Shayla Kersten: Thirty Days

Thirty Days by Shayla Kersten
From: Liquid Silver Books

A warm hand surrounded his cock. Long lazy strokes pulled Biton from sleep. Morning light showed through the curtains. Fast breathing shook the body plastered
against him whether from fear or desire, he didn’t know.
“Cavan?”
“Yes, Master.” A tremor of fear tinged the quiet response.
“You feel good.” He tightened his arm around the slender body. “Really good.” Biton wanted to roll Cavan over and plow his body until waves of pleasure washed through him. But the decision made last night stopped him. “Cavan, why are you stroking me?”
“I should stop?” Confusion colored his voice.
Biton wasn’t sure where to start and the pleasure of Cavan’s strokes fusing his synapses wasn’t helping. Start with the basics. “Do you enjoy being with a man?”
“I… I do with you.” The warm hand faltered.
Biton slid his hand under the cover and wrapped around Cavan’s. “I haven’t always known I was gay.” He held tight, stilling the sensuous motions. “Until I was twenty-two, I tried to convince myself I wanted women, until my first male lover. The revelation was almost more mind blowing than the sex.” Biton shivered at the memory. “It wasn’t sweet and tender, it was hard and rough and I couldn’t get enough. The relationship didn’t last long, but I knew a woman would never satisfy me the way a man did. Before we parted ways, I had discovered my need to control my partner and the desire for that partner to be a man. But both were my choice.”
Sliding his fingers around Cavan’s wrist, he pulled the man’s hand away from his cock. Rolling toward him, Biton caressed the stubble roughened face. “You never had the chance to make that choice. How can you know if what you feel for me is desire or gratitude for giving you a safe place to stay? Or is it a sense of obedience because you’ve never known another way of life?”
“I want you. I want to stay with you.” Panic made Cavan’s voice tight and his eyes wild.
“Why?” Biton whispered. “If you had the chance to leave here, a place to live without obligation to anyone but yourself, would you take it?”
“I…” A half-choked sob swallowed the rest of his words.
“I’m not saying you have to leave. If you stay, it should be because you want this life and not because you have no choice.” Biton ran his thumb across the trembling bottom lip. He leaned and brushed a kiss against the sorrowful line of Cavan’s mouth. “You have to tell me what you want.”
Cavan’s neck strained forward, chasing Biton’s mouth until he caught it. “Please…” he mumbled against Biton’s lips.
Biton melted into a gentle kiss. He ached with need, but his desire had to be tempered. And the feeling of tenderness had to be quelled before it became something deeper. If Cavan didn’t accept the life of a submissive willingly, Biton would lose him. The idea made his breath catch in his throat. As the tempting lips pressed against his
opened mouth, Biton couldn’t stop himself from falling in.
His fingers splayed against Cavan’s face as his body moved closer. The heat of Cavan’s mouth couldn’t compare to the hot cock pressed against Biton through thin layers of cotton. That Cavan desired him wasn’t in question. But why? Because Biton was gentle where others were cruel? Would Biton ever know his real feelings?
Desire pushed away the nagging questions. Sucking the shy tongue teasing his mouth, Biton pulled Cavan closer. The slender body melted against him. Biton’s fingers raked the short red hair. The ache in his groin intensified to scorching heat.
“Want you…” Cavan moaned as he gasped for breath.
The desperate desire to push into the velvet heat of Cavan’s tight ass almost overwhelmed him. “Cavan…” Biton wanted to tell him no, but the desperate hands pulling at him stilled his protests and dissolved his thoughts.
Holding him close, Biton rolled their bodies until Cavan was pinned beneath him.
The frantic pace of their kisses slowed. Biton stroked the short hair as he pulled away
from Cavan’s mouth.
The pale green eyes held such trust, such innocence. How could he, after all he’d been through, trust anyone?
Could Biton give up the part of his being that craved the control of his partner? Would he leave behind the pleasure of pain to keep the trust and innocence lighting Cavan’s eyes?

I have got to give Shayla Kersten mega props for this story. She took on subject matters here I would never have combined in a million years. Frankly because several of them hit extremely close to home and the fact she got a romance story that is close to believable out of it… DAMN! She’s hot!

Biton Savakis is a Dom who has just lost his slave of ten years to cancer only three months ago. A friend invites him to a small party where he meets and grows interested in a young submissive by the name of Craven. There is interest but Craven has been abused by his last Master and from what the people who rescued him can tell he is still healing from that event. Turns out Craven has a far more nasty past than anyone guessed and Biton takes it upon himself to try and help him.

The subject matter as you can tell is in no way light hearted. It does lead to a series of obvious but exceedingly touchy discussions on the differences between abuse and BDSM. The Focus being on the heart of the whole Safe, Sane and Consensual philosophy without the typical short cuts of simply repeating that stupid catch phrase over and over again as if hammering nails. Yeah Shayla you go girl!

Biton spends some time also in trying to teach the finer points of contracts, safe words and negotiation to Craven. Which had me wondering a bit since I have had little use for those things myself, but OK I mean it is the fad right now. Even though I know damn well that none of that actually protects you from any levels of risk involved and they are in my consideration sorta fluff. The best way for me to tell if a potential Master is worth your trust is by observing how he treats you and others, at least in my simplistic opinion. I still have not found any quick ways around that despite all the people swearing by all that other crap that sounds too close to marriage licenses and wedding rings for my comfort. Listen people get hurt all the time, good people too and not just in BDSM, and the best I have found you can do is stay alert and not get sucked into games and rituals as if those will save you from making a bad mistake.

Shayla hit some really good points by having Briton constantly demand Craven participate in their love making or a BDSM scene or what ever they were doing. He forced Craven not to just cave in with mind numbing soulless submission but to honestly participate in every action and react to it in some way giving of himself instead of treating it all as a one way deal. Good stuff there and it went a long way in selling this story to me since it shows the difference between someone being forced to do these things without will or like I call it “Zombie style” and someone wanting to be submissive. Hell, I see people make this mistake all the time based on misconceptions of what BDSM really is. Most people I have read writing these BDSM romance stories overlook these fine distinctions and small indicators of the focus and attention occurring in a good BDSM scene between two willing partners.

So does the whole thing work though? Well, there are issues mostly due to the length of the story here. There’s only about 65 pages in all. So the evolution of this relationship is not really given a chance to show through and the questions I had of Craven’s capability to get beyond all his years of abuse were still in my mind by the end. Shayla has already stated she is writing a sequel.

WOW! I am impressed you took this story on and kept such a tight focus in making it all understandable when I would have run far and fast in the exact opposite direction without a single clue of how to sell this particular brand of hurt and comfort in a BDSM context. This is the kind of stuff that could so easily get someone (like me) into trouble for making the slightest brain dead plot decision but you pulled it off very very well. You had my undivided attention from the first sentence while I watched you walk this tight rope and you never once lost my interest.

Grade A and I will keep watching for more genius from you.

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Tags: BDSM Romance, Gay, Grade A, Shayla Kersten