Thank you, Desiree, for letting me pop over and say HI to everyone!

For those who don’t know me, I’m Kristin Daniels—Erotic Romance author, self-proclaimed chocoholic and breast cancer warrior. I’m visiting today to talk about my new release with Ellora’s Cave, My Tye. It’s a sexy, suspenseful story with mild BDSM elements. The book, as a whole, means so much to me. It’s the story that bisects my life. I wrote the first part before my breast cancer diagnosis. The second part was written after, while I was going through treatments. Doing that wasn’t always easy, but at the same time, it was amazingly cathartic. I poured my dreams and wishes into this book—and yes, sometimes even my anger and fears.

My hero is Tye Carter. Mmm, mmm, mmm, what can I say about Tye? He’s a sheriff—and he’s a Dom—but he’s also one of the most compassionate characters I’ve ever written. His sole focus is to give our heroine, Laine, everything she needs—all while keeping her safe at the same time. He knows just how far to go with her, exactly how far to push her. To me, there’s nothing sexier than a man who intrinsically knows who his woman is, one who will stop at nothing to make her dreams come true. Laine blossoms with him, and I’m not going to lie, I get way melty inside when I go back and read the steamy parts of this book. Yumm-o.  

Here’s a snippet of what I’m talking about. Hold on to your drawers—you’re about to fall in love!

Blurb:

For years, Laine Morgan has fantasized about being bound and taken. After a night of testing the waters at a BDSM club, all her erotic dreams shatter when she’s assaulted and kidnapped. Tossed into a hell she never expected, she’s forced to succumb to the protection of Sheriff Tye Carter—the star of her most vivid bondage fantasies.

Tye’s hidden his desires from Laine for over a year, but not anymore. She’s hurt and scared, which throws the Dom inside him into a rage. He’ll do anything to protect her, even move her to his ranch. But having her all to himself sends his control into a tailspin. And when Laine finally reveals her sexy secrets? He knows he’s the only man who can give her everything she needs.

But there’s an enemy on the loose, one whose personal brand of hatred has put Laine’s life on the line. In the span of a heartbeat, Tye’s is too. To save them both, he’ll have to surrender control to the one woman who might not be ready to accept it.

Excerpt:

 When she spun to toss the duffel onto the bed, she stopped mid-throw. It was as if a wrecking ball came blasting through the wall from behind her bed. It breathed over the surface of the mattress and headed straight for her. All the air rushed from her lungs as it rammed into her. All she could see were splatters of paint flying off her and landing everywhere around the room. All she could hear was her own scream inside her head.

He’d been here.

Fuck trying to compartmentalize this. Fuck trying to deal with all of it rationally. Her attacker had ruined this room for her. He’d ruined her house. His stench was here, it was everywhere. She’d always smell it. She’d always remember what he tried to do to her. What he did do to her. The pain he wanted to cause.

The duffel fell from her hand and dropped to the floor. She bolted from the room, practically running for the attached bathroom all while trying like hell to ignore the sting burning her eyes and the lump building in her throat. She yanked the cabinet below the sink open, grabbing for her makeup bag and standing to toss random items haphazardly inside it. Her toothbrush, an eyelash curler, a tube of Icy Hot and a trial size bottle of shampoo. None of the items made any sense.

She didn’t make any sense.

“Laine.”

Tye’s voice came to her from the doorway, his concern evident in the low tone. Still, she didn’t slow down.

“What?” She didn’t stop for her response, she just kept on throwing odd toiletries inside the bag while losing the battle to keep her composure.

“Laine.”

Again, his tone was low and troubled, but this time her name on his lips came out with more significance attached to it. More dominance. And oddly enough, more protectiveness. She set the bag on the countertop, flattening her palms on either side of it before looking up into the mirror. The purple around her eye almost glowed under the fluorescent light hanging over the mirror in her bathroom. The bruise masked the dark circle she knew lay hidden underneath it. She knew it was there, since there was a matching one staring back at her from its home under her other eye.

God, she hated this. The anger. The weariness. The fear. Every last bit of it.

Tye came into the room then, and stood behind her.

“Sorry,” she said to his reflection.

He drew his eyebrows together. “For?”

She swirled her hand in the air. “This. All of it.”

“Why are you apologizing for something you have no control over?”

She looked away from him, pushing herself from the counter and running her hands down the front of her shirt. His shirt. “I have control over my reactions. At least, I thought I did.”

“Don’t you think it’s more important to be honest with yourself than to bury what’s going on inside? Hiding away doesn’t usually work.”

