Lust Bites

by Erastes

Yes, yes - some of us like the clean cut, the Clark Kents, the Jason Bournes, the James Bonds. They are all very well in their place - at the Casino, a hunt ball, tea with your mother but there's a dark and nasty streak in a lot of us who even while on the arm of that Oh-So-Nice young man that your family approves of, stares lasciviously at that guy who's just walked in.

You know him. He's dressed wrong. He hasn't bothered to wash, style or cut his hair. He could have a crew-cut. He might be bald. He's probably scarred. He's smoking and he makes it look like sexual harrassment. He hasn't even bothered to shave for God's sake, and the ball room is vibrating in shock. But he catches your eye and your knickers go damp and if he asked you to leave with him, well you'd probably throw your leg over his Harley and fuck up the rest of your life.

So what's the appeal? You know he's bad. You know he's not going to have a job, or he's just come out of prison, or he's on parole. If he has a job it's not going to be anything in the City, no matter how ruthless the stockmarket is. That sort of job has its bad boys, but the Gordon Gekkos of this world are Clean Cut. The Bit of Rough will have oil under his nails, and callouses so hard on his palms that they'll leave scratches on your skin.

You hope.

He's an Alpha and he's not going to care what you want. He's not going to ask "What do you want to do this evening?" He's not going to care about where your G Spot is, because "Lady, if you don't come like a train when I'm fucking you, then there's something wrong with you" (or some such trashy talk. *fans self*) If he has a dog it's out in the yard and it doesn't have a name. The bit of Rough either lives in a trailer, or a mansion. No inbetweens. Sex with him is going to hurt - and hurt good.

So who are my favourite Roughs? Some real, some fiction, some video game (for my sins)

1. Solid Snake. He's a charmer, and flirts with all women in his orbit. He's deadly with his bare hands, smokes and not only maintains designer stubble, but sports a mullet and makes it look good. Cons: He's likely to be killed, and anyway he's a clone. He die soon.

2. Jason Stratham - At his Rough best in The Transporter. Hard as nails: hard enough to realise there's a girl in a body bag in his boot and to zip her back up in it after discovery. Cons: He's anally retentive to the point of madness. Roughs are not supposed to be tidy.

3. Greebo as a man. From Terry Pratchett's Discworld - "Greebo could commit sexual harrasment by sitting quietly in the next room." Cons: He's a cat. All he really wants is a plate of fish heads and to have his tummy tickled.

4. Indiana Jones. Even when he scrubbed up he still looked scruffy - and by association...Hans Solo - "you scruffy looking - NERF HERDER!" Yeah, she liked a scoundrel. We all like a scoundrel. Also Deckard from Bladerunner. Hell - Harrison Ford does GOOD Rough. Cons: ermm..... *still thinking...*

5. Snake Plissken (the eagle-eyed will probably spot a pattern going on here...). Eyepatch. Check. Bulging biceps (not too bulging, please). Check. No moral compass. Check. He'll do. Cons: He's a life-long con. He's got a bomb in him which will go off if he breaks parole. Aw. Who cares!!

Of course, there could be drawbacks. Your Rough might not be around for a long time. Perhaps he's off in his truck tomorrow on the Ice Run.

He's got a load of smuggled chemicals that he's shipping to Sirius. You could wake up and he'll be gone. But that's not all bad. The Rough isn't going to want to go shopping with you. He's not going to own a People Carrier and know his way around a wine list. He's not going to go to the video store for you and get Beaches. He's never going to watch his child being born. You know you are better off - in the long run - with the Clean Cut. And at least you can introduce the Clean Cut to your mother.

But it's a nice dream and anyway, with a bit of luck the Rough will probably be round this way again some day.

So who are yours - with links or piccies please?

