Eighteen Months Read online

  Eighteen Months

  Giulia Napoli

  Eighteen Months - Inside Flap Summary

  In the near future, pretty, young Natalie Adams has finished college, left her boyfriend, and moved 650 miles to the outskirts of a new big city to begin her career and new life. As it happens, the new life is nothing like what she’d expected. The somewhat careless 22-year-old has gotten herself into trouble with the law in her new exurb hometown of River’s Edge. Now she faces punishment beyond anything she expected or considered fair: the temporary but lengthy loss of her sight. That changes not only her life, career, and financial future, but her perception of who and what she is.

  Natalie finds passion in the arms of several people. She finds love in the arms of the woman who is helping her cope with being blind. As her limitations become apparent, she’s pressured into a career as an exotic dancer, which she never would have chosen otherwise. Does the sexuality of the world that she’s attempting to navigate overwhelm her? Can the charming young woman survive the physical, social, and emotional changes forced on her? Will her sense of self remain intact as she negotiates the darkened environment of her new reality? Will she be forced to change so dramatically that Natalie will forever disappear, to be replaced by someone less innocent, more cynical, worldly, experienced, hard, and driven?

  Eighteen Months - Publisher’s Summary

  Eighteen Months is erotic drama at it gut-wrenching best. It takes the reader on a journey from the highest emotional peaks to the deepest valleys. This is a tale of endangered innocence within an erotic mix that few stories can match. Once again, Ms. Napoli has put the reader squarely within the mind of the heroine so that we know her every thought, feel her every experience and see what she sees … or doesn’t see. Eighteen Months is a full-length, plot-driven erotic novel built around fetishes and threatened virtue, along with titillating hetero and bisexuality. Though not a BDSM novel in the traditional sense, Eighteen Months thrusts the heroine into a world where she seems enveloped by a BDSM mist which moves into all facets of her life. The dramatic ending gives the story an element of erotic horror that the reader will not soon forget.

  This is a solid, adult contemporary fantasy novel of well over 110,000 words. It contains fetish erotica including blindness, smoking, hair, addiction, body modification, sensory deprivation, and submission along with riveting heterosexuality and tasteful bisexuality.

  It goes without saying that Eighteen Months is serious adult drama containing open discussions and scenes of intense sexuality, erotica and sexual relations. Parts of Eighteen Months may be too intense for some readers.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, businesses, organizations or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Global Jele Publishing Company

  Publishing Technology for the 21st Century

  eBooks Partners

  [email protected]

  Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Global Jele Publishing Company

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner, in print or electronically, without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and articles. For information address email subject line to Portfolio Manager at [email protected].

  Other books and stories by Giulia Napoli

  About Lena

  Ashley’s Wedding

  Oh Claire!

  Dedication

  To the Hard-Wired Kink in All of Us

  Acknowledgements

  My heart-felt thanks goes to my very special editor, J. Ellyne, who’s contributed so much to my writing skills that Eighteen Months would have been impossible without her invaluable input on lifestyles, the quality of the text, and the need to keep the story balanced and the scenes under control.

  My Global Jele editors get my thanks for reviewing Eighteen Months. I appreciate your openness to my nutty ideas, your interest and help in making this tale a good as it could be, and the high quality of your text editing.

  I also want to thank my First Readers: Most of all, Tanager Leigh. Tanager’s running commentary on the entire book led to major improvements to chapters 1, 19, 20, and 21, and important improvements throughout. She has a unique ability to consider writing skills and style with boundless story ideas, to make any work better.

  My thanks to the other First Readers, including Frank Cipriano, Simone Ezra, Jessica Pace, Karen Richter and Lisa Whitlock. The final version of Eighteen Months is so much better because of the thoughtful, detailed comments and the suggestions you each provided. I’m very much in your debt.

  I’m so fortunate that all of you have my back.

  Giulia Napoli

  USA

  April, 2015

  Table of Contents

  Eighteen Months

  Eighteen Months - Inside Flap Summary

  Eighteen Months - Publisher’s Summary

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Table of Contents

  Prologue – Breaking the Law

  Chapter 1 – You Gotta Go

  Chapter 2 - Blind

  Chapter 3 – Hold On

  Chapter 4 – Starting a New Life

  Chapter 5 – Dancing in the Dark

  Chapter 6 – I Am Not My Hair

  Chapter 7 – Need You Tonight

  Chapter 8 - I Never Thought I’d See the Day

  Chapter 9 – A Change Would Do You Good

  Chapter 10 – DD’s

  Chapter 11 – Dancing Machine

  Chapter 12 – Let’s Get It On

  Chapter 13 – La La Land

  Chapter 14 – Stop Stop Stop

  Chapter 15 – La Isla Bonita

  Chapter 16 - Gypsy

  Chapter 17 – Needle and the Damage Done

  Chapter 18 – If I Were You

  Chapter 19 – It Must Have Been Love

  Chapter 20 – After Dark

  Chapter 21 – End of the Innocence

  Epilogue – By Your Side

  Chapter Title Songs

  About the Author

  Eighteen Months

  Giulia Napoli

  Prologue – Breaking the Law

  My name is Natalie Adams. At least, that’s the name I grew up with. This is my story.

  It takes place a few years from now, in that near future that’s almost like the present, but not quite.

  There is an important difference between now and then, which you need to appreciate to understand my tale. Society has changed how it handles those who break the law, those who commit crimes both minor and major. Sometimes a crime can seem serious, at other times, not so much so. What’s actually right or wrong seems to depend on how society feels at that time.

  For example, no one in the 1950s would ever have dreamed you could get cited for smoking in a bar in Ohio or a park in California. No one in the late 1800s thought smoking opium was anything other than a personal decision, and a personal responsibility. If it wrecked your life, you were at fault. An Italian immigrant to the US in 1920 would have thought the country had gone completely crazy – who would ever ban alcohol? In the first half of the 20th century, European and African Americans couldn’t use the same drinking fountains or public restrooms in Alabama or Mississippi or any of the other segregationist states.

  So, like I said, what’s good and bad are dependent on the times.

  There is one embarrassing, overriding fact that eventually, a few years after you read this book, will cause a step change in how the US treats people who break the law. The fact is that, though our wonderful, free United States has only ab
out 4% of the world’s population, its jails, prisons and penitentiaries hold 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. A quarter of the people jailed in the whole world are jailed in the US!

  America is going to come to the realization that we simply lock up too many of our citizens.

  Being the inventive people that we are, we’ll use our technology to come up with other ways to rehabilitate or punish – pick the term that best fits your personal viewpoint – those who break our fundamental laws, and those who ignore laws that are merely incidental to the times.

  What happened to me involves one such alternative punishment.

  Chapter 1 – You Gotta Go

  The end is in sight, I said to myself as I trudged home across the freshly-snow-covered campus of the University of Connecticut. I was referring to the end of my college days and graduation coming up in a few months. What I didn’t realize was that the end of my relationship with Jaxson was also imminent.

  Thinking about the end of school reminded me that I needed to decide on a job. Oh … I don’t mean that I hadn’t started looking. I was well past that and sitting on four offers. I had to decide which one to accept. Nice problem to have, but I’d earned it. When everyone else was easily sliding through business or education courses, sociology and psychology, I was beating my brains out in a STEM major – science, technology, engineering and math – biological sciences in my case.

  I’d thought about grad school and decided no, not right now. A lab tech job would be fine at this point in my life. I’d interviewed on campus and had visits to two companies in Connecticut, both in Hartford, close to UConn, one up in Boston, and another far out in the Ohio River Valley, in a lovely, new, exurban city called River’s Edge.

  There was no doubt in my mind where the best job was. River’s Edge Biotech was everything I wanted in a career. The money was good, the cost of living modest, and they’d even pay for grad school, should I decide to go. The other three jobs were pretty equal, with the one in Boston maybe slightly more attractive.

  River’s Edge was a long way from here. Frankly, I didn’t know if I could do it on my own, way out there, far from even the tiny support network that I had.

  The biggest problem was my boyfriend, Jaxson. He still had another year of college left, and he wanted me to stay near him. We’d even talked of getting a place together.

  I had no family left at all. My parents and grandparents were gone. I only had a few distant cousins in or near Connecticut, and friends from college who would be scattering everywhere after graduation. Other than Jaxson, there was no one to keep me there.

  Jaxson was, however, a big reason to stay in the Constitution State. I really liked him. I liked the idea of making a life with him. He was my man, and I needed to be with him. I depended on him. If I stayed around UConn, I could drive to either job in Hartford. Then, when Jaxson finished next year, we could decide where to go, and whose career would determine that. I was okay about following him wherever he went, if that’s how he wanted to do it. I could probably find something in most decent-sized places.

  But in the back of my mind, maybe in my soul as well, I didn’t want to only find something. I wanted a meaningful career too. I was willing to put Jaxson first, though, which meant choosing between my two least desirable offers.

  I was in a quandary. That’s why I hadn’t done anything about accepting a job yet.

  That day was Valentine’s Day. Jaxson was going to cook dinner for me at his place that evening. Then we planned to nestle around a fire, alone in his house. He was treating his housemates to a night out on him, so that we could be alone. I thought the whole idea was pretty thoughtful of him.

  He’d asked me to come at 6:00 so he could spend the afternoon cooking – he’s a wonderful cook who makes things up as he goes. He has an innate talent for it, which was especially surprising when you consider that he was a Chemical Engineering major.

  I felt bad about him spending the whole afternoon slaving away in the kitchen by himself, so I’d decided to go over about 2:00 to surprise him and offer to help. At home, I’d changed into one of my favorite sweaters, winter tights, and a short skirt. Three-inch-heeled, calf-length boots adorned my shapely legs. Jaxson always liked this outfit, and I wanted nothing more than to make him happy today. It was Valentine’s, after all, and I really loved Jaxson. Our almost-year together had been a particularly good one for me.

  I spent half an hour getting my very long, streaked-blonde hair just right. It was slightly bouncy and parted in the middle. The ends were meticulously styled with a curling iron so they curled and draped perfectly over my breasts in the front, and down to the middle of my back in gentle waves. It had stopped snowing and the sky had cleared to bright, dry, winter-blue, so I thought my hairstyle would survive the short walk to Jaxson’s.

  I never popped in on Jaxson, and he never showed up unexpectedly at my place either. That was a rule I’d asked for. I hated the idea that he might see me all disheveled if I had no prep time. I’ll admit that I didn’t have the confidence to hang out with no makeup, wearing whatever I happened to have jumped into that morning. Besides, I didn’t like to be interrupted if I were studying or in the middle of something else. I think I got that from my mother, who was the same way. I was trying to get over it, but I was sort of wired like that.

  Anyway, we always called each other before we came over. This time, I was gonna surprise him. A girl can violate her own rules, right?

  Jaxson was surprised alright. I was even more surprised when I knocked, his housemate answered with a very peculiar look on his face, and I stepped in without being invited. A naked Jaxson chose that moment to wander out of his bedroom, toweling his hair dry, dragging a buxom Latina, Gloria Padilla, by the hand behind him. Gloria, hair hanging in wet, limp layers, was more dressed than Jaxson; she was wearing the button-up shirt I’d bought him for Christmas.

  I just stood there. In a moment, Jaxson looked up and saw me. It took another moment for him to realize I was actually standing there.

  “Uh … Natalie … uh …” He stuttered, still holding her hand. He realized it and let go. Gloria looked right at me, clasped her hands, and rested them up on Jaxson’s shoulder, leaning against him with her chubby legs sort of crossed. She had the audacity to stake a claim – right there and then!

  “I thought I’d come and help with dinner.” I said, lamely. Then I recovered a little. “I see you’ve got it covered. Looks like I’m not needed.”

  “Natalie … let me explain …”

  “No need. It’s clear. See ya.” I took off the friendship ring he’d given me and laid it on an end table.

  “Natalie …,” His voice started to sound pleading.

  “Don’t ever call me,” I said and left.

  By the time I got home, I was more angry than hurt. I hadn’t seen it coming. I wondered if this were the first time, or if this had been going on all along. It didn’t matter, trust once lost …

  I entered my apartment, hung up my coat, and immediately called River’s Edge Biotech before I changed my mind. I accepted their job, planning to start in the second half of June. Then, to make sure there was no backing out, I sent emails to the other three companies, turning their job offers down.

  By the time I went to bed, Jaxson had called me 37 times. I’d never answered.

  I decided to treat myself to a skiing trip with friends during the President’s Day long weekend. I’d managed to graft myself onto their plans at the last minute. I had a great time … but I missed Jaxson. Apparently he missed me too. He’d called me at least a dozen times every day since Valentines.

  I made him sweat for another week before I finally gave in and agreed, via email, to meet him at a coffee shop near his house.

  It was a contrite, unkempt Jaxson who met me there, tail between his legs. That was totally uncharacteristic for the dominant male that Jaxson was. I decided I really didn’t like him that way. I’d been comfortably bottom in our relationship, and that’s wh
ere I wanted to be.

  He wanted me back, of course. He kept holding the friendship ring the whole time we talked. I think he was hoping, maybe expecting, that I’d take it out of his hands and put it back on.

  “Come back to me, Natalie,” he asked quietly.

  “That’s probably not gonna happen,” I said, surprising myself. “Besides, I’ve officially accepted the job in River’s Edge, and turned down the other three.”

  “WHAT?” I’d never seen him so surprised. He didn’t believe me. I was sure he didn’t think I had the courage to go that far away.

  “Come June, I’m moving. It’s all settled.”

  “Natalie, don’t do this …”

  It went on like that for a couple of hours. In the end, we decided to start going out again, to see what would become of it. I’m certain that Jaxson thought he could talk me into staying, even giving up the job and commitment I‘d made.

  It didn’t happen. I tried as hard as I could, but I couldn’t bring myself to trust him again – not in the way I needed to trust a long-term love interest. Not enough to change my plans.

  All the timing and logistics of my move had been worked out by May. My last personal act of preparation came from deep within me. I’d awakened one day with an overwhelming need to cleanse myself, to put everything behind me, to get ready to start anew.

  I cut my hair.

  Actually, I paid a quality hairdresser to cut it into a slightly-longer-than-chin-length bob, give me short wispy bangs, and bleach it out to a very pale blonde. I lost over 15 inches of hair that day, along with most of my hair’s color.

  I felt great, and it looked great. Sophisticated, adult, and sexy-urban-professional.

  Jaxson had been aghast.

  As June approached, I prepared to move and say goodbye. Jaxson was still trying to keep me in Connecticut. We’d had some fun, some good times, some decent if predictable sex between winter and my graduation, but I was determined to move. I thought I needed the experience, and needed to get away from Jaxson. I might have been the submissive one in the relationship, but I wasn’t prepared to submit to him anew and be disappointed by another dalliance.