Discipline of the Private House (40 page)

'Why was it just as well that you managed to submit to all of the puppy training?' Julia said, sitting on the bed next to Jem and presenting her nipples to be played with.

'Because,' Jem said, rolling Julia's right nipple between her fingers, 'if I'd failed, obviously you wouldn't have been able to make your trick announcement. I mean, that worked only because I succeeded, and was able to make my triumphant entrance wearing the uniform you so far-sightedly brought for me.'

Julia stared at her friend in amazement, and then started to laugh.

'What's so funny?' Jem demanded, and pinched the nipple she was playing with.

'Ow!' Julia said. 'You are. You're so naive. Do you really think I would have left you to be a slave in the Chatelaine's dungeons? I'm surprised at your lack of trust. No, my dear; you were coming back with me, and as Supreme Mistress, whether you won or lost your wager with the Chatelaine.'

'Julia!' Jem exclaimed. She was genuinely shocked. 'That's dishonourable. It would have been cheating. I mean, I'm moved by your devotion, but -'

'Don't mention it,' Julia said. 'I just love you too much, that's all. I can't hug you in these chains. Come here and kiss me.'

They kissed for a long time. Julia, in chains, was helpless to prevent Jem pinching her nipples and then toying with the bar that pierced the hood of her clitoris.

'Stop it, darling,' she said. 'You'll make me come. And, anyway,' she added, 'I didn't need to cheat. It looked to me as though you were rather enjoying the things those trainers were doing to you. I didn't know you could be quite that submissive.'

'Neither did I,' Jem said, remembering the punishments she had endured and the acts she had been made to perform in the Chateau. 'But I'm glad I found out. However, I'm not feeling submissive today. So go and fetch me a cane. I imagine your bottom hasn't had a smacking for days. And I'm just in the mood to watch you wriggling in your chains while I turn your pretty bottom bright red.'

The Author's Afterword

I'm writing this in July 1999; It's almost exactly ten years since, as a part-time and very junior editor of what was then a small science fiction imprint, I took on the additional job of managing the Nexus line.

In those days Nexus books had twee covers, with tiny photographs of cheesecake models wearing Victorian dresses. The stories were genuine or pastiche erotica with Victorian, Edwardian or
⁴
Jazz Age' settings: lots of dastardly gents and jolly romps.

One Week In The Private House
was written, in part, to demonstrate a new direction for the imprint and to delineate the limits of what was permissible in modern erotica. I had also laid down comprehensive guidelines for prospective Nexus authors, and I wanted to know how easy - or otherwise - it would be to write a story according to those guidelines.

One Week
went on to become the- imprint's best-selling title of the 1990s, so I suppose I must have been thinking along the right lines.

During the past decade I and the remarkably talented staff who came to join me have launched Black Lace, the imprint for erotica written by and for women, whose success has eclipsed that of Nexus; Idol, homoerotic fiction for men; and, most recently, Sapphire, the imprint for lesbian erotica. Each imprint was the first of its kind in the UK, and strengthened the position of Nexus's parent company as the pre-eminent publisher of erotica.

So that's who Esme is. And as I'm no longer the Nexus publisher, and as I'm proud of the Private House books, I'm happy for Esme to come out of the closet at last.

Whither the Private House?

The Private House is the rather amorphous setting for the three Nexus books I've written:
One Week, Amanda,
and this one,
Discipline.
It's also a state of mind that, given the number of copies of these books that have been sold, I presumably share with a reasonably numerous readership.

I'd like to enlarge and diversify the world of the Private House: more books; a website; illustrations; who knows what else? The problem is that I've written three books in ten years; at this rate I'll be in my dotage before there's a reasonable corpus of Private House merchandise.

Therefore I intend, first of all, to set up a Private House website. On it I hope to feature extracts from the books, and from works that have influenced me, and a gallery of photographs by the photographers whose pictures have illustrated the covers of the Private House books. The site would welcome links to and from other like-minded sites, as well as to the Nexus site. It could become a forum for erotic stories and their authors, and for fetish art and photography. It would, I hope, be the focus for creative people who want to participate in the Private House project, through writing, illustration, photography, or other media.

All this is very ambitious, and I've hardly even begun to think about how to go about doing it. However, I have at least set up a Private House e-mail address and so, if you would like to comment on the Private House or, even better, if you can contribute in any way - with website advice, or stories, or links, or marketing ideas -to the Private House project, please write to me at:

[email protected]

I hope you have enjoyed this book; I enjoyed writing it, and I feel privileged to have been at least partly responsible for making Nexus and its sibling imprints the best in British erotica.

The Bond
by Lindsay Gordon

February 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33480 0 Hank and Missy are not the same as the rest of us. They're on a ride that never ends, together forever, joined as much by their increasingly perverse sexual tastes as by their need to satisfy their special needs. But they're not alone on their journey. The Preacher's after Hank, and he'll do anything to Missy to get him. The long-awaited third novel by the author of
Rites of Obedience
and
The Submission Gallery.

