Reviewed by Jen B.

TITLE: Trusting Thomas
SERIES: Collars and Cuffs #2
AUTHOR: K.C. Wells
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 282 Pages
BLURB: Christmas is a time for goodwill to all, but Collars and Cuffs co-owner Thomas Williams receives an unexpected gift that chills him to the bone. A Dom from another Manchester club asks Thomas for his help rescuing an abused submissive, Peter Nicholson. Thomas takes in the young man as a favor to a friend, offering space and time to heal, but he makes it clear he’s never had a sub and doesn’t want one.

Peter finds Thomas’s home calm and peaceful, but his past has left him unwilling to trust another Dom. When Thomas doesn’t behave as Peter expects, Peter’s nightmares begin to fade, and he decides he’d like to learn more about D/s life. A well-known trainer of submissives, Thomas begins to teach Peter, but as the new submissive opens up to him, Thomas finds he cares more for Peter than he should. Just as he decides it’s time to find a permanent Dom for Peter, they discover Peter’s tormentor is still very much a threat. With their lives in danger, Thomas can’t deny his feelings for Peter any longer. The question now becomes, can Peter make it out of the lions’ den alive, so that Thomas can tell his boy that he loves him?

REVIEW:

This story centers around Peter, a 26 year old who has been in an extremely abusive, slavish at times, BDSM relationship with dom Curtis.  Another dom, Steven, notices and questions Curtis’ treatment of Peter while attending a party and eventually finds a way to remove Peter from the situation.  He turns to his friend Thomas, part owner of Collars & Cuffs, whom we met in book 1.

Thomas is a bit older at 56, but he has a stellar reputation as a trainer of doms and subs and agrees to take on training Peter.  I don’t think Thomas quite realized what he was getting into with Peter or the extent of the damage that was done to him previously.  But he steps up to the plate and finds alternative ways to help Peter work through his issues.  Mostly he provides some structure as Peter gains confidence and becomes more comfortable with BDSM.  Turns out that he had the complete opposite understanding of what it was all about, and Thomas begins his training by showing him how things should be.

Peter is a total sweetheart.  I wanted to peek in his diary myself just to see what he had gone through in one lump, as opposed to the crumbs we are fed.  Curtis was a horrific dom and just not a good person.  Peter slowly gets stronger with the help of Thomas, and it is a joy to watch.

Honestly, I felt like there was actually even less BDSM action in this story than in the first.  I didn’t actually find that a problem though, as it fit perfectly with this story.  Again, this story centers around Peter’s recovery and issues with the actual BDSM taking a back seat.  Thomas must find ways to show Peter the lifestyle that don’t involve pain or humiliation, so he turns to toys and other less-invasive methods, and when some of Peter’s issues prevent him from being comfortable outside of the house, Thomas works around that by not taking him to the Club.

These guys both seemed right for each other.  One of their biggest obstacles after Peter’s issues was the age gap.  Thirty years is a big gap, and the issue comes up more than once.  It never really felt like that much while I was reading, so I never had an issue with it myself.  For now, these guys make a nice couple where they both need each other for different things.  They still have a lot to work through, but they are certainly on the right path.  There is very little sex here, but I didn’t miss it.  I truly just wanted to see Peter get his life back on track and get past his time with Curtis.  Speaking of Curtis, things seemed to wrap up a bit quickly where he was concerned.

It was really nice seeing Leo and Alex again, as happy as they were when we left them in the first book.  We meet a few new characters, and I was left wondering and looking forward to who would be next.

Jen rates it –

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press :: Amazon :: All Romance eBooks

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Jen B. is one of the official reviewers on The Blog of Sid Love.

To read all her reviews, click the link: JENNIFER B’S REVIEWS
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