Title: BODHI
Author: A.R. Hadley
Genre: Literary Fiction/LGBTQ/Kink
Book Blurb:
Fantasy becomes reality the moment she walks through the doors of his club.
Audrey Simone is a thirty-something divorced mom looking for adventure when she accompanies her new friend, Kate, to a local dungeon. What she doesn’t expect to find is Gavin.
His arms are the size of her thighs.
His eyes the color of Van Gogh’s sky.
And his tolerance for BS is minimal.
Playing becomes an addiction.
Her desire to submit an innate need.
And it doesn’t take long for Audrey to realize this world has surpassed her wildest imaginations. But she lives in two worlds, straddling day and night, reality and kink — one foot has found its way into Gavin’s heart while the other rests on the outside. Her Master, though, doesn’t just want her submission… Gavin has decided he needs both feet.
Will Audrey and Gavin bend to society? Or make their own rules?
Author Note: Bodhi is a 63,000-word standalone novel. Literary fiction, not romance. The characters and their intense and realistic actions drive the plot. Contains graphic content that may trigger some readers, including direct references to scripture mingled with kink.
Excerpt:
“Concentrate. You’ll shave me, and I’ll tell you a story. Start with the sides. Top to bottom. Go ahead.”
“Gavin,” she whispered with a smile.
Taking her hand, he placed it where he wanted her to begin. “Care for me as you do yourself.”
Their eyes met and locked for several heartbeats, seconds in which she couldn’t breathe properly. Caring for herself had become something she did last, not foremost. He could surely see things in her gaze: hesitation and insecurities. He’d seen them the day he’d fed her the potato soup.
“Top to bottom.” He dragged her palm with his toward his ear. “Good girl.”
Her hand seemed to trip on the compliment, and he caught it and smiled. “I trust you, Audrey. Now listen to me.
“Hannah was a woman who hadn’t a single child. And she desperately wanted one.”
“I don’t know why.” Audrey smiled and shook the razor out in the sink full of hot water.
“Her husband’s other wife had them, and she ridiculed Hannah for being barren. She wanted a child so much she took to praying in the house of the Lord. And one day, Eli the priest observed her and thought she was drunk.”
“Why?”
“Because sometimes we believe what we see or what we think we see, Audrey. Not what’s true. Now finish me, and I’ll finish too.”
His next words, though, sounded like a recital direct from the Bible.
“Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, ‘How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.’
“‘Not so, my lord,’ Hannah replied, ‘I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.’”
The task complete, Audrey placed the razor next to the sink while Gavin’s eyes combed her skin, crawling around, trying to get in. But she wouldn’t look at him or let him go any deeper.
“What do you think those people saw earlier when you said no? When you begged me to stop? What if an outsider had witnessed our scene? What would they have thought? Many of us here know what it feels like to be considered ‘wicked.’”
“Sir…”
“Your lips moved earlier tonight, baby girl.” He ran the pad of his thumb along them, then he planted several kisses on her cheeks, forehead, and jawline. “Without sound. Were you praying to God for relief? Does anyone else know the words in your heart?”
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Author Biography:
A.R. Hadley writes imperfectly perfect sentences by the light of her iPhone.
She loves the ocean.
Chocolate.
Her children.
And Cary Grant.
She annoys those darling little children by quoting lines from Back to the Future, but despite her knowledge of eighties and nineties pop culture, she was actually meant to live alongside the Lost Generation after the Great War and write a mediocre novel while drinking absinthe with Hemingway. Instead, find her sipping unsweet tea near a beautiful garden as she weaves fictional tales of love and connection amid reality.
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