Saturday Spanks: Routine Maintenance - #AuthorsGiveBack #FreeReading #SaturdaySpanks

I know you’ve been good all week – staying at home, taking care of business, resisting the impulse to throw caution to the winds and break out of lockdown.

Now it’s the weekend, and it’s time to get, at least vicariously, naughty!

For today’s Saturday Spanks, here’s a bit from “Routine Maintenance”, one of the stories in my Hearts & Handcuffs collection.

And in case you’ve forgotten, this book is now totally free on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/635210

“Master? Here I am.”

Carlos whirled around. There was girl in the room, on her knees just inside the doorway. No, not a girl, a woman. Her delicate build made her seem young and vulnerable, but when Carlos looked more closely, he noted her small but well-rounded breasts and hips that swelled in an inviting way from her tiny waist.

Her head was bowed and her sun-streaked hair fell over her eyes, so he couldn't see her face. She kneeled with her thighs apart. It was clear that she was naked underneath her black miniskirt. She kept her hands clasped at the small of her back, in a position Carlos recognized from all his BDSM videos. The humble attitude of a slave.

“What—who are you?”

“I'm sorry, Master. Mistress Liza sent me to you for a spanking. She said that she was at her wit's end with me, but that you'd know how to punish me as I deserve.” The woman dared a quick look at him through her bangs. “Didn't she call you, sir?”

“I, um, I don't remember hearing anything from her.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, sir! Please excuse me for intruding. If you'd like me to come back at a more convenient time...”

“No, no, never mind.” Carlos' thoughts stumbled over themselves. He didn't want the girl to leave. But what was he supposed to do with her? Should he tell her that she'd made a mistake? “What did your mistress say about me?”

“Ah, well, she said that you were stronger and stricter than she is, cruel and without mercy. That you'd tan my bottom crimson and make me beg you to stop. That you'd spank me so hard that I truly wouldn't be able to bear it. That it would be a week before I could sit down.”

Carlos' cock twitched at her graphic description. She sounded suspiciously enthusiastic, not frightened the way she should be, if he really were the fearsome Dom that she took him for.

She was offering herself to him. She wanted him to spank her.

How could he turn down this opportunity?

But she was so petite. She looked so fragile. Sure, he knew the basics, but he'd never actually practiced any of the techniques that he studied every night on the Internet. What if he hurt her, really damaged her, not just spanked her butt raw that way he imagined?

“What did you do, slave, to deserve this punishment?” He tried to make himself sound gruff and severe, to disguise his own excitement. To hear the word “slave” coming from his own lips sent a hot sizzle down his spine.

“I—um—I came without the Mistress' permission. While she was paddling me.”

“I see. You're an undisciplined slut, are you?”

“Yes, sir. I couldn't help myself.”

“Well, I know how to teach you a lesson.” He only hoped that he did. He settled himself in the armchair. “Crawl to me, slave. Now.”

She was kneeling at his feet before he could count to three, once more in position, eyes on the gap between her thighs.

“Look at me,” Carlos ordered. She had violet eyes and a ripe mouth that cried out for kisses— or bruises. Her flushed cheeks and quick breathing told him that she was aroused already.

“On my lap. And no wiggling or rubbing against me. If you come while I spank you, I'll hang you up on the cross for the rest of the day.”

Holy mother, he was scaring himself! She scrambled up and flopped onto his knees. She was obviously familiar with this position as well. She parted her legs and pressed her toes against the floor to stabilize her body. Her pelvis rested on his right thigh, her chest on his left. Her arms dangled awkwardly. She didn't dare touch him without permission.

“Hands at the back of your neck. Arch your back.” The shift pressed her cushiony tits against his leg. He wished that she was naked, that they both were, so he could feel her pebbly nipples against his bare skin. But he didn't want to break the momentum by telling her to strip. Instead, he peeled her tight little skirt back towards her waist to expose her ass.

