Teaser from my just released The Society Series Book Four, Vanished!

The Society Series fourth book, Vanished!, is now available!  This time, we get to see a side of Annie that, until now, has not been shown on this level her submission to Sean deepens.  In honor of this morning's release of the book, I have decided to share this little tid-bit with you, dear reader, and I hope you enjoy it.

I was still hesitant about swimming at night, but I knew he'd be there with me and I knew that this estate was completely safe. I changed and followed him out to the pool. The heater had been turned on for us, the lights off and it felt surprisingly like swimming the pond I'd grown up with when I'd go swimming at night in the middle of summer. Sean reclined against the edge of the pool as I did several laps, waiting for me to surface. When I finally did, he motioned for me to join him.

“Enjoying the water, pet?” There was that name again, and the wave of desire to go with it.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Enjoying bein' m'pet?”

“Yes, Sir.” I couldn't help giggling, the wetness building between my legs again.

Sean pulled me against him, kissing me hard. My arms went around his neck, eyes closed, loosing myself in the moment. They flew open again when I felt his hand between my legs, nudging my bathing suit aside.

“Here, Sir?” I looked around nervously.

“Din'na worry, pet, no one can see us.”

“Yes, Sir.” My voice was shaking again.

He held me close, one finger circling my clit. Sliding two fingers inside, he murmured,

“My sweet pet. So ready again.”

“Yes, Sir. I...I can't help it!” I gasped.

“I din'na want ye tew, pet. I love knowin' ye get wet fer me sew easily.” His fingers were moving, his thumb making firm little circles on my clit. “Now, cum fer me, pet.”

I shuddered against him as the orgasm hit.

“Good girl, Annie. That's my good pet.” He kissed me again, pushing in a third finger. I groaned against his mouth.

“Ye like bein' full like that, pet?”

“Yes, Sir.” My voice was barely a whisper.

“Cum, pet.” He kissed me to stifle the moaning he knew was coming, which only served to intensify the moment.

“Good girl, pet.” I could feel his lips moving against mine as he spoke. “Cum fer me, pet. Tha's it, keep cumming.” His fingers wiggled and pumped, his thumb insistent. My body obeyed his order, my mind going foggy and blank.

After several minutes of near continuous orgasm, he stopped and withdrew his fingers. I felt desperately empty. With little effort he pulled me to the stairs and carried me from the pool, setting me down on a chair to dry me off.

“Dew ye want more, pet?”

I nodded.

“Can ye walk?”

“I...I think so.”

“Follow me.”

On trembling legs I followed Sean from the poolside patio back to our suite. Once we were out of our wet bathing suits, Sean pulled back the covers on the bed and motioned for me to lay down. Turning off the lights, he joined me, pulling me against him.

“I love yew, Annie.” I could just barely see his face in the pale light coming through the window.

“I love you too, Sean.”

“I want ye ta feel safe with me, safe bein' mine.”

“I do. Actually, I think I feel safer knowing I'm yours.” My voice was barely a whisper.

“Can I hear ye say it?”

“I'm yours, Sir.”

“Yes, ya certainly are little one. And I'll nae let anyone hurt ye again.”

“Thank you.”

“Sew, ye really like it when I call ye pet?”

“Yes, Sir.” The trembling returned.

“Dew ye still want more, pet?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Such a horny little pet, aren't ye?” He pressed his hand between my legs, feeling the heat there. I nodded.

With little prodding my legs opened and his fingers were inside me, Sean propped up on his other arm so he could see my face. Within seconds I was panting under him, my hips moving on their own. It began again.

“Cum, pet.” Those words were all it took to push me over the edge each time he said them until I was a quivering, incoherent puddle on the bed.

“Dew ye want me inside ye, pet?” His voice cut through my haze of pleasure. I nodded.

“I can'na hear ye, pet. Say yes, Master.”

“Yes, Master.” I barely managed to get the words out.

“Tell me what ye want, pet.”

