cinderella unmasked

Co-written with Marie Treanor

Three balls. Three sexual adventures. One true love.

Queen Ella has long since put girlish notions of romantic love away. In the five years since her husband, King Charming left her to “find himself” on board a pirate ship, she’s been ruling the country alone. Her trusty Chief Steward, Sebastian has been her only confidant and best advisor.

Ella is ready to live again and to experience the sexual pleasures Charming had never been able to give her. She decides to hold a masquerade ball where she’ll indulge herself with a stranger. One ball turns into three with escalating levels of sexual exploits. But are these dalliances enough to satisfy her?

As Ella begins to notice odd similarities between the different masked men who make love to her, she can’t deny her growing emotions. She must learn to trust that not every man will abandon her as her father and husband have done. She must give herself over to the power of real love.

Will Ella’s indiscretions come back to harm her when her stepfamily makes a play for her throne? Will a figure from her past change her future? And just who is the masked man, or men, who’ve fulfilled her wildest sexual fantasies?

 

Reviews

Manic Readers, Valerie, 5 stars, Featured Review
WOW!!!! Talk about "after the Ball is over"!!!! Dee and Treanor's Cinderella Unmasked is superb. I'm sure that every woman who ever sighed in contentment when they heard the words "happily ever after" as a little girl, is even happier now. ...This story takes my favorite fairy tale into a whole new realm.

Love Romances, Valerie, 4 1/2 stars
These two authors have come together and have woven a story that will entertain and arouse. Cinderella’s dalliances with her masked men will leave you panting and you will need some relief yourself. The plot is well done, with intrigues, betrayals and political situations coming to a boil. The fairy godmother will bring a smile to your face as she bumbles through each situation, yet managing to get everything sorted out in the end. Everything flows really well and every character is very well written. Yes, I can highly recommend this story and hope these two talented story writers get together again very soon and give us another hot fairytale.

Fallen Angel Reviews, Kimber, 4 Angels
If you've wondered what happened after Cinderella married Prince Charming, Cinderella Unmasked provides some steamy possibilities. Sebastian is a wonderfully unique beta hero. He exists to serve Queen Ella and he certainly does that. Queen Ella is a well-rounded, real heroine with issues and concerns many women can relate to. The relationship between Sebastian and Queen Ella works. Sex scenes, including a ménage, push the plot and relationship forward. Cinderella Unmasked will have you looking at fairy tales in a completely different light.

Whipped Cream Reviews, Holly, 4 1/2 cherries
This story of love gone cold, and new beginnings is a very hot and sexy story. ... These ladies showed me that what might be true love at sixteen doesn’t necessarily last. People change, and the moral of this story, if there is one, is that sometimes all you can do is roll with the changes and hope for the best. But I loved the real lesson in this: what you really want is usually right in front of you, so pay attention.

Paranormal Romance, Reviewer Katie,
A wickedly erotic grown-up fairytale. ... I highly recommend Cinderella Unmasked as it contains the elements of a great fairy tale, complete with a fairy godmother, but adding adult twists comprising both political intrigue and intensely erotic situations. A great new twist on the classic fairy tale that does not disappoint.

Paranormal Romance, Reviewer Karen
What a tantalizing sequel to the beloved childhood fairytale-- Cinderella. I read this in one night, wanting to know what would happen next. The love scenes scorched the pages, and will leave the reader trying to fan the flames. You will undoubtedly fall in love with this romantic adult fairytale.

Coffee Times, Rypleigh, 4 cups
As a child growing up, I believed that one day I would meet my prince charming and live the happily ever after life. Real life has a way of turning out differently. With all of the characters in attendance in this book, Ms. Dee and Ms. Treanor do a wonderful job of telling the after in the happily ever after. They put a new spin on an old story.

Two Lips Reviews, Sheila, 5 lips
The sex was hot as Cinderella finds her fantasy lovers at the balls (no pun intended). She has the past and the future in her bedroom and must decide which one to hold.

Excerpt

The garden was as cool and quiet as heaven after the heat and noise of the ballroom, but it was hardly the private haven Ella had fantasized. There were many strolling, hand-holding and kissing couples along the winding paths. From behind bushes and thick tree trunks came sounds that suggested much more than kissing and fondling. The grunts and gasps that drifted through the night air made her nipples tighten and her breathing grow ragged.

