She admires his dominance on stage, but does Jax have the courage to let this gorgeous young opera singer dominate her in the bedroom?
Opera is Jaclyn ‘Jax’ Wiltshire’s great passion, and she loves her job as chief costume designer for the prestigious London Opera Company. However, at 40 she’s still single, and she can’t help but envy her best friend Helen’s happy home life with her husband and children. Jaclyn’s world is turned on its head when world-renowned tenor Kieran Vale arrives at the opera house. The company’s artistic director sees the chance to stage a production he hopes will be talked about for years, with a scene that requires Kieran to strip naked on stage.
The handsome, demanding Kieran is very comfortable in his own skin, and when Jax begins to fit him for costumes, she realises what a great body he has, and how attracted she is to him. Kieran enjoys flirting with her. Their teasing develops into something more intimate as she begins to realise he has a distinctly dominant side. But she can’t really believe that a man eleven years her junior could be seriously interested in her?
Kieran makes it clear to Jax he needs a woman who will submit to him. With a fiery leading lady who has the hots for Kieran waiting in the wings, can Jax find the courage to let her guard down and allow this gorgeous Dom to make her his?
Reader Advisory: This book contains scenes of submission, and sex in semi-public places.
General Release Date: 7th February 2014
Mercury, the messenger of the gods, stood basking in the afternoon sunshine. His broad, bare chest gleamed with sweat, and his winged sandals were laced all the way up his muscular calves. Seemingly lost in thought, he nonetheless turned his head at my approach.
“Hey, Jax, pet. How’s it going?”
Any illusion of his actual divinity that hadn’t already been dispelled by the cigarette he held between his fingers was shattered by his ringing Geordie accent.
“I’m fine, Richie. Looking good by the way.” My gaze lingered on his pleated leather kilt. It had taken a couple of nights’ hard work in my studio to stitch the thing together, but the result, even at close range, was pleasingly authentic. So was his staff, adorned with a pair of writhing snakes, that had been manufactured out of wood and plastic. For anyone sitting high in the circle, or at the back of the stalls, Richie Beresford would truly appear godlike.
He flashed me a smile, clearly appreciating the compliment. “Hey, I heard that Marshall’s going to be announcing who’s got the lead in Perpetua today. Rumour is it’s Kieran Vale.”
“Really?” I tried to keep the surprise out of my voice. Marshall Wincott had promised a big name for what would be the centrepiece of the London Opera Company’s two hundred and fiftieth season. Announcing that he would be performing Giuseppi dalla Bonna’s masterpiece Perpetua, a work that had fallen out of favour due to its notorious difficulty to bring to the stage, had already raised eyebrows in critical circles. Securing Kieran Vale, currently the hottest property in opera, to play the leading role would be a real coup.
“Well, I’d better be off.” Richie ground out his cigarette beneath his sandaled heel. “I’m due to make my curtain call.”
He dashed off, not quite reaching Mercury’s superhuman speed, in the direction of the backstage area. Being late for a cue was the surest way to earn the full hairdryer blast of one of Marshall Wincott’s dressing-downs, and Richie clearly didn’t want to risk that. More sedately, I headed for the costume department, clutching a ham salad sandwich and pot of fruit compote and yoghurt that formed a very late lunch. With all the costume changes for today’s matinee performance of Francesco Cavalli’s La Calisto completed, I’d at last been able to nip out for something to eat.
Elizabeth Coldwell is a multi-published author and editor whose stories have appeared in a number of best-selling anthologies. She has written novels in a variety of different genres, from paranormal to BDSM and contemporary romance. She is the former editor of the UK edition of Forum magazine and the proud winner of an International Leather Award. When she is not busy writing, she is an avid supporter of Rotherham United Football Club and can be regularly found on the terraces at weekends, cheering her boys to victory (hopefully!).
Find her online at The (Really) Naughty Corner, http://elizabethcoldwell.wordpress.com
Reviewed by Joyfully Reviewed
There were many places where I laughed and a few where I was shaking my head at what was happening. Best of all, I loved how Jax and Kieran found their way around the worse type of mischief that coul...
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Elizabeth Coldwell - Interview for Maestro
Please tell us about the inspiration for this story.
A while ago, I was walking through Covent Garden, and I saw a man in a cigarette break who was obviously part of whatever opera was being performed there - unless there was any other reason why he'd have been dressed like a statue and painted silver from head to foot. The sight stuck in my mind, and it gave me the opening scene of Maestro, and the idea to make Jax a costume designer.
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