New Cover Art

While Under the Influence now has a cover! Click on it to read the blurb :)

Before He Cheats - Available Now!

Hi everyone!

Before He Cheats is now available from TEB. It's MM, BDSM. It's also the 7th book in the Perfect Timing Series. But the stories are only connected by theme, so they can all be read as stand alones too :)

Just click on the pic to find out more!

*Hugs*

Kim Dare.

New Cover Art

Hi everyone,

Before He Cheats now has a cover!

The story is M/M, BDSM and due to be published in July.

Here's the blurb:

Rupert’s society friends can call it an open relationship if they want. Leon still calls it cheating—and he’s going to make sure it never happens again.

Leon knows he and Rupert come from completely different worlds, but it never occurred to him that Rupert would consider their relationship to be open unless otherwise stated.

He might not have the money, the experience or the social standing of Rupert’s usual lovers, but Leon’s still determined to fight for what he wants. And what he wants is to make sure he’s exclusive with Rupert before his lover’s “old friend” comes to visit next weekend.

Can he convince a man like Rupert to give up everyone else in favour of one inexperienced graduate student? Can he convince Rupert to make a commitment to him before he cheats? Leon doesn’t know — but he sure as hell is going to try!


*Hugs*

Kim Dare

The Stroke of Twelve - Available Now!

Hi everyone!

The Stroke of Twelve is out now with Total-e-bound publishing. It's Male/Male and BDSM. It's also book six in the Perfect Timing series, but it's only linked to the others by theme so it can be read as a complete standalone.

Just click on the pic to find out more!

Bi Now, Gay Later

Bi Now, Gay Later is available from today, from Total-e-bound.

It's a Male/Male, BDSM book and the fifth book in my Perfect Timing series, but since the series is connected solely by theme and all the books can stand alone too.

Here's the blurb:


Can a bi submissive really find happiness with a master who doesn’t believe bisexuality exists?

Jerry would be Denton’s ideal submissive—if only he would just get his last foot out of the closet and admit he’s properly gay. Denton loves Jerry, but he knows it’s a master’s responsibility to make sure his submissive doesn’t lie to himself or the rest of the world. He can’t let Jerry hide behind the bi-sexual label forever.

Jerry has no doubt that he’s one-hundred percent bi-sexual. He’s also well aware how much his master hates that fact. Jerry loves his master and he wants to please him, but he can’t lie and say he’s gay when he knows he’s not. Denton would be Jerry’s ideal master, if he could just accept the fact he’s bi.

Eventually, somebody’s going to have to give in and admit he’s wrong. The only question is who?


And here's a quick excerpt:

“Do you reckon he spends a lot of time thinking about having sex with women?”

Denton Greenwood’s lips quirked into an amused little smile as he turned to his friend. “I have no idea who you’re talking about. But, since we’re in a gay bar, I’ll go out on a limb and guess that no one in here spends a lot of time thinking about doing anything with a woman.”

“Jerry’s not gay though, is he?” Peter pointed out. “He’s bi.”

Denton’s fingers tightened around his glass as his eyes automatically sought out a blond head of hair in the crowd. Someone stepped to one side. Jerry came into view. “He’s not bi.”

“He says he’s bi.” Peter drained his glass and put it clumsily on the little table between their leather arm chairs. “Do you think that means he thinks about screwing women as often as he thinks about screwing men?”

Denton clenched his jaw as he watched Jerry nod his agreement with whatever the man standing next to him was saying. “He’s gay.”

Peter shook his head. “He says he’s bi. He should know.”

“I am his master,” Denton snapped. “I know which way my lover swings, and Jerry is as gay as any man in this bar.”

Even on his eighth pint, Peter seemed to realise he’d hit a nerve. “How’s it working out between…?” he trailed off.

Denton continued to watch his lover speaking to some of his friends, all of them other collared submissives, on the opposite side of the room.

“Everything’s fine,” he snapped. It didn’t sound like it when he bit the words out like that, but it was the truth.

In the months since Jerry had come under his protection, the younger man had turned out to be a damn near perfect match for him.

“He seems to have come into his own since you gave him his permanent collar,” Peter offered.

Denton nodded. That was true too. He’d never guessed that the stunning, if rather tentative, submissive who had first come to his attention would thrive so well under his rules and discipline, but Jerry had a way of wrapping rules around himself as if they were a comforting blanket, and taking every limitation his master put upon him as a gift. And, more than any of that, he had a way of throwing himself so wholeheartedly into his submission that the idea of letting him go had quickly become unthinkable.

As loath as Denton was to act soppy for anyone, even Jerry, he could just about admit that the submissive was the only one of his lovers he had ever actually fallen in love with. As long as they were alone and not doing anything overtly romantic at the time of any such admission, of course. A dominant had to hold on to some sort of standards. He wasn’t so far gone that he was willing to shout it from the roof tops or let heart toting teddy bears worm their way into his life.

Denton held back a sigh. Damn near perfect, was all well and good. But knowing his lover could be completely perfect if he would just admit he was gay just made it all the more difficult to accept the younger man’s stubborn insistence that he was bisexual with every day that passed. To feel perfection there, waiting just out of his reach, it was like a persistent itch at the back of Denton’s neck.

Trying to push the issue out of his mind, the way he had so many times before, he ran his eyes down Jerry’s body. It wasn’t an easy task when so much of his lover’s skin was concealed from him. For an absolutely gorgeous man, he was sweetly shy about his skin being put on display before anyone but his master. His inclination to hide himself away behind jeans and a long sleeve t-shirts whenever Denton hadn’t made a point of ordering him into something different was damn near a fetish.

