Lose Yourself (The Desires Unlocked Trilogy Part Two) Read Online Free Page A

at her friend.
    ‘I don’t know . . . I’m not even sure where I’m staying yet . . .’
    ‘My aunt has a whole house in Kensington we could use. It’s really posh,’ Antonella says smugly, knowing full well Valentina has no such useful relative in London.
    ‘You have to let me come with you. I can help you curate your show . . . you know how good I am at that. Besides –’ she licks her lips – ‘there are some really cool clubs in London. We could have so much fun.’
    Valentina cannot refuse her friend; maybe it would be good to have someone else there with her. If Antonella is by her side, distracting her, she might not be so tempted to contact Theo. And this is something she really mustn’t do. She can’t go back to all that pain.
    ‘OK,’ she says, ‘but let’s talk about it later. Don’t you think we’d better go in?’
    Antonella stands up and stretches. Despite the fact she is wearing spiky stilettos, she is still shorter than Valentina. She tugs at her corset, repositioning her breasts. She is wearing such a tiny red lacy G-string, she may as well not bother. Valentina still finds it bizarre seeing her friend dressed up this way and even more so taking pictures of her when she is in full flight in her dominatrix personna.
    ‘No harm to keep him waiting . . . I am in charge tonight,’ Antonella declares, as she saunters out of the reception area of Leonardo’s club and down the black marbled corridor.
    ‘Well, now, that is debatable,’ Valentina counters, catching up with her, ‘since this is my scenario you are a part of.’
    ‘Oh, yes, one of your erotic compositions.’ Antonella spins around, her eyes gleaming. ‘You see you have to bring me to London, seeing as I am one of the stars of the show!’
    Inside the Velvet Underworld, all is as Valentina left it this afternoon when she set up the shoot, apart from the fact that the hammock she constructed is now occupied. Tonight she is extending her pictorial study of the dominatrix, using Antonella, as usual, as the main protagonist. She managed to persuade Leonardo to let her create her own version of a harness-cum-hammock, hung above the four-poster bed. She has removed all elements of crimson or purple from the area around the bed, covering its surface with a pristine white sheet. She’s taken down the heavy drapes and replaced them with mosquito netting that flutters in the candlelight. She has two arc lights positioned at either corner of the room, throwing dramatic shadows of the hammock across the walls and ceiling.
    She has spent weeks finding the right material for her hammock. This picture is so important in the series because she is finally managing to get over her aversion to the whole dominatrix scene. Although she has learnt to respond to various levels of pleasurable pain herself as a submissive, she still struggles to find the inflicting of pain on someone else erotic, despite the fact that Leonardo tells her she is being selfish about it – that those participating want to feel these extreme sensations. She still shudders when she remembers the first time she went into the Velvet Underworld. It has only been through Antonella that she has been able to understand a little about the turn-on of being a dominatrix.
    ‘It’s not just about power,’ her friend told her. ‘It’s about control. It’s a big responsibility to know how far to go, especially if they are wearing a gag and can’t speak. You have to be able to read their bodies . . . You need to be incredibly sensitive.’
    ‘But how do you find it erotic?’ Valentina had asked her. ‘It just doesn’t turn me on.’
    ‘Well, that’s you, and that’s OK. What I like about it is that I can design my own fantasy. It’s not about hurting men, Valentina. You know I love men. It’s about seeing the vulnerability inside a man – his fragility. I love that.’
    It was when she explained it like this that Valentina began to get it. And so she