Pump Up Your Book Presents: Slow Satisfaction by Cecilia Tan

The sizzling conclusion of the Struck by Lightning trilogy! The story that began with the RT Award-winning Slow Surrender finally brings us all satisfaction. James has finally pushed Karina beyond her limit–not her limit for kinky sex play, but for his extreme secrecy. She has had enough and breaks things off.

But James won’t give up on Karina and he will do whatever it takes to get her back. He’s ready to share his deepest, darkest secrets, but is Karina ready to hear them? When James is blackmailed by an unscrupulous music industry executive, he must give in to unreasonable demands or risk exposure of his and Karina’s secret sex life… a sex life that keeps getting hotter!

Will Karina and James’s love be strong enough to withstand the many obstacles being thrown their way?

Cecilia Tan is “simply one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature,” according to Susie Bright. Her BDSM romance novelSlow Surrender (Hachette/Forever, 2013) won the RT Reviewers Choice Award in Erotic Romance.

Tan is the author of many books, including the ground-breaking erotic short story collectionsBlack Feathers (HarperCollins), White Flames (Running Press), and Edge Plays (Circlet Press), and the erotic romances Slow Surrender, Slow Seduction, and Slow Satisfaction(Hachette/Forever), The Prince’s Boy (Circlet Press), The Hot Streak (Riverdale Avenue Books), and the Magic University series (Riverdale Avenue Books). Her short stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Nerve, Best American Erotica, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and tons of other places. She was inducted into the Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame for GLBT writers in 2010, was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Leather Association in 2004, and won the inaugural Rose & Bay Awards for Best Fiction in 2010 for her crowdfunded web fiction serial Daron’s Guitar Chronicles.

She lives in the Boston area with her lifelong partner corwin and three cats. Find out more atwww.ceciliatan.com.

GUEST POST

 

BDSM is the hot theme in Slow Satisfaction, of course, but in the book I get to write about one of my other favorite things, too: rock stars. When I set out to write a "billionaire" book I didn't want James to be something boring like a Wall Street mogul. Frankly, I didn't want him to be an asshole like a Wall Street mogul, either. So I made him an international rock star whose identity is a secret. (Think of the early days of Lady Gaga where she always wore a mask or painted her face or wore a wig so you never really knew what she looked like.) James wants to be able to walk down the street without screaming fans mobbing him. 

But James very definitely has an exhibitionist streak. It's one of his major kinks. As it turns out, it's one of Karina's, too, and they get off on seeing how much they can get away with in public. Exhibitionism isn't BDSM per sé, but it's definitely a kink and one that I have fun exploring in Slow Satisfaction. 

It's not just about public sex, though. The fact that James struggles with his fame and tries to hide it is part of how I dealt in the book with the fact that BDSM itself is something many people feel they have to hide in real life. Although many people these days feel comfortable being "out" about being gay or lesbian, it's much more difficult to be out of the closet about BDSM and kink. Even with the massive popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey--which showed that a huge percentage of the population are at least curious if not into BDSM--many people still feel if they admit they like being tied up and spanked in the bedroom, they'll be judged poorly for it. 

One of the reasons the "billionaire dom" exists as a trope now is we assume once a guy has amassed a billion dollars he no longer gives a hoot what other people think of him. Those of us who aren't billionaires, though, risk being judged by our landlords, our bosses, and our families. James doesn't care, personally, what people think of his sex life, but for him the danger is what could happen to his public image if he were exposed. Would record stores refuse to sell his CDs? Would radio stations stop playing his songs? He knows this is a risk--but he finds risk exciting. So he plays with that risk, challenging himself and Karina with daring exhibitionism. 

Ultimately, though, when James is threatened with blackmail and exposure, they are able to beat that challenge because of the strength of his bond with Karina. I won't give away how they do it, but I will say it *isn't* by going back into the closet!