I am pleased to announce that my short, kinky story “House Rules” is now available as part of Insatiable Press’s first original anthology exploring women’s secret fantasies, Surprising Myself.
Read an excerpt!
Cole’s gaze narrowed. “So, Maddy, tell me what you’re into.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Standard stuff, I guess,” I said. “Bondage, S&M, submission. Spanking.”
His lip quirked. “You want to be spanked.”
My buzz was wearing off. I wiped the sweat from my upper lip, hoping he hadn’t noticed it, which was silly because we were practically on top of each other. I was tired of talking and having the spotlight focused solely on me. “What about you? I’m sure the sex you and your fiancé had put everything you did with Ashley to shame.”
“My ex wasn’t into it.”
“Oh.” I paused. “How long were you two together?”
Cole’s gaze dropped. “A year and a half.”
“Can I ask what happened?” I needed to hear him say it.
Cole sighed. “I scened with someone else. We didn’t have sex, but we may as well have, as far as my ex was concerned. She was right, in a lot of ways. There was some emotional infidelity.” He studied his hands. “It’d been so long. I just…needed the release. I never wanted to hurt her.” He grunted. “I mean, I did. That was kind of the problem.”
Cole scrubbed his guilt-ridden face. I couldn’t condone his behavior, but I could relate. For years I’d placed myself in relationships with men who couldn’t give me what I wanted. I thought I was being practical, but in truth, I was afraid — afraid that the things I wanted were too extreme, too strange, too hard to find, so why bother?
Eventually, I stopped dating altogether. Vanilla sex left me hollow. I wanted to be filled to bursting.
I took a deep breath and touched Cole’s knee. “I’m sorry. I know how it feels to repress who you are in order to fit someone else’s mold of what’s acceptable, and I know what it is to deny yourself the things you want most. But you shouldn’t have to.”
Cole stared at my hand. “Why do you deny yourself?”
“Fear mostly. And the belief that what I want most is something I can never have.”
“And what do you want?” Cole studied me, his eyes hungry for something I couldn’t put into words. I only knew I wanted to give it to him.
“Release.”
He wetted his lips. “Madeline, when you played with your exes, did you use a safe word?”
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
I swallowed hard.
“Mercy.”
Product Description: Thirteen writers present sexy, steamy stories of women getting the chance to live out their personal fantasies. What’s yours? Whether it’s several lovers at the same time for a pulse-pounding ménage scene or the allure of getting caught in public, these stories will set your mind ablaze. From voyeurism in a sex club to swinging, cuckolding to cosplay, Surprising Myself brings you stories from 13 hot new writers to watch out for and just might make you think about fulfilling your own wildest fantasy.
Surprising Myself (ed. by Matthew Cooper) is available in ebook and audiobook formats from Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble and Audible.
