Beautiful Boy by Grace R. Duncan: #GuestPost #Review #Giveaway

Beautiful Boy

by Grace R. Duncan

Length: 280 pages

Genres: Contemporary, Gay (M/M), BDSM, Romance

Malcolm Tate hung up his flogger when his submissive sought out another Dom and landed in the hands of a serial killer. Convinced his lack of dominance sent his sub away, Mal has spent two years blaming himself for what happened. But when his best friend finally convinces him to go back to the local dungeon, Mal’s grateful. Especially when he wins beautiful, submissive, firmly-closeted Kyle Bingham in a charity slave auction.

College grad Kyle hasn’t earned enough to move out of the loft his conservative, homophobic parents bought, much less to buy any of the other things still in their name. When he’s won at auction by the hot, amazing Mal, he’s shocked that anyone would want him. No one else seemed to—not his parents, his former Doms, or any of his disastrous dates. 

But Mal does want him and Kyle lets his guard down, only to be outed to his parents. With his world crashing down, he must find a way to trust Mal—and their developing relationship—or risk losing everything.

Safewords are not a Bad Thing 

There’s a common misconception among those not in the lifestyle that using a safeword is paramount to quitting. That there’s shame somehow in using one, like you can’t take everything you’re given or some other rubbish. 

But that is what I just said. Rubbish. 

Safewords are used for all manner of reasons, not the least of which something like muscle cramps that have nothing to do with anything you’re doing. Sometimes safewords are used because the cuff came open. 

And sometimes a Dom uses a safeword. Yes, yes they do. Because maybe something’s not working for them. 

If my Dom pushes me a little too far on pain or is pushing my soft limits too much, “saffron” tells him this. He slows down, goes about it a different way, or changes to a different type of pain. That does not, by any means, mean I fail as a sub. 

It takes a lot of trust to put yourself in the hands of another person with only a single word to stop them if things go wrong. It takes a lot of trust to know that person isn’t going to let YOU harm them and will use their word when it’s necessary. Trust runs both ways in a D/s relationship.

Mal

I teased him more, working him over while still keeping his mouth busy. His hands fluttered from my shoulders to my arms and back as if he didn’t know what to do with them. I let him go, focusing on pushing him as much as I could.

Finally, he broke the kiss, crying out, his head falling back. “Master, please…,” he moaned.

“Oh no, not for you, boy. No coming,” I said, my voice husky.

He rolled his head on his shoulders, hands squeezing my arms. I stroked him again, pulling another cry from him. “Master! Oh God, Master, please! I can’t….” He shook slightly in my arms. His legs gripped my hips hard and his hands tightened even more.

I pushed him, hand sliding firmly over his dick now, needing to see how far he’d go. His muscles strained and I stroked him faster.

“Master!” Kyle shouted, and then his eyes flew open. He struggled for another few seconds, then shouted, “Lemon, Master!”

I let go of his cock.

It jumped hard and he panted with the effort, his face a mask of distress. “I’m sor—”

“Shh,” I said, kissing his scrunched forehead. “Never apologize for using a safeword, no matter why you’re using it. I mean it.” He might not have realized how much trust doing so showed, but I did, and the knowledge filled me with warmth. I swore not to violate that trust for anything.

Tears sprang to his eyes. “But—”

I pulled him in, rubbing my hand down his back. “No,” I said firmly. “I am not disappointed in you at all. You’ve pleased me, in fact. I’m glad to know you’ll use it. I need to know you’ll use it. I’d rather find out from something like this than if I pushed you too far with pain.” I kissed his forehead again, then tilted his face up to me. “Do you understand?”

He blinked at me a few times. “Yes,” he said, but he was still frowning.

I paused, rubbing his back as I thought it through. “We don’t know each other that well yet. You need to know I’ll honor your safewords, and I need to know you’ll use them. You’ve made me very happy to know you will.”

He continued to stare at me for another moment, and then he nodded. “I understand. Thank you.”

I kissed him again but kept it soft. “Thank you, baby,” I murmured when we broke apart. “I want you to understand something else.”

He scrunched his forehead at me in puzzlement. “What’s that, Master?”

“I know there are some Doms out there who set their subs up to fail so they can punish them.”

Kyle dropped his gaze to my chest.

“Let me guess, at least one of your former Doms did that, didn’t they?”

He didn’t speak, just nodded again.

“Yeah, well, I’m not like that. It’s bullshit. I’m not going to tell you, you can’t come, that you’ll get punished if you do, then make it impossible for you to hold off.”

He looked up at me, eyebrows up. “No?”

“No. Look, there’s this great fantasy out there that we can completely control your orgasms. That we can command you to come or not at our whim. And sure, with time I’m sure it can work that way. But it’s not going to happen after one night or in one play session. So, I’m not about to expect that. If I push you, and you can’t stop, I expect you to safeword. Okay?”

He stared at me for a long time, then finally nodded. “I understand, Master. I… I’ve….” He took a deep breath. “I spent a lot of time training with Master Nash. I kept thinking I was… that something was wrong with me if I used them, you know? So I didn’t.”

I smiled. “Yeah, I know. Not with me, yeah?”

He nodded.

“Good.” I held him close and brushed a thumb over his cheek. “I want you again. But I think we ought to maybe take a break from this stuff for a while, hmm?”

* * *

If Kyle can get past his fears, he could see what his beloved Master Mal does: a beautiful boy that deserves his collar--and heart.

4 of 5 stars

Holy hotness!! The first thing that comes to mind when I think about Beautiful Boy is sex... lots and lots of sex. Mal and Kyle have amazing chemistry; the kind that will blow you out of the water and leave you panting for more.

Their meeting is less than conventional. They had both stepped outside their comfort zones and what starts as a sensually charged scene leaves them both yearning for more. The road from lust to love is a bit rocky as Mal and Kyle have demons from their pasts they need to face inorder to give themselves fully to each other. But boy-oh-boy it's worth it in the end!

The moral of Beautiful Boy is that amazing things come to those who are willing to work for it. That message is wrapped up in one of the sexiest packages I've read in a long time. Grace is the queen of kink, she takes hurt/comfort/heal to a whole new level with a developing story line, enchanting characters and heartwarming romance. I loved it!!!

Grace Duncan grew up with a wild imagination. She told stories from an early age – many of which got her into trouble. Eventually, she learned to channel that imagination into less troublesome areas, including fanfiction, which is what has led her to writing male/male erotica.

A gypsy in her own right, Grace has lived all over the United States. She has currently set up camp in East Texas with her husband and children – both the human and furry kind.

As one of those rare creatures who loves research, Grace can get lost for hours on the internet, reading up on any number of strange and different topics. She can also be found writing fanfiction, reading fantasy, crime, suspense, romance and other erotica or even dabbling in art.

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