By Janine Ashbless

3) No Fake Heartbreakers. You know; the guy who’s introduced by reputation as a total philanderer who leaves a string of conquests behind him, just so the heroine can get uptight and self-righteous while secretly she’s gagging for it. That’s Trad Romance shorthand for, "I am highly sexed. I will never slump in front of the TV with a tin of beer while you seethe and reach for the Rabbit. I will give you as much sex as you could ever want. Plus, the fact that women keep falling in love with me makes it clear that I am inherently desirable. But the moment I make an emotional commitment to the heroine I will miraculously become the model of lifelong devotion and faithfulness."

Well, it seems some Lust Biters just can’t stay away from the Bad Boys…

by Alison Tyler

Nikki covered the ladies we lust after.

Alana revealed her Ideal Husband.

Janine drooled over Gerard Butler.

And now there’s me. And wouldn’t you know, I have a very specific type of crush. One that will come as no surprise to anyone who pays attention to my writing.

I am all about the older man.

Pretty young boys just don’t do it for me. Sure I can admit they’re pretty, and yes, I’ve dated a few over the years. (Underwear model. Movie star.) But after the shine wears off, here’s the truth: I don’t want the pretty boys.

I’m looking to date their daddies.

Thankfully, I’m not the only person who feels this way. But, I never thought I’d find a kindred spirit in Joan Rivers. Yet I’ll give credit where credit is due, and she summed up my emotions in a recent Esquire interview: “Men look great when they’re a little used. They’ve done it, and they know about it. That’s William Holden to me. Robert Mitchum. George Clooney is getting that look. That wonderful, wonderful lived-in look.”

Perfect description. "Lived-in." I love it. The creases around the eyes. The calluses on the hands. The "been there and done it all" attitude. Because I'm not just after the looks. I'm focused on the actions. A man knows how to treat a girl. He’s got experience. He’s got finesse. He’s got me wrapped around his finger. A boy can't put you over his lap and spank you. Trust me. Not the way a man can.


I will go for the Rat Pack style of Dean Martin over the baby-faced beauty of Brat Pack Rob Lowe every time. What can I say? You can’t choose your poison. The problem is that I’m not an ingénue anymore. (Can you be one in your thirties?) But aging hasn’t stopped me. My older men have simply gotten, well, a wee bit older. When I was 16, a 27 year old could make my heart stop. These days, my older male fantasies have adapted accordingly.

Luckily for me, age works on men as well as wine. Check out the young George Clooney and the modern man—the latter wins my heart without a question. Or Robert Mitchum—fresh-faced versus "used." And Sean Connery—well, actually, Sir Sean was always pretty fucking hot. There are exceptions to every rule, you know. Some men, like Connery, seem to have been born as men.

So now you tell me....


Are you a fan of the older man? Are you an older man yourself?

Or are you on the other side of the fence, focusing solely on the slim-hipped boys? The ones who won't make me turn my head for another twenty years.

Spill your secrets and let us know.

XXX,
Alison

P.S. For more on my personal fantasy, click to my blog, and my short story, “Yeah.”

All you pretty women,
Stand in line,
I can make love to you baby,
In an hour's time.

I'm a man,
I spell m-a-n...man.

Eek! Agh! I’m supposed to write something about GOTHIC BLUE and CONTINUUM today and I don’t really have the first idea what to say. I’m rubbish at promo and I don’t know how to write articles, so all that leaves is just yattering on about stuff, the way I do on my own blog…

Right, GOTHIC BLUE then…

Would you believe that this was supposed to be a vampire erotic novel? I was all set to have a brooding, handsome vampire living at Sedgewick Priory, but when I proposed this to the editor at the time she said, ‘ooh no, vampires are old hat in erotica… Anne Rice has done it all already…’ or words to that effect. Now, lovers of sexy vamp novels today are probably thinking ‘What!?!’ It doesn’t seem possible, given the truly world conquering popularity of vampire erotica nowadays, that a decade or so ago, the subgenre could have been deemed such a no-no. Anyway, I had a bit of a rethink and came up with a new paranormalness [paranormality?] for my hero Count André Von Kastel and made him a sort of semi benevolent sorcerer by default. He’s had the mockers put on him by an evil sorceress and he’s cursed to languish alone in near immortality, pining for his true love, who's trapped as an incorporeal spirit in a blue crystal bottle. There's a way out of this dilemma for both him and his beloved, involving a bit of sex magic, but he's just waiting for the right 'participant' to come along. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it sounds pretty bonkers, but it did seem like a good idea at the time! J