From behind a high hedge a woman whined like a bitch in heat. Ella glanced at the handsome man walking beside her not even trying to take her hand. Would he do things to her to make her whimper like that? Would he drag her off the path and rip her bodice in his hurry to suckle her breasts? Would he bend her over the nearest stone bench and flip up her skirts to take her from behind? Or would he, like the man in her imagination, push her up against a tree trunk, tell her to wrap her arms around it, then fuck her hard and fast. Her body ached and itched all over just from imagining it and her pussy felt as slippery as warmed butter.

“So what is it that would please a dairymaid queen?” Joseph asked as they strolled along the walkway. The gravel crunched underfoot and the breeze lifted the curls around Ella’s face, cooling her heated cheeks.

“I’m ashamed to ask it, sir. You’ll think me forward and unseemly.” She adopted a false demure tone as she cast another sideways glance at the tall stranger. And then suddenly she wasn’t playing a role as she realized what kind of fire she was prepared to singe her fingers with. To take a strange man as a lover was one thing in a fantasy, quite another in reality. She might be a queen, but that didn’t mean she could do as she liked. On the contrary, her movements were far more scrutinized than a milkmaid’s might be.

“Honestly, I’m not sure what I’d like,” she admitted. “I thought I wanted to make love under the stars like a wild bohemian, but now that we’re out here I’ll confess I’m a little nervous.”

He looked at her and the whites of his eyes gleamed in the moonlight. His teeth did, too, as he spoke. “Perhaps you’d like someone to take control, rescue you from having to make yet another decision in a life that’s too full of decision-making.”

Ella smiled, her pulse leaping yet again at the suggestion. “Perhaps I would.”

He stopped walking then and turned to face her, taking her by the shoulders and looking down into her eyes. “Then that is what I’ll give you, Madam, a night free of choice. Your only responsibility will be to obey my commands. Does that sound possible to you?”

“It sounds absolutely refreshing,” she sighed.

****
“Do you trust me?”

The words hung heavily in the air between them. Perhaps it was the darkness of night that gave them a sinister quality. Ella glimpsed one of her bodyguards at a distance, trying unsuccessfully to blend into the shadows of a tree. Someone was only a cry away if the situation got out of hand. She looked into Joseph’s eyes, shadowed by the mask that surrounded them and nodded.

“Yes, I trust you.”

He glanced at the guard then back at her and smiled. “Maybe not completely, but that’s all right.”

For a moment they stayed locked together with his hands on her shoulders, their gazes meshed. He stared at her mouth, and Ella’s lips trembled with the need to be kissed. Slowly he inclined his head. She rose up on her toes and leaned into him. His warm breath touched her face. It smelled like mint and chocolate. Would his tongue taste the same?

His face filled her vision, and she closed her eyes as his mouth descended toward hers. Then he kissed her cheek, a light brush of his warm lips near the corner of her mouth before he pulled away.

Ella’s eyes flew open. She stared at him with her eyebrows raised.

“I won’t kiss your mouth, Marie. Kissing is for those in love. We’re only temporary lovers.”

“Oh.” Her disappointment was keen, but she’d agreed to play the game his way, to let him direct the course of their evening. She could hardly complain because he didn’t intend to kiss her.

Joseph let go of her shoulders and took her by the hand. “Come.”

Ella walked quickly to keep up with his longer strides. He led her from the gardens near the ballroom, away from the light spilling through the windows and the sweet sorrow of violin music that floated behind them.

“Where are we—”

“No questions,” he commanded. “Blind obedience tonight. I promise I won’t do anything you don’t enjoy.”

They’d crossed the lawn and were approaching the tall hedge of the walking maze, so Ella’s question about destination was answered. But what Joseph would do to her in the dark avenues and blind alleys of the labyrinth remained to be answered.

He stopped before the entrance of the maze and drew a handkerchief from his trouser pocket. He dangled it before her, and Ella understood he was about to blindfold her.

“You don’t know me, but this game won’t be enjoyable unless you trust me. So I ask again—do you trust me?”

