Excerpt Day: A Strong Hand by Catt Ford
A Strong Hand by Catt Ford
Release Date: April 13, 2009
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
ISBN: 978-1-935192-83-1
Publisher Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/currenttitles/stronghand/stronghandbuynow.htm
Amazon Kindle: A Strong Hand
Amazon: A Strong Hand
Blurb: Nicholas Sayers, needing money for college, takes a job as assistant to infamous photographer Damian Wolfe. It's just taking pictures, right? Wrong. While Nick has never questioned what kind of man he is or what he truly wants in life, working for Damian during a BDSM photo shoot opens his eyes to all sorts of sexual possibilities, and many of them include the handsome Mr. Wolfe. Damian has serious doubts about getting involved with a younger man who knows nothing about the BDSM lifestyle, but Nick's adventurous and humorous approach to new experiences is far too alluring to resist. Although he knows it might be a mistake, Damian takes Nick into his life. Flirting on the edges of control, submission, and pain excites Nick more than he would have ever dreamed possible. With Damian, Nick learns about his own deeply hidden desires and finds out that relinquishing control doesn’t make him weak-having someone else in control of his sexual pleasure simply heightens it. And the reverse is true for Damian: Control turns him on. So they set out to explore these sensual boundaries together, neither expecting to find love along the way.
Excerpt:
Damian came back to him making a clanking noise, and Nick darted an anxious glance at the photographer. He was carrying black leather restraints of some kind, linked together by a length of silver chain.
“Give me your hands,” Damian ordered.
Silently, Nick held out his wrists.
The leather cuffs were long, almost like a gauntlet, running nearly to Nick’s elbows. Damian fastened the various buckles on the right arm, passing the chain over the bar in front of Nick. It was quite high, almost to Damian’s shoulders, and Nick had to raise his arms for Damian to attach the second restraint.
After Damian had him securely bound to the bar, he stroked the smooth, honey-toned skin of Nicholas’s bare shoulder. “Okay?”
“Yeah.”
Damian thought Nicholas’s voice had sounded a bit breathless, but he was so excited to see his artistic vision come to life, that he paid it no heed, bounding back behind the camera to check angles and lighting.
He suppressed a gasp, swallowing it when he saw the lithe form, lean muscles taut in the slender shoulders, buttocks round and tempting, and the glossy dark curls shining under the sole light source. He really was blind, Damian marveled. It was a mercy that the insipid blonde model actually hired for the shoot hadn’t turned up. Nicholas was perfect for this. Damian enjoyed the sight of the muscles in Nicholas’s thighs twitching slightly as he fought to remain still.
Damian checked his focus and snapped off a couple of quick shots. “You doing okay?” he called out.
“Yeah, fine,” Nick said, turning to look back over his shoulder just as Damian snapped the shot.
“Now don’t do that again if you don’t want a recognizable shot of you naked in handcuffs. Stay… fucking… still,” Damian snarled.
Nick turned away quickly. His heart was beating so hard and loud, he was surprised that Damian couldn’t hear it. The thought of Damian owning a shot of him, naked and restrained to a bar, made his cock twitch and he wasn’t even gay! Was he? No, Nick thought resolutely, he wasn’t and he wasn’t going to be converted. He was just helping his employer. Nothing more.
His heart slowed when nothing more happened and the lights didn’t flash again. It was quiet so long, he wanted to turn around again and see what Damian was up to, and he was just about to when he felt something chilly at his ankle.
“Wh- what’s that?” Nick asked nervously, flinching as he felt cold metal close around his ankle.
Without answering him, Damian pushed his legs apart with his foot. Nick suddenly felt very vulnerable and exposed, his cock swelling but not hard yet, his balls dangling where he was sure Damian could see them, hell, Damian could probably see everything that was to be seen about his arse!
Nick jumped when Damian spread his legs even further and a cold cuff was clamped about his other ankle. When the strong hands released him, Nick tried to move his legs together but found he couldn’t.
“No need to worry, it’s just a spreader,” Damian said in a very pleased tone of voice. “Excellent. You were born to wear one, you look great in it.”
Faint sounds told Nick that Damian had retreated behind the camera once more. It made him feel a tiny bit safer, but not safe enough. Trussed the way he was, he could barely move. Nick had never been able to please Damian before and hearing approval in his employer’s voice was… heady. On the other hand, he had also never had his legs held apart and trapped before, and it was disturbing. He was just trying to calculate whether he could manage to get to his feet with the spreaders on when the lights flashed, practically blinding him because he wasn’t ready.