Submission and Fear

fear

fi(ə)r/

noun

1. 1.

   an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Fear is a strange thing.  So are the reactions it causes in people.  These reactions have been ingrained in the human race pretty much since the beginning of time, and they aren't going anywhere any time soon.  Some people might say that experiencing fear within a relationship is a "red flag", a sign that you're in a dangerous situation.  This isn't necessarily true.  Who we are and what we have experienced in the past has a huge impact on what causes fear in us as individuals.  Instead of being a sign that we need to get away from what is causing the fear, it can simply mean that we are perceiving our current situation as similar to a negative one from our past.   Still, fear isn't always a bad thing.  Sometimes it is simply a hurdle one has to get over to reach a goal and, in doing so, find a freedom one didn't know existed.

sub·mis·sion

səbˈmiSHən/

noun

1. 1.

   the action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person.

Submission.  Unless we're talking about the style of wrestling, this is a "dirty" word of sorts in today's society.  We struggle and claw and fight for power, for control and if you have it, you're successful.  If you don't, you're a failure.  If you choose to give that power up?  You're an idiot.  You willingly give up that control to your significant other?  Clearly you are being abused and just can't see it.  Eeesh.  No wonder so many people spend their entire lives repressing their urges.  

Is it any wonder that the thought of submitting to someone can be a terrifying experience?  We are programmed not to give up our control, especially of our selves, to anyone.  When you have those urges, this can make things extremely difficult.  That fear doesn't mean you should turn tail and run, though.  In fact, I have found that having someone on the other end of things who understands the fear your urges are causing and who can help you work through that fear is more productive than giving in to the fear.  It's very much like with Annie and Sean in At The Manor, Part Two.  Annie experienced something in her past that caused her to push her desire to submit so far down that she nearly forgot it all together.  She may have been willing to submit in the bedroom, but she had the safety net of still ultimately being in control when it ended.  

Then came Sean.  He stirred things in her that she hadn't felt in a very long time.  Those urges came back, causing an intense fear when she realized that it could possibly happen again.  That she wanted to be able to hand over the control and power that she had fought so hard for.  He sees her fear and her urges battling in her mind and does what he has to.  This snippet shows exactly what I am talking about.

“It's not you I'm afraid of, I swear. It's letting go, submitting again. I've been terrified of it ever since that night. Francis even cut that part of my training short, because he knew where my mind was.”

I couldn't look at him. I could barely look at anything but the carpet.

“Annie, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I'd never harm ya. I dinna know what I need ta do ta prove it to ya, love, but I will prove it. To the rest of The Society, ye'll be my partner, and nothin' more. I may desire more from ya, but they never need know.” His voice was low and soothing, and I began to relax a little.

“Thank you.”

Annie, instead of letting that fear win out, puts her trust in him that he will never harm her.  Sure, she still needs a little push from him to give in to the urges, but once she does, the fear she had been experiencing due to past events turns to exhilaration and she finds a level of freedom she hadn't known existed.  Just as it is possible for a real life "Annie" to become aroused by the thought of submitting to someone, it is also possible for anyone with the urge to submit to another to overcome their pre-programmed fears and find that same freedom.  If it is in you, what good will come from suppressing it?  You can live your life in fear of the things that at your core you know you need, or you can find that someone who will see those fears and help you overcome them.  Chances are, you'll be happier in the end.

Teaser Time! Brand new material from Becoming Charity

Now that the edited version is close to being available, I want to share with you, dear reader, some of what I added.  This teaser is the new prologue, revealing a bit more about The Society and Annie's journey to accepting the practice of "acquiring" slaves.  Enjoy!

At first it had been shocking. We're all taught that slavery of any kind is wrong. It's a dark chapter in the history of any country, one that most people seem to prefer not to think about. This hadn't seemed any different, and to be honest, when The Society was founded it really wasn't. Very few had come in to it completely of their own free will. The techniques were extremely primitive I was amazed that this underground community had made it more than a few years. I could barely get my mind around the ways people had brought new slaves in to it. There were no rules, no guidelines, nothing to protect those on either side of the whip. It was downright scary. As with all things, however, The Society had evolved with the times. The concept of one living creature being truly less than another began to fade and the concept of slaves and such began to fall more in to the sort of social hierarchy that has existed in all cultures throughout time.

Within two decades of the founding of The Society there were breeding farms producing high quality, willing slaves for those who could afford them. That was the catch, though. One had to be able to afford them, and at the time there were few regulations on the pricing. Unscrupulous traders set their prices so that only the wealthiest could afford them, claiming to have the highest quality slaves descended only from the very first slaves acquired when The Society began. Acquiring, or abducting, new slaves was still the more common practice. Some women were sold into Society slavery by their families in times of financial hardship - which was often - as an alternative to selling them to brothels. Some found themselves there after being unable to repay a debt or committing some sort of petty crime. The ones who to those who had known them simply vanished in the night could have been taken for any number of reasons. With the stark differences in the social classes of the times, this had been an easier concept for me to come to terms with.

