INTRODUCTION: SO MANY WAYS TO BE SUBMISSIVE

When I approached the process of editing sixty-nine more BDSM erotica stories for The Big Book of Submission, Volume 2, a small part of me wondered: How many ways are there to be submissive?

I knew from personal experience and reading and editing lots of kinky sex stories that there were numerous approaches to submission, but still, this question lingered in my mind: Could this volume hold up to the hotness of the first?

Well, I’m here to tell you that I learned a lot about the thrill subs get from taking orders, absorbing pain, giving service, playing with power, getting spanked, being bound, and so much more by editing this book. These authors, who hail from around the world, have unlocked the beauty of submission in so many of its forms.

With an anthology of very short fiction (each story that follows is 1,200 words or less), writers have to do many things at once: take us into the minds of the characters, give context for the BDSM relationship, and turn readers on.

You should know before you start reading that this book puts a premium on variety—there’s not one type of Dominant or one type of submissive in these pages. There are men, women, and nonbinary characters. There are 24/7 lifestyle couples and newcomers to kink. There are those who get off on being stuffed with two cocks at once, those who enjoy being given orders—some easy, some close to impossible—and those who simply want a respite from decision making. Some live for bondage, for being bound and “helpless,” while others put a premium on the rush of pain delivered by the person they trust the most to deliver it.

Others like to live on the edge of public humiliation, of being “found out,” such as the protagonist of “Grocery Run,” in which Rose P. Lethe writes, “Jess did hide her face this time, covering it with her free hand while humiliation and—god help her—the stirrings of arousal poured over her like hot wax. Squeezing her thighs was how she liked to come.”

In a more private but no less delicious form of being humiliated, the narrator of “Way of Life,” by Selena Kitt, experiences a “surge of shame,” the kind that for some submissives provides the ultimate arousal. They may protest that they don’t want the shame, but deep inside they know they do, know it turns them on like nothing else. Kitt writes, “I didn’t stop sucking as he reached into his shirt pocket but I did cry out when he attached a clamp to my throbbing nipples, first one, then the other. They bit into my flesh, a sharp sting that built to a slow, steady burn. He watched me writhe on the machine.” It’s the physical acts, the body’s reactions to that throb and sting, expertly combined with the reason she’s submitting in the first place. In other words, the mental aspect of submission and all it symbolizes is just as meaningful to her as the “punishments” he provides.

Other stories take ritual acts and turn them into sexual wonderlands. In “ Twelve,” R. A. Buckley takes the act of counting and turns it into one that’s undeniably erotic as the narrator recounts a hard spanking. “He makes my body sing and react in ways that I never thought would be possible. I’ve orgasmed from His bare-handed spankings many times in the past, and other ways as well. It’s part of our dynamic and why I love Him so.”

While there are numerous committed kinky couples here, there are also strangers who meet and instantly connect, finding their counterpart who will say those words that are music to their ears, that put them into a mind-set that makes them want to obey (or deliberately disobey, brat style). I welcome readers who’ve known for a long time about their kinks, as well as those who, like some of these characters, are exploring them for the first time.

From rope to role-playing, exhibitionism and multiple partners, sex toys and spankings, and so much more, these characters meet their naughtiest fantasies head on, with some help from the Dominants who give them a push (or in some cases, a not-so-gentle shove) in the right direction. They highlight the symbiotic relationship between top and bottom, where one needs to control and the other thrives on surrendering.

Rachel Kramer Bussel

Atlantic City, New Jersey