Two half-moons, pale and creamy, with a shadowed crevice between them. Perfect. Unblemished. If she was accustomed to being spanked, there was certainly no sign on those virginal buttocks. Her scent rose from the half-hidden pocket of her sex, musky and feral, much darker than he would have expected. She's a slut, Carlos thought, a pain slut who gets off on being beaten.

He raised his arm and brought his open palm down hard on that milky flesh. Her gasp sent a bolt of electricity straight to his groin.

“Nasty little whore! No underwear, and with such a short skirt.” He slapped her again. “You like pain? I'll give you real pain.”

His palm stung as he smacked her butt as hard as he could, first one cheek and then the other. Each stroke kindled a pink bloom on the woman's bottom, with rosy streaks marking the path of his fingers. Each stroke made her whimper and writhe against him. He hardened in response, unable to control his reactions.

He spanked her harder, aiming for the sensitive spot at the crease where her bottom and thighs met.

She yelped at the sudden increment in pain. “Be still! I told you, none of your tricks. If you come, believe me, I'll make you sorry.”

Carlos laid into her, doubling the speed and force of his blows. He wasn't exactly angry, but he was determined to give the girl the walloping that she deserved. She was a minx, no question. He could understand why Mistress Liza was so annoyed.

Yet more free reading to distract you... #FreeReading #TotallyBound #StrongerTogether

In a world where it seems nothing is safe – reading is. That’s especially true if you’re tacking an electronic book – no musty old covers or germ-infested pages to be concerned about!

Meanwhile, there are few things that offer a better distraction from the worries of the reality than curling up with a good book.

Recognizing these truths, some of the authors at Totally Bound and Pride Publishing have voluntarily set the price of our most popular books to zero during this epidemic crisis.

I have two books at TB that are currently free for download, and have asked for a third to be added.

The Eyes of Bast

Paranormal erotic romance

Trust your heart. Follow your dreams.

Shaina Williams’ grandmother bequeathed her that wisdom, along with an old pendant from the Islands, carved from an ocelot’s tooth. When instinct tells Shaina to visit the feral cat trap she’s set in Central Park, she listens to that inner voice. She discovers she’s caged a magnificent black tom, but the cat inexplicably vanishes after she tends to his wounds. Seeking the errant feline, Shaina encounters instead a handsome stranger whose slightest touch sets her body on fire. As the day dawns after a night of ferocious passion, her mysterious lover is forced back into his true shape—the tomcat she rescued.

Born a cat, Tom was transformed into an unwilling shape shifter by a sorceress who craved a human plaything to satisfy her perverse lusts. Centuries old and irresistibly powerful, Delphine Montserrat will stop at nothing to find her runaway familiar. Shaina vows to do whatever is necessary to defeat the vicious but seductive witch and save the man she believes is her soul mate—even though it might mean losing him forever. 

Download free here: https://www.totallybound.com/book/the-eyes-of-bast

Bodies of Light

Science fiction ménage erotic romance

Love travels faster than light

Physicist Dr Christine Monroe has devoted her lonely life to research on hyper-space travel. Her continued failure leads her to sign on to the Archimedes, a sub-light-speed mission aimed at establishing a colony in the Sirius B system.

Waking from suspended animation, she discovers that the ship is wildly off course and the rest of the crew are dead due to equipment failure. At first she thinks the two handsome strangers who show up on the ship are figments of her imagination - erotic hallucinations created by isolation and stress.

However, Alyn and Zed are solid, real, and ready to sacrifice their lives for the strong woman they've found stranded in deep space. As her ship begins to disintegrate, Christine must choose between the planet she was sent to save and the two alien beings she's come to cherish.

Download free here: https://www.totallybound.com/book/bodies-of-light

Note that Totally Bound can send books directly to your Kindle, just like Amazon. You can also choose epub or pdf formats.

Here’s a bit from Bodies of Light to tempt you. You can read a snippet from The Eyes of Bast in my Book Hooks post last week.