The Slave Auction
by Lisette Ashton
February 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33481 9 Austere, masterful and ruthless, dominatrix Frankie has learnt to enjoy her new life as mistress of the castle. Her days are a paradise of endless punishments and her nights are filled with cruel retribution. But with the return of her arch-enemy McGivern, Frankie's haven is about to be shattered. He is organising a slave auction in which lives will be altered forever, and his ultimate plan is to regain control of the castle. As the dominatrix becomes the dominated, Frankie is left wondering whether things will ever be the same again.

The Pleasure Principle
by Maria del Rey
February 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33482 7 Sex is deviant. Disgusting. Depraved. Sex is banned. And yet despite the law, and the Moral Guardians who police it, a sexual underworld exists which recognises no rule but that of desire. Into this dark world of the flesh enters Detective Rey Coover, a man who must struggle with his own instincts to uncover the truth about those who recognise no limits. Erotica, science fiction and crime collide in one of Maria del Rey's most imaginative and explicit novels. A Nexus Classic.

Devon Cream
by Aishling Morgan
March 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33488 6

Devon Cream
traces the history of the innocent but wilful Octavia Challacombe as she is corrupted by the wicked Maray family. Along with the bouncy Polly Endicott and a group of other buxom Devon girls, she is cajoled and teased, first into providing her own breast milk for the Squire and then into increasingly perverse services. Her unabashed pleasure in her own sexual enjoyment lasts through spankings, bondage and ever more peculiar uses for her milk, until finally she takes her revenge. By the author of
The Rake.

Police Ladies
by Yolanda Celbridge
March 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33489 4

Deep in the Scottish highlands a curious training academy teaches young women how to pound a beat. Restrictive uniforms, strict training and the special use of truncheons characterise the Glenlassie approach to police training - but the recruits are slowly being siphoned off by a neraby pony-girl training establishment and a unique medical clinic. By the author of
The Discipline of Nurse Riding.

Conduct Unbecoming
by Arabella Knight
March 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33490 8

Deep in the English countryside, a group of patriotic young Wrens are doing their bit for the war effort, interrogating women who may or may not have slept with senior enemy officials. Some are willing to talk; others are not so forthcoming. And that's where Captain Cordelia Quidenham comes in. Together with her small, efficient and perfectly formed team, Cordelia applies every method of persuasion to wring information out of her quivering subjects - especially methods that involve the smack of leather on flesh. A Nexus Classic.

A new imprint of lesbian fiction

Getaway
by Suzanne Blaylock
October 1999 Price £6.99 ISBN: 0 352 33443 6 Brilliantly talented Polly Sayers had made two big life shifts concurrently. She's had her first affair with a woman, and she's also stolen the code of an important new piece of software and made her break, doing a runner all the way to a seemingly peaceful coastal community. But things aren't as tranquil as they appear in the haven, as Polly becomes immersed in an insular group of mysterious but very attractive women.

No Angel
by Marian Malone

November 1999 £6.99 ISBN 0 352 33462 2

Sally longs to test her limits and sample forbidden pleasures, yet she's

frightened by the depth of her yearnings. Her journey of self-

discovery begins in the fetish clubs of Brighton and ultimately leads

to an encounter with an enigmatic female stranger. And now that

she's tasted freedom, there's no way she's going back.

B L A G K

/ a c c

Cruel Enchantment
by Janine Ashbless

February 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33483 5

Here are eleven tales of temptation and desire, of longing and fear

and consummation; tales which will carry you to other times and

other worlds. Worlds of the imagination where you will encounter

men and monsters, women and gods. Worlds in which hermits are

visited by succubi and angels; in which dragons steal maidens to sate

special hungers; in which deadly duels of magic are fought on the

battlefield of the naked body and even the dead do not like to sleep

alone.

Tongue in Cheek
by Tabitha Flyte
February 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33484 3

When Sally's relationship ends everything seems to go wrong for her - she can't meet a new man, she's having a bad time at work and she can't seem to make anything work at all. That is, until she starts hanging out around the local sixth-form college, where she finds the boys more than happy to help out - in every way.

Fire and Ice
by Laura Hamilton
March 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33486 X

Nina, auditor extraordinaire, is known as the Ice Queen at work, where her frigid demeanour makes people think she's equally cold in bed. But what her colleagues don't know is that Nina spends her after-work hours locked into fiery games with her boyfriend Andrew, one in which she acts out her deepest fantasy - being a prostitute Nina finds herself being drawn deeper and deeper into London's seedy underground, where everything is for sale and nothing is what it seems.

Wicked Words 2
ed. Kerri Sharp
March 2000 £5.99 ISBN: 0 352 33487 8

Black Lace anthologies have proved to be extremely popular. Following on from the success of the
Pandor's Box
and
Sugar and Spice
compilations, this second
Wicked Words
collection continues to push the erotic envelope. The accent is once again on contemporary settings with a transgressive feel - and the writing is fresh, upbeat in style and hot. This is an ideal introduction to the Black Lace series.

NEXUS BACKLIST

All books are priced £5.99 unless another price is given. If a date is supplied, the book in question will not be available until that month in 1999.

CONTEMPORARY EROTICA