Sunday, August 19, 2012

Sunday Snippet - Queen of Storms

Hi there y'all! Hope everyone is keeping Hot and Horny as summer sadly wains away!

This week, just to help keep the heat levels rising, I have selected a snippet from my occult WIP The Queen of Storms. This is one of the stories from my Tarot of the Acolyte series of paranormal erotica, where each tale revolves around a specific Tarot card. The premise of the Tarot of the Acolyte tales is that, as the deck moves from person to person, each new owner must undergo an erotic, and often (but not always) horrific, rite of passage based on the card they become obsessed with, where success means they keep control of the power of the deck, and failure means they succumb to the deviant sexual wiles of the gods, demons, wizards, witches, and mythical beasts and monsters that prowl these cards!

In the Queen of Storms, the Queen on the card is the beautiful but deadly Sidhe Witch-Queen Sín (pronounced 'Sheen', her name means 'Storm'), infamous in ancient Irish Celtic myth as the irresistible temptress who caused the Threefold Death of Muirchertac Mac Erca, High King of Ireland. In our tale, her beauty has enchanted erstwhile Tarot dabbler Gerry O'Keith, whose Irish ancestry has left him susceptible to her Sidhe wizardry! Tormented by erotic visions across night- and day-dreams, he has been lured on a dark, stormy night into her thorny forest lair, and, torn and trapped, he is held ensnared while she has her wicked way with him...

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

             "And what is it we have here, my little ones?"  Despite the howling of the wind and the splashing of the rain against the leaves and branches, her voice rang clearly across the space between them, its strong lilt tripping merrily into his heart.  He struggled to break free of the thorns and branches that held him fast, trying to get closer to her, but the effort only drove the spikes deeper into the flesh of his naked arms and legs.  Ceasing his struggles, he hung there like a giant fly caught in some monstrous web, waiting for the spider to deliver her coup de grais.

She watched in amusement as he gave up resisting, then stepped closer to him, inspecting the punctures in his flesh, while he took in every detail of her beauty, comparing it to the figure on the Tarot card , and finding the card wanting.  Even as the wind continued to thrash the trees around them, and the rain kept up its onslaught against everything in its path, including Gerry, she stood before him untouched by any elemental force, her blue eyes glowing with an unearthly passion, her raven-black hair swaying gently over her shoulder as she moved, her pale, silken skin as dry as a warm summer breeze.  He swallowed hard as his eyes dropped to the proud cleavage of her breasts, white and firm in the tightly laced green linen bodice, which was decorated with symbols and words in a language he did not recognize.  As with the image on the card, her nipples rose through the fabric, hard and enticing, showing her arousal, and she smiled inwardly as she saw his exposed manhood twitch in response to the vision before him.

"To be sure," she said, taking a step back from him, "they have you true and fast, sir."  She turned to walk away, as if her interest in the captive had faded, but she stopped when he spoke to her.

"Help me," was all he said, quietly.  She turned and looked coquetishly at his face.

"Is it help you be wanting, sir?" she asked ingenuously, stepping back towards him.  "And why would I want to be helping you, sir, after your chasing of me so rudely through the forest?  Seems it's not safe for a maiden out and about these days."

"I couldn't help myself," Gerry replied weakly.  "I had to see if you were as beautiful as the woman on the Tarot card.  And I wanted to talk with you."

"Talk is it, sir?  But I see more than talk in those eyes of yours, don't I?"  She stepped right up to his transfixed body and, gently lifting his chin with her hand, stared deeply into his eyes, the gold flecks in her sapphire blues echoing the colours on the backs of the cards.  Her hand was warm and soft, with an underlying strength he could feel as she held his jaw.

"Who are you?" he asked, unable to contain the passion he felt, his hardness growing despite the chilling wind and rain. 

"Who am I is it now?" she responded.  "I think you have more pressing things to think on, sir, than what my name might be.  For instance, you ask me for help, but what would you have in the way of payment for such assistance?  And, supposing you had the payment, why would I be freeing you to chase me again through the woodland?"  She dropped his jaw, and he struggled again to free himself, to no avail.  His skin burned with a fire of passion where she had touched him, and he already longed to feel the heat of her hand again.
"Whatever you want, if I have it, I will give it to you for your help, and your company." 

She laughed merrily at his offer, her eyes flashing, but whether with mirth or anger, he could not tell. 

"My help, my name, and my company, is it now?  A man should be careful what it is he asks for, as the price may be too much for his purse.  And a threefold ask is the most expensive of all!" 