“Neither does telling all,” she said, thinking about last night at Euphoria.

“Depends on who you’re talking to,” he contradicted. “You can talk to me, you know.”

She turned and leaned her rear against the counter, dropping her chin to her chest while gripping the marble’s edge until she was sure her knuckles had turned white. “I hate he was here. In my room.” She glanced up at Tye. “He never should’ve been here, just as I should never have gone to that club last night.”

“Don’t second guess yourself based on hindsight.”

She blew out a humorless chuckle at that. A second later, she said, “I wanted you here. In my room with me. Before all this, you were the one I wanted here.”

His jaw tensed just as the set of his eyebrows eased. “Laine…”

“And now he’s ruined that.”

Tye edged closer. “Only if you let him.”

She met his eyes, once again fighting the sting in hers. “How can I not?”

He settled his hands first on her shoulders, staying quiet, even as his heady gaze told all. As he stroked down her arms, her breath quickened and her chest tightened. When he came to her hands, he didn’t take them into his as she thought he might do. Instead, he flattened his palms over them, trapping them between his and the counter. He held her in place, pressing the rest of his body against hers.

“Because I’m here now. Together we can dim what he did here. We can make it so you don’t ever have to remember.”

Ah, God, she wanted that more than anything.

When she moved to wrap her arms around him, he pressed his hands more firmly over hers. “No. Don’t move. Let me do this.”

Let him? Heaven above, right here, right now, she’d beg him do anything he wanted.

But she didn’t have to. She didn’t have to say anything because he took control. He gave her what she needed without having to utter a single word. He gave her what she needed when he kissed her.

A kiss that said more than any of the others she’d shared with him.

He wasn’t rough, but there wasn’t much gentleness to the kiss either. He planted his mouth over her lips like he wanted to consume her. And she wanted him to. She wanted him to take her away, if only for a little while, if only in her own mind. If only in her own body.

He left her lips and nibbled across her jaw until he came to her ear. “I’m going to let go, but I don’t want you to move. Keep your hands where they are,” he whispered.

Her only answer was a slight nod and the closing of her eyes. There was nothing for her to say, anyway. Nothing for her to do but let go of everything around her. Everything but Tye.

There was nothing for her to do but trust him.

He came back to her lips, blowing her mind with how forceful yet gentle he could be at the same time. He brought his hands to her waist, gripping her lightly, making her mind wonder what he might do next.

It didn’t have to wonder for too long. He slid his hands upward, stopping inches below her breasts. She wasn’t wearing a bra, hadn’t since she’d been in the hospital. Her nipples tightened and her heart raced as she waited, as he tortured her by not moving anything other than his lips over hers.

She wanted him to touch her, damn it. She wanted the weight of his hands on her breasts, the heat and pressure of his palms covering her aching nipples.

A zing shot from her stomach straight downward, heating a trail to her pussy as his hands crept higher along her rib cage with each beat of her heart. And then he cupped the sides of her breasts while skimming his thumbs tenderly over her nipples.

She moaned into his mouth—she couldn’t hold it in—and clutched the edge of the counter harder.

“Breathe,” he whispered over her lips.

Wasn’t she? God no, she wasn’t. She felt like she’d forgotten how. He moved his left hand, bringing it between her breasts and stroking her there with his fingertips. Up. Down. Easy.

She opened her eyes and locked onto his gaze then, breathing with him, timing every inhale and exhale in perfect sync with his.

“That’s it,” he said, holding her within his stare.

She trembled, but it wasn’t because she was cold. She trembled from the fire racing across her skin, from the power in his eyes as he held her captured. From the light touch of his finger as he trailed it lower. At her bellybutton, he tugged on the shirt, bunching it within his fingers until the hem was firmly in his grip.

Their first skin-on-skin contact as he smoothed his hand over her stomach had her aching to move, had her dying to touch him as well. When her arms flinched, he shook his head slightly. “No, don’t. Keep your hands there, Laine.”

It was then that it dawned on her—this was bondage without bindings. His words were enough to keep her bound. His demand enough to have her willing to submit.

~~~*~~~

Thanks for having me, Des!!

Kristin’s bio: Kristin Daniels has always been a reader of romance, but it wasn’t until she discovered the erotic romance genre that she finally figured out what had been missing from all the books she’d read before. The heat, the passion…that was it! Her love of reading (any genre, any format…really just anything) led to her taking a chance on writing something of her own, and she’s been hooked ever since.

Kristin calls the suburbs of Chicago home, where she lives with a hero of her very own and their three great kids.