Right then Denton couldn’t manage to smile indulgently at Jerry’s bashfulness the way he usually did. Jerry was his—all of him, and he wasn’t inclined to accept any part of his lover not being visible and available to him at that moment. He wasn’t about to just sit around watching while Jerry’s attention moved from one submissive to another and never once turned toward his master.

Rising from his chair, he left his friend sitting with the other dominants as he marched across the room. The moment he put his hand on Jerry’s shoulder the younger man tensed. As he turned to face Denton, he realised exactly who was laying a hand on him and his expression morphed into a welcoming smile.

“May I serve you, master?”

Thanks for reading. Bi Now, Gay Later is available here.

What can you do in three minutes?

Hi everyone,

My new Male/Female BDSM book - Three Minute Man - is out today. It's book four in the perfect timing series, but it's only linked to the others in the series by theme, so it can be read entirely on its own too.

Here’s the blurb:

Three minutes doesn’t give Ian much time to prove he’s the dominant that Susan had given up on finding, but it’s amazing what the right dominant can do in three minutes!

Ian had plans for the submissive he’d seen playing casual games with other dominant men in the local leather bars, but she disappeared off the kinky scene before he had a chance to claim her. When he finds her working in a speed dating club, he’s determined not to let her slip through his fingers again.

Susan made a conscious decision to give up on the lifestyle. She’s not going to change her mind just because some dominant strolls into her life and starts snapping his fingers. The fact that Ian calls to the very part of her that she’s been trying to repress for the last eighteen months isn’t important. She’s not going back on her decision.

Unfortunately for Susan, she’s never been able to resist a bet—not when there’s more than money at stake.

And here’s a quick excerpt:

“Gorgeous!”

“If you’re talking about another damn car rather than a woman, I’m officially disowning you.”

Ian Georgeson stood stock still on the edge of the crowded car park, not paying the least attention to his younger brother’s threats. The view through the window into the club held him completely transfixed. The rows of shiny sports cars behind him suddenly became far less interesting than they had been a moment before.

“Ian, you listening or what…?” Billy trailed off.

Ian didn’t look around. He was sure his brother had caught sight of the same woman he was admiring through the glass.

“Sweet,” Billy whispered.

“Find your own, kiddo.”

“She’s not yours yet.”

“The important word in that sentence is yet,” Ian told him. He could so easily slip an imaginary collar around her neck and make the picture she presented entirely perfect. She smiled at someone just out of his sight.

A shot of jealousy raced through him at the simple fact she should smile that way at anyone but him. Ian raised an eyebrow at himself. It had been a long time since any woman had inspired that sort of instantly possessive reaction in him. In fact, it had been almost exactly eighteen months—which was precisely the last time he saw a submissive who looked damn near identical to this woman, in a kink club on the other side of town.

Billy said something off to his left.

“What?”

“I said,” Billy repeated with a long suffering sigh. “No, please don’t worry about me. Of course I don’t mind you dropping your younger brother to chase after some waitress…etc, etc.”

“Glad to hear it,” Ian said.

Billy shouted after him, something about which pub they were supposed to be meeting their friends and watching the match in. Ian couldn’t care less about rugby, right then. He was already pushing open the door and walking into the club.

The woman he’d seen through the window stood by the bar on the other side of the room. As Ian strode across to her, he took the opportunity to study her more closely. She was tall—tall enough that he wouldn’t get a crick in his neck every time he kissed her. That was rare enough for a man of his height to find in a lover. It also matched with his memory of the sub he’d seen playing on a St. Andrew’s cross all those months ago.

She turned and he caught a glimpse of her face.

He could always tell. He didn’t know if it was something in the eyes, or the expression, but Ian had proved it to himself time and time again over the years—he could always spot a natural submissive. Even if he wasn’t damn near sure she was the woman he’d spotted in the leather bar all those months ago, he wouldn’t have hesitated to mark the woman standing by the bar down as a true sub.

Closer to her, he turned his attention to checking for any sign of ownership. There wasn’t a single piece of jewellery visible on her body. No pretty gold necklace that could act as a subtle collar, no ring, no bracelet, not even an earring in sight.

Long blond hair fell in loose waves over her shoulders, without so much as a hair clip to decorate it. The little, black, figure hugging dress was complimented by nothing more than simple black stilettos. The outfit was so simple, it was tantalisingly easy to imagine that she’d considered more intimate items of clothing just as unnecessary. Ian smiled to himself, wondering if he would have the chance to find out at some point.

“Perfect balance!” she declared as he reached her side. She lifted a folder and placed a mock kiss against the cover.

The younger waitress on the other side of the bar giggled.

“Finally! Thank you, Lord! They’ve finally coaxed enough women through the door. For once I won’t have to sit through a dozen different versions of…” Seeming to sense his presence, she looked over her shoulder. “Can I help you, sir?”

The honorific fell from her lips as if it was just any other word. As if she put a great deal of effort into making it sound as if she thought it was just any other word.

An experienced submissive then—she knew what that word could mean in the right context. It must be a special brand of torture for a woman who had offered that token of respect to someone who deserved it, to have to apply it to every idiot who walked through the door. The last of his doubts vanished. So this was where that sub he’d had his eye on had disappeared to…

She looked him up and down before lifting her eyes politely back to his. Her expression didn’t change, but her posture altered. She knew what he was too. She recognised a dominant man, a master, when she saw one.

“Miss?” He held out a hand.

“Susan Fisher,” she filled in, putting her hand in his. After the briefest possible moment, she tried to take it back.

Ian closed his fingers around her hand, not gripping hard enough to hurt, but firmly enough that she had little choice but to leave her hand in his or cause a scene by struggling to break contact.

He heard her breath catch in her throat. She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed. Ian studied her carefully. Her instinct to submission was right there, just a scratch below the surface. It had obviously been far too long since she played.

“Susan, is there a problem?”