* * * * * *

The airlock exit was located on the backward-facing surface of the disk. The breach to be fixed was on the forward surface. Christine clambered over the edge of the disk and on to the front, towards the location pinpointed by the repair simulation. The tether snaked behind her like a kilometre-long tail.

The tear in the hull was small but obvious. Traces of escaping gas had tarnished the normally silvery metal. Christine retrieved the foil and tore off one pre-perforated sheet. Clumsy in her bulky gloves, she smoothed the ultra-thin material over the rift, then extruded the high-voltage electrodes. Fierce sparks ripped through the blackness as she sealed the foil to the hull. After-images swam in her vision while she waited the necessary three minutes before applying the second layer.

The second stage of the process posed no problem either. The carbon sheets were fused to the hull, closing the gap and rescuing her precious oxygen. The repaired section was probably stronger than the original material.

Letting out the breath she hadn’t realised she’d been holding, Christine allowed herself a moment of self-congratulation. She turned away from the ship to appreciate the emptiness around her. Her eyes had adapted. Now she could see the twinkle of distant stars, like gems studding the velvet blackness, the pale blurs that were galaxies. No one has ever travelled this far from home, she thought. Rather than fear, she felt a strange sense of exhilaration, akin to the excitement that gripped her when she resolved some knotty mathematical issue or confirmed the validity of a proof.

A memory from her childhood popped into her mind—sitting in the backyard with her grandma, peering into the glittering night sky. “I saw the first American go into space,” Nana had said. “Alan Shepard. I was in fourth grade. The whole school piled into the cafeteria to watch the launch on television. Black and white television,” she added with a laugh. “I was so excited I could hardly breathe. I decided that day that I wanted to be an astronaut. I had to see those wonders for myself.”

Of course, Nana hadn’t lived that dream. She’d become a teacher instead. Now, though, Christine was making that old fantasy real, floating free, embraced by the stars. It was amazing—awe-inspiring.

Then a delicate sadness crept over her. She’d never be able to share this feeling.

A red symbol flashed in the periphery of her vision, a routine warning that the suit oxygen supplies had reached seventy-five percent. That was enough for another four hours of EVA, but still, since her work was complete, she’d better get back inside.

She needed to reverse her orientation in order to climb back over the edge of the disk. Grasping a bracket with one hand, she gestured with the other to temporarily turn off the magnets in her boots. It was a gesture she’d practised a hundred times during training, but something went wrong. She must have put too much force into the arm movement. The reaction tore her other hand from its grip and drove her body away from the ship.

The distance between her and the Archimedes grew wider by the second. Christine cursed her carelessness. She knew that one had to move slowly and deliberately at all times when performing EVA. Newton’s third law, that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, applied in space just as it did everywhere else. In space, though, there was no friction to slow objects down.

Christine was more annoyed than concerned. She knew she could pull herself back to the airlock using the tether. That’s what it was for. She reached behind her to grasp it, where it clipped to her belt. Only then did she feel fear. Her lifeline was gone.

Get your free books today! You’ve got nothing to lose except a few hours of worry.

Review Tuesday: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - #ScienceFiction #ReviewTuesday #FreeReading

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

Tor Reprint, 2018 – Original publication date, 2004

What if you were effectively immortal? If, in the event of a fatal accident or disease (or murder), your backed-up consciousness could simply be reloaded into a young, cloned body? You’d have centuries to create new things, to learn new skills, to explore – or to get permanently bored and choose voluntary death.

What if money had disappeared, and instead, the world ran on a currency of reputation? If your wealth was measured in the number of likes you got, the number of shares, claps, stars and badges allocated to you by other members of society? The shy and retiring among us would be penniless, the smartest, most creative, most altruistic or most outrageous people, billionaires.

What if you’d dreamed your entire life of living and working in Disney World, and finally managed to make that dream real?