Mind you that even before my formal training began I was more than comfortable with the idea of consensual submission and slavery. That's how I had found my way in to a Society Mentorship in the first place. But the idea of forcibly taking someone and making them a slave still weighed heavy on my mind. At least until I got through the first several chapters of Society history. It took nearly a hundred years, but eventually rules had been put in place. It took a little longer for there to be more than a couple that looked out for the safety of the one being acquired, but they were there. By this time there had long been rules and regulations for the sale of born slaves and auctions at the breeding farms had gained widespread popularity. With this came a downturn in acquisitions, making the problems with this tradition far more obvious to those in power. The cruelest methods of breaking down and training an acquired slave were outlawed and harsh punishments enforced on the Owners who used them. It helped that more people were finding their way in to Society slavery at least some what willingly.

The early nineteenth century saw a global downturn in the slave trade and as such forced The Society to take a good look at its accepted practices. Suddenly I found I had far less of an issue with the idea of acquiring slaves as this practice became less popular. With the new regulations, most found it preferable to attend the auctions and purchase slaves that had been born in to it, especially as a wider range of set prices were put in place, making this a more viable option for the masses. For those who did still use acquisition to add to their stables the rules were tightened significantly. No longer could these slaves be kept in dismal conditions, be starved or beaten within an inch of their lives. Clothing or covering of some kind was required for them in cold weather. While they were still essentially human livestock, before this it was common for their Owner's cows and sheep to be treated better than they were.

Cue the modern era. Protocols were put in place to ensure the safety of The Society, the Owners within it and any new slaves they acquired. Groups were formed with the sole intention of tracking acquired slaves who managed to escape or to help cover the tracks of an Owner acquiring a new slave. At this point in my education I had acquired slaves pointed out to me by my Mentor. I didn't even need that to be able to see the differences between them and those who had been born in or come in on their own. Some were happy and relatively well adjusted, but most seemed to have a haunted look in their eyes. Most of them had visible scaring that I could identify as having come from a variety of tools and some even had clearly displayed brands of such low quality that I had to wonder if they had been cared for at all while healing. It seemed to me that there had to be a way to make sure that your newly acquired slave didn't spend the rest of their life behaving like a scared, semi-disfigured animal, but hours of research resulted in very little. That's what set me on the path to where I am today.

Submission and Arousal

Warning: For those who know me personally, you're likely about to find out a whole bunch of shit you never knew about me, and possibly never wanted to.  Just a heads up.

Life is a funny thing.  I spent a large portion of yesterday working on notes and outline ideas for the fifth book in The Society Series.  One thing I knew I wanted to work on including right away was Annie's training with Sean.  In At The Manor parts one and two, we see her become aroused by one simple, largely non-sexual thing - submitting to him.  Once she gets past the lingering fear she has from her past, the idea of giving over control to him is more arousing than anything he could physically do to her, and that's a level of eroticism I want to delve deeper in to.  Annie is an extremely strong, fiery, stubborn and independent woman who has made a life for herself developing and implementing slave training techniques.  She's the type to take charge in a crisis.  She specializes in dealing with difficult slaves, the kind many wouldn't give a second thought to.  And she becomes totally, completely, undeniably aroused by handing over the control she has fought so hard for to him.  Oh yeah.  I can hear you calling bullshit from here.  This has to be pure fantasy - it is, after all, from a kink erotica novel.  No way in real life would a woman like Annie go weak at the knees simply from the idea of giving over control to someone else, man or woman, no matter how good looking.

