Audrey is a BSDM submissive who runs away from her master because she realizes that she is going to lose herself if he pushes her farther than her limits. She runs back to her old life in Washington D.C. where she hopes to pull herself together. Little does she know, but her old master has pulled some strings that she will be watched by Patrick, a bar owner. Little does everyone know, Patrick is a dom as well and he decides to master Audrey for his own reasons.

I am conflicted about this book, I'm a take-it-or-leave-it BSDM reader. I like Emma Holly as an author, because I think she's one of the strongest writers of erotica. I like Patrick's take on S&M, he's not into degradation, like Audrey's former master. However, I don't like Audrey because she is too submissive, too unformed for my taste. The author tries to make it seem that she knows herself, but she never seems to have opinions, or even a real personality. Patrick deals with too much deception for me to like him. He lies to Audrey by saying he is gay; there's a side plot with Basil, a drag queen, who is his beard. He hides his true motives from everybody who cares about him. There is a lot of things that stretch believability in the book. From homing nipple rings, to custom tailored outfits everyday, to Audrey almost getting assaulted/kidnapped and everyone treating it like 'not-that-big-a-deal'.

Why this book gets this good a rating is that the sex is very hot. Scorching. Holly's strength is the ability to write a lot of sex scenes and keep the plot moving forward. It might be outré for many, but it's good and it isn't paint-by-numbers. She always surprises me with what kind of scenarios she can dream up, and it's the sex that doesn't ask me to drop my reality-checkers. ( )