I’m good at my job. That’s what got me into trouble.The New York State Library found a partial copy of William Blake's First Book of Urizen, and they called a team of experts to authenticate it. I was one of those experts and I was the only one to identify it as a clever fake. It turns out, I was right. That’s what made me famous in the world of rare book antiquities.Six months later, my supervisor at the Boston Public Li...

Criss-crossed and knotted, cutting and cut, the binding ropeHolds me, folds me, remolds me to a creature of chainsAnd locks. A creature of silent craving, biting my gag.I’m never so much myself, as when you fasten the collar.My Sade. My Rousseau. My love, wielding the whip.Do not let me go until you come. Cord and steel holds me together until you comeTo me. Into me. In me. Until there is no rope,No restraint, no limit, n...

Zee walked into the bar like she owned it. Like she owned it and wanted to burn it down. She strode over to the pretty, green-eyed bartender without acknowledging the five men gawking at her."Where is she?" Zee demanded."You know, if you gave me your cell phone number I could call you when she comes in," said the bartender. Zee usually liked the tease in her voice but tonight, she was too impatient."I've told you, Brandy;...

Santa's hand slipped up the inside of my thigh. He had taken off his wooly mittens so he could caress the skin; my pussy pulsed into a low throb. But, just before he reached the apex--and with an enormous effort on my part--I moved a step away. I pretended to straighten an ornament on the fake Christmas tree. "Knock it off, Saint Nick," I said in a low, indulgent tone. "We still have four more hours on our shift." Mall Sa...

After spending a weekend with Mr. Sterling and letting him deny and fulfill me in equal kinky measure, I found the evenings after work hardest to endure. Monday night was the worst. I was rested; I didn't have plans; I had nothing to do but think. Work was easier, but by no means easy. Mr. Sterling had infused himself into this part of my life with his promise--and delivery--of favors for the people who work in my lab. Fa...

I saw the union soldiers when they first crested the rolling hills at the edge of Papa's farm. There were so many, the ground shook with them and the wild things startled. I wished earnestly to be one of the rabbits, to hide in a burrow and let the destruction happen over my head. Already, I had buried the jewelry--what little there was left. I had harvested all of the kitchen garden that I could, hiding the vegetables in...

Anya knocked on the door to her new Master's study. She hadn't even seen him yet, this man who paid ten times her official worth to buy her. The man who had convinced Lady Eve to sell. Anya knew only that she was delivered to the largest house that she had ever seen and had been instructed to report to the study immediately for assessment. "Come in." His voice was low but managed to carry. She took a deep breath, squared...

I didn't hear the moans or the thumping until I walked into the copy room at work. I was lost in thought, at work past six, and not expecting to run into anyone. By the time I saw them, it was too late; Ty Carver and the pretty little temp he was fucking had already seen me. The girl was bent over the heavy table where I usually organized my grant paperwork, wearing only her bra and those sexy heels that I had been admiri...

I first glimpsed Aspenwald in the early spring when everything still seemed dead. A month earlier, I had buried my father and, with him, all of my joy. Every plan I had for the future was dashed and every hope ground to powder. The black tracings of bone-bare trees along the drive to the main house and the gray, unpromising stone of the mansion suited my mood. Uncle Henry wasn't a blood relative, so I was fortunate he all...

The results of the lottery were no surprise. That's what happens when you irk a duke or an earl or a prince. He wanted marriage; she refused for the sake of her seven siblings and dying mother. So, when the next lottery happened, her name went into the bowl every time another virgin's did. Four hundred and sixty-three slips of paper that said "Anna Weaver" and four hundred and sixty-three slips of paper that didn't. They...

I was such a good Christian girl when this whole thing started. The one man I had ever been with was my husband and then only after our wedding day. Honestly, I thought sex was overrated. I submitted to it twice a week, or as Jimmy needed it. I never wanted it for myself. It all started when I asked my husband if I could get a job. We didn't need the income, but he worked such long hours, sometimes fourteen or more, in hi...

When I went to my car to go to work on Tuesday, there was a small bundle of flowers waiting on it, the stems trapped under the driver's side windshield wiper. They were delicate, white blossoms and they were covered in dew, like the rest of my car. I looked at them for a minute, finally deciding that someone must have made a mistake and left them on the wrong car. They were too pretty to throw away and such a shame to was...

Sarah had a healthy sense of humor, but she had nearly reached her limit. When the toady, hunched groom referred to her as 'another of those blasted princesses', she couldn't help but grin. And when the man servant presented her at court with a river of rainwater still draining from her clothes and hair, she stifled a smirk at the spectacle she must have made. But now, the queen was prodding at her hips and saying, "They'...

He didn't look like how I expected a genie to look. After all, he was a ten-thousand year old creature made of fire. When he opened the door, the only thing that distinguished him from anyone else was his very noticeable golden eyes. Like a wolf's eyes. Other than that, he had reddish brown hair, a sinewy build like a runner, and a disarmingly boyish face. I met those gold eyes. "I would like to make a wish." "Come in." H...

After a night of the kinkiest sex I had ever had and a weekend to think about it, I was relieved to go back to work on Monday. Tom Bavington, the head of the lab where I worked, came home from the hospital over the weekend and was in his office when I got to the research building. He couldn't move around well; he was on crutches and his cast over his broken leg was huge. I left him alone to get caught up on Monday. On Tue...