Alright.  Let's take a look at real life.  I consider myself fairly accomplished.  I've owned my own business since I was twenty-three, adding my second at twenty-eight (I'm twenty-nine now).  I teach.  I'm working on my seventh novel, with the prospect of some non-fiction pieces on the horizon as well.  I'm relatively well known in my home town, though not always by name for a number of reasons.  I'm stubborn to a fault, fiercely protective of my friends and family and not one to bite their tongue when it comes to sharing my opinion.  I have also experienced exactly what I write about there first hand.  It's rare, sure.  Very, very few men (and only one woman) have ever had the "Sean effect" on me, but when it happens, it's incredible.  One word, one look, and the crotch of my pants would be drenched.  Heaven help me if I was wearing a skirt at the time.  That look, that word?  Most commonly there is nothing sexual to it at all.  It's that look that says "I own you." or "I control you."  It's not so much what is actually said as it is the tone of voice, and the attitude of the person saying it.  It's that feeling I describe in this bit from At The Manor:

 Never had someone been able to make me feel so much by speaking only one word at a time. It was as though some unseen force had control of my limbs as I sank to my knees in the soft, dewy grass.

In my experience, it's been very much this way.  Sure, there has been that little voice in my head yelling "what the fuck are you doing!", especially in the beginning.  But in those moments there is nothing I can do but obey.  Not because of any threat, spoken or otherwise, nor any agreement.  It was for no other reason than because he said so.  Yes.  It's that simple.  It's hard to explain it any further, though I wish I could.  The feeling goes from head to toe, engulfing the entire body.  It's an electric tension, radiating and causing you to feel your heartbeat in places you either didn't know you could or hadn't in ages.  Since that first taste of it when I was eighteen, I've been hooked.  I can't help it, and I don't want to.  As I've grown, my desire to submit has grown right along with me.  Now, here's the twist - I'm a switch.  I've had two of my own submissives in the past, one male and one female.  I'm pretty sure I can still make him twitch and turn red with just two little words.  He was a large man, resembling a football player, and a good bit older than me, and that didn't matter.  He knew who he answered to.  I'll never forget, at least two years after we parted ways, getting a phone call from him out the blue.  He was calling to thank me for something I had taught him, as it had just played a part in landing him a major promotion at work.  I couldn't have been more proud.

Too many people confuse the desire to submit with willing to submit to anyone.  I've been at parties before where I was wearing a collar - sometimes given to me by my Dom, other times just an accessory - and had some asshat wannabe dominant come over to me and try to tell me what to do.  My reactions have ranged from laughing and walking away to looking strait at the man and saying, "Do you see your collar around my neck?  I don't think so."  I've been told I can't "really" or "truly" submit because I'm also able to be (and quite enjoy being) the dominant partner at times.  It has been only for the sake of good manners that I haven't told these close minded idiots off on the spot.  I'm just as capable of fully submitting as one who's never been on the wielding end of a whip.  If I want to.  I've been told I just haven't met the right guy that can make me "really" submit.  Oh, I beg to differ.  I've had my Sean, more than once.  Most people only ever see my dominant side.  Friends have laughed and cracked jokes at the thought of me being told what to do by my significant other.  I just smile and let them keep thinking that.  Those who have found themselves with the ability to control me on this level have taken great pleasure in having someone like me willing to submit to them.

I digress, however.  Submission and sex are frequently linked.  They don't have to be, but it does add a degree of fun.  In my experience (I know, I know, I keep saying that), submission and arousal are almost always linked.  Let's take a little trip back in time for another real life example.  I'm eighteen.  I've been hanging out in a hot tub with the man who would become my first Master (though we are nothing more than friends at this point), and become a bit over heated, so I'm sitting on the steps going up in to it.  He doesn't ask if I can walk.  Doesn't ask if I need anything.  He gets out behind me, hands me a towel and says two little words.  Don't move.  In the few minutes I am alone while he gets me water, I barely even blink.  In the back of my mind, I'm wondering why.  I'm also trying to figure out the sudden non-hot tub related wetness between my legs.  It wouldn't be until several weeks later that I would even begin to have an answer to that, and for years I've tried to figure out why it does what it does to me.  As the years passed, I got to the point where the mere idea of submitting to the right person, being totally in their control - if only for a little while - drives me wild.  I'll even admit that one of them is Sean.  I totally have a crush on my own character.  All the rest, as few as they are, happen to be real people.

It does happen.  A strong woman can find complete bliss in submitting to the person of her choosing, and once she does, the control she is used to having over her life is gone.  Sure, she may frequently make her own decisions, but that person's control is always there, and she knows it.  A woman who is dominant in her everyday life can become inexplicably aroused by the delicate chain collar around her neck, right in the middle of a meeting.  A powerful woman's happy place can be kneeling at the feet of the One who controls her as they watch television in the evening.  And it is totally and completely possible to become aroused to the point of inability to walk or speak or think clearly just by having that person completely strip away the power and control you have during your every day life.

