hungered for it.  The kind of hunger that only manifested itself when you could smell the dish you craved.

Rhianna moved quickly to her husband, her Master, and began to remove his clothes.  He stood stock still, not helping at all, and she had to manipulate his body in order to undress him.  As she did so, she could feel herself becoming aroused, and she began to blush.

She looked up at his face, and then quickly lowered her eyes.  He had been staring down at her, and the anger she saw made her shiver.

"I'm s..." she began to say, but he cut her off.

"Silence," he growled.

Rhianna kept her mouth shut and finished her task.  Once Matthew had been reduced to just his own leather wrist bands, she stood back and knelt, automatically assuming a slave position trained into her from some case in the past.

Rhianna's last few of years in the FBI had for the most part involved BDSM, usually with her going undercover as a submissive.  She had been trained numerous times by various people, and many of those lessons had stuck, especially when Matthew pushed all her submissive buttons as he was doing now.

She glanced up at him again, and saw something that almost made her smile; he was as aroused as she was becoming.  That calmed her a little bit; he couldn't be that angry with her then.

Rhianna was scared of him, but her fear wasn't THAT kind of fear.  She knew that, no matter how angry he was at her, he would never take out that anger on her in any way that would do her real harm.  If he had been the type to abuse her, she would have left him a long time ago.  But that didn't mean he didn't know how to discipline her.

She looked back down as Matthew walked around behind her.  She listened as he dug in the bags he had left on the bed, and she thought she knew what he was looking for.

Her suspicions were confirmed when he stepped behind her and roughly pulled her wrists back.  Using a thin leather cord, he bound her wrists tightly behind her, hands back to back.  The leather bands she wore protected her wrists, allowing a tighter tie with less fear that the cord would cut off circulation.  That was their second purpose, the first being their significance as markers of marriage.

Rhianna knew what this tie meant.  While it was the standard way women were bound at the Compound, Matthew had lately only used this back to back method of tying hands when it was for punishment reasons.  They both much preffered other methods of wrist tying for fun bondage.  So this gave Rhianna yet another clue that he wasn't playing around.

Matthew walked back around the now bound Rhianna, and stood directly in front of her.  His erect penis hovered in front of her face, and she could feel the heat coming off it as it waved under her nose.

"Take it," she was ordered, and she did so, enveloping its head with her lips and sliding forward.  It was not the best position for her, but she succeeded in taking in his full length, her nose pressed against his pubic hair, her throat open and filled.  She had to hold her breath.

"Begin!"

Rhianna began to move her head, her tongue now allowed to come into contact with him.  She could expect no help in her task from him.  This was her task alone, designed to humiliate her, not bring her pleasure.  Rhianna much preferred their lovemaking to be a mutual affair.  To be commanded like this, used like a machine, offended her.  But she did her duty, she could do nothing else; and as she worked, her own arousal grew, unaddressed, unsatisfied.

Matthew, for his part, was feeling a lot of pleasure, far too much, in fact.  It took all his concentration to hold his body steady and not give in to her ministrations.  He wanted desperately to pump her to orgasm, before throwing her on the bed and taking her as man takes woman.  If this had been a game, he might just have done that, but in the back of his head, he managed to keep sight of his goal.

He did eventually orgasm, though--you could only hold back so long--and he waited until Rhianna had licked him clean before pulling away from her.

Rhianna knelt quietly, eyes down, as Matthew gathered himself together.  He could see the flush in her face, the glow in her skin, the sure signs of her arousal in her nipples and bare labia.  Even her posture spoke of it, her knees slightly wider than normal, her toes curled.

Matthew had known a fair number of women in his time, most of them submissives like Rhianna, who were especially tuned to sexual stimulation.  Yet, none of them had been as easy to read as his wife; none as easy to please.  And this wasn't because her needs were so simple or that she was that transparent, but because it seemed that he alone could read her, could know what she needed.  His fit into her life was more dovetailed than he could ever imagine, and he knew in his heart that it was true for her too.  No one else he had been with had been able to read him as well, either; no one else had been able to interpret his needs and provide him with such pleasures the Gods would be jealous of.  She fit into HIS life perfectly too, and he hoped to God he would never lose her.  He would die inside.

She was perfect in his eyes, what he knew of her, but there were still parts of her he couldn't get near, parts she only reluctantly opened up to him.  Sometimes the reasons she did things perplexed him; case in point, why she never told her family about him.

"On the bed, face down," he said to her.

Rhianna rose gracefully to her feet and climbed onto the bed.