All stories have their genesis in speculation, but science fiction, especially, is driven by “what ifs”. Every scifi tale postulates an alternative reality – future, present or past – which differs from everyday experience in some fundamental ways. The best science fiction chooses questions that are both intriguing and have some moral importance. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow, falls into this category.

Jules, the protagonist, is a mere century old. Though he has been rebooted four times, he still remembers the world before the genesis of the Bitchun Society. And although he now lives in a world where your level of Whuffie determines both your influence and your quality of life, he’s old-fashioned in some ways. He sticks with his friend Dan through highs and lows of reputation. He’s squeamish about the notion of deadheading – abandoning your body and bottling up your consciousness for a few centuries or millennia, when things start to get boring. And he’s sentimental about the primitive but emotionally compelling attractions of twentieth century Disney World. He cares enough about the legendary Haunted Mansion that he’ll go to war and lose everything, trying to save it from being modernized and virtualized.

I don’t want to spoil your experience of Down and Out Etc. by telling you much more about the plot. Doctorow’s alternative, Whuffie-driven, world is eerily familiar in some ways, though the book predated the social media tsunami by more than a decade. The book considers whether electronically mediated experience can ever have the same value as direct interaction with the environment – and leaves that question open for the reader to decide.

We haven’t gotten to the point of backing ourselves up for future download, though the confluence of brain science and artificial intelligence might be moving in that direction. Doctorow explores some peculiar consequences of such technology, were it to emerge. For instance, the longer you go between backups, the more of your memories you’ll lose if you have to do a restore. Meanwhile, someone can perpetrate a horrific crime, then restore from a backup made before the deed, and literally have no memory of the event.

Down and Out Etc. isn’t perfect. It relies too much on a familiarity with Disney World and its attractions, which I don’t possess. Its economic model may be a bit too optimistic, as well. I think the economy posited in Doctorow’s more recent novel Walkaway, in which the zotta-wealthy cling jealously to the world’s resources, seems more plausible. On the other hand, the characters in this novel are much more vivid, believable and flawed than those in the later book. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, like all my favorite science fiction, is a book about ideas, but it’s also about human beings, love, fantasy and friendship.

And by the way – the author, who is a strong proponent of Open Source, has made the book available for free via Project Gutenberg. You can download it, in several different ebook formats, from here.

Charity Sunday: More free reading to keep you sane #freebooks #ProjectGutenberg #CharitySunday

As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to spread, people around the world are adjusting to new constraints on their movements. Many of us are more or less stuck in our homes, with little to do but worry about the future.

Worry is not healthy. Stress undermines your immune system. Instead of worrying, why not curl up with a good book?

Books can be expensive, though. And these days, many of us are facing serious financial concerns.

So, do you know about Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is a volunteer effort that digitizes and distributes free ebooks, in English and other languages. You can read about its history here. Founded by author Michael S. Hart in 1971, it is the world’s oldest digital library. The goal of the project is to make public domain works, especially literary classics, available to as wide an audience as possible. Currently the project offers more than 60,000 titles. You can search by author or title, go see the recently added books, or use the categorized listing.

Browsing the catalog can be great fun. You never know what gems you will discover. It’s also a great source for classic books you somehow never read. Recently, for instance, I saw a review on Goodreads for Anne Brontë’s classic The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights were among my favorite titles during my youth, but I’d never sampled anything by the third Brontë sister. I have now remedied that omission! (Review coming soon...)

If you’re not in the mood for a classic, you can also find contemporary titles, donated by the authors. I just finished Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, a rather prescient science fiction novel by Cory Doctorow.

You can download books in many formats - not only PDF, EPUB and Kindle formats but in many cases, plain HTML and text versions as well. So you don’t need an ereader to take advantage of its riches.

In short, if you’ve got reading time on your hands these days, but you’re short on cash, you might want to explore their excellent website.

Project Gutenberg is staffed by volunteers, but needs funds for computing resources, professional services and so on. So today I’m running a Charity Sunday for the project. If you love reading, leave me a comment. I’ll donate $2 to the project for each comment I receive.

