“Why would you want me to inflict pain, Mr. Swift?”
The governess had returned—cool, composed, the perfect servant who would accept any bizarre, scandalous, ridiculous thing he said and carry on regardless.
“But you sorely want to, don’t you, Serena? Don’t you strap naughty boys who misbehave?”
Serena crossed her arms beneath her lush breasts. “I do not believe in corporal punishment.”
“You’ve never spanked a charge? I find that hard to believe.”
He grinned as a little smile came to her lips—a crack in her cool demeanor, a wry smile that changed her from perfect servant to human woman.
“It leads to escalation, Mr. Swift. What do ten lashes of the strap lead to? Twenty, I assure you. A child will push boundaries, and then what is a governess to do? Keep making worse and worse threats? And once a threat is issued, it must be acted upon. Children know at once when they have taken control.”
“So you wouldn’t spank me in punishment.”
“You are a grown man, Mr. Swift.”
“Would you spank me in fun?”
A blush. He’d expected her to blush, to be a little embarrassed. Instead, Serena walked calmly to the edge of the bed and picked up the whip. She curled her fingers around the grip, weighing it. “If I were to spank your bottom, Mr. Swift. I would be tempted to do it with the flat of my hand.”
Excerpt from BLOOD ROSE by Sharon Page (coming August ’07)
I love to create the naughty hero. My hero in BLOOD ROSE, Drake Swift, is naughty and oh-so-wicked because he wants to lash out at the rules of a society that he feels he can never belong in. So, of course, I paired him with an ex-governess, Serena, a woman fired from her post because of an indiscretion (she was foolishly in love). A woman determined not to be led astray again. It was tremendous fun to have Drake challenge Serena with his wicked fantasies, and have her knock him back on his heels.
And who is a better foil for the wicked naughty hero than the tormented responsible one?
On the TV show LOST we get responsible leader Jack, with the weight of the world on his shoulders, competing for love against tempting bad boy Sawyer. I’ve used those archetypes in my books BLOOD RED and BLOOD ROSE, and took on the challenge to make them fresh and unique and explore why they have become the men they are.
Which led me to writing a menage book, the fantasy of a heroine with two heroes. Interestingly, I learned the challenge of writing a menage book with two heroes is that you must be fair to both men. You, as the author, can’t fall in love with one over the other. Or at least, you can’t focus on one man’s angst to the point where he’s not even having sex, while the other is a wicked playmate who is having wild sex with the heroine in every chapter. Hmmm, something I’d never thought of until I realized I was so entranced with one of my hero’s tragic pasts that I’d forgotten to let him have some carnal fun.
What type of man is your favorite hero? Your fantasy man? And if you’re a writer, is there one hero you’ve written who is unforgettable and will always be your favorite?
I once dated a man who wanted to try handcuffs, but I refused. Not because I had anything against being tied up, but I knew that some disaster would happen and I would be the woman who gets left chained to the bed with no way of phoning for help. Or if I did manage to call for help, I’d probably end up accidentally calling my mother. I’d read Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game. I was not going there. 
