She couldn't deny them anything, even as their physical abuse bordered on torture and their outrageous demands kept escalating to the point where they...would ruin her life by alienating her family and her church.Bob Wilson and his socialite wife, Carla, knew how to abuse and humiliate a woman. They were into that sort of thing and so were their friends and associates. Connie was hired because they saw something in her they liked--the yin to their yang. They knew a subservient masochist when they. Alex smiled at her and gave her a tight hug "off with you now, I hate good-byes, sniffles are bad for a man's image" Laurel blew Alex a kiss then picking up her pack she was gone.Laurel slept for three days, anyone that came in got snapped and snarled at until everyone decided to stay out of the lair for the next few days. On the fourth day Laurel got up feeling a hundred percent better, she fixed herself something to eat, took a long hot bath, dressed in her breeches, shirt, jacket and boots,. "Hi," he ventured in a soft voice, hoping not to startle her.She didn't seem to bat an eye. "Hi," she answered pleasantly, without so much as a glance in his direction."Beautiful day for a swim, isn't it" He asked, somehow managing not to stutter. He was shy enough around women under normal conditions, but talking to a completely naked young woman as she floated in her backyard pool was by far the strangest thing he'd ever done.She laughed, and he fell in love with the sound of her voice."Yes,. He and I would sit in the barn doing blind samplings of the various mixes. We would argue back and forth about the relative merits of each glass. The wine was a bit different each year. The original settlers of Dry Creek Valley were mostly Italian immigrants… with a healthy influx of French predating the Italians by a few years. In Italy at that time it was common that famers would all make their own wine. When they got to Sonoma County they did the same as in the old country: they would pick.