Callie ran away from Jack 3 years ago, but when they meet again at a Christmas party, old feelings start to arise. His sub for well over a year, she ran when she realised that living in a relationship with unrequited love was something that she could no longer do. Older now, she feels stronger and intends to fight for her man. She has always loved him; can she find a way to make him love her back this time?

Jack can’t quite believe his eyes when Callie turns up at a friend’s party. The woman that broke his heart, he has never gotten over her leaving. Determined to have her for at least the holiday season, he starts off their entanglement in the way he should have done the first time. More mature in his Dom role, he collars her, gets her to sign a contract and vows to tie her to him and make her stay. Both of them are more mature and have changed in many ways; are they as compatible as they once were? Or is their relationship destined to be nothing than a fond memory best left alone.

This is a short story at 75 pages long, but it surely packed a punch. Jack is very much a Dom. He isn’t a sex-play Dom (he was much more of a lifestyle Dom) and I got the sense that what he was looking for, even though he kept referring to Callie as a sub, was a slave. He was a very commanding presence and, as a Dom, I thought he was quite dreamy. He knew how far he could push her, made sure he knew her limits and did his best to please her. He knew that she responded to dirty talk (the more he used the word “slut” the hotter she got!) and that she needed pain. I must admit that some of the scenes made me cringe a little. Unlike Callie, I don’t need the pain and the thought of clothes pins on my bits made me cross my legs! However, I had to commend Cassandra Carr for picking S/M as a theme because, as much as it made me uncomfortable, it wasn’t my story being told, it was Callie’s. The only issue I took With Jack was his attempts to control her behaviour outside of his bedroom. In one scene, she drunk dials him and he goes mental. Yes, some of the anger was due to the thought of her driving home under the influence, but some was simply because she was drunk. If she had wanted him to have that kind of control over her life, she would have asked for it. She bent to him because she wanted to make him happy and the fact he let her made me question Jack’s motivations as a Dom. Some people become a Dom purely to be in control, others do because they want to help subs achieve the freeness they desire. I got mixed messages about his motivations after this incident. I suppose he is allowed to be an idiot at some point in the story though, so I tried not to hold it against him.

Callie was a masochist that completely accepted her kink. I liked this about her, even if I didn’t understand it. The scenes where she submits to him are quite something to behold; the man is really quite inventive. There was the afore mentioned clothes peg scene, a scene with an embossed flogger, a scene with a peppermint candy cane and the final scene which I won’t spoil. The majority of the scenes really rang my bell and the ones that were a little too much were still hot because of the strength of feeling between the two leads. Although neither was willing to believe the other could truly love them, they loved the other quite freely. What was interesting what that both felt the other didn’t love them because of failings within them. Callie felt that Jack couldn’t love her as he wasn’t capable of settling, Jack felt that Callie couldn’t love him because she couldn’t accept his dark side. It was an interesting conundrum and I liked that neither of our characters really had many self-confidence issues, especially Callie.

Overall this was a rather dark BDSM book with heavy influence on the S and M. I really enjoyed the interactions between the two leads and I really felt I got to know them over the course of the story. The sex scenes were hot, with the climactic scene raising the bar and being quite awesome. It isn’t for the faint of heart, but I recommend it to anyone who likes their BDSM rather dark. Jack is the ultimate Dom; demanding, thoughtful, pushy and relentless. I enjoyed reading his tale, could we see more please?
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Review to come 12/13/11 ( )

Review to come 12/13/11 ( )