Treadmill: Wed., 9-Nov. > Sun., 13-Nov.
Here’s a compilation of screen shots of my Apple watch workouts that were recorded while on the treadmill. My goal is to read while walking on the treadmill for at least one 30-minute mile per day.
What I #AmReading…
Two Steps Back by Lyn Gala
I was still in Lyn Gala mode after reading Regi’s Goddess, and went for a reread of Two Steps Back. This was spicier than my usual preference, but it’s a great story.
I love the character growth in this story. It’s an age gap BDSM story featuring down on his luck Dallin, who’d thought he’d gotten away from the play for pay business, and William, a wealthy man who, though it’s not said, clearly falls somewhere on the autism spectrum. They’re introduced to each other by Ben, a mutual contact, and enter into a long term contract with one another, Dallin relates well, appreciating William’s no-games honesty, but not so much the interference in his personal life.
The Snippets
Told entirely from Dallin’s 3rd-person POV:
Dallin waited as he tried not to fidget. He’d been less than polite about leaving the business, so he didn’t have a lot of room to test Ben’s patience. In the past, when he came to this office, he had a cocky smile or near pornographic ability to wrap his lips around the neck of a bottle of soda and suck. Now he tried for polite. Quiet, even.
And a few paragraphs later…
“If you’re trying that hard to be good, I’m wondering what you want,” Ben said. “I thought you were out. In fact, I believe you cackled madly like a stereotypical villain as you told me that I could fuck myself.”
A few pages later, giving nice insight into both Dallin’s appearance and his state of mind at the start of the story.
“Real cool,” he told himself in disgust. He knew Ben deserved better, but Dallin had put him in a box labeled Life’s Biggest Fuckups and closed the lid. It hurt going back into that pain. The only thing that would hurt more would be to call his folks up and ask for money.
Dallin snorted as he thought about how well that would go over.
He mused so much that he ended up having to run for the bus, and the 110-degree heat made that more miserable than usual. The bus’s air-conditioning whined as it threw out tepid air, and the seats smelled of sour sweat when Dallin sat on one.
A Hispanic woman with a large box on the floor between her feet eyed him suspiciously, which didn’t make a lot of sense. Dallin felt and probably looked like a limp dishrag. His dark hair tended to flop messily into his eyes, and he could feel the sweat soaking through his T-shirt. He wasn’t exactly a threat. The only person he’d ever posed any danger to was himself. He just had to hope this whole plan wasn’t one more of those big life mistakes that he had time to regret later.
That kind of decisiveness was a little sexy. Okay, it was a lot sexy. But as much as Dallin wanted this job, he also wanted a reason to avoid it. Maybe he just hated getting back in the game and admitting his design work wasn’t good enough to support him. Maybe his gut was right and he was walking into trouble.
“One week, trial run. After that, we can both decide if this arrangement is worth keeping,” William suggested. “However, the terms will not change if you decide to accept the long-term contract.”
Dallin found himself nodding before he realized what he was doing. A week. He’d agreed to a week.
For context, Dallin has just learned that he was technically hired as William’s personal assistant through his business, not a cash under the table deal between them. Dallin is the first speaker:
“Did your brother say anything about you hiring me?”
“He complained that I started you near the top of the salary scale for a personal assistant,” William said calmly. “I pointed out that you have to deal with me on a near daily basis, and I do believe that won the argument.” William just smiled at him like he was entertained by the very memory of the conversation.”
Two Steps Back by Lyn Gala
Contemporary BDSM M/M Romance
The poor economy has forced Dallin to return to prostitution to avoid homelessness, but when his old pimp hooks him up with a wealthy Dom, Dallin figures it’s too good to be true. William is older, wealthy, experienced, and a complete dominant. He’s the sort of man who can go to a club and pick up a dozen subs, and yet he wants to hire Dallin.
William knows how to succeed in finance and the bedroom, but trying to keep a relationship going is a far more difficult proposition. Instead of dealing with the messy reality of the club scene or dating, he decides to hire a sub. While William would like to have a long-term relationship develop, he’s not expecting anything. However the longer he plays with Dallin, the more he realizes that he wants more.
Dallin is willing to give his body to William—he enjoys the bondage, the games and ropes and toys. He’s more wary about trusting William with his heart. William is a master of domination, but for Dallin he wants to learn to love.
Spreading more book love!
Here are more of my…
✓ recent reads
✓ current reads
✓ re-reads
✓ want-to-reads
(all genres included)
I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to read next. In Pain and Blood (listed above) is high on the list, but very, very long, and I’m currently in the mood for a spurt of shorter stories (novellas and short novels), so I need to take a gander through my TBR and recent purchases and make some choices! Feel free to recommend something in the comments!
About My #Treadmill / #AmReading Posts
I started out with this being a Sunday thing, but sometimes I’d rather not mash multiple books into a single post, so now, you never know when you might see one of these posts.
Rather than give a true “review,” which I’m not entirely comfortable doing as an author myself, I share snippets from books I’ve read and enjoyed, letting the authors’ words speak for themselves.
As you’ve possibly noticed, if you’ve been following along, I highlight snippets for reasons of my own which might veer from what is often seen. Sometimes my highlights have more to do with a paragraph simply impressing the heck out of me for its fabulous writerly technique, other times it has to do with the lovely way it gives subtle insight into the story/characters. Still other times simply because it made me laugh.
Anyway, I sometimes add a little commentary, but not always, which is not in any way, shape, or form, to be taken as unwritten commentary. Most likely it just means I’m short on time and/or context isn’t needed to understand what’s happening, and/or my brain doesn’t feel like putting out the effort in that particular moment.
Also, I’m going to try to spread the book love by tacking on covers of more books at the end of the post that I’ve either recently read, am currently reading, or want to read. Not seeing a full post with snippets for any of these books is not a commentary on anything other than how much time I have available in a day either to read or to create a post about what I’ve read. It might also mean I listened to the audiobook only or that it’s a reread that I’ve featured previously, or it’s not M/M so probably not a good fit for featuring on this blog.
Happy reading!