“You could warn a person!” Nick yelled, with an energy that surprised even him.
“Sorry,” came the distracted reply.
Somehow Nick knew that Damian wasn’t going to remember to warn him the next time either. He squirmed uncomfortably; wearing these restraints somehow made him feel more naked than when he’d just taken off his clothing. He wondered how long Damian-
The lights blinded him again, but he didn’t say anything this time.
“Stick your ass out a little. No, back, towards me. More. No, too far, go back to where you were. Okay, back it up again. There! Hold it right like that!”
The lights flashed in quick succession and Nick’s hip twinged. He hoped he’d be able to hold the pose as long as Damian wanted, without his back cramping up.
“What’s the scar from?”
“Oh, sorry,” Nick muttered. “Uh, an accident. Had to have an operation.”
“It’s beautiful,” Damian responded.
Nick was outraged; how dare Damian say that? He knew it was ugly and it sure as hell hadn’t been beautiful acquiring it. “Har fucking har,” he retorted sarcastically.
“Shut up,” Damian said, in his dreamy, crazy artist voice.
Nick shut up accordingly. He knew Damian wouldn’t hear whatever he had to say anyway. His arms were falling asleep as the blood drained from them.
“Okay, straighten up a bit. Now turn your head to the left slightly. Oh, very good, you remembered which way left is. I want the light to just catch the edge of your cheekbone and the line of your jaw. Right there. Hold it.”
Again, the flurry of lights. By now Nick knew to close his eyes, seeing as Damian wasn’t shooting his face anyway. When the sequence of flashing lights ended, he pulled on his arms to stretch his back, trying to ease the building tension in his shoulders.
“Will you stop wiggling around? Just stay where I put you until I say you can move,” Damian demanded irritably, striding forward and pushing Nicholas back into position. “Do as you’re told, boy.”
“Yes, sir!” Nick hissed angrily.
“And stop talking, or I’ll swat you,” Damian instructed.
Nick froze into position, except for his cock, which rose in a slow steady swell of blood. The heat pooled at his groin made him fidgety but he didn’t want to know whether Damian was serious about his threat. He sounded as if he would do it.
Nick jumped as he felt warm hands land on his hips. Something brushed across his arse and he yelped, even though it hadn’t hurt at all.
“Stay still, dammit!”
Fuck, Nick thought, he sounds serious. He concentrated on keeping his body positioned exactly as Damian had left him.
Finally his back and hip were signaling dire distress and Nick had to move, letting out a little groan. He yelped and flinched as a hard hand cracked against his arse, sending a burst of heat through his left cheek.
He turned instinctively just as the flash went, and heard a click.
“Will you hold still now, or do you want me to swat you again?”
Damian’s voice came from almost directly behind him, where he was standing with the cable release in his hand. Nick fell silent and turned away from the camera again. He could see the handprint in his mind, red against the whiter skin of his arse. He was suddenly very embarrassed and humiliated to know that Damian had taken a picture of him that way, and wondered what insanity had led him to yank off his clothes and kneel here unresistingly whilst Damian took more photographs. Not that he had much choice now that he’d let Damian tie him up. The words alone sent a shiver of arousal over his bare skin.
“Got it,” Damian breathed, when he’d captured the final shot. He came to himself then, and chuckled as he took in the slim body of his assistant, stretched and bound, muscles moving under the smooth skin as he strained to remain still; a picture of sensual promise.
“Sorry, Nicholas, I got a little caught up in my vision,” Damian apologized as he came forward to release the young man. He chuckled as he saw the palm print on the boy’s round, enticing cheek. Had he really done that?
He knelt behind Nicholas, leaning just a little closer than necessary to take in a whiff of the faint vanilla scent that clung to the boy, as he released the ankle cuffs on the spreader bar.
Nick shivered and the fine hairs on his back stood up as he felt the heat of Damian’s body so close to his. For a moment, the man was kneeling behind him, and Nick was trapped there, cuffed and spread. If Damian were to try something, take his pleasure, Nick wouldn’t be able to do a thing to defend himself. He was terribly frightened and yet his cock was betraying him by remaining achingly hard.
Damian noticed that the boy was trembling and gently released one arm, hanging on to the other one, sensing that Nicholas was about to bolt with the restraint still buckled onto his wrist. Once he had set the boy free, Nicholas sprang to his feet with a coltish grace, keeping himself turned away from Damian. He ran for his clothes, scooping them up and straight for the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind him.