Please help me welcome one of my favorite Authors Tara Fox Hall to my blog today! She's got a new book in her Promise Me series called Her Secret!
IN A LOVER’S WORDS
The Making of Devlin Dalcon
It’s probably no secret by now to fans of the Promise Me
Series that I made Devlin’s character to be the ultimate vampire. He is at
times gentle and romantic, quoting poetry and comforting Sar in her darkest
hour. Handsome and brave, a golden-haired god with fangs, ready to make her
darkest fantasy come to vivid life. He is physically a supernaturally adept
lover, willing to do anything to please her, catering to her every wish with
all of his 400 years of uninhibited experience. Yet he is also fierce and
demanding in satisfying his own desires, the utter Alpha male. His will shall
not be denied or curtailed in any way…and the cumulation will not arrive until
he has wrung the very last drop of gratification from it.
Much of this is standard for heroes in romance novels, I
admit. Vampire tales are full of alpha males doing these exact things with
their usual swooning heroines. Like everything else in this series, I wanted
Devlin to stand apart from other vampires. So I gave Devlin one key difference
from them. He always takes his seduction one step further, and it’s that key
that gets him into Sar’s locked heart, when all his other tries at making her
his lover have failed. What am I talking about? Devlin’s seduction is not with
his body alone, but also his mind. He speaks to Sar almost always when they
make love, telling her how much he desires her, how her body feels to him, the
pleasure he is taking in their coupling, and how much he desires her climax at
his hands.
Why did I do this? Talking throughout sex might seem silly
to some people, like it might take away from the physical act. I contend that
this exchange of words between lovers breaks down the very last barrier that
exists between two lovers being truly one. Men are notoriously quiet in my personal
experience, both in reality and in fiction. There is much about the sex act to
them that is and remains a purely physical one. Women also are often quiet, I
think. It is one thing to moan out that someone is pleasing you, an easy signal
that takes no words. It is quite another to murmur in their ear that every
stroke of their body into yours is pure heaven, that being with them like this
is better than anything. This is so far above the “talking dirty” that there is
not really a comparison. “Take me now, hard and fast,” does not evoke anything
but lust. “Take all that I am, all of me, everything I have to give is yours”
whispered in time with thrusts is enough to stop my heart, when I imagine that
in a scene from the female character’s perspective. Much of that is the added
emotional aspect that can’t be denied, giving mind-blowing status to a sex
scene that was already hot and steamy as a sauna room.
But that is not all. I added one more aspect to Devlin’s
repertoire: he sings to his lovers, as part of foreplay and afterglow. Again,
some women are likely thinking, “singing? Are you serious?” My answer is yes, I
am. I like to sing, and am fairly good. When you sing a romantic song to
someone, just for them alone, putting your love into every word as you gently caress
them, it intensifies the experience tenfold.
I find both of these aspects so powerful as they introduce
vulnerability on the part of the lovers. If you are the singer, there’s an
element of fear in putting yourself out there. Confessing your deepest feelings
and desires in the middle of an act of physical passion has the possibility to
backfire drastically…or make it the single most meaningful encounter that your
partner ever experienced. There is a huge risk involved. Devlin feels that
fear, but still always takes that risk, because he always wants the most encompassing
and total satisfaction of his lover. To me, it doesn’t get any better than
that.
Back List of Promise Me Series titles:
Surrender to Me
(PM novella + excerpt from Immortal Confessions)
Promise Me
(Promise Me Series #1)
Broken Promise
(Promise Me Series #2
Taken in the
Night (Promise Me Series #3
Taken for His
Own (Promise Me Series #4)
Promise Me
Anthology #1 (#4.5)
Her Secret
(Promise Me Series #6)
Blurb: In a desperate effort to
halt her transformation to vampire, and stop her longing
for the sultry Devlin, Sarelle willingly takes a drug to kill her desire,
even as Danial prepares for the introduction of their son Theoron at a Vampire
Gathering on New Years Eve. Faced with Theo’s betrayal at the eleventh hour,
Sarelle must either trust in Danial to save her, or join forces with
Devlin, revealing her secret desire for him.
Excerpt:
“Good afternoon, Sar.”
“Carol, is
everything I say to you confidential?”
“Yes. Now what
did you not feel comfortable telling me yesterday?”
“You’re sure this
is confidential?”
“Yes. Not only
can I not tell Theo, I can’t tell anyone, or I risk losing my license. The
exception would be if you’d harmed someone, or planned to hurt someone,
including yourself.”
I shifted
uncomfortably. “I need you to know that there is more to the story.”
“Go on,” she
encouraged. “Tell me about this encounter. What was this man’s name?”
Oddly, I didn’t
want to tell her Devlin’s name. “I’d rather not give you his name just yet.”
“That’s fine.
Please go on.”
“The man who I
enjoyed…um, was with was also the man who rescued me that night from my
abductors. He was badly injured doing so. He was also a vampire, and I gave him
my blood to heal, though I knew it was wrong.”
“Why did you
think it was wrong?”
“I wanted him
secretly. He had saved me before, and I had wondered what being with him would
be like. We’d had sexual chemistry from our first meeting, really. He’d come on
to me in the past, and I’d fantasized about what would happen if I said yes.”
“Fantasizing
doesn’t mean that you weren’t forced. You refused—”
“No, I gave in,”
I amended. “I gave him permission.”
“Did you feel you
had a choice, really?” she asked.
“Not at the time.
But when I look back at what happened, I think I wanted him to take me just the
way he did. I’m a resourceful woman, and I could’ve escaped, but I didn’t.”
“This
second-guessing and recrimination is common in rape cases,” Carol said
neutrally. “What happened wasn’t your fault.”
I looked away
from her earnest gaze. “There’s more to the story.”
“Please
continue.”
“I left out a lot
of things that Theo can’t ever know.”
“Such as?’
“That the man who
made love to me that day was the best lover I’ve ever had in my life and most
likely the best one I’ll ever have.”
Carol’s eyes went
wide with shock. “Why do you say that?” she said carefully.
“He was not
afraid to say or do anything that might make the experience better, deeper,
more fulfilling for me. He quoted poetry and sang to me as he touched and
kissed me. He understood that by speaking to me, he could intensify everything
I was feeling with my body. He used not only his body to love me, but his
mind.”
Carol’s face had
gone slack, enthralled. Oddly proud of Devlin’s skill, I continued. “Needless
to say, the experience was amazing. Though I can’t feel much desire on these
drugs, the thought of him still gets my heart racing.”
Buy Links:
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/380698
Melange Books
(PDF, print-Lulu, and HTML): http://www.melange-books.com/authors/tarafoxhall/hersecret.html
Author links:
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/TaraFH
Barnes and
Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/tara-fox-hall
Melange Books: http://www.melange-books.com/authors/tarafoxhall/index.html
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Please thank Tara for joining us today! Check out her many books and links. You won't regret it! Her Promise Me series is a great one!
Keep Writing!
Jodie Pierce
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