I wanted to share a little bit about why and how Captive, Mine, my upcoming release with Trent Evans, came about.
When thoughts of this project began to form, I'd been writing for a little while and really enjoying what I was doing. I felt truly lucky that this could be my work. My husband is very supportive and encouraging and I bounce ideas off him all the time, and one of the things that came up for me is that at a certain point, I was feeling like my writing was 'stuck'. Given this, I knew what I wanted to do, where I wanted to go, but wasn't confident enough to go there on my own. I guess I wanted someone to hold my hand in a way. I knew what I wanted to write - or at least had some idea of it, and Trent was always the one who came up in the back of my mind as a co-author.
Now, I love Trent's writing. I have since I read Maintenance Night, and it took me some time to get the nerve up to ask him if he'd do this project with me, but I did and he said yes (obviously :). And I think I accomplished what I set out to accomplish. This book pushes a little more and there are a couple of scenes, one in particular, that I wrote and still think 'OMG, should I take that out?' I didn't.
The writing process itself is interesting too when working with another author. When you're sharing the writing of a story with a very loose plot idea, things can go in directions you did not expect - which really is the point - at least it was for me in the writing of Captive, Mine. There was one scene in particular I still remember. I got the message from Trent that he was done and it was back to me and when I read the scene, my first thought was 'no, Lily can't do that, we'll have to change this...' But then I stopped (I'm quick- draw with an e-mail sometimes). I wrote my scene based on the direction he'd chosen for this particular piece and in doing so, was pushed a little out of my comfort zone, which is, again, what I wanted. It also made Lily up to be a heroine she might not have otherwise been.
I read the story now and it makes my belly go funny - it's the only way to describe it. I hope you all have the same feeling.
I'm sharing a piece from Lake's POV today. This is Lily's first punishment:
It was time she learned that first lesson.
Opening the rear passenger door on the driver’s side, he climbed in, closing it behind him, the air inside still, quiet. Her chest heaved with her panicky breathing, her nostrils flaring. Her body leaned against her door, as far from him as she could get.
“When I tell you to do something, Ms. Cross, you’d damn well better do it.” He brought his face closer to hers, inhaling the clean scent of her perfume. He spoke slowly, steel in his voice.
“You’re going to learn to start obeying me. And you want to know why? Because it’s going to keep us alive, but more importantly, you’ll do it because I told you to. Do you understand?”
Her eyes grew wide, and she looked down at the tape. He reached for it, curling fingers under one corner. “I’ll pull this back, and I’d better hear the words: ‘Yes, Sir’” His fingers yanked it to the side, leaving it to hang from her flushed cheek
“Fuck, that hurts!” She reached up with her cuffed hands, running fingertips along her lips.
“Those weren’t the words I wanted to hear.” He batted her hands away, stilling her with a fist twisting in her hair and a slap of the tape back over swollen, reddened lips. “That’s going to cost you.”
Her eyes narrowed, and enraged, but unintelligible, squalling erupted from behind the tape, two utterances sounding suspiciously close to “asshole.”
Not a quick learner, this one.
He found he rather appreciated that — but first it was time to get the beautiful woman’s attention. Sliding toward the middle of the rear bench seat, he deftly unlatched her belt. She moved instantly, trying to lunge forward. He threaded his fingers into the rich, silky weight of her hair then clenched his fist. She froze, her eyes squeezing shut with a pained grunt.
Yanking roughly, he pulled her down, drawing her over his lap. Her cuffed hands pushed at his lap as she tried to rise, but he grasped them by the chain linking her wrists, and hauled her hands out in front of her. He yanked her blouse from the clutch of her dark jeans, rucking it up to expose the satin paleness of her lower back.
She kicked out, hard, her heel connecting against the door with a loud thud, and she pushed against it with surprising strength. He twisted his fist in her hair further, and she squealed once more. Pulling one leg from beneath her struggling body, he laid it over the back of her kicking legs, clamping down on them until only her feet drummed against the door. He leaned over her, his lips at her ear.
“You’ll lie still, or it’ll be worse for you. Nobody knows you’re out here. Nobody. Be good, and this’ll be quick.”
Though he wanted this lesson to get through to her, part of him hoped very much that she’d defy his order.
Of course, she struggled and squirmed, no matter how fruitless it was. He allowed himself a grim smile at her fire, knowing it was going to make things all the harder — but knowing it made things all the more interesting too.
The jeans she wore hugged her figure well, and up close, he got the first good glimpse at it. Despite her petite build, her ass was actually quite generous, plump and round, the jeans displaying its curves enticingly.
Survival first, Lake. Then you can indulge yourself.
But that wasn’t quite true. She needed to learn — and the faster, the better — that doing what she was told was vital for her, for her very survival — and it was vital for the comfort of that little bubble butt she’d been hiding too.
He’d teach her a lesson, but there was nothing wrong with enjoying himself while he did it.
Pushing her head down steadily, he held her by the hair at the base of her skull, not allowing her an inch of movement. He brought his hand down on her jeans-clad ass once, then again, harder. The rough fabric stung his palm.
She froze, a puzzled little sound coming from behind the tape. Then, as if a switch had been turned on, her entire body writhed in every direction, her hips rising and falling as she struggled against the iron grip of his legs. He felt his cock stir as she moved against him, the feeling of overpowering her with his strength speaking to something deep inside himself he hadn’t known was there.
* * * *
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Blurb
The day my father agreed to testify against Terrence Randall, one of the most ruthless drug traffickers in North America, was the day I became a target to the drug lord’s enraged vengeance. I was the one thing that stood in the way of Daddy’s testimony, the one thing that could save Randall, and he’d stop at nothing to get his hands on me.
I was prepared for what was coming — as prepared as one could be when vanishing into the U.S. Marshal’s Witness Protection Program.
I just wasn’t prepared for him.
*
For ex-Navy SEAL turned mercenary, escorting Lily Cross into the Witness Protection Program was just another job — until a better offer came along. Lake Freeman couldn’t have cared less about the life he’d been hired to protect. After all, she was a part of the very organization that had cost him so much already.
At least he never expected to care.
But when forced into a decision he never thought he’d have to make, the mission became one of survival for himself and his beautiful charge. Lake knew that in order to protect her, he’d need to bring the feisty and unpredictable Lily to heel -- he couldn't keep her safe if he couldn't keep her under control.
But that protective urge quickly turned into something else, something dark ... and his need to conquer, to claim, overrode all else.
He would keep her safe. He would keep her protected. But he would make her his, as well.
Now, all he had to do was figure out how to keep them both alive long enough to do it...