Ian glanced over his shoulder and saw an older man approaching them. Employer. He spared him one more glance, a very swift up and down inspection. The kind of boss who liked to get to know his female members of staff very well indeed, if Ian was any judge.

“No problem, at all,” Ian said. “Miss Fisher was just explaining that she would be happy to sit in with me to balance out the numbers.”

Her fingers twitched in his grip, but her practiced smile didn’t falter.

“Excellent,” her boss cooed.

Ian waited until she met his eyes before he allowed her to retrieve her hand.

Susan’s boss lingered at her side. She had no choice other than to play nicely while he watched, but Ian could see the anger she barely kept in check. Susan Fisher was royally furious with him.

“If you’ll fill in the form, sir,” she said, coolly. “I’ll see to it that an extra table is set up in the other room.”

She handed him a piece of paper.

Ian’s lips twitched into a smile as she strode off, far faster than anyone should be able to walk in heels that high. When she’d moved out of sight, he turned his attention to the piece of paper in his hand. Speed dating? He held back a sigh. There really was no gain without pain.

He filled in the form and handed it to the waitress behind the bar. She was still studying him with blatant curiosity. That was good. No doubt the staff would have noticed if other dominant men were coming to the club with an eye to collaring Susan.

“Have you ever heard the expression—‘all’s fair’?” he asked her.

“And is it love or war you’ll get from Miss Fisher, sir?” she asked, a soft Irish lilt tinting each word.

He raised an eyebrow. “Perhaps both if I’m very lucky.”

Thanks for reading. The book is now available here :)

Kim Dare
Kink, love and a happy ending. Do you Dare?

Time To Do - Available Now!

Hi everyone,

My new M/M, BDSM novel – Time To Do is out today with Total-e-bound. It’s the third book in the Perfect Timing collection, but it’s only linked to the other books in the series by theme, so they can all be read in any order or as stand alone titles.

Here’s the blurb:

The words have sex with a man can change everything, especially when they’re written on a straight man’s to do list.

Rigby and Brennan have been best friends forever. Growing up and going away to university didn’t alter that. Brennan coming out of the closet to his straight best friend didn’t change anything either.

But when Brennan finds an old to do list mixed in with his friend’s possessions, and sees have sex with a man written right there at the top, it alters everything. When Brennan realises the man he’s in love with isn’t as straight as he’d always thought he was, their friendship changes beyond all recognition.

When the friends decide it’s time to start ticking off all the items on Rigby’s gay to do list, they soon realise nothing will ever be the same - for either of them.

And here’s a quick excerpt:

Brennan Talbot was not going to stare at his best friend’s arse. There was a line a gay man didn’t cross while sharing a room with his straight best friend. He was going to stay on the right side of that line even if it killed him.

Turning around, Brennan held back a sigh. If he could just keep Rigby from bending over all the time, his life would be a hell of a lot easier. His friend possessed a truly wonderful backside, not to mention a preference for very tight jeans.

Brennan picked up yet another of Rigby’s text books off the floor and placed it on his desk. “Where do you get all this stuff from anyway?” he asked.

Brennan risked a glance over his shoulder. At least his friend was standing up straight now.

Rigby shrugged. His shoulder muscles rippled under his t-shirt. He added another book to the growing pile on his desk. “It all just turns up somehow. Anyway, quit complaining. You’re the one who insisted we rediscover the floor today.”

Brennan looked around their room. Small patches of carpet were slowly starting to emerge between the layers of Rigby’s junk. “I go home for one weekend and a bomb explodes,” he muttered to himself. He doubted that Rigby was actually listening anyway. “You could at least have kept the debris on your side of the room.”

Rigby chuckled at the familiar complaint. The low deep sound filled the small room and made Brennan smile in spite of his annoyance.

“I was looking for my locker keys,” Rigby offered by way of explanation. “All the other stuff was in the way.”

“So you threw it on the floor?” Brennan asked, putting a folder of history notes on the desk.

“Well, I usually ask you where stuff is and you tell me. You weren’t here so I had to improvise. Are you studying The Fall of the Roman Empire?”

Brennan glanced at the book in Rigby’s hand. “Doesn’t really fit in with a Physics degree, does it?”

“Then I guess this one’s mine, too.” Rigby frowned at it and put it on the shelf above his desk. “I don’t suppose you want to take a break and get something to eat?”

Brennan looked at the containers of food his mother sent back to the university with him. It was tempting, but he knew if they stopped before the floor was clear, the room would remain in the same state until the end of term.

“No,” he said firmly. “Floor first, then food. I’ll even share the cake my Mum made if we finish it in the next hour.”

“That’s blackmail,” Rigby complained.

“I think you’ll find it’s bribery,” Brennan corrected absentmindedly. He picked another folder up off the floor and read the title scrawled across it in Rigby’s handwriting—stuff. Well, that was informative.

Brennan tossed it towards Rigby’s desk. As it landed, the edge of the cardboard folder collapsed. Papers snowed down to the floor. Kneeling on a rare patch of carpet to pick them up, Brennan skimmed over a few lines on the top page.

It wasn’t really snooping when the papers were spread out all over the carpet for anyone to read. Anyway, he’d known Rigby since they started nursery school. They didn’t have any secrets from each other. Or to be entirely accurate, Brennan corrected himself, Rigby didn’t have any secrets from him.

A glance identified it as some sort of to do list. Such a rare sign of organisation in Rigby’s life had to be worth investigating further. Brennan read point number one—get drunk, and grinned. That was more like the Rigby he knew. There was a decisive tick by that point.

When Brennan read point number two—go skinny dipping— there was no chance he’d stop reading. An image of Rigby bare arse naked flashed across his mind and dropped straight to his crotch. That particular image had been carefully constructed over several months of sideways glances, but it was far from up to date.

