Happy New Year everyone! It was wonderful to welcome in a fresh new year last night. Every year it’s a chance to wipe the slate clean and start fresh if you so desire. New goals, new year, new hope. I can’t wait!

Friends to lovers is one of my very favorite themes in romance. So in Bottoms Up I wanted to give two college roommates a new beginning. They waited a long time for it so I think they deserved it. Jenn has decided to make a move and leave NY and goes for a job interview in Riley’s hometown. There, she plans to find out once and for all if they have what she thinks they do. Boy is she in for quite a surprise.

Excerpt:

Jenn wandered around the condo and wondered what Riley’s life had been like. She knew he loved his job, but she’d been reluctant to ask about his personal life. So far, he hadn’t mentioned a significant other, so when the job option here in North Carolina had come open, she’d decided to hop a plane and kill two birds with one stone. She would summon the courage to find out if Riley had any romantic feelings toward her. If so, and she got lucky, she might have a new job and a new life.

Jenn shook her head. Quite a gamble for a woman like her, but what the hell.

Wandering into what looked like a media room, complete with big screen television, she caught site of a collection of DVDs, CDs and books across the room. Curious to see if they still loved the same movies, she walked over and perused his vast collection.

Sure enough he had all of their favorites from college as well as all the latest and greatest blockbusters she’d already seen. Smiling to herself, she glanced through the CDs and books.

On the bottom shelf, her hand froze. It couldn’t be.

She pulled the book out with trembling hands and turned it to stare at the cover. The Caring Dominant. She’d seen this book once before. In a bookstore coffee shop, she’d overheard two women discussing it, and when they’d left the store and deserted the book on their table, she’d been curious beyond belief and unable to resist checking it out.

She’d read through some of it, but the fear gripping her insides had forced her to put it down and leave the bookstore as quickly as she could. Maybe her inexperience made her naïve, but when her sex had squeezed excitedly over many of the words, she’d thought something was wrong with her.

Her finger rubbed the edge of the pages and, after a quick glance over her shoulder, she opened the book. The table of contents laid out all the intriguing chapters, but a red paper stuck in the middle of the book caught her eye. She flipped quickly to the place it marked and found a chapter titled, Levels of Submission.

The first few pages detailed the fact that, according to the author, BSDM had many levels of both dominance and submission. She scanned the first paragraph and tried to imagine Riley reading this book. Was he a dominant? Her sex squeezed sharply, the edge of her arousal sharpening at the thought.

How would she feel if Riley did as the book instructed? Commanded her to do things…

Her dreams of Riley had always been intense with him in control of their encounters. Is this what that meant? If he ordered her to strip and get down on her knees, what would she do?

She smiled. Anything he wanted.

Inexperienced didn’t mean repressed. If her dreams and taste in reading material were anything to judge by, there was a wild woman inside her dying to get out. She just didn’t know how to let her loose.
The red paper slipped from her fingers and fluttered to the ground print side up. Jenn bent to retrieve it and noticed the bold word Purgatory emblazoned across the top of the flyer.

It was an advertisement for a local BDSM club and a recent charity event. The list of activities included spanking, flogging and so much more. Need pulsed in her body from her straining nipples to her pulsing clit. Oh God, she needed Riley. She wanted to know more, learn from him what this was all about.

“I’d say your curiosity just saved us about an hour’s worth of awkward conversation.”

She dropped the book and whirled around, the paper still grasped between her fingers. “I-I uh—”

“Don’t be embarrassed or ashamed, Jenn. I’d planned to find a way to tell you tonight. To explain my life to you.”
His life? She couldn’t speak with the lump that had formed in her throat. He hadn’t bothered with a shirt, and his worn jeans rode low on his hips with the button still undone. The heat inside her rose impossibly higher.

“When I moved here, I decided to explore some of what I thought was the darker side of me. A need for more in my life that nothing else had quite fulfilled.”

“And did you find it?” she whispered.

“I did. I have very strong needs, and once I’d learned how to fulfill them, I wanted to share them with the right woman.”

“A submissive.” Humiliation burned through her. She’d planned to try and make a case for them dating, and he’d already found what he needed in a submissive. Her stomach cramped with the knowledge of being too late.

“Yes, Jenn, a submissive. Someone who craves what I crave, a woman who understands a dominant’s need to control. Now, I only need to know one thing. Do you want to be that woman?”

She blinked. Her body jerked to attention.

“What?”

He took a few slow steps closer. “I want you, Jenn. I always have.”

This couldn’t be happening.

“You’ve never given me even a hint that you wanted me.”

“Haven’t I? Not many men spend as much time with a woman he doesn’t crave as I did with you. But back in college, I wasn’t ready to risk the friendship. Now, I’m ready to claim the woman I want.”

“But I’m not submissive. I don’t understand.”

Riley grabbed her around the waist and hauled her against him. “Are you sure about that? Your face is flushed, your nipples are hard and I caught you reading a book about it. If I were to slide my hand underneath this little skirt of yours, would I find damp panties?” His hand teased her thigh at the edge of the fabric.

With Riley’s warm chest pressed against her, it was hard to think straight. She had him right where she’d dreamed and the last thing she wanted to do was push him away.

“I have a confession to make.” She breathed heavily. “I came here tonight hoping to find out if you had an interest in me other than as long distance friendship, but…but I—”

“Didn’t expect this.”

She nodded.

“Well, you’re here, and now, you know I’m interested. Are you curious?”

“I’ve read some of that book before,” she admitted.

Riley smiled wide. “Have you now?” He stared at her questioningly. “Well, considering you haven’t run from me screaming, I’d say you’re more than interested. So…you’re here and I’m here and we have two days before you have to leave, so let’s have some fun and see where it goes. But before you agree, understand that I will command you, I will ask you to do things that are outside of your comfort zone and I will give you more pleasure than you can imagine. If you say yes, then you agree to trust that, no matter what I ask, I will keep you safe.”

“The only thing I’m scared of is walking away without taking a chance,” she whispered.

Riley’s hand scorched through her blouse as he trailed his fingers up and down her spine with one hand and along the inside of her thigh with the other. Her pulse pounded harder with every passing second until she wanted—no needed—him to kiss her.

“I have missed you, baby girl.”

Oh hell, she’d almost forgotten about his favorite nickname for her. This time instead of annoying her, the sentiment melted something inside her.

“Please, Riley, teach me what you like. Show me what pleases you.”

He pulled back and gazed into her eyes. Lust and determination swirled through his as she waited for what would come next.

“Two days then…”

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