Matte, pronounced mah-tay, is the word used in some forms of martial arts to stop a fight. It’s the Japanese word for stop or wait. Sam (short for Samantha) has made a hobby out of learning the various fighting disciplines, but she also happens to be a sexual submissive. What better safeword than matte?

Sam wants to find someone to submit to who she can’t beat in a fight. She’s tried to make it work with men from the scene who know nothing about fighting, but it doesn’t feel real to her – she needs someone who can truly control her. However, after dating from the fight scene and discovering not all guys like to spank their girlfriends, she’s decided to just back away from the whole dating thing for a while… until Fate decides to step in.

Warning: This title contains graphic language, consensual BDSM, bondage, and use of toys including crops, clamps, canes, and floggers.

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Reviews:

Diana at The Forbidden Bookshelft gave it 4½ stars out of 5 and said:

When it comes to S&M love stories, Candace Blevins knows her stuff. Her latest SAFEWORD: MATTE hits *all* the right buttons for my inner masochist. It gives a positive portrayal of a safe, sane and consensual S&M relationship. Yes, there are “loving sadists,” and the book’s hero, Ethan, is a swoon-worthy example.

Jennifer at Romance Novel News rated Safeword: Matte a Recommended Read.

Shari at Delighted Reader rated it an A, and said it’s an incredibly honest, refreshing and delightfully painful book.

Rebecca at Guilty Indulgence gave it a 4 out of 5. She liked the fact it shows submission is not a weakness, which spins into a rant about press coverage of Fifty Shades of Grey (which I basically agree with, BTW), and then gets back on topic to say:

The bdsm scenes were original – not the same old, same old – and pushed boundaries. Sam’s inner strength and also her need for connection through submission are the most profound elements that will compel readers to read more by this author.

Safeword: Matte is an honest look into a deliciously erotic world.

Annabel Joseph rated it five stars on Goodreads and said:

BEWARE, the sex scenes are really…AROUSING. Alpha, alpha, ALPHA male here. If you are into demanding yet sensual alpha males, this book is for you.

AlexJouJou gave it four and a half stars on Manic Readers and said:

Creative and imaginative, the scenes are spellbinding. They will take you further than you think you want to go and make you happy you arrived there. Crisp and flavorful prose delights the senses and will have your face contorting six ways from Sunday at many of the actions…

The Dark Haven Maven gave it a 5 of 5 and said:

… I love these characters! I’ve read this story three times and the feeling at the end was the same each time- realism.

 

Sam and Ethan will have you gasping at a painful moment, one minute and then squirming in your seat the next during some of the hottest sex scenes I’ve read in a while. And I’ve read a lot.

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Excerpt:

He released her ankles from her wrists, but left her bound wrist to wrist and ankle to ankle. A rope had been thrown over the beam running across the porch, and he used it to tie her arms over her head, threading it through her cuffs and expertly knotting it. Stepping back, he dried himself while looking at her appraisingly, but didn’t say anything. He’d taken the condom off at some point and his cock was semi-hard. Sam watched as he walked to a side table and picked up a large flogger, and then lost her view of him as he stepped behind her.

The rope above her didn’t let her stand flat footed, she was up on her toes and she knew her calves would be hurting before this was over. The rope had a knot she could grab onto with her hands to take some of her weight, and she knew he’d done that on purpose. She wanted this, wanted to hurt, wanted him to hurt her, wanted him to own her in this way, too. He’d said he was going to flog her until his arms were tired, that could be a very long time. It was raining harder now, a true downpour, what her grandfather would have called a toad strangler. The wind was blowing and every once in a while she felt a mist from the rain blowing in. Not enough to wet her, just a warm light mist on her front.

She heard the flogger swishing through the air and then felt it as she heard the crash of the strands on her back. He set up a rhythm right away. Swish, crash. Swish, crash. Sometimes it hit flat and the thud of it knocked her forward. Sometimes the tips landed and set her skin on fire in more than a dozen spots. She knew he was doing it on purpose, because he kept it balanced – right flat, left flat. Then a while later – right tips, left tips. Swish, crash. Swish, crash. He spent time on her upper back and on her ass, avoiding her kidneys in between. She felt it when the endorphins kicked in, felt her muscles relaxing. She rode the feelings, going from dealing with the pain, to accepting the pain, to finally craving the pain, wanting the next stroke. Needing the next stroke.

“Harder. I need more. It’s not enough, Sir. Please.” Her voice didn’t sound the way she was used to hearing it.

He stopped and walked away, then walked back. The next stroke was what she’d asked for, and it was with a different flogger. She felt the knots in this one; felt them hitting her skin, dragging across it, raising welts in their path. It was perfect, exactly what she needed. She moaned in ecstasy, and then she realized he hadn’t hit her hard the first time – he’d been testing to see how she was going to handle this flogger. Now he was putting muscle into it.

A thunderclap sounded in the distance and it was perfect, Mother Nature lashing them with rain and thunder, and Ethan lashing her in the midst of it. She grabbed onto the knot above her, raising herself up, feeling the burn in her arms as she relieved a little of the burn in her calves, and the flogging went on and on in a perfect rhythm. Swish, crash. Swish, crash. Her back and ass were on fire, her body was like a lit fuse, she needed to come but had no way to do it. Yes, she did. She squeezed her legs together, trying to get enough sensation on her clit to get herself off, and still the flogging continued, the knots striking and dragging.

The thunder and lightning were getting closer, the rain was more ferocious, the warm wind misting her almost constantly now. Swish, crash. Swish, crash. She heard him yell when the thunder roared, but didn’t know what he’d yelled. In between the thunder and the wind she could hear herself giving moans and groans, gasping the humid air in, screaming it out. The pain was exquisite; the burn had turned her back and ass into a large throbbing sex organ, the caress of the flogger making her more and more raw.

She relaxed her hands, let more of her weight go to her calves once again, and then he was behind her, releasing her ankles from each other and lifting her up, sitting her down on his cock and pushing her down onto it. She hadn’t expected it, but it was perfect, this primal claiming. She reached for the knot above her hands again, not because she needed to relieve the weight distribution anymore, she just needed something to hold into.

He fucked her like a madman. She came twice, her orgasm rolling through and over and around her as he played her body, his cock going in and out, his hands and gravity controlling where her body was.
Just as another peal of thunder reverberated against the mountain, shaking the house, the floor of the porch, the rope… he came with a roar she felt more than heard, his chest to her back, and she came with him, her orgasm rolling through her body as the thunder had rolled through the sky.

As Sam was coming back to herself, once her orgasm had finally subsided, she felt Ethan reach up and release her cuffs from the rope above her head. He slowly sank to the floor with her in his arms and gently maneuvered her onto her back, leaning over her and kissing her like a man possessed.