Brennan might know he’d never get more than friendship from Rigby, but he wasn’t prepared to lose that friendship by sneaking a peek at Rigby’s cock in the showers after rugby practise. Not when the possibility of passing off his actions as teenage curiosity, or an innocently heterosexual interest in making comparisons, died the day he told Rigby he was gay.

There wasn’t a tick next to skinny dipping. He wondered if it would it be considered morally wrong to convince a straight guy to go skinny dipping with him just so he could check him out. While he tried to work that out, Brennan’s eyes trailed down to the next item on Rigby’s to do list.

Have sex with a girl. Like he needed any extra proof Rigby was as straight as they come. It was very definitely ticked off. Rigby had happily worked his way through the female half of the university population since they’d arrived on campus. Brennan gave another mental sigh. Sometimes it took a hell of a lot of effort for him to pretend he was pleased for his friend about that.

He skipped through all the other ticked off points under the heading—each one representing one of the many and varied things Rigby wanted to do, and without exception had done, with girls.

Brennan went straight to point number four.

Have sex with a guy.

He blinked at the piece of paper. He read it again. He read it a third time, running his fingertip under the line of words, making sure there wasn’t any other explanation. Rigby’s spelling and his handwriting were terrible, but there weren’t any long words in the sentence for him to get wrong.

Guy.

Sex.

All the important points were certainly there.

Thanks for reading. If you want to find out more about Time To Do, it’s available here.

Kim Dare.
Kink, love and a happy ending. Do you Dare?

Lots happening

It's the end of the month and, as usual, everything is happening at the same time :)

Two stories accepted by TEB today.

The first is a M/M, BDSM vampire story. Not to many details on what's going to happen with that one yet - some decisions still need to be made, so I'll tell you more when I know a few more things for definite.

The second is a M/F, BDSM novella called Three Minute Man. It's the fourth title in my Perfect Timing series and it's due to be released on March 1st 2010.

Here's the blurb for it:

Three minutes doesn’t give Ian much time to prove he’s the dominant that Susan had given up on ever finding, but it’s amazing what the right man can do in three minutes!

Ian had plans for the submissive he’d seen playing casual games with other dominant men in the local leather bars, but she disappeared off the kinky scene before he had a chance to claim her. When he finds her working in a speed dating club, he’s determined not to let her slip through his fingers again.

Susan made a conscious decision to give up on the lifestyle. She’s not going to change her mind just because some dominant strolls into her life and starts snapping his fingers. The fact that Ian calls to the very part of her that she’s been trying to repress for the last eighteen months isn’t important. She’s not going back on her decision.

Unfortunately for Susan, she’s never been able to resist a bet—not when there’s more than money at stake.

I'm currently editing the fifth Perfect Timing book - this ones a M/M, BDSM novella. I'm hoping to get it to my editor by the end of the week :)

Silent Night - Available Now!

Hi everyone,

Silent Night is a M/F BDSM Erotic Romance Novella, and the second book in my Perfect Timing Collection. And it's just gone on sale!

Each book in the collection stands alone, so you don’t need to read You First, the MM story that started the series, to enjoy this one.

Here’s a bit about Silent Night:

Hannah will give Vincent one silent night of pleasure, but that’s it. If he wants more, he’ll have to fight for it.

No one in the club has ever heard Hannah say a word, but they’ve all heard the rumours. She won’t accept any man who approaches her – she insists on picking the lucky dominant herself. And when she makes her selection he can have her submission for one silent night, but that’s it. She won’t speak or agree to a second date.

Vincent is an experienced dominant. He knows how the game should be played. When he finds Hannah kneeling at his feet, he assumes she’s just like every other submissive. But Hannah’s different and Vincent soon realises one silent night isn’t enough. He wants more time and he wants Hannah’s voice.
Hannah really doesn’t care what Vincent wants. She has her own reasons for keeping her relationships short and silent. It’ll take a lot more than a display of dominance to convince her to trust him with the truth.

And here’s a quick extract:

“Don’t waste your time.”

Vincent Jennings raised an eyebrow at his friend. If his instincts were right, and Vincent had every confidence they were, the woman standing by the bar was just the sort of submissive lover he’d enjoy hooking up with for the night.

“Trust me. Just pick another girl and save yourself the trouble,” Frank went on, sitting next to Vincent on the low sofa.

Vincent studied the woman on the other side of the room. She displayed no obvious flaws, but Vincent was well aware the bar was Frank’s home territory, not his. He hadn’t moved back into the area long enough to know anyone on the local scene and even the most acute observations couldn’t compete with prior knowledge. “You know her?”

“Her name’s Hannah,” Frank informed him. “Do I need to repeat the thing about it being pointless to approach her?”

Vincent’s gaze trailed over the smooth curve of her neck. She wasn’t wearing a collar, so she couldn’t be committed to the pleasure of any competent dominant. “She’s not owned?” Vincent checked, watching her take a bottle of Coke from the bartender.

“No. She’s free to play, but it won’t be with some idiot who hits on her at the bar. Hannah likes to choose the lucky guy herself.”

She turned around and scanned the room. For a moment, Hannah looked in Vincent’s direction. Their eyes met. Images flashed hot and vivid though his mind. A strapless leather dress hugged her curves, but her limbs were bare and begging for restraints to decorate them. In his mind’s eye he painted wide strips of black leather around her wrists and ankles. Perfect…

A chestnut ringlet escaped from the tumble of curls pinned up on top of her head. She tucked the lock of hair behind her ear and turned away from him.

His eyes narrowed. If she wasn’t already claimed, what the hell was the problem? “She’s a submissive,” he stated. He had no doubts about that.

Even more than the way she dressed, the way she held herself advertised her submission. All her movements were small and spare. There were no grand gestures. She didn’t look a dominant woman on the hunt for new prey. No, if anything, Hannah looked businesslike. That raised another question.

