“What if we paid half the fare? I mean, we’re saving a lot of money living together. It’s not like I get a bonus at my job, but I could sell some of my rarer photo books. You’re always saying I should thin out my collection.”
“Ooh, I could get you a good price for them,” Robin said, the art of the deal already stirring her blood.
“Fuck, you’re hot when you talk pricing.”
“Mmm, well if that’s so, I’ve got a very nice erotic photo book with a young woman imitating pinup poses in a more explicitly eroticized context...” She walked two fingers up his chest, flipping up one leg and draping it over his lap until her foot slipped between his knees. “The photographer and the model are both unknown, but the images are one-of-a-kind and absolutely filthy.”
“Oh, are they now? You know, I think I heard of that series? I hear the photographer did something really interesting by juxtaposing the coy, forced nature of the posing with the model’s grimaces of pain and pleasure...” He casually circled her thigh with his hands.
She faked a scandalized expression, clutching at imaginary pearls around her throat. “Grimaces? That poor model.”
“You’ve got to suffer for art, baby.” His mouth nudged right up against her ear, close enough to lick and bite and—
“Oh shit, look at the time!” Robin leaped out of his grasp, shrugging out of her robe as she rushed down the hall to their room. When she’d gotten into her bra and panties, John finally arrived behind her, carrying her robe draped over his shoulder and not looking even remotely concerned about how late they were running.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” He cocked his eyebrow toward the locked lacquer jewelry box that sat atop her dresser.
As if in a trance, she took the key from the chain John wore around his neck and drifted over to the box. Unlocked it. Opened it, revealing the gleaming polished plug and glittering nipple clamps, and last but not least, the gray pearl choker, not nearly as bright as the other two items but still the most compelling.
All the pieces of their ritual, kept in a place of honor like the precious things they were.
As if he had all the time in the world, John leaned against the doorway, smiling lazily as he watched her put them on.
I’m sorry for the brevity, dear readers, but there’s a party in Wonderland, and I simply can’t be late. Whether you’ve gone down the rabbit hole with me or not... be well tonight.
Love,
The Happy Submissive
* * * * *
About the Author
Heloise Belleau was born and raised in small-town New Brunswick, Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of northern British Columbia with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades leave her plenty of quiet time to write. She has a degree in history from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish studies. Much of her work centered on popular culture, oral folklore and sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her about Highlanders!)
Heloise’s writing reflects everything she loves: diverse casts of characters, a sense of history and place, equal parts witty and filthy dialogue, the occasional mythological twist, and, most of all, love—in all its weird and wonderful forms. This is her first novel as Heloise, but writing as Heidi Belleau she is the author of the M/M urban fantasy The Druid Stone (Carina Press) and contemporary comedy series Rear Entrance Video (Riptide Publishing).
* * *
Solace Ames is a Japanese-American woman with roots in the southeast U.S., although her heart lives somewhere along the Pacific coast of Mexico. She’s worked in restaurants, strip clubs, academia and the corporate world and studied everything from the philosophy of science to queer theory to medieval Spanish literature. Rejecting neat categories, her writing sprawls across genres and genders and swings from high art to low art, marching with the erotic avant-garde, tongue sometimes in cheek and at other times...well. Along with writing, education and political activism are her passions. Family and community service take up most of her time, but she loves to keep learning.
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ISBN-13: 9781426897672
THE DOM PROJECT
Copyright © 2013 by Heloise Belleau and Solace Ames
Edited by Alissa Davis
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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