Damned If You Do

By Lisabet Sarai

Sometimes romance can be hell

Wendy Dennison is tired of being a starving author. The royalties from her critically acclaimed romance novels barely pay her bills. Her devoted agent Daniel Rochester may be smart and sexy, but he can't get her the sales she needs. Then a charismatic stranger appears at her coffee shop table, promising her fame and commercial success, as well as the chance to live out her dreams of erotic submission. But at what cost?

Nothing you can't afford to lose, my dear.

Seduced by the enigmatic Mister B, she signs his infernal contract. He becomes both her Master and her coach, managing her suddenly flourishing career as well as encouraging her lusts. Under her mentor’s nefarious influence, she surrenders to temptation and has sex with Daniel. The casual encounter turns serious when she discovers her mild mannered agent has a dominant side. As the clock ticks down to her blockbuster release and Mister B prepares to claim her soul, Wendy must choose either celebrity and wealth, or obscurity and true love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lisabet Sarai
• Release date: Jan 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005020088

Lisabet Sarai

I became addicted to words at an early age. I began reading when I was four. I wrote my first story at five years old and my first poem at seven. Since then, I have written plays, tutorials, scholarly articles, marketing brochures, software specifications, self-help books, press releases, a five-hundred page dissertation, and lots of erotica and erotic romance – more than fifty single author titles including eight full length novels, plus dozens of short stories in various collections. My credits include contributions to the Lambda winner Where the Girls Are and the IPPIE Best Erotic Book of 2011, Carnal Machines. My gay scifi erotic romance Quarantine won a Rainbow Awards 2012 Honorable Mention. I have also edited a number of acclaimed erotica anthologies. Currently I am responsible for the charity erotica imprint Coming Together Presents, which as of December 2014 has published six volumes by top erotic authors, supporting causes such as Amnesty International, Planned Parenthood, and the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America.I have more degrees than anyone would ever need, from prestigious educational institutions who would no doubt be deeply embarrassed by my chosen genre. Aside from writing, travel is one of my most fervent passions. I’ve visited every continent except Australia, though I still have a long bucket list of places I haven’t been. Currently I live in Southeast Asia with my indulgent husband and two exceptional felines, where I pursues an alternative career that is completely unrelated to my creative writing.For more information about me and my writing, visit my website (http://www.lisabetsarai.com) or my blog Beyond Romance (http://lisabetsarai.blogspot.com). Join my VIP email list here: https://btn.ymlp.com/xgjjhmhugmgh I also hang out at Goodreads, (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/83387.Lisabet_Sarai) because I love the idea of a social network focusing on the love of reading. I’m not on Facebook, because I don’t trust it.

Book preview

Damned If You Do:

A BDSM Dance with the Devil

Lisabet Sarai

Second Edition

© Copyright 2022 Lisabet Sarai

Cover design © 2017 Willsin Rowe

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.

This book is intended for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

About the Author

Blurb: Bound and Breathless

X-Rated Excerpt from Bound and Breathless

A Final Message from Lisabet

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

To Kathy,

who understands the lure of the dark side,

and to all my author friends,

who labor in obscurity

Chapter One

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. Especially these days, now that Tom was out of her life.

She didn’t miss his company that much, to be honest—just his body. He was a selfish, egotistical ass who in seven years of marriage had never once taken her seriously. He’d always laughed at her little hobby, even when she’d quit her day job at the newspaper to write fiction full time. When she’d been named Romance Author of the Year, he had dismissed that as a fluke. It’s lucky I make a good living, he used to jest. Without me, you’d be just another starving author.

Well, he’d been right about that part. The settlement had left her with the house—and the mortgage—while he moved out to California to shack up with his new girlfriend, a well-known cover model who’d been one of his clients. Should have known better than to marry a lawyer, she thought for the umpteenth time. She survived on her royalty checks, but just barely, and was constantly looking for ways to economize. For instance, she worked in this usually quiet coffee shop every afternoon, taking advantage of its free WiFi, so she could cancel the pricey cable package Tom had subscribed to.

Of course, she could give up romance entirely and look for a job. A real job, as Tom would have put it. The notion made her slightly nauseous. Who’d hire a forty-two year old, anyway, a woman who’d been out of the workforce for half a decade?

The glorious aroma of dark chocolate tickled her nostrils. Just take a bite of this, Eric urged, offering her a forkful. It’s bound to cheer you up.

Was her depression that obvious? Thank you. Chewy and moist, the brownie was a bite of paradise. Sweetness exploded on her tongue, with a lusciously bitter edge from the cocoa.

The incredible mix of flavors and textures somehow made her feel worse. She could sense extra fat deposits accumulating on her already chubby hips and round belly. She blinked hard, trying to keep tears from gathering. That’s—um—really good, Eric. Sinful, just as you said.

And free. You’re such a regular customer, you deserve a bonus.

Wendy gave his hand a squeeze and tried to smile. You’re a darling. Thanks so much. I’m sorry to be such a cranky old bear.

Hey, everyone knows authors are sensitive. He set the plate with the brownies next to her coffee. I’ll let you get back to work. But if you need anything…

Eric let the sentence trail off, but the hungry look on his face made Wendy feel slightly less old and dumpy. I probably could have him, if I tried, she thought. In her present funk, the notion failed to excite her at all.

She shoveled a few mouthfuls of brownie into her mouth, then wrote another sentence. Not bad, but at this rate, she’d never make her self-imposed deadline.

Don’t think about deadlines, she reminded herself. Don’t think about word count. Just allow your characters to lead you deeper into