“A working girl?”

Frank shook his head. “She won’t take money—and I know enough guys who’ve offered her serious cash. But, those who kiss and tell say she has a signature.”

“Aren’t they reserved for serial killers?” Vincent still didn’t look away from Hannah. Everyone had to die sooner or later. She looked one hell of a fun way to go.

“Do you want to know what it is, or are you going to keep interrupting?”

Vincent said nothing. He wanted to hear it all.

“As I was saying, the woman has a signature. She comes to this club—and it is always this club—no one’s ever seen her anywhere else. She has a drink. She picks a man. She offers him her submission for the night.”

“She just says ’Would you like to be my master for the night?’“

Vincent imagined her kneeling at his feet and saying those exact words—soft and low—for his ears only. His jeans shrunk a fraction, but he forced himself to stay still in his seat and not draw attention to the fact he was slowly hardening in his pants at the very idea.

Hannah’s stroll around the room brought her closer. He caught a better view of her face. Close up she was pretty rather than beautiful, her face dominated by full, pink lips and big blue eyes. If it wasn’t for the air of submission about her, Vincent would have walked past her without looking twice—but no dominant in their right mind could walk past Hannah.

He was still waiting on an answer from Frank. When his friend let the silence draw out for another long minute, Vincent got the point. “Okay, I’ll shut up.”

That was the problem with Frank. Vincent might have grown up into an intimidating dominant, but Frank still remembered him as a skinny little schoolboy who couldn’t remember his times tables.

“No,” the other man finally resumed, “she doesn’t say that. She doesn’t say anything. I’ve never heard her say a word and apparently she only ever offers completely silent submission. One night—no talking, no repeat performances. That’s it, take it or leave it.”

“Has anyone every left it?”

“Hell no!”

*****

Thanks for reading.

If you want to find out more about Silent Night, it’s available here.

Kim Dare.
Kink, love and a happy ending. Do you Dare?

Time To Do - New Cover Art

Hi everyone,

I'm just back from a weekend in London. I'm completly knackered and feel like death warmed up. But I did have a great time. I'll tell you more about that later in the week.

While I was away, the cover for Time To Do came through. It's the third book in the time series, it's my first novel length book, and it's due to be released by TEB on July 20th :)




Here's the blurb that goes with it:

The words have sex with a man can change everything, especially when they’re written on a straight man’s to do list.

Rigby and Brennan have been best friends forever. Growing up and going away to university didn’t alter that. Brennan coming out of the closet to his straight best friend didn’t change anything either.

But when Brennan finds an old to do list mixed in with his friend’s possessions, and sees have sex with a man written right there at the top, it alters everything. When Brennan realises the man he’s in love with isn’t as straight as he’d always thought he was, their friendship changes beyond all recognition.

When the friends decide it’s time to start ticking off all the items on Rigby’s gay to do list, they soon realise nothing will ever be the same - for either of them.

In other news:

I'm also over on Writers Evolution today. The topic of the weak is weaknesses. I'm A Rookie Without Hindsight. Do stop by if you get the chance :)

*Wonders off to catch up on all the blogs missed over the weekend*

You First - Available Now!

Hi everyone,

My new book, You First, comes out today with Total-e-bound. Carole from Rainbow Reviews gave it five stars. She also said:

“You First is the first in a series of books with the theme “Perfect Timing”. And perfect is right - lots of things are quite perfect about this book which is the best D/s relationship book I've read this year … I read this book multiple times because I liked it so much! And I will read it again; it will go into my 'keeper' file … If you like hot, sexy books with a firm power exchange between two men falling in love, you should buy this one today.”

You can read the rest of the review here. Or, if you’d prefer to find out more about the book instead, here’s the blurb:

All Luke had to do was come after Justin. How difficult could that possibly be?

There was only one thing that stopped sex with Justin being completely perfect for Luke. The timing. That wasn’t so perfect. In fact, the timing really sucked – and not in the fun, fellatio related way.

Justin was five years younger than Luke and relatively inexperienced. Luke had enjoyed more lovers than he could count or remember—he knew he was good at sex. There was no good reason why Justin should outlast him every time they hooked up.

All Luke had to do was come second, set his mind at ease, and everything would be perfect between them. Hell, if he could do that, he might even consider the serious relationship idea Justin seemed so taken with.

How difficult could that possibly be?

And here’s a quick extract:

Luke Anderson was not going to come first.

He repeated the mantra over and over inside his head as he held his hands out to be bound. Justin Collins deftly buckled the soft leather around his wrists. Tugging on the chain between the cuffs, he positioned Luke on his hands and knees in the middle of the bed.

Justin attached the cuffs to a little hook screwed into the headboard for that precise purpose. He pulled at the chain, testing how securely it would hold Luke in place. The metal links clinked together. Luke took a deep breath. All his best sexual experiences occurred to that theme song. The sound went straight to his cock.

Luke was still not going to come first. He was Luke Anderson, newest and highest flying barrister in the best chambers in London. He could bloody well do anything he set his mind to.

Justin’s hand applied pressure—a steady pressure to the back of his neck. Luke lowered himself onto his elbows. The pressure didn’t ease. Luke turned his palms up and rested his head in his hands. Head down and arse up, Luke closed his eyes. He told himself for the thousandth time it must be possible.

Just because he hadn’t outlasted Justin yet, didn’t mean he couldn’t do it. He just needed to focus. He was twenty-three years old—five years older than his lover. He’d topped and bottomed more partners than he could count or remember in both genders. False modesty and jokes aside, Luke was well aware he knew tricks even most really expensive professionals hadn’t mastered.

