Her Roman's Hand Read online

  A Total-E-Bound Publication

  www.total-e-bound.com

  Her Roman’s Hand

  ISBN # 978-0-85715-509-2

  ©Copyright Catherine Chernow 2011

  Cover Art by April Martinez ©Copyright April 2011

  Edited by Andrea Grimm

  Total-E-Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 ...as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2011 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way

  , Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom

  .

  Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content, which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

  HER ROMAN’S HAND

  Catherine Chernow

  Dedication

  For my editor…Andrea Grimm

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  iPod: Apple Inc.

  Facebook: Facebook Inc.

  LoJack: LoJack Corporation

  Tylenol: McNeil Consumer Healthcare

  Chapter One

  Lyla Thomas slowed her car, coming to a complete stop at another red light on the busy main thoroughfare running through Dennisport. The small town sat mid-point on Cape Cod, a perfect little summer vacation spot. As she drove, the hot sun beat down on the tarred road, creating a shimmering mirage. It looked as if a small pond glistened in the middle of the street.

  While she waited for the light to turn green, she thought about everything she’d done so far. She had been whale watching, she’d even experienced that crazy placed called Provincetown, where all the drag queens hung out, but her favourite New England coastal treat came to mind, quickly overtaking all her other memories…

  Lobster roll.

  She reached down and fingered the waistband of her shorts.

  “Damn, they’re tight,” she muttered.

  Inspiring and motivating people to change their lives was her sole support, but lately, it didn’t fulfil her.

  That’s probably why she ate all that lobster roll.

  It filled a void. Deep inside.

  The light finally went from red to green. Lyla pressed her foot on the car’s accelerator and drove down Route 28, her mind filled with ideas on what she could do to branch out on her own. She’d worked for BestUCanBe Corporation for the past ten years, allowing them to capitalise handsomely on her talent. They, in turn, fed her speaking engagements and seminars where she taught employees of major corporations to be the best they could be.

  Bored.

  Stifled.

  Searching for more.

  Those words rang in her head. She’d heard them many times, but now she had to admit that for the most part them came from…

  Her.

  She should be grateful she had a job in this lousy economy, she should be ecstatic that companies still wanted to hire her, but the truth stared her in the face. Lyla couldn’t stand to hear one more person complain about their boss, co-workers and how much damn work they had to do and how tough it was to do it.

  She truly enjoyed the last seminar she did on her own. She promoted it, sold it, and worked it all by herself, savouring the experience of a mixed audience who truly desired to change their lives for the better and not simply mewl about it.

  Monotony was the enemy. It sapped her strength and drive like the most rampant disease. Maybe it would be fun to reinvent her stifling career.

  Ever since she graduated from college, she’d been on her own. She’d had to fight with her parents to let her attend a non-catholic university. Grudgingly, they gave in, but her relationship with them had become strained over the years.

  Then again, she was never quite the obedient child they had hoped for.

  She didn’t want to spend her entire young adult life in the confines of strict, religious-infused education. Lyla always fought for what she wanted, even as a kid. She had to otherwise, her parents would have mowed her down in their quest to make her into the perfect little person they thought she should be.

  That battle continued into adulthood. She won, but at a high price.

  If things didn’t pan out, she couldn’t go crawling back to Mommy and Daddy now.

  She’d network her ass off if she had to. She’d supplement her income by waiting tables or pumping gas or anything she could get her hands on. Whatever she had to do to invigorate her own business as a motivational speaker.

  She glanced at the sunny, blue, cloudless skies surrounding the Cape.

  She had lots of thinking to accomplish. Tons of ideas to sort out.

  At least she picked a wonderful location to do it in.

  Lyla slowed the car to a halt at another red light. She tapped the steering wheel in time to the beat of the music coming from her iPod. Glancing around, she noticed a small house set back from the road.

  She read the words on the sign over the door. “Hardin Books.”

  Strange.

  She’d been up and down Route 28 many times since she’d arrived in Dennis. Why hadn’t she noticed that particular store on her previous trips?

  She could sit her ass on that beach chair the Crossair Resort provided, stick her toes in the water and read a good old-fashioned trashy novel.

  It sounded like heaven.

  She looked to her right and noticed no traffic. She made a sharp turn into the lane next to her then proceeded into the bookstore parking lot.

  She got out, the heat assaulting her face like a hot stream of air from a blow drier. Sweat beaded on her upper lip. She swiped it with her fingers then walked inside the store, the bell above the door jangling.

  Cool air surrounded her. A familiar, musty smell drifted by her nose—old paper and leather. Lyla remembered that odour from her childhood when she used to visit the local library. It wasn’t unpleasant, in fact, it welcomed her and beckoned her further into the store.