Geek Time: My Doctor Who Theory

I have a confession to make. I am a Whovinite. A Whovinite is to a Whovian what a Trekker is to a Trekkie, or so it has been described to me. That said, you might be expecting my theory to have something to do with sex, or kink or the like. Given the nature of my writing, that assumption is understandable. It is also, perhaps surprisingly, incorrect.  With the 50th anniversary special looming near, this has been on my mind more and more, even as I struggled to finish the edit on my newest book.

Sadly, I did not grow up with the Doctor like so many I know. I was introduced about two years ago by my husband, who was lucky enough to grow up watching it (re-runs, mostly) with his Dad. Yes, I was introduced through the new series. Just watch one. That's how he got me. Next thing I knew I was watching one after the other on Netflix, thoroughly addicted. He got me into the original series the same way, though we started with his favorite,  the fourth.

Anywho, I promised you a theory. I know there are a lot of them going around right now, with Clara now the official companion, the 50th anniversary a few days away and the Christmas special regeneration fast approaching.  And, of course, who could forget the lost regeneration, the "war doctor", John Hurt. Right or wrong, this is mine.

It all starts with Asylum of the Daleks. Yes, the evil pepperpots hate anyone and anything that is not a Dalek.  They know pretty much every species in the galaxy. Actually, they seem to have a pretty extensive knowledge of everything in general.  After Souffle Girl, however, there is one thing they don't know - who the Doctor is.  Not only that, but they don't seem to have any clue what his species is, which would imply that they no longer know what a Time Lord is either.  While it seems obvious that this would mean the Doctor would have an easier time defeating them, there is also a larger and much less obvious  (in this writer's opinion) meaning.  

  Let's step back in time, shall we?  Back past Ten, and Nine, to the original series.  To a time when the Doctor sported a tell-tale mop of curls, a floppy hat and an impossibly long scarf.  That's right.  I'm talking about the fourth Doctor here.  During his time in the TARDIS, he was sent to the moment of the Dalek's creation.  He had the chance to stop them from existing, and didn't.  Sure, the Daleks had appeared previously, but this was a major defining moment in their history with the Doctor.  

  Stepping forward a bit, we see the beginning of the Time War.  Time Lords vs the Daleks in a battle for all of reality.  We're lucky enough to have gotten a small glimpse at what it must have been like in the recently released short, The Night of The Doctor, and even just that tidbit shows good reason for something that has only been mentioned once or twice.  The Time Lock.  Somewhere out there in the universe, the war rages on in an endless loop, each side doing it's damnedest to destroy the other.  While the Daleks most definitely hate everything non-Dalek, they seem to have a special kind of hatred for the Time Lords and from everything I can tell the most common theory on this is that it's because of the Doctor and their encounters. 

  Now, back to semi-present day.  They don't know who or what he is.  They have no memory of the Doctor, or of Time Lords in general.  They may hate him on principal now, but it's the same hatred they have for everything else that isn't a Dalek.  This brings me to my theory.  With all of this having been completely wiped from the collective Dalek memory bank, it would seem to me that there would have been no reason for this epic war to have begun in the first place.  No Time War means no Time Lock, no destruction of the Time Lord race at all.  All of this leads me to the core of my theory - the show is preparing for the return of the Time Lord race.

  Yeah, I said it.  I think they are coming back.  Dalek theory aside, we're coming up on a regeneration.  The twelfth, or thirteenth if you count the one going from Eight to John Hurt's War Doctor.  Then that's it.  The end of the line.  No more regenerations.  Could this mean no more Doctor Who?  Blasphemy!  It just means they have to find a plausible way around the regeneration limits imposed when the show first began, something that has been hinted at in interviews over the last few years.  If we look back to the original series once again, we see that the council of the Time Lords can grant a new regeneration, or series of, if they see fit.  What better way to get around our own beloved Time Lord reaching the end of his than by bringing back his home planet and with it his entire species?

  Looking at it purely from a production stand point, think of the new story lines!  The new twists and turns, new enemies and adventures!  With bringing back the Time Lord race, they would have episode material for years to come, and with the raging success of the reboot, why wouldn't they want to do something like that?

Anyway, these are simply my thoughts on the matter.  We shall see what happens after Saturday!