He shifted his knees further apart on the mattress as Justin moved into position, kneeling on the bed behind him. He had to outlast Justin just once, just so he knew he could do it. Just for pride’s sake, because Luke knew his lack of self restraint was the only thing that kept sex with Justin from being perfect.

Justin’s fingers slipped briefly inside him, checking he was slick, relaxed and ready to play. Luke bit his lip and held back a moan as Justin crooked his fingers and found his prostate.

He could do this. Practicing a little bit of restraint wouldn’t kill him.

The rustle of the packet when Justin slipped on a condom was his only warning. Justin slid into him in one smooth movement. Luke gasped. For a perfect moment, Justin stilled inside him, stretching him and filling him completely. He began rocking his hips, building up the movement in tiny increments. Only when Luke whimpered his frustration did Justin begin to thrust into him in earnest.

In what felt like moments, lethal frustration was a growing possibility. Each stroke pressed against Luke’s prostate in a rhythm calculated to throw him over the edge at any moment.

He tried to remember he didn’t want to fall into pleasure—why he didn’t want to jump over the ledge with his arms spread wide in enthusiastic abandon. All he could think about was just how glorious it would feel when he came with Justin still buried balls deep inside him.

But still, in the back of his mind the mantra continued. Luke was not going to come first.

Desperately trying to concentrate on anything other than Justin’s erection pounding into him, Luke scrambled for any other details and senses to focus on.

The cotton sheet underneath him was pale blue. At this angle, with his nose barely an inch from the surface, Luke saw it was actually two shades of thread blended together. He couldn’t bring himself to care. His prostate sang inside him, coaxing him to join in with it in harmony, groaning his pleasure at every inch of delicious friction.

The scent of their arousal filled the room, mingling with Justin’s aftershave. Justin always smelt fantastic. Another perfect thing to add to all the other perfect things Luke had noticed over the months they’d been hooking up for sex. He always smelt like old sandalwood and well worn leather. Luke loved pressing close against Justin’s body and taking deep breaths of his scent when they danced together. He loved sliding his fingers up into Justin’s hair and pulling him close, to wrap Justin’s scent around him.

Luke threaded his fingers through his own hair. He pulled at the thick blond strands, hoping the pain might kill off some tiny bit of his arousal. The tug increased with each connection of Justin’s hips against his arse. It did nothing to help his increasingly frantic desire not to come.

Justin’s rhythm increased another notch. Cradling Luke’s pelvis in his strong grip, he held him steady and absorbed part of the impact from each thrust. Luke rocked back with every motion. As he focused on the pressure of each fingertip against his skin, Justin’s right hand left his hip.

He reached underneath Luke and started to jack him off with an expert touch. Luke pulled at the cuffs around his wrists. He couldn’t reach down and push Justin’s hand away. He had no choice but to accept the touch or say his safe word.

Thanks for reading.

You First is available here.

Kim Dare
Kink, love and a happy ending. Do you Dare?

Coming soon and blogs

Silent Night has arrived on TEB's coming soon page.

You can have a gander by clicking on the cover, if you like.

It's the second in the Perfect Timing Series.

The first in the series is coming out next Monday!

Since I'm posting pics and links, that pic is a link too.

I also have a few blog posts dotted around that I didn't tell you about before.

Today I posted about Writers Image at Writers Evolution. All Erotic Romance Writers should be...

Last Thurdsay I posted about Happy endings on Oh, Get a grip. All they all lived hopefully ever after.

And last Tuesday I posted about chosing a genre on Writer's Evolution. I had a choice?

What other updates do I have for you?

I know as soon as I hit publish post, I'm going to think of something...

Well, it's not coming to mind at the moment, so I'll leave it here.

Hope you're all having a fantastic day.

Silent Night - New Cover Art!

The cover is by Natalie Winters. It's the first M/f cover for one of the Perfect Timing collection. Very pleased with it - as you can probably guess!

In spite of the title, it's not a Christmas story, lol. It will be released by TEB June 1st and it's M/f, BDSM erotic romance.

Here's the blurb:

Hannah will give Vincent one silent night of pleasure, but that’s it. If he wants more, he’ll have to fight for it.

No one in the club has ever heard Hannah say a word, but they’ve all heard the rumours. She won’t accept any man who approaches her – she insists on picking the lucky dominant herself. And when she makes her selection he can have her submission for one silent night, but that’s it. She won’t speak or agree to a second date.

Vincent is an experienced dominant. He knows how the game should be played. When he finds Hannah kneeling at his feet, he assumes she’s just like every other submissive. But Hannah’s different and Vincent soon realises one silent night isn’t enough. He wants more time and he wants Hannah’s voice.

Hannah really doesn’t care what Vincent wants. She has her own reasons for keeping her relationships short and silent. It’ll take a lot more than a display of dominance to convince her to trust him with the truth.

Cover Art - You First

I was going to try to find a way to link this post into the Friday Five theme, but I'm not going to even bother.

New cover art came through to me last night, and I'm sooooo pleased with it I'm going to share regardless of what I'm supposed to be posting about today.

The cover art is by Natalie Winters. And here it is....

You First is the first story in my Perfect Timing series, so this cover sets the theme for 12 stories - 6 M/m and 6 M/f - 6 novella and 6 novels. They are all BDSM to one extent or another.

Here's a bit about the series as a whole...

Sometimes you meet the right person at the wrong time. Sometimes it takes an exceptional circumstance to make you realise the time has come. And sometimes you just have to wait to get for what you want. But when the timing is perfect, anything could happen…

And here's a bit about You First in particular. It's one of the novella and it's coming out on April 27th.

All Luke had to do was come after Justin. How difficult could that possibly be?

There was only one thing that stopped sex with Justin being completely perfect for Luke. The timing. That wasn’t so perfect. In fact, the timing really sucked – and not in the fun, fellatio related way.