  She glanced at the few patrons milling about. Some of them seemed older than dirt. Their wrinkled, tanned faces spoke of much time spent in the sun. Perhaps they were locals. No matter, though, for they were intent on reading and didn’t seem to notice her arrival.

  Good!

  She could browse the shelves brimming with love stories and not be bothered by unwanted company.

  A slow smile spread across her face.

  “Porn for women,” she muttered under her breath, slipping her dark glasses down her nose to glance at the titles and racy covers.

  Memories of her Catholic high school days surfaced. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence would have slapped her hands with a ruler if they knew what she read in secret.

  “I’m a grown woman, damn it, I can read what I want.” She glanced around, hoping no one heard. She hadn’t meant to say that aloud. If she could just curb the impulse to say what was on her mind.

  But old habits die hard.

  No pun i
ntended, sisters.

  Half her problem during her religious school days stemmed from the fact that she always tried to best those stern old nuns. Lyla lost track of the countless times they wrote notes home to her parents.

  Once, they almost expelled her. She had been eighteen then, and would graduate from high school in another few months. The notion that the nuns would toss her out with only a few months to go didn’t sit well with her father. The good sisters had given him a choice. They would punish his wayward daughter, or…

  She would be expelled from school.

  Lyla’s face heated when she thought about the beating she’d received, bent over the principal’s desk. Sister Mary Rutherford had allowed Lyla to keep her panties on, but the humiliation and pain she suffered from that ruler never left her memory.

  She browsed the shelves, looking at book after book, hoping to distract her mind from thoughts of that spanking. Damn, her clit pounded. It always did when memories of that punishment surfaced.

  From across the room, a large tome caught her eye. It sat on a table, out in the open. It seemed old and worn. The light from above made a myriad of odd stones shimmer on the book’s cover.

  She walked towards the book, remembering how she had experienced the last laugh, enjoying the beating she received from the nuns. If they thought they could strike the insolence from her, they were sadly mistaken.

  Once she discovered how much she enjoyed that spanking, she strove to break every rule possible.

  Her mouth curved into a wry grin.

  Her parents’ generous donation is what enabled her to stay at school. The disgrace they’d suffer if their hellion daughter remained at home would devastate them.

  Maybe that’s why motivational speaking appealed so much to Lyla. She enjoyed helping people buck their fears. If you wanted to change your life, you had to break free and purge all those self-imposed rules and regulations from your mind.

  Nothing changes if nothing changes.

  She stopped by the table where the large, old book lay. Curious, she marvelled at the ornate, gilded cover. She struggled to lift it, realising it was better to leave it on the table.

  She opened the unusual cover, imbedded with odd stones in many different colours.

  Lyla read the words on the first page aloud, “Coitus more ferarum.”

  She looked around to see if anyone heard. Heads bent, eyes on the books in their laps, the few customers in the store besides Lyla seemed intent on reading. The rest continued to browse, undisturbed by her outburst. It appeared as though none of them understood any words she uttered.

  Neither did she.

  When she looked down at the page again, one word, written in English, appeared as if someone actually wrote on the yellowed paper in a kind of scrawl…Seek.

  She snapped her brows together in thought, curiosity making her turn the page.

  The good sisters of Perpetual Indulgence would have been shocked if they knew what she viewed next.

  “Holy shit!”

  That outburst got the bookstore patrons’ attention. One by one, they lifted their heads, craning their necks while they scowled, annoyed that someone disturbed their leisure.

  Lyla’s eyes widened as they beheld a drawing.

  A man and woman, dressed in clothing from a bygone era, were doing it ‘doggie style’, the woman’s white tunic rucked up over her ass. It revealed just a glimpse of pussy between her legs.

  Snap!

  She closed the book, shaking her head, wondering why in hell the owner of the bookstore would leave in plain sight a volume filled with flagrantly pornographic pictures.

  She read the title, “A History of our World Through Illustration.”

  She couldn’t argue that it was illustrated. However, if that’s what the author thought olden times entailed, they had another think coming.

  She snuck another peek, inquisitiveness eclipsing her outrage as she read line after line of detailed description, but not of chronological details regarding major battles or events of long-gone days.

  She whispered the words on the next page, “‘First, the man must arouse the woman. This can be done in several ways. Some prefer slow stroking at the entrance to the woman’s vallum’.” She bit down on her lower lip while she concentrated. “Vallum,” she said aloud. “Vallum,” she repeated, tapping her chin in thought.

  Lyla flipped to the next page, where she saw a pencil sketch of a woman, her legs spread, while she sat on a man’s lap. His hand lay on her pussy.

