WIP Wednesday - Continuing with the Starlet in Venice

A Starlet in Venice is out! I'm very, very excited! 

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon CA. Or borrow it on Kindle Unlimited. 

Also - Starlet is only $0.99 until Friday morning! Take advantage of the special low introductory price while you can - it reverts back to $2.99 sometime Friday.

For this WIP Wednesday post, I'm picking up where I left off from last week's post. If you haven't read it, here's a link to Starlet's prologue. 

Chapter 1

Tatiana:

As I thought about the words I’d said to Liam, a year ago, on the Ponta di Rialto, my voice steadfast and my face illuminated by the light of the moon shining down on us, I cursed, not for the first time. Because in the intervening year, Liam had become one of my closest friends, a kind, steady and supportive presence in my life.

And I’d fallen in love with him.

But he was the manager at Casanova, a BDSM sex club, where women were plentiful and somewhat interchangeable, and sex was always on offer, and I was a woman who had never had an orgasm during intercourse. I was Liam’s friend, valuable only because of the relative rarity of what I offered. Friendship, companionship and conversation, without a sexual undercurrent to our interaction. The moment I slept with him, I would break something that we had, and I didn’t think we would be able to go back.

I wanted him with painful longing. I couldn’t have him.

***

I’d flown in from filming, tired and sleep-deprived. As usual, I pulled out my phone and texted Liam.

‘Back in town,’ I typed. ‘Drink?’

He always replied quickly. ‘You’ve eaten, rabbit?’

No, I hadn’t eaten; I was a lousy cook and I’d been away for three weeks. There was nothing resembling food in my apartment. I’d intended to grab something on my way to his place. ‘Not yet,’ I answered.

‘Good, I cooked dinner. Let yourself in and eat, rabbit. I’m working but I’ll be done at midnight.’

He’d taken to calling me rabbit in his teasing tone, and my heart clenched as I read his message, as it did every single time. Though I was exhausted and bone weary and I should have declined, I didn’t want to be alone tonight. ‘Okay.’

Liam lived in the penthouse of the palazzo that housed Casanova. He’d given me the security code many months ago, and I punched it in, entering the lobby. I usually took the elevators right upstairs, straight to his apartment, never stopping at the club that exuded sex and luxury and sin from its every pore. Today though, my emotions were lurching all over the place. “Can I peek?” I asked the guards at the door. I knew Killian and Niall well; we’d hung out and watched football games together.

Killian raised his eyebrow in surprise. Niall hid it better. “You got to surrender your phone,” he warned. “And pick a wristband.”

Who was I, top or bottom? If I chose to be dominant, I’d pick a black wristband. If I was submissive, I’d pick the blue one. Tonight, I was neither. I was a voyeur, watching the man I loved from the shadows. “Grey,” I replied, picking the colour of the observer. I knew the conventions of Casanova well enough, though I’d never entered the place.

Killian grinned at me. “You want us to tell the boss you are visiting?” His question was unexpectedly perceptive. Was it so obvious? Did I really wear my heart on my sleeve, and were my emotions so transparent? I would have thought I was a better actor than that.

I acted now. I laughed and winked and pretended like I didn’t care whether Liam knew I was in the club or not. “Let’s surprise him,” I said lightly.

“The boss doesn’t like surprises,” Niall said but he stood aside, and for the first time, I entered Casanova.

***

It hadn’t been some sense of prudery that had kept me away from Venice’s most exclusive BDSM club. It had been my utter certainty that my heart couldn’t survive watching Liam touch another woman. That, and an instinctive panic when I watched a woman, tied-up and struggling with her bonds.

Tonight though? Tonight my heart was already flayed and torn, and I was masochistic in my search for more pain.

I found it in the basement, outfitted as a stereotypically creepy BDSM dungeon, with whips and chains and a giant St Andrews Cross. There, underneath the spotlights, with darkness threatening to creep in from every side, Liam stood, his sleeves rolled up to show his strong forearms. He had a whip in his hand, and a beautiful, kneeling brunette at his feet.  

“Are you ready for your punishment, Simona?” I heard him ask. I was used to hearing him ask me questions in that same amused, indulgent, relaxed tone, and in that instant, I felt so very, very interchangeable.

I should have averted my eyes; I should have run away.

Any other day, I would have. Tonight, I stayed and forced myself to watch the man I loved look at another woman with attention, as if she mattered.  I leaned against the wall in a darkened corner and watched. 

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon CA. Or borrow it on Kindle Unlimited. 

Blurb: 

Every single man who looks at me wants to fuck me. To them, I am merely a sexy body, tits and pussy and ass, playing a leading role in their wet dreams. I am never anything more.

Except Liam. Liam Callahan wants only friendship from me, and I should be delighted. I certainly don’t want anything else from him. I don’t want to be bent over his lap and spanked. I don’t want to be tied up and flogged, and I definitely don’t want him to fuck me.

Do I?

Note: A Starlet in Venice is a stand-alone story, but part of the Nights in Venice series. Other stories in this series are of different couples. This story includes spankings, domination, graphic sexual scenes, and more.

Check out the other participants!