Bound to Please

I am so happy I read it! This book did funny things to my insides. It is hot, and naughty, and romantic, and everything good a book should be. Since I

I am so happy I read it! This book did funny things to my insides. It is hot, and naughty, and romantic, and everything good a book should be. Since I don't read a lot of BDSM, I don't have really anything to compare this book to, but I do think the BDSM is on the lighter side in this book, but since it was my first, it was a good place to start.

Ruby is in her late thirties and is an event planner. Her current event which she is planning with her best friend Meg, is a party featuring an up and coming band. Mark St. Crow is the lead singer, ten years Ruby's junior, and they immediately notice each other. Ruby's ex-boyfriend, Ash, is into BDSM and Ruby thoroughly enjoyed that part of their relationship. So much so that she wished they could have explored it even more. Ash also is a professional photographer and Mark has just happened to have bought a picture of Ruby bounded by rope.

Ruby is shocked that he owns that picture but she is also very intrigued. After a very impromptu make out session at the club, Mark promises to show Ruby his skills as soon as his gig is over. That night, Ruby’s submissive dreams come true, as the dominant Mark plays out her sexual fantasies. She is blindfolded and spanked, and she loves every minute of it. Mark gives it to her good, but always taking the utmost care in her desires.

After several intimate nights, Ruby starts realizing Mark is much more than just fun in the bedroom. She yearns to find out all about him. However, Mark has a very demanding schedule, and is travelling on a consistent basis. Ruby’s parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, and finds it very difficult to and scared to become close to Mark. They both want more, but they both need to take that final step to make a commitment a reality.

I love this couple and I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this Bound to Please. I love their relationship – Ruby wants to be oh so naughty, always dreaming of all the fetish toys but she is still a bit shy to admit it. She wants to be possessed and have someone else in control. In the bedroom, or on the kitchen table, she is into it. But it still embarrasses her when Mark leaves her notes that tell her not to wear underwear on their date.

Puzzled, she unfolded the not and read.

Take off your panties and put them in your purse. M.

For a second she just stared at the note. Did Mark really want her to do this? Here? Now?

She kinda wanted to.

[…:]She smiled and savored the anticipation of waiting for his show to end. She was going to leave her panties on. And find out for herself what happened when she disobeyed an order from Mark St. Crow.

I’ll give you a hint – her punishment involves a naughty spanking.

Mark is a dominant, all the way and damn does that make him sexy. His flirting with Ruby the first night they met sealed the deal for me. I love how Lilli Feisty writes him – so in control and confident from the moment he meets Ruby. His control of Ruby in the bedroom is hot to read, just as his sweet comforting nature that takes over as well. I also really enjoyed that they both have careers and they both are serious about them. They can’t see throwing their careers away, but they also want a relationship. I really think it was handled in a mature way and even when they were in despair, and they didn’t think they could ever work it out, they still held true to their characters. Mark still had his eye out for other subs, although you knew deep down he wanted Ruby. I was put off that Mark's eye roamed the minute he and Ruby got into an argument, but that is what his character does. Ruby knows this, and they make it work.

The only little thing I didn’t love in this book is the side story of Meg and her husband and their marital problems. I thought the book would have been just as good as Meg as a best friend without all of her drama.

Fiction Vixen mentions this in her review, but I have to hit upon it too. There is a scene with a strawberry, and it is one of my favorite smexy scenes I have read this year. You are going to have to read it to get the full satisfaction from this scene , but I don’t think I will ever be able to look at a strawberry the same way again. And it is not just what is done with the strawberry, but the way Mark makes her do it, and just when you think he is in complete control of the situation, he even gets cocky and tells her how easy she is to submit, she reverses it and bam – Ruby is in for another naughty punishment. Hot stuff.

Bound to Please is great for a novice BDSM reader like myself, and I am interested to take it up a notch. Suggestions are welcome!