Wrecking Bernadette (Bernadette, #1)

Dr. Bernadette Garneau holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and is four months out of a four-year relationship. And even though Bernadette owns the house, for some reason she let her ex live there while she moved into a third-floor walk-up apartment. And to top it all off, money has become tight since Jen is late on the rent. Again. If Bernadette could only find her voice and stand up for herself, she might find the peace she longs for.
One good thing about breaking up, though, is that Bernadette is free to explore her repressed sexual desires. Once she gets over her shyness about buying sex toys online, the buying begins. And then she discovers porn. She is embarrassed by the fact that she has a favorite porn star now. One of the videos she watches leads her to another about Dommes and submissives. Curious about what the words mean, she searches the internet and, with raised eyebrows, finds an intriguing website about kinks and fetishes. One made-up email address later and she is setting up a profile and perusing the kinks and fetishes of strangers from all around the world.
It only takes one message from a beautiful and powerful online Mistress and Bernadette is sucked into the world of BDSM. Mistress Ciara takes charge immediately and Bernadette is swept up in the heady power this stranger has over her. And she wants more.
It isn’t until they meet in real life that Bernadette realizes that BDSM is not about getting tied up and whipped by some sex-crazed sadist without your permission. No, it is about consensual power exchange. It is all about trust and being able to let yourself go; something Bernadette hasn’t done since, well, ever.
Bernadette still can’t quite understand the hold Mistress Ciara has over her, but she likes it. A lot. She needs to find a way to keep Mistress Ciara in her life, but being such a newbie in the BDSM world, Bernadette fears she is not enough to hold such a powerful Mistress. She has gotten a taste of the life and she wants more. She _needs_ more.