Excerpt From LOVE IN THE AIR by Suz deMello

Part of the NAUGHTY LOVERS boxed-set, available now.

Click here to purchase e-book from Amazon

Blurb:
Jill’s been curious about BDSM since reading Fifty Shades, and firefighter Zack is more than willing to scratch that itch for her.

Genre/Theme:
Contemporary, firefighter, BDSM

Copyright ©Suz deMello, 2016

Excerpt:

Jill had been dating Zack for a couple of months and they were in a good place, she felt. They saw each other two or three times every week, not just for booty calls but for dates and other outings like hiking and bike riding. They liked the same food, music, and movies. They were compatible politically and didn’t fight about radio stations—they both liked NPR—or TV shows—Game of Thrones, True Detective.

But did she want to go further, deeper? Yes, she did.

The sex had been excellent, but without the kink she’d dreamed about and had been counting on. He was holding himself back, she knew, based on their discussions of what he liked. He hadn’t even tied her up or spanked her, and she was disappointed. Not only did she want to experience some light BDSM, but she accepted that he needed kink to be truly happy, and she had gotten to the point of wanting him to be happy. With her. She wasn’t sure she loved him, but she liked him and wanted to see where the relationship would lead. Keeping Mr. Happy satisfied was the surest way to that result.

Did he want her to ask, even beg? She didn’t know if she had the words. Wandering the aisles at the local Target had given her an idea, though, so she dressed for their weekly Saturday night date with more care than usual. Then she added a couple of unusual accessories she’d purchased in the pet department.

*****

When Jill opened her front door for their Saturday night date, Zack let his gaze skate over her outfit. A snug LBD in velvet, hemline short and neckline low but not too revealing. He liked that. He preferred women to be ladies on the street and demons between the sheets, and so far, she’d filled the bill.

Then he noticed her accessories. A pink leather collar. Good God—was that a dog collar? Whatever it was, it signaled a desire to submit. And two more around her wrists, clear references to bondage.

Whoa. So his sweet little Jill was ready to get kinky. His heart pounded, and every drop of blood raced straight to his cock.

 

Writing "Love in the Air" by Suz deMello (@naughtyliterati @goodreads #romance)

I'm lucky. The Naughty Literati is full of great writers who are fountains of creativity. But when one of us--Nic Austin, I think--proposed deciding upon our themes well in advance, I had my doubts. I had previously stressed avoiding anything that could stifle creativity.

Well, I was wrong, and the stories show it.

The Victor Hugo House 

For example, my story, One Hot Havana Night, was stimulated by the idea for last summer's anthology, Naughty Escapes, when it was our happy task to write a romance set in various parts of the world. I had wanted to visit Cuba for a long time, and with the President relaxing the rules on Americans' access to Cuba, I planned my trip and wrote a story set in Old Havana. I loved the place and think the story really benefited from seeing it firsthand. For example, the Victor Hugo House in Havana is the setting for my story, and I would never have been able to write it with such attention to setting and detail had I not visited.

And so it is with my latest story for the Naughty Literati, which is in our upcoming set, Naughty Lovers: Love is in the Air. For me, the leap from the subtitle to the initial scene, aboard a balloon above the Napa Valley wasn't really much of a leap at all--more like a saunter. I had been on such a balloon ride before, many years ago, and it seemed like a natural, obvious place to start. 

In many ways, it was a very easy story to write because it drew on a number of experiences I have had. The story centers around the romance between Jill, a woman who's curious about BDSM, and her new partner, Zack, a firefighter who's eager to slake that curiosity. 

I've been in that position before, but I invented new experiences for Jill. After all, I write fiction, which entails making stuff up. 

But I didn't really invent Terry and Ada, minor characters in the tale. Here's my description of them in the balloon, seen from Jill's POV:

An older couple, they stood gazing outward, side by side and close enough to each other that they probably shared body heat. The man, who deserved the label “silver fox,” had his hand resting possessively just north of his woman’s shapely derriere. Her honey-colored hair was piled high and bristled with hairpins, no doubt to keep the wind from tangling it into a rats’ nest. 

That's me and my boyfriend :)

And Zack's home resembles my boyfriend's south Davis townhouse so much so that he laughed a little ruefully when he read:

A wood stove like Zack's

Zack led her past the kitchen into a living room carpeted in ivory pile. In one corner, a wood stove sat in the center of a brick hearth, with a messy pile of men’s boots and shoes in front of it and a neat little stack of split firewood to its left. A small dinette was tucked in an alcove near the kitchen; a brown faux suede couch and chair completed the stark, bachelor decor.

Yes, as a fiction writer, making stuff up is my superpower. However, it's helpful to take some of what we write from our lives. So Love in the Air reflects my life as much as my imagination. Hope you love it as much as I enjoyed writing it! It will be available on March first, in the Naughty Literati's newest boxed set: Naughty Lovers.

Happy reading!