  In the next instant, realisation dawned, the meaning of the word that had eluded her becoming clear. “Vagina,” she whispered. “That’s what the hell vallum means.” She shook her head and rolled her eyes. “Sisters, you’d have washed my mouth out with soap and made me write on the blackboard a hundred times, ‘I will not be a naughty girl and look at dirty pictures’.”

  A warm, rich chuckle drifted by her ears. A deep, male voice followed. “You must have been a holy terror.”

  She turned abruptly, her nose colliding with a wide chest, covered by a snowy-white T-shirt.

  She glanced upwards, her eyes meeting a sculpted, angular face that held the faintest shadow of a beard. Dark eyes locked with hers. Jet-black, wavy hair framed the handsome visage.

  Lyla studied the man’s nose, for it had an unusual, prominent, high bridge.

  “I always try and guess which drawing the customer will like best.” His eyes never left her face.

  She squared off with him, for his large, smoky orbs held challenge, as if he dared her to look some more. Lyla never could resist a taunt.

  He moved closer, his exotic scent intoxicating, a mix of citrus, mint, and a musky, male smell that Lyla could only describe as…him.

  “The ancients had no qualms about depicting sex in all forms.” He looked over her shoulder, his nearness unsettling. Her belly quivered in response.

  Lyla turned the pages, the breath catching in her chest. She didn’t know where her boldness rose from, while a sudden urge surfaced to view the book with this man.

  One drawing depicted a woman, her dress hiked up around her hips, her bottom naked. A man stood behind her, beating her bare ass with what looked to be a wispy broom.

  Lyla’s body responded to the image, her pussy beating in time with her heart. She squeezed her legs shut to keep the throbbing at bay.

  He turned the book slightly. Gazing at the illustration, he told her, “Ah, yes. That particular punishment device is an early form of a whip known as a ‘flagrum’.”

  “Must’ve hurt,” she muttered, her heart racing in response to the image before her.

  He shook his head. “Not as much as the later version. That one had metal tips attached to the lashes.” He peered at the drawing again. “What she’s receiving is fustigatio. That’s a beating for a minor offence—more like a spanking.”

  “Such archaic brutality. I can’t believe men were allowed to do that.”

  He raised one dark brow. “Most ancient societies were patriarchal, filled with dominant alpha males.” His voice dipped an octave. “Who, for the most part believed in chastising women the way that drawing depicts.”

  “What kind of society? I mean, what people?”

  He glanced at the book again. “Judging from the type of whip, it could possibly be antiquated Roman times.”

  “It’s brutal and humiliating.” She tucked some hair behind one of her ears, but her hand shook. “I mean getting beat that way, it’s embarrassing.”

  A corner of his mouth lifted. “That’s the idea.”

  “No one should be whipped or spanked, especially women. We’re not children, we’re adults and we’re too old to be—”

  “A Roman man believes a woman is never too old to be spanked.”

  Heat crept into her face. “Are we uh, talking back then or now?”

  “I’ll leave you to guess at that. While you are, I’ll try and figure out which illustration is your favourite.”

  She started to walk a
way, knowing her face had to be red as a beet.

  What in hell possessed me to carry on such a stupid conversation? And with this total stranger!

  “Let’s see now,” he mused aloud. “I’ll bet you liked this last picture. The whipping. Pain and subjugation. Interesting. I would have never pegged you for that, but I must admit, I’m pleasantly surprised.”

  She turned around and lifted her chin, hoping she appeared confident when her legs turned rubbery. Her cheeks burned like the bright sun scorching the pavement outside.

  “You’re Lyla Thomas, aren’t you?” he asked. “The one who gives all the seminars on changing your life?”

  She nodded, realising that her dark glasses didn’t hide her face well. She should have been thrilled that this guy recognised her, particularly since she wanted to revamp her career, but Cape Cod was supposed to be a quiet, little getaway vacation so she could figure out not just her job situation but also why her last three relationships were so fucked up.

  She didn’t need to get involved in another one, no matter how ruggedly handsome this man appeared to be.

  And she didn’t need annoying questions, or ridiculous discussions, or her head filled with notions about spanking.

  Her body hummed, the pleasant sensation making her breasts heavy.

  She removed her glasses and met Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome’s gaze with a cool look.

  “Okay. You got me. I am Lyla Thomas.”

  His smile widened. “I attended your ‘Get What You Want Out of Life’ seminar. You changed my life.”

  “How so?” A tiny buzz of pleasure shot through her. Flattery will get you everywhere.

  “Let’s just say I left a very boring, very stale job to do what I really wanted, open a rare book store.” He swept his hand out before him. “Welcome to Hardin Books.” He bowed slightly. “Mark Hardin, bookstore owner and history student, at your service.”