Tightly wound spring

It's the intimacy that kills her. It's the tenderness that does her in. She'd rather be manhandled and mishandled than to be handled like she's something fragile - something delicate, something that's worth something. She's more used to degradation.

But when she's caressed, cared for and touched, she unravels herself and comes undone only to spring back more tightly wound than before.