Rating: 4.5 stars
Buy Links: Amazon | All Romance
Length: Novel
If it flies, drives, or fornicates, it’s cheaper to rent it.
These are the words from Spencer’s friend Percy, trying to get Spencer out of his rut of boredom, exhaustion, and too many hours at work and to instead have a little fun for the night. Although Spencer is turned off by Percy’s crass comment, he is lonely, horny, and desperate enough to try something new. So he goes with Percy to Market Garden, a high end brothel catering to wealthy clients. Once there Spencer is immediately attracted to Nick, a gorgeous Dom who seems to draw Spencer in with just a look. Although he can scarcely believe he is doing it, Spencer hires Nick for the night.
Nicks skills with dominance, control, and giving pain turn out to be just what Spencer needs but had never quite let himself explore. One night together turns into months as Nick trains Spencer on being a submissive and helps him open up to all his inner desires. Along the way Nick makes it clear that their relationship can only be professional, however. Although Spencer feels an emotional connection to Nick, Nick assures him it is the heightened feelings brought on by their sessions and not a true attraction. But when emotions begin to get involved on both sides, it just might upset the professional balance the men have created and separate them for good.
This is the third book in Witt and Voinov’s excellent Market Garden series, and it departs from the first two stories both in length and main characters. Whereas the first two books are linked and feature the same MCs (Tristan and Jared), this story has two new characters (though we do meet Nick briefly at the start of Take It Off). If It Flies is also a novel length story, rather than a short. As a result, we get a bit of a new spin on this series here.
This story is a romance, but primarily it is about Spencer and his own personal journey. At the start of the book we see him really struggling with nerves and uncertainty. He is sort of terrified, thrilled, and in disbelief he is really doing this all at once. But over time Spencer really finds himself, learns more about what he wants and needs, and finds incredible peace and fulfillment in his submission. And I loved his inner voice. His sort of freaked out self as he figures things out and learns to read Nick and himself is amusing and endearing. Here is a scene where Nick introduces Spencer to his bag of toys:
He unzipped the bag. Holy hell. What was half this stuff ? It looked like a mix of sporting equipment, office supplies, kitchen appliances, and torture devices. The nipple clamps, he recognised. Porn was educational once in a while, after all. The long leather-wrapped handle with the thin, knotted tails was pretty self-explanatory, as were the handcuffs. The ball gag was—wait, was that a horse bit?
Nick squatted in front of Spencer, leather trousers creaking and his knee brushing Spencer’s bare leg. He reached into the bag and riffled through it, pushing aside all manner of things that must have come from the junk door in de Sade’s kitchen. Spencer held his breath. The horse bit was a little much. The cat o’ nine tails, maybe. Fuck those spurs or whatever the hell they were.
“Ah. Here we are.” Nick pulled something free, and stood.
…
“Is that even legal in this country?”
“Don’t know.” Nick looked at him, all innocence and angel wings with those lifted eyebrows. “I may have neglected to declare them at customs. Got them at a specialist event.”
Specialist event? Did toppy rentboys with a pile of interrogator tools have their own trade fairs?
While I feel we got to really know Spencer, I do wish Nick was a bit more fleshed out. The story is from Spencer’s POV, and the men share little about their personal lives. So while we do see that Nick enjoys his time with Spencer and learn that feelings between them are growing, I don’t feel like I got to know him very well. But I do think part of that is the nature of the relationship the men have and the story reflects that.
So another great installment to this excellent series. I don’t think it is quite as steamy as the first two (or maybe the others better matched my personal kinks) but it is quite sexy. I think the authors do a great job letting us see Spencer’s growth and I enjoyed watching him find himself and what makes him sing. Really well done and I am eagerly looking forward to more.
