A year or two ago, I wrote a book, Texas Heat, with a Texan
hero and a British heroine. Set in London and then Texas. Visiting friends in
Texas gave me a fascination with the place. It’s huge and wealthy enough to be
a country in its own right. Texans do what they do, people make a living in
Texas without ever setting foot outside the state. In the UK, we’re a small
country so we tend to travel a fair bit. And the weather isn’t as good! About
the only thing I didn’t like about Texas was the tree roaches—ugh!
So when I came to write a book about Yolanda, the sister of
the hero of “Texas Heat,” I decided to do it in reverse. She travels to London
and meets a British hero. Of course I know London well, and it was a delight to
make it the center of “Stripped Bare.” But the story got railroaded before I
even got Yolanda into London. She decides to mark her new life by joining the
Mile High Club. Not in any icky toilet, but in her nice first class seat, where
the only person who can see them is asleep. Or so she thinks. Her hunky
bodyguard and she get it on, and suddenly she realises she’s being watched.
Only having the man watching her turns her on, and this is
the start of the adventure of a lifetime for Yolanda. When she gets to London,
she finds something very important missing from her luggage, and the bodyguard
has vamoosed. The only person who saw her on that plane was the man watching
her. So she sets out to find him.
Lawrence Cavendish has secrets within secrets, and that
drives him to enjoy edgy, dangerous sex. He knows Yolanda feels the same. How?
He’s seen it for himself! So when she finds him, he suggests they carry on.
Yolanda is blown away, but she’s going back to Texas when her London project is
over. If she can recover the stolen goods.
Do I have to tell you what fun the book was to write? It was
great to be able to set a book in one of my favourite cities, and maybe
introduce people to parts of London they’re not overfamiliar with. Lawrence has
a flat in Westminster, which has some of the best places in London to live an
deat. Well, what do you expect, that’s where the members of Parliament have to
live! During the Parliamentary season, they have to live close, because of the
Three Line Whips. Sounds like something you’d find in a BDSM club, but really,
it’s a “come here and vote or else” command. They have to leave their homes and
run, if they’re not already in the House, and sessions can go on deep into the
night.
Not that Lawrence is an MP. He’s an ethical investor,
something that’s increasingly in demand these days. But Lawrence’s secrets go
right back to his childhood in Liverpool, and I did have fun introducing Scouse
to the book. But I had to cut the slang right down, so while things like “la,”
“busies” and “scallies” are still there, I had to cut other stuff.
I want to do a book about another character there now, and
there’s already another book on the way. “Unlaced” takes another kinky theme.
Where Lawrence and Yolanda enjoy sex in public places, the hero of “Unlaced”
prefers do have his fun behind closed doors—and when he discovers the woman who
shares his particular kink, there’s no stopping him!
Read about Yolanda and Lawrence in “Stripped Bare” here:
