About Uneven
Written by Anah Crow
126 pages / 58000 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-328-4, 1-60370-328-4
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc
Rase Illion is a middle-aged captain of industry, a restrained man with a spotless reputation just emerging from the shadow of his vicious, driven father. Since his father's death, Rase has been living like the old man was still alive, keeping up appearances with his trophy wife and appropriately luxurious house. Which is when Rase meets Gabriel.
Gabriel loses his temper during his first meeting with Rase and lashes out, which unleashes Rase's carefully hidden submissive and masochistic tendencies. His encounter with Gabriel snaps Rase out of his sleepwalking life, and he sets about remaking his world in his own way. Rase isn't the only one shaken by their encounter, though. Can he convince Gabriel to give their relationship a chance?
Review
Jane Davitt, author of Wild Raspberries, writes: Rase Illion is a successful business man, rich to the point where he can buy anything and anyone that he wants. Gabriel Chariton is a stockboy at one of his factories. The two of them seem to be in a clearly defined situation when it comes to who's in charge, but appearances can be deceiving.
'Uneven' is the perfect title for this story by Anah Crow, because everything about the two main characters is exactly that -- and yet, by the end of the story, they've found a balance, a stable point.
The story is told from Rase's point of view and we meet a man who nominally has everything; untold wealth, a beautiful wife, a talented, intelligent son -- but it's all meaningless or tainted because Rase's need to submit, to suffer, always known, never accepted after a traumatic incident in his youth, is being denied.
Soon after his first meeting with Gabriel, Rase is at the point where his life is at a cusp; he's dispensed with his trophy wife, his estranged son is all but lost to him, and he's contemplating suicide.
The way that he takes charge of his life, rapidly crumbling around him, shows us how much strength there is in Rase. With a touching determination, he seeks out the only man he's met who can give him what he needs so desperately; and who has a matching hunger of his own.
What Rase wants and what Gabriel is prepared to give him is raw and wild, pain taken to extremes, pleasure ripped from skin. In a pivotal moment of the book, Gabriel asks Rase a question:
"Tell me what you want." Gabriel got his hand in Rase's hair again and pulled his head back so far that Rase's neck hurt, his back starting to curve like a bow. Gabriel's mouth ghosted over Rase's, hovering there as though Gabriel were breathing in Rase's rasping exhalations.
"Hurt me." Rase's eyes filled up with tears, wetness seeping out to chill his skin, when he heard his own words. "Oh, God, please. Gabriel, please, hurt me."
And Gabriel does. Over and over, each time, healing Rase's emotional scars as he leaves fresh ones on Rase's skin.
Powerful, often poignant, this story is one that swept me along and at times left me breathless with the intensity. It's dark in places, yes, but it's also a love story and one which leads its characters out of the darkness and into the light.
Sample
"What seems to be the problem, gentlemen?" Rase sauntered down the hall, hands in his pockets, ruining the line of his expensive suit in favor of looking as casual as only he could afford to do.
"Sorry for the noise, sir," the senior guard said. Rase thought the fellow's name was Bob; in fact, he distinctly remembered having called him Bob on more than one occasion and no one had seen fit to correct him if he was wrong. That was good enough for Rase. "Kid's got something in his pockets."
The 'kid' was wearing pants with enough pockets that Rase wasn't surprised that he'd forgotten something in one of them. Sure enough, one of the guards dug around in a pocket down by the kid's left ankle -- Rase wondered why you'd need a pocket down there, but he supposed you did if there was something in it -- and came up with a pair of handcuffs, of all things.
"Damn." The kid turned around when they let him go, looking irritated. Rase expected that being pinned up against the wall and searched should engender a certain amount of discomfort, even fear, but there was nothing like that in the stockboy's face. "I knew I forgot something."
Rase reached out and plucked the handcuffs from the guard's hand; they were warm from the young man's body, and Rase thought he could smell the steel. "I do think that one would be hard-pressed to forget that one was carrying a pair of these about, unless you tend to moonlight as a police officer." He let them hang from one finger, trying to ignore the heat in his belly at the sight of them. "And haven't they gone to using those plastic zip-ties?"
The young man shrugged. "Nothing wrong with the classics," he said. "Mind if I have them back now?"
There was only the slightest inflection that made that a question, and Rase almost obeyed without thinking. He dropped the handcuffs in the pocket of his suit jacket instead of handing them back, trying to maintain control of the situation. "I do mind," he said. "Take the boxes to the conference room. You can have them back after work; we can't have you setting off metal detectors all day."
The younger man stood there for a moment, looking Rase over as though he were weighing him, sizing him up. It was an uncomfortable feeling. Then he looked Rase in the eye and nodded, the way Rase did when he was giving someone permission. "Sure thing," he said lightly. "I'll pick them up later." He picked up the boxes easily, for all that they were full of metal parts, and went about Rase's business as he was told.
"Thank you, gentlemen," Rase said to the guards. Their bowed heads and mumbled replies gave Rase back a little of his composure, filling him with a flood of relief.
Jingling the handcuffs in his pocket to remind himself that he was still in control, Rase took his time returning to the conference room. They could wait for him. It was good to make people wait once in a while, so that they didn't forget who set the pace of things.