Fantasy is such a funny thing. So often a fantasy isn't what you really want, or it's what you want that you know you shouldn't want, or that you want with a tiny corner of your mind but that the rest of your psyche would be horrified over. Besides, if you could have it and there were no real situational, physical or psychological barriers, it wouldn't be fantasy. And so we construct these elaborate situations that enable us to get past the inner censors and that minor thing called reality so that that one hidden mental corner gets its own way once in a while, if only in a dream.

So Helen is a character in a BDSM fantasy. Helen is a power broker in her office but we don't see her in her office; we see her approaching the motel where her blackmailer is meeting her. Helen did an intemperate thing--if I can call it intemperate--there are probably better ways of categorizing masturbating in plain view on one's rooftop, but intemperate is probably the kindest judgment one can make. Anyway, her blackmailer took pictures, as blackmailers do, and he's using the pictures as leverage to manipulate Helen in a BDSM situation.

However, once Helen is in the situation, she isn't unhappy. She blooms. And, it seems, as a blackmailer, her new Dom is a virgin. He's never done this before. So it is very "hearts and flowers," BDSM style.

Stylistically, there is something unusual going on. The story is written in past tense as most stories are, and then it hits chapter four and goes into present tense. I am sure there is some kind of ambitious literary reason that it changes--maybe for the first time in her life, Helen is living in the moment. It is an interesting perspective that very much reflects immediacy and awareness that is part of the submissive experience.

For the most part, Helene Blackmailed is a sequence of BDSM scenes between Helen and her masterminding Dom. The text has none of the mediocre writing or tentative POV shifting one so often finds in this genre. This is clearly Helen's story as she goes through the paces the "doctor" puts her through. If you're curious or enjoy the BDSM experience and will appreciate a well-written and very graphic scene, you will surely appreciate this story.

Maîtresse
Copyright February 2006