Life as part of the Royal Ballet tended to inure one to hardship and discomfort. Between the long hours, the demanding routines, and the sheer physicality required, an ability to push through the pain and keep performing was an essential skill. Melissa had certainly developed it; indeed, it was one of the many reasons she risen to become the company’s étoile. The show must go on, after all, and the twenty-year-old redhead, little things like her own health meant nothing when stacked against the audience seeing a perfect routine.

But this… this was beyond the pale. She’d never been bound and gagged before, and as much as she tried to fight it, the burning in her arms and shoulders was beginning to tell, sending a grunt of pain past the ball gag filling her mouth to bursting. “Mmmmppgggghhh!”

“Aww, you enjoying your strappado, sweetie?”

Green eyes stared balefully at her captor, and Melissa’s pale features went red with helpless anger. She and Stephanie had long been rivals, the normal professional tension between two performers eager to outcompete the other having long since given way to something much more bitter, and the dark-skinned woman had been beside herself with rage when Melissa become the étoile instead of her. Still, she never thought her rival would go so far as to tie her up in response, and Melissa strained in her bonds, lithe figure writhing beneath her black leotard and tights. “MMMMPPPGGGGHHH!”

“Why are you complaining?” Stephanie sneered, pacing about her captive with undisguised contempt. Coils of white rope embraced long, shapely legs at the ankles, thighs and above and below the knees, while her upper body was bound in a strappado tie, more coils pinioning her wrists and elbows to be connected to a long length hung from the rafters of Melissa’s loft apartment. The effect was to leave the redhead bent over, her arms pulled at nearly a ninety-degree angle behind her back, and with every soft murmur of pain, Stephanie’s pleasure at the sight only grew. “An étoile should be more than capable of handling a little discomfort, right? Think of the strappado as good training.”

“Mmmmppggghhh!” Melissa grunted in protest, flinching away as her captor’s fingers roughly threaded through her short crimson locks. “MMMPPPGGGHHH!”

“That’s of course assuming you actually deserve that title” Stephanie declared tartly, squeezing Melissa’s toned thigh and calf muscles through her tights. “More than likely, a slut like you wound up earning it on her back.” Fingers traced the curve of her buttocks, before her palm cracked down in a stinging blow. “Didn’t you?”

“MMMPPPGGGHH! NNNGGGGHHH, MMPPGGGHHH!” came Melissa’s screams of denial, drool leaking about the sides of the ball gag. “MMMPPPGGGHHH!”

“It’s a shame you wound up disappearing without a trace,” Stephanie said with casually, and immediately, Melissa’s eyes widened at the implication. “There are so many human traffickers out there these days, or maybe you couldn’t handle the pressure and just ran away? Either way, the Royal Ballet will finally after a worthy star for once.”

“MMMMMPPGGGHHH!” The pain produced by the strappado was forgotten, burned away by sheer terror, and Melissa struggled and thrashed about like a cat in a cage, the ropes creaking in answer. “MMMMMMPPPPGGGGHHHHH!”

“Welcome to your new life, Melissa. Trust me when I say the strappado is gentle compared to what’s on offer…”