Check out this free excerpt of Tawny's first BDSM short story collection.
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An Excerpt From: PRIVATE GAMES
© Copyright TAWNY TAYLOR, 2004.
All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave, Inc.
Sure, that’s all Detroit needs: three lunatic women running around in clothing that could barely be legal and putting themselves in asinine situations…so why am I even considering playing along?
Maddy Beaudet gave her two closest friends, Candace and Nic, an intimidating stare, or so she hoped. But the resulting laughter peeling through her living room suggested she’d failed. Miserably. Not that she was surprised. Her visage was never one most people would call intimidating.
“Oh, come on, party-pooper.” Candace drained her glass and set it on the coffee table before reaching for the wine bottle. “You said it yourself. You need a change.”
Maddy snatched the bottle away before her well-meaning but half-cocked friend refilled her glass again. In the process, she knocked her cat from his favorite spot, curled up on her lap. She reached for him, but he snubbed her. “Sorry, Jack, but one more dose and that woman would be near impossible to reason with.” Knowing it took him an hour, maybe two, to quit sulking—the animal was no better than a man—she turned to her friends. “Yeah, a change. As in a new job. Maybe some new clothes. Nothing major…like this!”
“It isn’t major. It’s a simple game among friends, for crying out loud. Now, give me that bottle.”
“No way. And the game you’re suggesting isn’t just your run of the mill game. It’s a man-chasing contest.” She lifted her hand, holding the bottle out of Candace’s reach. “That’s…that’s…“
“A hell of a lot of fun! Is there any other kind of game?” Nic said behind her, right before she filched the bottle from Maddy and handed it to Candace.
“Word games. Board games. Football games.” Maddy groaned as she watched Candace grin and drain the remaining wine from the bottle. “You have no idea what you’re doing.”
Nic nodded. “Oh, yes I do.”
“What women, graduated from elementary school, participate in such ridiculous contests?”
“Lots of them. It’s the latest craze. It was even on Oprah. I got this on the Internet. It’s the number one seller on all the major online retailers.” Candace stood up and shook and gyrated like she did on a nightclub dance floor. Her gold hair whipped around like an enraged mop, if there was such a thing. “Relax, you need to shake things up a bit.”
“Yeah, shake things up,” Nic echoed.
Maddy swallowed a chuckle at Candace and poked her index finger at Nic. “I don’t need any more help from you.”
“Oh, yes you do.”
She scowled at her traitorous friend before turning back to the hyperactive woman in front of her.
Candace looked like she was preparing to run a marathon. Hopping up and down, she half-sung, “You have no idea what might happen.”
“If I jump up and down like that, I might bust loose from this bra.”
“We better put this away for safe keeping until we get back.” Candace gathered the game board and pieces, tossed them in the box and then shoved the deck of Challenge cards in her purse. Then she reached down and gripped Maddy’s hands. “Worse things could happen. By the way, that bra does nothing for you.”
“Yeah. Like I could lose my two thousand bucks.”
“We all put in the same money. That was the deal. Just think about it. You could win! The trip of a lifetime. You’ve got a thirty-percent chance.” With a yank Candace pulled Maddy to her feet and headed toward the door. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“Shopping first. And then you pull your first Challenge card, and we’re going along to make sure you go through with it.”
Maddy dragged her feet as she half-walked, half-slunk onto the porch. “How thoughtful.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Candace slammed the door behind them as they headed out to her car and then pushed Maddy toward the passenger side. “Someday you’ll thank me.”
“I doubt that.”
