Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or a work of somebody else’s that has at least one LGBT character at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974

This week, something PG-13 that I’ve been working on off-and-on for a few years. A BDSM Sci-Fi book called “Tatts.” Set in a post-cataclysmic world where slavery (usually for criminal offenses) is legal. Our main characters are two thirty-somethings: Kyle who bought Andrew (renamed “The Kid”) to work in his construction business but they start becoming friends and more than that. But freeing a slave is complicated and expensive and Kyle has had some financial reversals and may get in trouble himself. The bands of servitude tattooed on The Kid’s right biceps will cause him intense pain if he disobeys or tries to escape.

In this snippet, Kyle and the Kid take in a local Faire and meet two acquaintances: Gil and Shane who are happily showing off their new acquisition…

Their acquisition stood between them; he was six-foot-one, about an inch taller than Gil, well-defined muscles, reddish-brown hair cut short and a reddish goatee, wearing jeans and a sleeveless gray shirt with a bill of sale fixed to the front. The Kid looked the man in the eyes and nodded slightly. He had been in a few of those shirts in the last eight years. Gil and Shane had their arms draped around him, Shane holding happily to their acquisition’s arm right where the bands of servitude were.

The man looked to be about Gil and Shane’s age, about thirty and had a resigned expression on his face, but with a half-smile.

Not your first go-round in servitude the Kid thought, self consciously rubbing the chain tattooed around his biceps.

Here’s one more snippet.

Gil grinned broader and slipped his hand under their acquisition’s shirt.

“Does he have a name…yet?” Kyle asked.

“Uh, my name is Steve,” the slave said. “Unless they decide different.”

“Well, I’m Kyle and this is The Kid.” Kyle said. “He came with the name.”

Hope your week is going better than Steve and The Kid’s in the story. There is always room for optimism. ———–jeff baker