When One Just Isn’t Enough
Wednesday, February 20th, 2008
It’s the way every nerve comes alive when he walks into the room. The way your body reacts when you feel him standing behind you. Close enough to touch. Close enough to feel him. The way your next breath catches when his fingers come into contact with your skin. The warm touch of his breath along the back of your neck. The way your heart beats triple time at the thought of him kissing you. Tasting you. Backing you against the nearest wall and sliding your skirt up. The way his fingers would dance along your inner thigh. The way he would feel hard against you. Nothing but you and him. Anyway you could have him. It’s all you can think about. Your hands gliding along the smooth
But then you blink and tear your eyes away from his. Strong hands slide up your forearms. Possessing you. Marking you as his territory. You glance up and you see the look. Hero 1 knows you lust. Lusting not only for him, but for another man. He’s powerless to stop you. Wanting you to be his one and only, but you always manage to stay one step ahead of him. You touch his arm lightly. You smile up into his eyes. But the other man is within your sight, standing so when you glance over Hero 1’s shoulder, Unlikely Hero 2’s waiting. Watching you. The heat. The magnetism. The tension.
How can you have it with both men and have two totally different feelings?
He leans down to brush his lips lightly against your temple. There is just the brief skittering of
butterflies low in your belly. The faint rushing of feelings that used to be so strong, but now have started to flicker like a flame that isn’t fed. There is still that tie holding you two together. But this case of lust has built itself into spontaneous combustion. It’s consumed you. When you lay your head down at night, you dream of him. Touching you. Caressing you. His mouth on yours. His hand between your thighs. The way your toes curl. The way he groans your name. The way dominates you, makes you feel again. Makes you remember that feeling. The rush. The explosion. The way his arms hold you tight. The way his fingers feel running through your hair. His lips soft and tender against your forehead.
And it all just started with a look.
It’s when you’re in the shower and the water cascades over you. It’s his fingers dancing over your skin. His mouth soft at first. Becoming more urgent. Demanding. The way the steam sucks the air from your lungs, just like the feeling you get when he’s near you. The way you can’t think. You open your mouth but the words never come to you. The way it feels so wrong, but so right. You’d do anything to be in his arms for another hour. Another minute. Another second. You can’t get enough of him. And each time he’s feeding the flame. It’s white hot between the two of you. Nothing can stop you from getting what you want.
Except for the other hero. Then it becomes a major conflict. You may not be a couple, but there is something there. Something that begs for a chance. A feeling you can’t quite figure out if you want to take a giant leap of faith on. Sacrifice and Trust. A give and a take. Is it worth it? Do you dare? Can you take that risk on just one person?
My heroine is hard to figure out. I think I might tapped into her inner struggle a little deeper. Maybe figured out a thing or two about how to make her tick. I don’t want to say I’ve got her all completely wrapped around my pinkie because she resents those remarks.
My heroine is relationship challenged. If someone gets close to her, she backs away from them. So it was only logical that I bring another hero into the mix. Someone that she was close to in another life. The life she had before her sister was murdered. Then she found another person in which she could trust. There is a balance for her trusting abilities. She picks and chooses the details from her life that she wants those closest to her to know.
So then it was only fair that once those two are established, I bring into someone else. That someone else is eventually supposed to take the place of her roommate.
But it’s not working out so well for me. At least not yet. They can’t stand each other. But I imagine by mid-book two or three they will find a common ground. After all, they have to work together. But it’s the chemistry between the two of them that will set up for the explosion. The first look. That first look of sexual tension between them. You build it up and build it up and then your hero fights you on it. Then the hero that was supposed to just be a friend, inserts himself right centrally into the integral plot line. And yet, the third hero waits on the wings of book one, watching, waiting, biding his time. He messes up. She messes up. They’ve made mistakes before. And it was together. But roomie hero won’t give up. He is the look from across the room. The look that makes you question everything you thought you knew about yourself. And just behind him, there is the work hero. Watching her. Studying her. Sizing her up. Realizing there is something more behind all the anger. Realizing there is that pull between them. He wants to walk away. But something is holding him back.
And there she is- the heroine. Looking up into the eyes of the guy she wanted with all her soul as a teenager. Finally having the chance at him and almost wanting to let it go. But she can’t. He’s her last tie. The very last thing holding her to her past. How can she let him go? She can’t quite yet. Even though she’s looking over his shoulder. The future uncertain. Her feelings all jumbled. The attraction between her and three men… it’s just overpowering. And intoxicating. Frightening.
Question of the Day: It’s not often that we write our heroines with two or more heroes. And aim for them to stick it out with the two or more heroes. So at one point do they become more than a mere plot device? When you do make them become an actual option for the heroine to choose? How do you sort it out? And if you’re a reader, do you like the more than one hero option? What turns you off the most?
PS. I’m on vacation this week and the wenches are graciously covering for me in the comments. I will try to comment later on in the day. I look forward to what you have to say!