Alice After Hours by Galia Ryan

Alice After Hours

Galia Ryan

    Fanny Press
    PO Box 70515
    Seattle, WA 98127

    For more information go to: www.fannypress.com
    galiaryan.fannypress.com

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

    Cover design by Sabrina Sun

    Alice After Hours
    Copyright © 2015 by Galia Ryan

    ISBN: 978-1-60381-361-7 (Trade Paper)
    ISBN: 978-1-60381-362-4 (eBook)

    Produced in the United States of America

    * * *

    As Always, For Jason

    * * *

Chapter 1
    G athering the remnants of her evening meal—a medium-sized portion of dragon noodles with a side of spicy prawns—Alice crossed to her kitchen and dumped the foil trays into the bin and her plate and fork in the sink. Then she returned to her desk in the far corner of her living space and quickly scrolled down the final page of her report. Completing it had taken longer than she’d thought. In fact it had turned into a marathon forty-eight hour slog, but the effort to finish had been worth it. Now she could take off her glasses, pin up her dark hair, and indulge in a long hot soak in the tub with some deliciously expensive bath oil and an aromatic candle for ambiance.
    Alice knew her colleagues considered her a workaholic. It hadn’t always been that way. A fun-loving twenty-seven-year-old, she’d had her fair share of moments. Why, she’d even been engaged to be married once, but that fell apart when for no apparent reason her fiancé got cold feet. She’d had to return the wedding gifts, cancel the arrangements, and write explanatory notes to family and friends, even strangers. That was why she preferred a no-strings arrangement now, and often chose men already in a committed relationship. Sure it was all very predictable but there was no way she could be hurt.
    She wasn’t lonely. She still had a warm circle of girlfriends to add richness to her life; it was just a shame that all but one had moved out of the city, making the chance for a get-together rare. And then there was Moriarty—a scrawny, aloof mongrel of a cat that had emerged from the shadows one day. Fiercely independent, he was also completely unreliable, since he tended to come and go without notice. Sometimes a whole week would pass before he returned.
    Theoretically, things could change at any moment and Mr. Right could thunder into their lives on his white steed and whisk them both away to realms unknown. However, she considered the scenario unlikely.
    Just as she was about to log off her laptop, Alice hesitated.
    Last night, too wired to sleep, she’d poured herself a finger or two of bourbon and began to trawl the Internet. She chanced upon an article relating to sexual domination, a concept she found ludicrous. Even so, she was soon singling out certain words and feeding them back into a search engine.
    The results were astonishing, though the first few offerings were little more than low-class porn sites featuring graphic images of women tightly bound and gagged, and certainly not her thing. But halfway down the second page was a forum, a place for those of similar mind to chat and exchange views. Tumbler in hand, she scrolled down the list of threads posted by the site’s users and then opened one at random.
    A moment later, she snorted in disbelief.
    Someone—a woman, obviously—was extolling the joys of submission, and another poster had replied in support. Going even further, she announced her complete and unwavering belief that she should not only subjugate herself to her husband by obeying him, but also go out of her way to please—in whatever way he asked.
    With a shake