She stepped closer to him, close enough so he could feel the heat from her body as he struggled to touch her, close enough so he could smell her scent saturating the air around him, fresh and lively and stimulating, and, raising her hand, she gently cupped the coldness of his cheek.  Instantly heat surged through his body and into his limbs, and he closed his eyes in pleasure as he felt his arousal growing from her touch.  He turned his head in an attempt to kiss her fingers, but she laughed gently as she dropped them to trace a pointed, blood-red fingernail along the length of his torso, sending rays of stimulation pounding through him, and driving a groan from his lips. 

“My, my, sir,” she said, a huskiness filling her voice as she watched his erection thicken and rise.  “I suppose there may be other ways a man could pay for services rendered.  Her finger traced along the length of his twitching cock, across the dark veins engorged with blood, causing him to writhe in anticipation, while his mind reeled in disbelief at his apparent good fortune, and his eyes devoured her unearthly beauty.  Then his body shuddered as she wrapped her hand around the base of his thick, throbbing prick and slowly pulled it along its length, the strength of her fingers rippling along the smoothness of his skin

“And are you prepared to pay me what I ask from you, sir?” she asked, pulling her hand back and forth along the swollen length of his burning hardness.  He opened his eyes and gazed with unadorned passion deep into hers.

“Anything I have that you want is yours,” he said thickly, his throat tight with need, the pain from the myriad of thorns and branches holding him forgotten, as the heat from her hand radiated along his cock and out into the depths of his balls and body.  Her blood-red lips parted in a wonderful, heart-piercing smile, showing two rows of even, white teeth, and her dexterous tongue ran lightly over her lips, leaving a sheen of moisture on their redness.

“Then you’ll not mind if I help myself, then, sir?” she asked. 

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

Looks like Gerry is about to receive everything he desires, but maybe - just maybe - he should beware of the thorns that always accompany beautiful roses!  :)

This WIP is almost ready for publication, and I am targetting a Hallowe'en launch date (of course! :), so if you'd like a preview copy, leave me a comment below, and I'll select a few lucky readers for the ARC distribution!

Let's continue to enjoy Summer while it lasts, my friends!

Love,
Ashen



Saturday, August 4, 2012

Book Review: A Washington Square Romance - Maxim Jakubowski

I originally wrote a review of A Washington Square Romance by the inimitable Maxim Jakubowski for the Simply Erotic Reviews blogsite, way back in July 2011.  Unfortunately, like many sites in the transient world of Internet publications, S.E.R, went bye-byes a short while ago, much to the sorrow of myself and a few other Erotica writers and reviewers, and I have been unable to get access to my original reviews.

I still get a lot of hits for the A Washington Square Romance review, so I am putting up another review of the work, which will be as close as possible to my first review and impressions of the book.



Blurb from the Xcite website:

Maxim Jakubowski takes the reader through an intoxicating journey through four of the world's most exciting cities: New York, Dublin, Paris and London.

Known for his daring and sexy tales of men and women in love and lust and once described by both The Times and Time Out as 'the King of the Erotic Thriller', Jakubowski here examines Sex in the City through a daring new angle which will leave you breathless.

My Review:

My first reaction to reading the four stories in this book was - WOW!

This is certainly no "Wham, Bam, Thank You, Ma'am!" collection of stories, but an absolutely breath-taking series of erotic tales that take you to the extremes of emotion and sexuality, against the back-drop of some of the greatest cities in the world.  Mr Jakubowski takes us on an expedition through New York, Dublin, Paris and London, delivering erotica in extremis that is detailed, raw and psychologically disturbing, to say the least. 

The heroes and heroines of these tales are not experiencing sex as a pleasurable pastime in the company of loved ones. Each of them goes through a catharsis where their current or past sexual encounters play the most important part of their emotional and/or physical transformation - and some of those encounters are detailed and disturbing - and yet compelling.  Jakubowski takes us through the beauty and the bitterness, the passion and the utter loneliness, the power and the saddening depravity that sex can be.  And he does it with wonderful, passionate prose that shows his love for his subject - even tackling the usual no-no of switching mid-stream from third to first person and then back again with aplomb and grace.

I found these tales and their characters compelling inspite - or maybe even because - of their extreme situations, and had to finish each tale even when my heart or mind was telling me to walk away. Maxim builds on his own experiences to deliver a transformative work that is a must read for any would-be eroticists looking to build their craft.

An absolute and well-deserved 5 star read!

Ashen