It wasn’t difficult to ‘cast’ as Count André. I already had a perfect ‘template’ guy in mind, and I built the character around him. And who better to make into a pale, spooky, semi supernatural being living in mournful seclusion than a tanned and healthy world class super sportsman? Yep, I’d been watching Wimbledon not long before I started writing GB, so Count André is modelled on a young, long haired André Agassi… LOL

As it’s ten years since I wrote GOTHIC BLUE, a lot of brain cells have flowed under the bridge since then, so I can’t remember much about some of the other characters in it. The heroine is Belinda Seward [a slight Dracula type homage, obviously, with the book showing its vampire roots] and she has a steady boyfriend and travelling companion called Jonathan [another Drac ref]. I don’t think I had a template guy in mind for Jonathan, but looking back at him across the years, I seem to see a young, fresh Tom Hanks, much as he looked in movies like 'Splash' or 'Big'. Jonathan is a straightforward, uncomplicated sort of chap, passionately in love with Belinda, but a bit befuddled by all the hokey erotic goings on at the Priory.

Reading the above [if you’ve not fallen asleep by now] you’ll have gathered that I always tend to use my current ‘lust object’ of choice to create the heroes in my books. I see it as a fine and harmless way to have a wild sexy fling with an otherwise completely unattainable guy such as a pop star, a film or movie actor or a sportsman When I came to write CONTINUUM, I had a passionate ‘thing’ for Kevin Bacon – stemming from films like 'He Said, She Said', 'Flatliners' and 'Tremors' [oh, those long lean legs in those tight blue jeans!] So one of the principal men in CONTINUUM is a geeky but quirkily handsome boy next door/sex maniac called Kevin Steel. Heroine Joanna has a spiky and sometimes combative relationship with naughty Kevin, but he’s always there when she needs him, for sex or otherwise.

But Kevin isn’t the only template bloke in CONTINUUM. Around the time I wrote the book, I’d also been avidly watching reruns of Twin Peaks, so some of the men from that rather peculiar series got supporting roles. Agent Dale Cooper himself aka Kyle Maclachlan is Halloran, Joanna’s stern but sexy boss, and the role of Denis Davidson, the sly and provocative human resources supremo at her firm is ‘played’ by Mr David Duchovny in an off beat and titillating pre Fox Mulder guise. Denis has a delicious habit of becoming ‘Denise’ now and again, so I drew on the image of David looking rather fetching in high heels, lipstick, a glossy wig and a power suit when he appeared as a cross dressing DEA agent in the second series of TP.

Well, that’s all I can really think of to say about GOTHIC BLUE and CONTINUUM for the moment. It's not much, I know, but I did warn you. The best way to find out more about the books is to read them. I hope you'll find them fun and entertaining... ;)

If you want to try before you buy, you’ll find an excerpt of GOTHIC BLUE here, and excerpts of CONTINUUM here and here.

You can now buy the newly reprinted and gorgeously rejacketed CONTINUUM from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

GOTHIC BLUE has an equally spiffing new cover and it’s currently available from Amazon.co.uk. It’ll be available from Amazon.com on 3rd April.

Thank you for your kind attention...

Love

WendyPortia aka Portia Da Costa
First Lady of Black Lace [© Tilly and who am I to argue?]

I'm sure visitors will have noticed we're mostly XX chromosomatic in here. But that doesn't mean we don't want to hear from the other half of the species! We love to have males around the place, (bring us drinks, peel our grapes, pay us compliments, etc.)

Seriously, both sexes and all in between are very welcome.

This post is dedicated especially to the guys who planned to turn up in drag and put on squeaky voices. I know who you are, and you should have shaved first. ; )