Justin was five years younger than Luke and relatively inexperienced. Luke had enjoyed more lovers than he could count or remember—he knew he was good at sex. There was no good reason why Justin should outlast him every time they hooked up.

All Luke had to do was come second, set his mind at ease, and everything would be perfect between them. Hell, if he could do that, he might even consider the serious relationship idea Justin seemed so taken with.

How difficult could that possibly be?

.....

Have a great weekend everyone :)

Monday Memo: Re-write the damn thing!

Okay, time to get back up to date now.

Note to self: Once you realise something doesn't work, stop fussing about and just re-write the damn thing, you know you'll have to in the end.

Secret Service is finally gone. It was a bit of a bugger - I think I only managed to save about 3000 from my first draft, but the re-writes finally paid off once I stopped trying to fix something that would never work and just wrote most of it again from scratch. I also re-wrote the synopsis - only the first paragraph or two were accurate once I finished the re-write!

It's with my editor now, so I have my fingers crossed for it.

The Stroke of Twelve verdict is in. It didn't make it into the anthology I was originally aiming for (it didn't fit the tone set by the other stories in it), but TEB still liked it and I was offered a contract for it as a stand alone. It's now going to be extended into a novel length story and it's going to slip into my Perfect Timing series in place of Time Out, which is going to form the basis for a whole new series I have planed :)

I'm actually quite pleased. Don't get me wrong, I'd have loved to have been in the anthology, but I'm also really existed about extending the story and giving it room to grow into something a lot better than it is right now.

A Model Submissive - my nano project is slightly behind schedule. I should have been on 15k last night, I was on 14k. Hoping to catch up a bit tonight.

Okay... I think that's it. All up to date :)

Except one other announcement - there's a chat tonight with Total-e-bound authors on Night Owl Romance. It starts at 8 pm EST and runs to 10 pm EST. In British currancy, I think that translates to 1-3 am tomorrow morning.

I'll certainly be there at the start, and hopefully until quite a way through it.

Drop by if you can.

Time To Do blurb

This is the third book in the Perfect Timing series. It's a novel length m/m BDSM erotic romance.

Here's the Blurb:

Rigby and Brennan have been best friends forever. Growing up and going away to university didn’t alter that. Brennan coming out of the closet to his straight best friend didn’t change anything either.

But when Brennan finds an old to do list mixed in with his friend’s possessions, and sees have sex with a man written right there at the top, it alters everything. When Brennan realises the man he’s in love with isn’t as straight as he’d always thought he was, their friendship changes beyond all recognition.

When the friends decide it’s time to start ticking off all the items on Rigby’s gay to do list, they soon realise nothing will ever be the same - for either of them.

It's due out on the 25th May 2009, so it will be quite a while yet. But it's my first novel length (For TEB that means over 30,000 words) acceptance so I'm really excited anyway :)

Five things that... I've learnt about naming characters

I'm no expert on it, but this is my advice when you're naming characters. It's what works for me anyway.

1. Remember the whole alphabet exists for a reason.

I'm sure it's very useful that baby naming books split up the names and organise them in alphabetical order. But from a naming characters POV it does create some pitfalls.

When I was naming characters for the Perfect Timing series (a process spread over several months) I ended up with three men named Rupert Montgomery, Rigby Mattews and Rhys Morcant. No idea why, accept I seemed to find a page in the book of names that I liked and I forgot to turn over between visits to the book. Then once I found the initials for the first one, the similar surnames followed.

Rigby Mattews still exists (He's one of the characters I'm editing in For the Duration at the moment). Rupert had to change his surname. Rhys, poor thing didn't get to keep either of his initials.

There are a few more repeating first letters that slipped past my radar in the Perfect Timing series and they are too firmly fixed in my head to rename them now. But, to get around this for future series I try to name all the main characters in a series at the same time and have every name begin with a different letter as far as that's possible.

It's not always easy. If you have a series of 12 stories, that means 24 different main characters names, 48 if you count surnames. Unless we invent a few extra letters, there will have to be a repeat or two, but I find it at least makes me think and be concious of what I'm doing, which is always a good thing.

2. Don't be lazy and tweak successful names.

In Turquoise and Leather, Eric really came to life for me. His character just worked. I smile every time I think about him.

I can't say I particularly liked Eric as a name before I wrote him. Or that I thought Eric was a particularly submissive name either. But the next three submissive male characters I named were called Elijah, Elliot and Eddy. Somewhere inside my head I wanted them to have some of Eric's spark and maybe that was my way of trying to short cut to it.

The biggest problem with this is that Eric's personality would have turned up along with his name. As much as I like him, I don't want carbon copies of him in all mybooks. Elliot managed to establish his own personality, so he survived renaming, the other characters didn't. I keep an eye out for this now.

3. Different names sound like different sorts of characters.

Posh characters tend to have long names. Dominant characters tend to have traditional or old fashioned names. Submissive characters usually get a double helping of vowels. Submissives names are more likely to get shortened. Dominant men are more likely to go by their last name.

One of the characters I wrote about in Whispers is a dominant man (he's also a Vampire, but that's besides the point). His name is Zachariah Radcliff. He stayed as Zachariah through the whole book. It never came up in the story line, but I know if he was talking to other men, they would call him Radcliff. That's just who he is. I just cannot imagine anyone every calling him Zach or Zachy. I sure as hell can't imagine him answering them if they did.

But Rigby and Brennan in the one I'm editing now. They hadn't been talking to each other for five minutes before they started shortening each others names to Rig and Bren in conversation. I'm happy to say the full length and the shorted versions suit them both, so they get to keep their names. That leads me nicely onto point four.

4. Pet names and nic names are best developed naturally.

These tent to turn up for some characters but not for others. I've found it's best not to force nic names or pet names onto characters. Some dominants can get away with calling their lover sweetheart through the whole book, others sound like they can't remember the persons name by the end of the first chapter.

