BOOK: The Ties That Bind
AUTHOR: Constance Munday
GENRE: Erotic Romance
BOOK BLURB
Can a chance encounter untie the secret desires locked within?
Penny’s your average voluptuous girl next door. Still a virgin, she’s settled for dull accountant Laurence. However, Penny is about to have her Shades of Grey moment. Saved from an accident by enigmatic stranger Nicholas, she yields to temptation and agrees to his daring proposal. Can Nicholas prove to her in the space of the few short weeks before her wedding, that she’s made a mistake?
Penny’s preconceived notions of sex are challenged, as she now submits to desire and unwittingly falls truly in love with a man who loves her purely for herself.
But is it too late? Can she sever the ties that bind her to Laurence and is she strong enough to become bound by ties a million times more intriguing? In essence, is Penny brave enough to be the woman she knows she is inside as a game of hearts becomes self-fulfilment on a scale she never imagined possible?
EXCERPT
Funny how I didn’t care, as I invited the touching and fondling. I was lying awake at nights thinking about Nicholas. I was a sinner. If Nicholas knew what I fantasised about, he’d be ashamed of me. I’d gone through every possible scenario in my head.
I was struck by new and frightening worries, which seemed very real indeed.
In the beginning it had seemed kind of cool to play the martyr and give Nicholas up when my wedding came around. I’d have the memories wouldn’t I? Now though, the thought of that was getting harder and harder and I was fantasising over exactly how ingenious I could be when I eventually got married. What if I didn’t want to let Nicholas go? Would he agree to keep on seeing me? Probably not. Well, I’d have to change that. Over the next few weeks I intended to make him so crazy about me, he’d agree to anything. What was happening to me? I was becoming the kind of person I despised and I could feel a battle of enormous proportions brewing. I was living a life of fantasy, dreaming up dates and rendezvous whilst technically cheating on who would soon be - my husband. God, how could I? It was the kind of thing Penny number one would never do. Amazing how you could come up with so many arguments though and when it came down to falling in love, you were powerless. Falling in love, there I’d said it, even though I might not say it directly to Nicholas.
‘I don’t think being together in that way, would be a good idea, do you Nicholas? I mean if you’re honest with yourself…’
He looked hurt, in fact he looked like I’d slapped him in the face.
‘I thought you’d want to make me happy on my birthday. I mean you can make exceptions to a rule can’t you?’
‘Nicholas. Don’t be childish.’
‘I’m not. It’s just that when I was growing up everyone used to make my birthday a special day. Now, it’s different and there’s no one to give me anything special.’
I laughed. ‘Don’t pull that one and try and get me to feel sorry for you. You’re so good at spinning a line, I don’t know whether to believe you or not.’
‘Well, it’s true.’ He gripped my head in both his hands. ‘Come on.’ He pulled down his lips with his fingers. ‘How can you resist this sad specimen of manhood?’
I could sense the invisible thread winding me closer. I closed my eyes as I ran my hands over his chest. I was compelled by the suggestion. He was right. How could I turn him down? ‘I don’t know how I could manage it? It would be impossible to get away.’ I kissed his cheek, snuggled my mouth into his shoulder.
‘I told you, my life isn’t like yours. I’m predictable in everything I do.’ This was true. Everyone knew where I was, every second of every day. Good old reliable Penny. Out to work in the morning at the same time; a short walk down to the village at lunch or across to the New Age shop for a chinwag, and then home, where I didn’t do anything special, unless you counted a long hot bath or cooking for Laurence. My God, was I that dull? I was sure I hadn’t always been like this had I? No, I hadn’t. There’d been a time before I’d met Laurence, when I’d had my own life. My art classes at the college, for example; the horse-riding lessons. All things which Laurence had cleverly made me give up, not so much by telling me not to do them - but subtly insinuating he would rather I didn’t do them - as he pointed out that he’d prefer for me to be home and saving for the wedding.
Suddenly, I realised Laurence might be dull, but he could also be clever as he played as much of a game with a submissive woman as Nicholas did; an unhealthily submissive woman who wasn’t submissive in the fun way she was with her lover. No, there was nothing fun about Laurence’s approach. For some reason that thought made me extremely angry.
BUY LINKS
GUEST POST - Constance Munday
Whenever I talk about erotica, we invariably get onto the subject of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey,’ or someone asks me will I be writing something like it. The short answer is no. I don’t think I could do that anyway, because Shades was quite a phenomena.
Love it or hate it, it has done a few good things for a genre beloved of a many of us writers. Over the last few years erotica and bondage have really hit the headlines and good thing to. I say this from the standpoint of a die-hard traditional romantic who had a shock when she realised she also loved writing erotica. A relative innocent as far as the genre goes, when I entered this profession I was often lambasted as people set upon me saying that erotica was pornography. Us novelists have had a hard time shaking off what is now an outdated image of sex, but I think we have at last gained acceptance, through diligent application to our craft, promoting it, talking about it and getting good at it. Erotica is not pornography, although degrees of erotica vary according to publisher. For instance, from sensuality and innuendo through to full on sex scenes, rich in description. Pornography though has no story, it is a scene and often poorly written. Good erotica has a story and involves sex, but sex pertinent to the storyline and it can be expertly written. Of course, there are as many variations of erotic story as there are types of people that read them.
Even mainstream romance is not immune to the erotic trend. A great many books contain a fair amount of erotica and the line between the two is blurred. It is thrilling to wonder where we will be five years down the line from now. I know me and my brilliant writer friends will be continually adapting and honing our skills to face knew challenges and I hope, we will still be amusing and delighting our bands of fans.
So, we are not depraved individuals. We have actually fought to get a new breed of book into public acceptance and this is born out now by the huge numbers of erotica books being sold. Shrugging off the past clinging shreds of the pornography label makes this one of the hardest genres to write due to the criticism aimed at us, but we are doing well in bringing our books into the mainstream arena and we are proud and laborious over our task.
‘The Ties that Bind,’ is a story rich in awakening and sexual exploration and it has a story with a mystery attached. With Penny and Nicholas I hope I have crafted characters that you will enjoy and a book that will keep you reading to the end.
AUTHOR BIO - Constance Munday
Constance is nearly always to be found with a pencil in her hand making notes for a new story. She has led a varied life and done many jobs from cup washer, lecturer to new age healer but has always written since she was a child. A major health scare recently though, made her see life differently, and after years as a part-time writer, she turned full-time, because as she says - life is too short not to do what you love. She has literally climbed a mountain and made many sacrifices to pen her novels and now builds on a fund of wonderful encounters with intriguing people, plus her imagination, to write stories with strong characters and determined and adventurous women.
Constance loves listening to snatched conversations, which often give her a seed to start a story; taking walks, revelling in the mysteries of life and baking and dancing, when she isn't tapping away at her latest novel, of course.
She loves her fans and their comments, so invites you to please drop a line and if you have a second, pen a review.
Email: Constance at Constancemundayromance@yahoo.co.uk
Follow the blog at Constancemundayromance on Wordpress
http://msnc62.wordpress.com/ 
Constance is an eloquent champion of a genre that many hope will move towards the mainstream, so that novels such as hers can bring pleasure to an increasingly broad and receptive audience - awakening them much as she awakens her character Penny.
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