As Derek and Corey settle into their D/s relationship, Derek and his business partners at Kiss of Leather remain determined to bring Corey’s abuser to justice. To that end, their lawyer brings in a private investigator, Stone. Meanwhile, Kyle’s old friend Marshall has resurfaced, somewhat the worse for wear. Marshall has always rebelled against being a full time submissive, yet a strong Dom to take him in hand is precisely what he needs. Stone has not been a Dom for many years, for good reason, but Marshall is just the kind of challenging submissive he used to enjoy.
Book series built around a BDSM club seems to a very common thing these days. In most cases, the individual volumes of a series follow the course of a relationship between two men who meet through the club, and so more or less stand on their own. You’re generally not missing much if you skip some books of the series. That is proving to not be the case with this series. Both the second and third books of Kiss of Leather have started with chapters that update and move along the story lines of the prior book. In addition, in this third installment we renew acquaintances with Marshall, who had a pivotal if not very big role in the very first book, Building Bonds.
The Marshall we met at the start of the series is cocky and seemingly self assured. He’s the one who keeps trying to convince Kyle to try being a sub, and ultimately introduces Kyle to his Dom Gavin. But Marshall doesn’t think he needs a full time Dom and is happy just playing submissive to get his rocks off. When he resurfaces, he’s in trouble and has nowhere else to turn. The Doms at Kiss of Leather agree to help him out, but only if he agrees to learn what it really means to submit.
Stone and Marshall display a very interesting dynamic. Stone has the patience of a saint, which he needs to be able to peel back the layers of Marshall’s defenses to reveal the insecurities that have been driving his self destructive behavior. This story continues a theme set in the previous book that sex isn’t the solution to everything (shocking, I know). This was understandable when dealing with Corey, who had been sexually abused. In Marshall’s case, he is used to using sex to get what he wanted, and perhaps more importantly, to validate his self worth.
Although he’s a little too good to be true, Stone is still a believable character, as is Marshall. Their interactions throughout the book are always interesting. If the story has one failing, it’s that it introduces more potential plot lines than can be addressed within the relatively short confines of the book. Marshall’s drug and legal problems are what motivates him to reconnect with his old friends, but they’re not really fully addressed in the course of the story.
“Bondage Rescue” is available from Amazon.