Domination by Lyra Byrnes Page B

was never at a loss for
words. It’s what? she thought desperately. It’s who?
    “Just keep your head down and don’t be a fool girl,” he
finished.
    “I will. I mean, I won’t.” She gulped the champagne. “What
did you mean about your reputation? Because I saw some things about you, on the
Web mostly.”
    “Nasty stuff. Most of it tripe.”
    “But some of it true?”
    “If there’s something you want to know about me, Josie, just
ask.” His blue eyes were steady.
    “I saw a whip in your suitcase in one picture.”
    “That was from another time.”
    “A good time?”
    “Love—” He took her chin in one hand. “They’re all good
times.”
    “But I mean, do you still want to? You know, with that?” She
heard herself babbling nonsense but could not stop.
    Bram kissed her gently.
    “Go to bed, Josie.”
    * * * * *
    Back in her room Josie tried to organize her concert notes
but her head was a jumble. All she could think about was Bram pounding into
her, her back roughened by the concrete, his moans in her ear.
    She had reached some sort of threshold tonight and crossed
over without looking back. Fighting back, smarting off to a man who could have
any woman he wanted, being so desired by him—she hardly recognized the old
Josie in there. But she was the one he wanted. No reason to be jealous of
anyone, especially the little groupies who yearned for him. Nice girls, maybe,
simple, pretty girls like Melanie, but not his.
    Shit, Melanie. She had meant to check that email.
    She clicked open the laptop.
     
    Are you writing porn now lol? Did this really happen or
is it your fantasy? Because if it’s your fantasy, OMG, it’s mine too!! Send
more. It gets lonely in L.A. Love you, Josie. Call me!
     
    What the hell? Attached to the mail was a link to Adventures
in Submission , the secret blog she was keeping about her sexual journey.
    Hastily she checked the privacy settings on the blog. Sure
enough she’d accidentally cut and pasted Mel’s address into Recipients.
    Well, in for a penny, she thought, beginning a new
post. Mel would bust a gasket when she heard about tonight.

Chapter Eleven
     
    She had an hour before going out to do research, something
she had woefully neglected until now. Domination planned to dominate the French
Quarter on their free night and Josie shuddered to think what sort of debauchery
the four of them would get into. With a reporter along for the ride, no less.
Debauchery wasn’t her strong suit.
    But Bram seemed to disagree. “Leave the notebook, purse too,”
he’d told her. “And wear a dress.”
    “Why?”
    “I like dresses.”
    “Yes, your highness. Anything else?”
    “Riot helmet, maybe.”
    After a shower and a time-consuming struggle to get soft
tendrils of hair to fall from her chignon just right, she put on makeup and
opened her laptop.
    Domination’s lyrics weren’t hard to find or to figure
out—most were about darkness, nightmares, power, death and other cheery
subjects. Jet had been right. There weren’t a lot of rhymes for “blood”.
    The later songs became more complex and obscure. A quick
search of key words revealed that the album Ni Sanger detailed the nine
worlds of Norse mythology. There was the unreleased Violation , of
course, Bram’s road-weary joke, which fans had tried to translate with
inaccurate results.
    And then there was Goddess of the Nightworld .
     
    She’ll worship you to hell and back/she’ll beat your body
blue and black/No comfort in this promised land/The ocean pulls you from the
sand/The soulless tart, she eats your heart/And spits the bones out in her
hand.
     
    Yikes. Interesting rhyme scheme, though, and even if the
idea of a heart with bones was inaccurate, the image gave Josie the shivers.
    Sounded like quite a girl. Could this be the one who hurt
Bram, the girl he couldn’t forget? No wonder he was still bitter. He made her
sound like an all-powerful being—vicious, gorgeous, irresistibly alluring but
marked with doom.