Meanwhile, I have an excerpt for you from another “bookish” title of mine. This is a bit from Damned If You Do. The main character is an author of erotic romance who’s struggling to make a living through her writing. (Sound familiar, anyone?)

Excerpt

Her four dollar cup of Americano, now cold, tasted like muddy pond water. With a bitter sigh, Wendy Dennison, aka romance stalwart Gwen Diamante, iconized her browser and popped up her work in progress. The word count in the bottom status bar accused her of sloth and incompetence. She should know better than to check her sales stats and reviews before she’d produced at least a couple thousand words. Nothing sapped her motivation for writing a new book as much as surveying the tepid response to her last one.

Maybe another coffee would help. Extravagant, yes, but she needed a kick in the butt to get her out of her slump. She signaled to the cute college guy behind the counter, pointing to her cup. “Can I get another hit, Eric?”

The gangly kid grinned at her. “Coming right up, Wendy.” A mass communications major at the University of Pittsburgh, he treated her like minor royalty. Clearly he thought it was the ultimate in cool to be serving a real live published author. If he only knew the truth.

Wendy typed a four line sentence and scowled at her laptop screen. She highlighted the second clause and swapped it with the first. After staring at the page for a few minutes, she hit “Undo”. She turned the first clause into a participle instead, then tried replacing a pronoun with the character’s name. That didn’t really help either.

Eric removed the stale cup to her left and set down a steaming, fragrant mug in its place. “Two sugars, right?”

Still wrestling with her recalcitrant prose, Wendy gave him a cursory nod. Then she realized how impolite that must seem. “You’re a darling. Thanks so much!” The barista pushed his shaggy brown hair off his forehead and beamed at her. Wendy’s black mood brightened a bit.

With pierced earlobes, Black Sabbath tee shirts, and artfully threadbare denims, Eric had a sort of punk sex appeal. Wendy let herself imagine how he’d look naked—all wiry limbs and pale skin, with a bushy nest around his cock, which would be long and slender, like his tall, lanky, not-quite-mature body. Hard, of course. Young guys always were.

He’d be willing to wait though, to give her pleasure before taking his own. She saw him kneeling between her spread thighs, wearing a worshipful expression. He leaned in to flick at her clit before running his tongue firmly along the cleft between her swollen lower lips. Oh my God! Did he have a stud embedded in his tongue?

“Can I get you anything else?”

Eric’s voice hauled her back to reality.

“Oh—um— ” Blood heated her cheeks, especially when she realized how damp her panties had become. What was she thinking? He was young enough to be her son!

“We’ve got a special on cream cheese brownies. Two for one.” He lowered his voice to a seductive purr, apparently aware he was tempting her.

Wendy recalled both her financial constraints and her depressingly accurate digital bathroom scale. “I really shouldn’t,” she replied, determined to do the right thing.

“C’mon. You need the energy to fuel your creativity! Eat one now, and take one home for later.”

“Well…” Saliva pooled in her mouth as her resolve wavered. She could always skip dinner. “I did have a salad for lunch…”

“Two sinfully rich double fudge cream cheese brownies, coming up.” Her youthful admirer gave her another grin. “Don’t worry. They’re small.”

She turned back to the computer, scrolling back to read the previous few paragraphs. The tension between her heroine and her hero sizzled, but somehow she couldn’t get them out of flirting mode and into bed together. They resisted her every attempt to move them in the directions prescribed by her outline.

Maybe she should switch genres. Try some sweet romance for a change. Or a cozy mystery. Those seem to be selling pretty well these days.

She knew from experience, though, that she’d never succeed in keeping the sex out of her books. Her imagination naturally flowed in carnal directions.

Please don’t forget to leave a comment! Every one is a contribution to the world’s biggest library of free digital books.

And if you want some of my books free, check out my post from yesterday. I’ll be announcing more free Lisabet Sarai titles later this week.

