About Safe Words, A Deviations Novel
by Chris Owen and Jodi Payne
350 pages / 79700 words
ISBN: 978-1-61040-044-2
Ebook zipped file contains -
html, lit, Adobe and Sony optimized pdf, prc, epub, also available in
paperback
In Safe Words, which picks up where the Deviations series left off,
Tobias, Noah and Phan are all working on finding their place, both at
Bradford's club and in their personal lives. They're all living together,
and Tobias has taken on the roll of full-time Dom, which he loves, but finds
incredibly challenging.
While Noah finds comfort in the new state of things and is looking forward
to deeper submission, Phan is finding it harder to strike a balance. Too
many changes happening too fast are making Phan act out, and neither Tobias
nor Noah are sure how to deal with it. Life is not perfect for Bradford,
either, as he discovers new feelings for his sub Nikki. Can Tobias help his
friend, manage his job teaching the other Doms, and his relationships with
Noah and Phan, or will the house that he's built for himself fall down
around their ears?
The Deviations series includes: Deviations Submission, Deviations
Domination, Deviations Discipline and Deviations Bondage.
Review
Syd McGinley, author of the Dr. Fell books, writes: A new Deviations
novel is a holiday! Tobias, Noah, and Phan are back in all their sexy
glory as they continue to build a life together..
Chris Owen and Jodi Payne clearly love their characters, but their
affection for the men doesn’t mean they hold back on the trials their
characters face. As always, their writing is seamless and immersive –
all the characters, right down to old friends such as Bradford, and new
ones, are fully realized and grow and change in the course of the story.
There’s no phoning in the background in the Deviations universe. We
learn from how the other characters see each other and interact – no
heavy-handed backstory dumps.
Much as I admire the craft Chris and Jodi bring to their work, I love
their kinky imaginations even more, and there’s some fine displays of
D/s smut in Safe Words. As the title implies, their men are responsible
and ethical – it’s a lovely exploration of where limits lie and how
tenderness and love can take some sincerely different forms.
Highly recommended.
Sample
Tobias leaned in the doorway, one shoulder against the
jamb and his arms folded over his chest, watching silently. He was wearing
riding clothes, intending to go for a ride on his horse, but he hadn't yet
made it down the stairs to the lower level of the farmhouse.
Instead, while dressing, he'd heard the clink of free weights coming from
the newly created workout room, and, a little too like Pavlov's dog for
comfort, he'd gone there instead.
Tobias had a weakness for watching Noah exercise. Noah had kept himself in
insanely good shape after leaving the police force, maybe even better than
he had done while working for the law. He tended to do a lot of work without
his shirt on since his change of employment, and while he wasn't ripped and
cut, he was certainly firm and tight. Tobias rarely missed a chance to look
his fill.
"You're in here early," Tobias said, watching Noah's arms curl so his biceps
flexed.
Noah glanced up at Tobias briefly, then back at his biceps. "Nine, ten," he
counted out loud. "Good morning. Thirteen..." He grunted his way through
fourteen and fifteen, his teeth clenched and his brow furrowed.
Tobias found he had more than a passing appreciation for Noah's intensity,
and he smiled to himself as he felt desire lick up his spine. It never
failed -- Noah and weights, that was all it took. Well, Noah and just about
anything, but the weights were a sure thing.
"I can't sleep alone," Noah explained, still panting. "In that great big
bed." He gave Tobias a suggestive wink as he set the dumbbells back in their
rack. "Plus, I'm heading into town today." He patted his face with a towel
and smiled mischievously.
"I know." Tobias tried not to sigh. Usually, he had no issue at all with
Noah having a day off from his duties as Tobias' submissive. Usually, Noah
wasn't all sweaty and glossy from working out on his day off. "Do you and
Phan have plans?"
Phantom, Tobias could hear, was in the kitchen making breakfast. It was his
day off as well, but Phan didn't seem to think that Tobias was capable of
making his own breakfast. Though why toast needed the noisy rattle of a
frying pan on a gas range, Tobias didn't know.
"We do." Noah approached Tobias slowly. "Breakfast," he said, just as
something clattered in the kitchen, "which you've no doubt noticed, and then
shopping and a downtown, greasy dinner. This would be why I need the extra
workout." He leaned close and kissed Tobias lightly on the lips. "Are you
going to miss us?"
"I always miss you. Well, usually. There are times I'd happily send Phan to
town just so he'd stop pinging around the house and making it hard for me to
get paperwork done." Tobias slipped his arms around Noah and kissed him
again. "But I suppose he does have a valid point that I'm supposed to do
that sort of thing in my office and not here."
"Well, you did insist that Bradford give you that swanky office at the club
and a very sturdy desk to keep all that paperwork organized. I have to admit
I don't think of the farm as work, either. I tend to leave that mentality at
the club. But I'm just a sub; who am I to tell my Master where to do his
work, right?"
Tobias snorted. "You do it all the time."
Noah grinned. "But I pay the price."
"One of these days, I'll stop letting you get whatever you want." Tobias
barely kept himself from laughing. Noah teased, but he was never actually
bad; if there was something to discuss, they handled things far better that
way than with mental tug of war. They both liked the teasing, however, and
Tobias would have been bored with compliant and malleable submissives.
Even if having two of them was a bit of a handful at times.