Photo Slave (The Art of Domination #2) (10 page)

For whatever reason, I
stood wrapped in that towel and leaning on Beal’s massive desk as I watched the
rain outside streak the towering studio windows. Hard as I tried, I couldn’t
remember when it had started to rain. The streaming water filtered past the
bright street lights and through the glow of the one lamp Nolan has left
burning and made moving designs on the walls and floor. My gaze followed the
flow of the dancing patterns to the framed photos on his walls and shelves, and
I squinted in the gloom, wondering why he wasn’t in a single picture himself. I
started thumbing through fine art books from his bookcases and reading what
he’d written in the margins about the ingeniousness of this technique or the
quality of that light at that angle—such a strange glimpse into his private
thoughts. On one work bench, I discovered a stack of photos peeking from the
edge of a binder and dragged them out to find startlingly glamorous and adult
images of Viv staring back at me. Nothing sexual, but very… mature, slick.

“She’s more photogenic
than she realizes,” Nolan said from beside me.

I frowned both at the
statement and at the sight of the photographer naked but for the towel wrapped
low around his hips, at the fact that I felt something twitch inside me despite
just having had sex with the man. “Tell me you are not going to replace Cheri
and Rilla with Viv,” I demanded. “She can’t be more than fifteen or sixteen.”

Nolan’s smile faded,
and the playful gleam in his blue eyes crystallized into a glare. “She’s almost
seventeen, and I’m a bastard, not a pedophile. I took those photos of her
because she was having trouble at home and school and even around the skate
park with what people were saying about her. The kid has a hard time feeling
like she’s worth anything because she can’t live up to the standards of some
people. She can buy herself a pair of jeans or shoes without holes, or she can
make sure there’s food for herself and her brothers, but she can’t do both.
Sometimes neither. That night, for one night, she got to feel beautiful and
like she was just as good as the people who wanted her to feel like nothing.”

I was biting my lower
lip by the time Nolan was finished with me.

“Relate to that, Brown
Eyes?” he asked, and I tasted bile and pure shame. “Ever have a hard time of it
trying to remember that what other people think of your actions and your
appearance doesn’t always define your worth?”

It took me a second to
realize that Nolan wasn’t thinking of me as part of the judgmental bourgeois
tormenting girls like Viv for not being perfect. In his eyes, I was the girl
shrinking from judgment. Damn him for making me feel like I wanted him to hold
me again and… and tell me I was better than I thought I was.

I didn’t turn to watch
as Nolan walked away from me. After all, he’d been holding me in the shower,
and I’d pushed him away. It was probably best that I get dressed and go, before
that strange, warm sense of familiarity between us dissipated entirely and it
got… got colder in here than I could stand just then.

When I spun from the
work bench, I found Nolan staring at me where he stood at his desk in just his
jeans, arms folded over his chest. “Come here, Iva,” he said, his voice
unnaturally serious. Perhaps that was the reason I responded to the instruction
without question, only pulling up short a step from the desk as he reached down
to slide a piece of paper toward me. “I have something I want you to sign.”

“You’re kidding,” I
croaked, irked that he’d bring up the model release again and now of all times,
just as I could have started liking him. “I told you I wasn’t going to sign….”
My gaze grazed the plain white sheet, picking out the discontinuity before I
consciously recognized it. I took that final step up to the desk, focusing on
the form closely enough now to actually read it. And to gasp.

“A… a slave contract?”

To Be Continued In

The Art Of Domination 3: Catchlight

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DOMINATION ROMANCE BY ERIKA MASTEN

At His Whim: His #1

In His Service: His #2

At His Mercy: His #3

Under His Sway: His #4

In His Grip: His #5

In His Wake: His #6

For His Sake: His #7

In His World: His #8

The Ringmaster: Cirque
de Plaisir

The Art Of Domination:
Model Release

The Art Of Domination 2:
Photo Slave

For a full list of Erika Masten titles, including short
erotica, see her website at
http://erikamasten.com
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I’m
the girl next door with an unexpectedly wicked mind (and an addiction to sexy
high heels). There’s nothing quite like the thrill of turning forbidden desires
and secret fantasies into erotic tales with literary flare and a dirty mouth.
Let me tell you a very naughty love story…

Erika
Masten

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