Authors Give Back – Free reading for challenging times #Smashwords #FreeReads #Promotion

Photo by Retha Ferguson from Pexels

I’m not going to launch into yet another dire message about the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic. We’re all being challenged, from one day to the next. Instead, I want to share some good news: lots and lots of free and discounted ebooks are now available for download at Smashwords, as part of the Authors Give Back event.

Fortunately, reading is something you can do almost anywhere. A book can whisk you way for hours at a time, far from your worries.

Hundreds of authors will be participating in this month-long event. I have three books available for free download, none of which has ever been free before.

The Heart of the Deal: Business, Bondage Discipline and Desire

(BDSM erotic romance)

All's fair in lust and business

Ruby Maxwell Chen, the lovely and ruthless CEO of a sprawling British business empire, has no qualms about playing dirty – very dirty. She’s happy to use sex to help her close a deal, especially when she’s the one on top. Ruby loves the game, and she expects to win. When she encounters the inexplicably charismatic American entrepreneur Rick Martell, though, she wonders if she hasn't finally met her match.

From the trendy clubs of London to the Hollywood Hills, Ruby and Rick compete for ownership of a strategic factory in Malaysia. As their struggle for dominance escalates and their mutual lust flares, they draw their employees and associates into their outrageous power games. The stakes could scarcely be higher, as Ruby and Rick play for the ultimate prize: a night of total physical surrender.

Smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/942426

 The Witches of Gloucester

(lesbian fantasy)

It’s not about power. It’s about love.

The historic port of Gloucester, Massachusetts has a special charm, due at least in part to its resident witches. For decades, raven-maned Marguerite and red-headed Beryl have lived among its hard-working inhabitants, making magic and mischief. Love and sex fuel their supernatural abilities, but duality limits their power. To reach their full potential, they need a third witch to complete their circle.

Rejected as a nymphomaniac by her puritanical boyfriend, Emmeline escapes to Gloucester to work on her PhD thesis. From the moment she arrives, Marguerite and Beryl sense her erotic vitality and unrecognized paranormal talent. The platinum-haired beauty may well be the enchantress they have been awaiting for so long. Now they need to show Em that her prodigious libido is a gift, not a liability, and to persuade her that her destiny lies in the sea-girt town they guard, and in their arms.

SPECIAL BONUS: Also includes "Late Show", a contemporary FF erotic romance tale about second chances.

Smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/832808

Hearts & Handcuffs: Romantic Kink

(Light-hearted BDSM short stories)

Kink can be life-changing, cathartic, a spiritual experience. Sometimes, though, it’s just plain fun—particularly when your partner is someone special. Hearts & Handcuffs presents the lighter side of BDSM—the naughty joy to be found in exploring your pervy fantasies with someone whose desires complement your own—in six sizzling short stories that showcase Lisabet Sarai’s famously sexy prose.

In “Spank-o-gram”, a grumpy birthday boy receives an unexpected gift from his distant lover. “Wired” shows the extremes a woman will go to in order to get the attention of the man she wants. A neglected and frustrated slave turns the tables on her master in “Domestic Goddess”. In “Spank Me Again, Stranger”, a city gal learns how they celebrate birthdays out in ranch country. A case of mistaken identity leads to a dream come true in “Routine Maintenance”. The title tale “Hearts and Handcuffs” is a Valentine’s Day role playing romp, complete with costumes.

Open the cover, dive into Lisabet Sarai’s imagination—the ultimate aphrodisiac—and savor these gems of romantic kink.

Smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/635210

To download any (or all!) of these books, just follow the link, then click the gold “Buy with coupon” link in the upper right of the screen. Then enter the coupon code AG100 in the purchase page, and the price will drop to zero.

By the way, Smashwords distributes books in pretty much every ebook format, including mobi for your Kindle.

Don’t wait – get your free books today. You’ll find lots more great free or discounted books on the Smashwords home page, too.

https://www.smashwords.com/