Stevie‘s review of The Billionaire’s Ink Mistress (Billionaires in Bondage, Book 2) by Joely Sue Burkhart
Contemporary Romance published by Samhain Publishing, Ltd. 07 Apr 15
April seems to have been a month for me to jump into series at book two. This time I had no excuse, as the first in the series has been sitting on my e-reader since the book’s release week. Being short of time, however, I decided to read the latest instalment first and go back to the previous one at a point when I have more reading time. While the books do follow on from each other, I had no problem picking up on who the characters were and how they fitted into the plot.
Jackson is an immensely successful lawyer and the best friend of the hero from the first book in the series (are lawyers in the US billionaires? Those in the UK are sometimes rich, but not to that extent as far as I know, but I digress…). All that wealth has come at a price however; Jackson has next to no social life, sleeps at his office more often than he goes home, and takes amphetamines to keep himself going far beyond when he really ought to take a break. All that and he’s not even particularly high up in the firm he works for: his mother is a senior partner, and hoping to be made controlling partner when the current incumbent retires, but Jackson wants promotion based on his own successes, not because of who he’s related to.
On a rare out-of-town visit to his old friend, Jackson is struck by how settled the man is with his new fiancé, Mistress L, and instantly blurts out ‘I want one’. At this point I seriously went off the guy. Women aren’t property, for whomever’s sake. Jackson’s friends overlook his rudeness and set out to find a suitable Mistress for him.
The prime candidate for the role, Diana, has elevated herself to a fair amount of fame on both the tattooing and BDSM scenes, although she’s taken time off from the latter to concentrate on the former. While she’s certainly tattooed and rocks the goth clothing pretty well, the synopsis also promised piercings, and there’s very little treatment of that side of her personality in this story, much to my disappointment.
Fortunately for the characters, Diana and Jackson seem well matched and she starts to introduce him to the delights of submission and spanking. Finding out that he enjoyed watching his friend have sex when the pair of them were at college and suspecting that he was as turned on by the thought of getting caught as by the voyeuristic experience, she also encourages his repressed exhibitionist side. So far, so good, but Jackson is very much rooted in his mother’s law firm, and Diana can’t move across the country to be with him because her own mother is in a care home, from which she can’t be moved. Diana can’t reduce the frequency of visits to her mother (I’d have liked to see the interaction between them to find out why, especially when Diana’s descriptions of her childhood don’t really endear her mother to me). This being a romance, the characters find a compromise that works for everyone in the end, but I really couldn’t get excited about it.
All in all, not my favourite story by this author, nor my kind of female dominant/male submissive story, but then I’m very picky about romances that include BDSM aspects, and was disappointed by the absence of piercings. I’m still going to go back and read the previous book in the series, though.
Grade: C
Summary:
His desire for her pierces deeper than skin.
Billionaires in Bondage, Book 2
The Lawyer
Jackson Montgomery Warring never lets opposing counsel see him sweat. Juggling a dozen billionaire clients on a daily basis, he’s always perfectly prepared, calm, cool and collected. Until he meets his best friend’s fiancée, the luscious Mistress L.
Now he wants a Mistress for himself. Badly. Except the one who’s caught his eye is his complete opposite—a Goth-booted, tatted and pierced priestess of the local tattoo scene.
The Inker
For over a year, Diana Temple has been too busy at her up-and-coming tattoo shop to throw one of her legendary BDSM parties. But for Jackson, she’ll make the time, especially since the slick, fancy lawyer admits he likes to watch.
The Secret
If she thought her edgy style might turn him off, she’s happy to discover she’s wrong. But when she learns his secret addiction, she might refuse to teach him a thing or two about submission.
Or maybe she’ll just punish him harder…
Warning: A rich, successful attorney in a downward spiral, a tattoo artist who happens to be a Mistress, a secret addiction and a peek at exhibitionism/voyeurism.
Read an excerpt.
Other books in this series:
