Close your eyes … #EroticRomance #BDSM #MFRWHooks

Welcome to this week’s Marketing for Romance Authors Book Hooks blog hop.

My excerpt today is from Bound and Breathless, my boxed set of BDSM erotic romance stories. I get annoyed by a lot of the BDSM erotic romance that I read. To me, it does not seem sufficiently serious or respectful. It rarely captures the intensity of power exchange or the way a D/s relationship can change your view of the world and of yourself.

I wrote the stories in Bound and Breathless to try and convey the reality of dominance and submission – or at least, my reality. The plots of these stories aren’t autobiographical, but the emotions are.

My hook today comes from the story “Muse”.

 

The Hook

“Will you sign my copy of your book?”

Her wrist ached from two hours of autographs and she was desperate for caffeine, but she managed a professional smile. “Of course.”

The last person in a line that had stretched out the door at the start of the event, he didn’t look like her typical reader. His shaggy black hair needed cutting and he could have used a shave. He wore beige zip-up coveralls, a Yankees jacket, and dusty boots. A bit scruffy. Forgettable. His eyes, though, were anything but. They burned in his aquiline face, fierce, passionate, almost crazed. A quiver of unease swept through her. It was a terrible cliché – who would know better than she? – but in the intensity of that stare, she really did feel totally naked.

Smiling more broadly to hide her discomfort, she accepted the paperback he offered. The cover featured a powerfully built man in a leather hood with a scantily-clad blonde kneeling at his feet. She flipped to the title page: Slave to Love by Melissa Appleton.

“To...?”

“To my master.” He pitched his voice low. No one else could have heard, but that didn’t stop hot blood from climbing to her cheeks or sudden moisture from soaking her panties.

“Excuse me, sir, but I don’t think...” She peered frantically around the bookstore, at the browsing customers and busy clerk. Nobody had noticed. Some force dragged her back to meet the brazen challenge in his eyes.

“You should think, Lissa. Is this what you really want?” He made a dismissive gesture toward the volume on the table. “Knotted silk scarves and soft, sweet kisses? Velvet blindfolds and spanking games? ‘Slaves’ who surrender for a half-dozen pages, then go about their lives as though nothing has changed?”

“I – my fans – the market...”

“Screw the market.” His coarseness made her shudder and yet her nipples snapped into tight, hard peaks as if he’d ordered them to attention. “You want more. I know you do.”

He loomed over the table, an undeniable presence despite his no more than average height. She shrank back into her chair, her pulse loud and fast in her ears, her thighs slippery. “I know you, Lissa. I’ve read every book you’ve written. I’ve watched you, on the street, at readings, working at your computer. You don’t want timid games. You’re afraid to admit it – I understand – but you want marks. Bruises. Blood. You want to be tested, stretched to the breaking point and beyond.”

He captured her right wrist in his big, bony hand. The fountain pen fluttered in her fingers like a caged bird. “Write me your fantasies, and I’ll make them real. Show me your rawest, darkest dreams – all the filthy details. Then trust me to fulfill them.”

Clearly he was mad. Perhaps even dangerous. She should call Jeremy, the manager, or the security guard who was taking a break now that the crowd had dispersed. Somehow she couldn’t move. His grip wasn’t tight. She could have pulled her hand away. But his eyes bored into her and his voice stilled her, holding her transfixed like a pinned insect.

“I can’t...” she murmured.

“I say you can. If you choose.” He leaned closer, until she felt his warm breath on her face. He smelled of tobacco and wood varnish. “It’s up to you, Lissa, to take the first step.”

“But how...?”

“Begin by writing, ‘To my master’.” He relinquished her hand and she found herself following his instructions. A thrill shot through her as the violet ink she used for signings flowed onto the page. Master. So strange. Was this real?

“Good girl. Now, ‘From his devoted slave’.”

She giggled – she couldn’t help herself. It just sounded so silly and cheesy.

“You’ll likely find it less amusing as time goes on,” he commented, his voice edged with irony.

“Sorry – I just can’t take this seriously.” She surveyed him with greater care. Amazing that a man of such ordinary appearance could broadcast such an aura of control. Now that she thought of it, his face was somehow familiar. “Is this a joke? Did Laurel put you up to this?” Her best friend, another author, had been known to organize elaborate pranks.

He ignored her question. “Close your eyes.”

Buy Links

Kinky Literature: https://www.kinkyliterature.com/book/90-bound-and-breathless-passionate-kink/

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097HJYMFC/

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B097HJYMFC/

Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B097HJYMFC/

Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B097HJYMFC/

Universal Amazon Link: https://rxe.me/HJYMFC

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1137659

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bound-and-breathless-lisabet-sarai/1141291883?ean=2940165822315

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/bound-and-breathless-passionate-kink

Add on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58372150-bound-and-breathless

Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll take the time to visit the other authors participating in today’s blog hop!

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