Corporate Needs by Bridget Midway

 

Corporate Needs is the third book in Bridget Midway's Corporate series.

We first met Princess in the first book in this series, Corporate Desires, and now we see her again, still as a Domme, but she's not enjoying it anymore. It's now just a drudge of a job.   

Here's the blurb:

Princess Watkins was damn good at her job as a Dominatrix at Suite Surrender, an exclusive BDSM B&B owned by her friends May and Winston Biggers. At least she thought she was before Winston decides to bring in his friend, Dominant Erik Hendrix, for consideration as his replacement as Dungeon Master over all of the Doms and Dommes working there. Erik Hendrix expected to be made Dungeon Master at Suite Surrender. What he didn't expect was to be competing for the spot. He also didn't expect that his competitor would be a very sexy Domme. Too bad he has a strict policy against dating another Domme. With her skills questioned, Princess wonders if maybe she should go "vanilla" and date the dull, new accountant. But with her strong pull to Erik, she's also starting to question her role as a Dominatrix.

I didn't enjoy the second book in this series, at all. Some of the same things caused problems in the third book - the pacing had issues, some of the submissives' needs seemed to be ridiculed, and there was the idea that an overweight submissive was somehow lesser. I appreciated that the submissive in this case stood up for himself, finally.

The plot was better in the third book, but most of the BDSM just didn't work for me. For instance: Being hit with a single tail hurts. Yes, it's possible to turn the hurt into pleasure, but it still hurts. It's sensation that can be transformed, so that it hurts and brings pleasure at the same time, but to say someone expected it to hurt but only felt pleasure... totally blew that entire scene for me.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline:  Some. 1 of 3.
• Dominance and Submission: Yes, but as in the second book, it's kind of a confusion of who is feeling what and when.  2 of 3.
• Sadism and Masochism: No, I don't believe I saw much sadism, and the biggest masochist was once again the person that was seen as an overweight submissive who didn't matter. He does stand up for himself, eventually, but I can't give points for S&M. 0 of 3
• Extra Point: No

As for the writing elements, the plot had promise but wasn't executed as well as it could have been. Pacing was much better in the third book then in the second, but still had a few issues. Prose and dialogue were fine. Character development was okay.

• Book Rating:: 6 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 3 of 10
• Heat Level: 1 of 5

The romance did finally work for me towards the end of Corporate Needs. I don't believe we were given a strong idea of how the relationship will move forward, but we do have a decent idea that it will work out.

1. Corporate Desires  
2. Corporate Seduction
3. Corporate Needs

.