Matthew noticed that she had lost some of her fear of him, her fear of being punished.  While he knew he would never give her cause to feel truly scared, he still preferred in these situations for Rhianna to have a certain degree of discomfort.  Evidently, she thought that punishment was over and that it was now time to play.  Well, he wasn't done yet.

Matthew took another piece of leather cord from his bag and bound her ankles crosswise.  He did it tightly, letting the thin cord dig deep into her flesh.  Rhianna winced and cried out for just a second in pain.  But he glared at her when she turned to protest, and he was pleased to see that level of fear return to her eyes.

He pulled her ankles back and finished binding her by putting her in a hogtie.  She'd be fine for a little while like that, long enough for his next step.

He rolled her onto her side, her knees automatically spreading because of the way her ankles were bound, and lay down next to her.  Looking just into her eyes, he reached down and began to manipulate her very aroused pussy.  Trained and very knowledgeable hands began to work Rhianna's passion to frenzy.  Yet he knew just how far to take her without letting her climax.  It was another way they fit together so well; each had an understanding of each other's body that was almost spooky.

It wasn't until Rhianna was biting her lip, moaning softly to herself, that Matthew began to speak.

"I have to tell you, I was hurt," he said, "hurt that your family knew nothing about me.  I could see your reluctance in telling them two years ago, when I was still just a guy from one of your cases, but Pet, aren't we so much more now?

"I know you love me, I have no doubts about that, so not telling your family about me makes even less sense.  Maybe I'm just fussing over nothing, and you have a perfectly good reason for not telling them.  But I would think that you would have had the decency at least to let me in on your little secret.

"But you kept it from me; you didn't breath a word.  You didn't even correct me when I thought that you HAD told them.  You didn't exactly lie to my face by telling me you had informed them, but omission of the truth is still a lie.

"So, why did you do it?"

Matthew eased up a little on the stimulation.  He knew that Rhianna was in no real shape to answer his question, or at least think clearly enough to evade it.  He knew just how far to push her to get what he wanted.

Rhianna, for her part, was swimming in a sea of sensations.  Only a couple of times before had Matthew ever done this to her, and both times she had broken down and given in.  Yet in doing so, she had felt reborn a little coming out of it, as if the confessions he forced from her cleaned her soul a little bit.

His words, as he spoke, echoed through her head, and she caught his thoughts behind the words more than the words themselves.  She heard his question clearly enough, though; and as he eased his stimulation, her overworked brain automatically formed the answer she had been dreading to give him, and sent it out for him to hear.  She had no control over her speech, no censorship, or even the ability to lie.  Just as if she had been given a potent truth serum, her brain had been overwhelmed and confused by her very skillful arousal, and the need for a mind clearing orgasm that never came.

"I...didn't want...my dad...to tell me...I told you so," she gasped.

"What?" asked Matthew, puzzled.

"Please?" begged Rhianna.

Matthew took his hand away, and Rhianna began to moan loudly in frustration.

"Hush, Pet, do you want your family to hear?"

Rhianna immediately shut her mouth, mortified that her family could find out about what was going on in this room.  It didn't matter to her that she was a full-grown, married woman.  This room, this house, had brought back all the old fears and feelings of when she was a child, a teenager, nervously stifling the sounds of her first tentative steps toward adult pleasures, under the covers late at night.

Her sex-addled brain confused the issues even more, and made her more ashamed of her needs.

Matthew almost chuckled at her panic, but he was puzzled by her statement.

"Your father?" he prompted.

"He...he has always wanted me to be like my other sisters...married and settled down...with kids," Rhianna said, gaining a little control now that Matthew had ceased tormenting her.  "We always argued about it...he was forever pushing it in...my face whenever I was...here.  I vowed not to...give him the satisfaction of being proven right...that it would take a man, a husband to make me truly happy."  Rhianna looked away from him, and Matthew knew that what she had just admitted had been hard for her.  Rhianna's independence had been something she cherished all her life, yet in the end it was only in partnership with another person, him, that her life felt complete.  Her father had known this all along, it seemed, and Rhianna's pride wouldn't let her admit he was right.  So, she concealed her marriage from him.

Matthew shook his head.  He had his answer, and his anger was gone.

"Please?" Rhianna said, shifting her hips slightly toward him.

Matthew looked at his bride for a moment.  He saw want and need, but he also saw a defiant little girl who had now come to terms with her father's wisdom.  She would be all the stronger for this night, when she saw him later.

He moved to her, untying her hogtie and her feet, but leaving her hands bound behind her.

He entered her and satisfied both their needs.
 
 

End of Part 3