Likewise in some books the dominant becomes refered to as sir or master. Some dominants like that and it works. Some submissives like that too, and it sounds natual when they say it. But it just doesn't work for other characters - it immediatly becomes impresonal and pretencious.

I think it's also a good idea to vary the enderments you use. Not everyone is a sweetheart or a darling. The more personal the name is the more life it will bring to the character.

5. I save up names I really like for longer books.

Not so much advice as an admission. If I really like a name, the sound, the meaning or anything else about it, I don't want to waste it on a short story. I set them aside for full length books.

I also worry that I will somehow use up all the good names far too quickly and be left writing about people whose names I don't like. What can I say, sometimes I'm just weird :)

And since I need to catch up on my editing today, this post is already far to long.

A quick update on my current WIPs...

I have 10,000 words left to do on Time Out. I'm hoping to get most of that done over the weekend, or early next week so I can move on to By the Hour as soon as possible.

I'm also finishing off the second draft of For the Duration today. I'd like to finish that and the third draft this weekend so I can start the fourth draft on Monday.

In the mean time, hope everyone has a good weekend :)

Monday Memo: blurbs, collars and time.

Note to self: It can't be harder to write 200 than it is to write 20,000 words.

Hello everyone :)

This Monday's memo is, I'm sure a statement of fact.

A 200 word blurb should be easy to write. At 1% of the length of a novella, it should logically be 100 times easier.

Somehow it's not.

Which, sort of explains why I still have written a final version of the blurb for my new series - Collared.

The thing about Collared is it's going to cover a whole range of characters and situations. What's true about the collar in one story, may well not be true for the next story, so the blurb has got to have a lot of flexibility built into it.

This is my WIP blurb.

Leather. Latex. Silver. Gold. Ink. Velvet.

There are as many different shapes and styles of collar as there are people who wear them.

Protection. Possession. Dominance. Submission. Loyalty. Love.

Some collars mean it's time to play, others signify a life time commitment. A fun bit of bondage to one person can easily look like the kinky equivilant of a wedding ring to another. A gold necklace might look vanilla enough until you know what it means to the person wearing it.

But no matter what it's made of or what it represents. Collars are important. A collar can make or break the submissive wearing it - and the dominant who put it around their neck.

It doesn't matter if you are dominant or submissive. Everything changes once one person is Collared.

You're right. It does still need some work, but it's a start.

I'm also working on improving my Perfect Timing blurb. As it stands, I've got this:

Sometimes you meet the right person at the wrong time. Sometimes it takes an exceptional circumstance to make you realise the time has come. And sometimes you just have to wait to get for what you want.

But when the timing is perfect, anything could happen…

Needs a little something more in my opinion. Again, it's got to cover a lot of ground because the stories vary so much. I'll have to have another go at it some time.

What else?

Some time this week I'll also be writing my blurb for Whispers (my second anthology submission). I'm currently on my fifth draft of the story, and it's just starting to come into shape. I'm aiming to submit it this weekend, so fingers crossed.

As for Time Out. It would be nice to finish the first draft of that this weekend too. But it's developed a mind of it's own and it's pretty much doing whatever it wants, so I have no idea what sort of schedule it will adopt.

And that's it :)

Wondering about the wonderful world of re-writes

As I mentioned when I started the blog, I wrote for quite a while before I started editing anything or submitting it to publishers.

So I have a lot of first drafts lying around on my hard drive waiting to be edited up. My two main writing projects for the month (The last two for the Perfect Timing Series) are re-writes of two of these old drafts.

The one I'm grappling with at the moment is called Time Out. It's a m/m BDSM novel. I wrote the first draft February 2007.

At the time I thought it was the best thing I'd ever written. I'm not sure how to discribe just how pleased I was with the story without slipping into cliches. I really thought it was chocolate.

So, when I sat down to work on it yesterday I thought I was onto a good thing. A bit of spit and polish. Add a few thousand words to bring it up to the word count I want. Tidy up a few loose ends. An easy job. By the weekend I'd move onto my next writing project way ahead of schedule.
Ha!

It turns out the story I thought was chocolate is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard. All the wondeful things I remember about the story just melted away under.

In short, the story really, really sucks.

But! There is hope.

Well, there better bloody well be hope for the story, because I still love it. I don't know how much of the original will be left by the time I've finished with it, but the core - the idea I first fell for when I started writing it - that's going to somehow survive.

Within the next two weeks the story is going to turn into what I remember it being.

Okay, now that I've given myself that little pep talk (Didn't you hear the rousing Hollywood theme music kick in half way though?) in other news...

I finished the re-write of Whispers yesterday. I've put that to one side for a day or two. I'm going to start editing it on Friday.

Silent Night - Perfect Timing Book 2

I signed the contract for this story yesterday :)

It's a m/f BDSM novella, due out on April 20th 2009. It is part of the Perfect Timing series, but it also stands alone, so you don't need to have read the other books in the series.

There will be an excerpt closer to the date, but in the meantime, here's that blurb I was talking about.

No one in the club has ever heard Hannah say a word, but they’ve all heard the rumours. She won’t accept any man who approaches her – she insists on picking the lucky dominant herself. And when she makes her selection he can have her submission for one silent night, but that’s it. She won’t speak or agree to a second date.

Vincent is an experienced dominant. He knows how the game should be played. When he finds Hannah kneeling at his feet, he assumes she’s just like every other submissive. But Hannah’s different and Vincent soon realises one silent night isn’t enough. He wants more time and he wants Hannah’s voice.

Hannah really doesn’t care what Vincent wants. She has her own reasons for keeping her relationships short and silent. It’ll take a lot more than a display of dominance to convince her to trust him with the truth.