I’ve talked a few times about the hardest chapter for me to write in The Submissive, so I thought I’d do a 180 and share what became my favorite – Chapter Eighteen.
Chapter Eighteen is my favorite for many reasons, the main one being it’s the chapter we first start seeing cracks in Nathaniel’s carefully constructed defensive wall. The setting is his library, the room he’s told Abby she can be herself in and, for a short while, he allows himself the same freedom.
The chapter starts with poetry quoting. I’m a poetry lover myself and I had a blast researching and deciding which poems would fit with what the characters were trying to express. Nathaniel turns the quoting into a game, so it’s also one of the first times we see his playful side. He loses a point for not knowing one of Abby’s quotes, because, really, he can’t know everything, can he? Just that short little scene humanizes him so much, I believe.
The next part involves Nathaniel’s piano. He plays as a way to relieve stress, but, more important, as a way to express himself. In this chapter he drops his defenses once again, allowing Abby to listen as he plays.
Because the book is written from Abby’s POV, we don’t get a lot of insight into Nathaniel. In fact, I’ll go a step farther and say until this point we haven’t seen any insight. Chapter Eighteen is a turning point where we finally see the man underneath the mask and start to think that maybe, just maybe, Nathaniel isn’t the cold-hearted SOB he projects after all.
And did I mention the sexy times on the piano bench that follows Nathaniel playing? One of two of my most favorite love scenes in the book.