He was right, she didn’t know him, and how foolish was she to trust a complete stranger with her body? And yet, despite the fact that his face, physique and voice were foreign to her, there was a quality of familiarity about Joseph. On some deeply elemental level she did trust him. Completely.

Ella took off her violet-colored mask, glad to feel her face uncovered for the first time all evening. She turned her back to him, indicating her readiness to be blindfolded.

A moment later, her eyes were enveloped in darkness as Joseph tied the handkerchief around them. He stood behind her, gripping her shoulders again, and spoke softly near her ear. “I want you to be aware of all your senses. Listen to the night sounds. Breathe in the scents all around you. Feel the air on your skin or the scratch of the hedge against your arm as you pass. I want you to experience everything more deeply than you ever have before, and when we reach the center of the maze…”

He stopped, and Ella held her breath, waiting for him to tell her what would happen there. Instead, his heavy hands left her shoulders as he stepped away from her. She was floating in darkness, alone, without an anchor.

What did he want her to do, fumble along blindly through the maze? Or was she supposed to wait for his direction? She held very still, listening for his breathing. She couldn’t hear it, but did hear the steady chirp of a cricket, the trill of a chorus of frogs and the soft soughing of the breeze through the dense branches of the hedge shrubbery.

But even though she couldn’t hear Joseph, she sensed him nearby and knew he was watching her. The knowledge was incredibly erotic. She wanted to be naked as he gazed on her—naked, blindfolded and vulnerable. Her nipples poked hard against the bodice of her blouse and her skin felt too sensitive against her clothing.

“Walk straight forward.” A low, commanding voice moved her feet. She took a few careful steps, testing the ground, feeling for something that might trip her.

“Take small steps, but take them with confidence,” he ordered.

Ella resisted the urge to put up her hands and feel for obstacles in front of her as she walked several paces forward. Even though her arms didn’t brush against it, she felt the hedge rise on either side of her as she entered the maze. She became aware of how much farther her body’s perceptions extended without sight to identify the world around her.

“Turn left.”

Walking blind, she turned sharply and continued forward again. She thought she was walking straight, but soon felt twigs and leaves scratching her left arm. Remembering that the maze was circular, she adjusted her course from a straight line to a slightly curved one.

The voice came from immediately behind her. “Good. Stop. Turn right then immediately left.”

She felt his warm presence heating her backside even though he didn’t touch her, and she obeyed his directions, moving farther into the maze. The narrow pathways were shadowed and mysterious during the day so it must be pitch black tonight even for Joseph, who was not wearing a blindfold. Yet he gave one command after the other as if he knew the maze intimately. She didn’t feel like they were becoming hopelessly lost.

Although it was a cool evening, in the shelter of the yew hedges Ella’s flesh began to heat from exertion and in anticipation of what would happen next. The sounds of their footsteps on the grass, the snap of an occasional twig, the distant, mournful hooting of an owl, were all magnified by the darkness. The pungent smell of the yews filled her nose, and her body felt more aware, more alive, than it had in a long time.

She continued to walk as Joseph directed her to. His tone wasn’t overbearing, but calmly assertive, and she found the deep rumble of his voice unbearably attractive.

“Stop!” he ordered at last.

Ella felt a wider space around her. She could no longer sense the shrub walls closing in, and to check she extended her arms, feeling for the thicket. Joseph’s footsteps approached. His hot body was right behind hers again. Her heart pounded and she swallowed past the dryness in her throat.

When his hand touched her head, she started, but relaxed as he stroked the length of her hair, which she’d left down and undressed for her role as a milkmaid. She tensed again when he slipped his hands around her neck, but he only caressed her throat before slipping one hand down to the scooped neckline of her blouse. The heat of his palm felt imprinted on her chest.

Joseph reached for the hem of her blouse and lifted it. Ella raised her arms, and he pulled it off her. She was left wearing only a camisole, having rejected a corset for this evening. His mouth touched her bare shoulder and she shivered. The tiny hairs on her forearms rose as he pressed soft, damp kisses down the length of her arm. As he’d promised, every touch felt more intense with the blindfold on. Ella held as still as a doll and let him do what he would with her.