Taking the Lead by Cecilia Tan

Those of you who have been following me for a while already know I sometimes pimp out a fellow author and share an excerpt for you (my lovely, amazing, kinky readers) to decide if it sounds interesting enough to you to click through and buy.

But I never do a review. Well, this year, I’m changing that. My plan is to try to review BDSM erotica every so often (once or twice a month is my goal).

What else is different? You can enter in to win a free copy of Taking the Lead by Cecilia Tan (scroll to the bottom)! Open to U.S. residents only. (Sorry, y’all, but I’ll do another giveaway soon that will be open to everyone.)

So…here we go!

 

Taking the Lead

When the rich and famous come out to play, nothing is off-limits . . .

Everyone knows Ricki Hamilton as the icy heiress living in a billion-dollar mansion, high up in the Hollywood Hills. But few realize that behind the gilded gates, Ricki is the mistress of LA’s most exclusive private club. A place where no fantasy is forbidden and no one goes unsatisfied-except for Ricki. If she had her way, she’d leave the business behind . . . until she meets the one man with the power to change her mind.

The hottest rock star in the world, Axel Hawke, has the requisite sexy look and bad-boy reputation. Yet even his biggest fans have no clue just how decadently dangerous he can be. From the moment he meets Ricki, he knows there is no other woman who will satisfy him. He can feel the heat hiding beneath her cool demeanor and he’s determined to stoke her flame.

Together Ricki and Axel indulge their every desire. The deeper they go, the more she craves. Submitting to Axel opens her eyes, and for the first time Ricki knows exactly what she wants. All she has to do is take it . . .

Review of Taking the Lead

Now, y’all know how I feel about kink, BDSM, and especially D/s, right? I like it real – even when it’s awkward, silly, or strange. The heat between Ricki and Axel felt pretty real to me, and best of all, with an alternating point of view, we get to know what both of them are thinking and feeling.

Ricki? She’s got issues to deal with, and she’s so busy being strong and keeping everything perfectly, exactly, a hundred percent right all the time that she forgets to take care of herself. Hell, I think she’s convinced herself that she doesn’t even need to. (Sound like any submissive types we know out there??)

Axel? He’s hot, smart, sensitive, and sweet. Pretty much everything we want to believe a gorgeous rock star would be. What I love best is that while he’s comfortable in the Dominant role (oh boy, I like him when he’s in that mode), he doesn’t have all the answers, and he questions himself. I’d like to think that his thoughts are pretty accurate – like when a moment between him and Ricki doesn’t quite go as he plans, but he decides to just go with the flow. Or when he’s not really sure what he needs to do next so he takes his cue from Ricki’s response.

Ricki was real enough to me that at times I wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up and just talk to the man. Of course, on the other hand, sometimes I wanted to tell Axel to stand up, take control, and just tell her what she needed to do.

So yeah, I got into this one. I don’t know a lot about billionaires or rock stars, but I know what rings true to me (while still being panty-melting hot, y’all), and this was it. Yep, there’s plenty of kinky sex, a few surprises, and an ending that will make you smile. But it’s also an excellent book that’s very well-written (from a kink perspective and an author’s view).

Basically I heart Taking the Lead and Cecilia Tan, and I’m already looking forward to the next book in the series!

An Excerpt from Taking the Lead

(This excerpt is from a scene where our hero and heroine are having rough sex in a limousine after a glitzy awards ceremony and he dominates her for the first time, and this snippet is from his point of view.)

This was going way better than I could have dreamed. Ricki Hamilton was like putty in my hands. Warm, hormone-soaked, woman-scented putty. Yes, the playboy image was definitely working.

I ran my hand up and down between Ricki’s legs one more time for good measure. “On your hands and knees.” I pushed her forward for effect and she went with it, wiggling her ass toward me as I flipped her gown over her back.

“Hold still,” I told her, and I reached into the storage compartment where I had previously stashed my toiletry bag and a change of clothes.

I took out the straight razor with one hand while I rubbed her buttock with the other. “I meant it when I said hold still.”

She froze. I slipped the blade under the edge of her panties and cut them away. I think she said “holy shit” or something like it.

I was kind of thinking the same thing. Ultimate bad boy sex. Taking charge sure as hell was working for me. Every time my erection started to flag a little, I would say something and it would kick back up. Right now it was stiff as a flagpole. I kicked my boots off and finally got out of those damn faux-leather stretch pants.

Condom. I tossed it in front of her. “Open it.”

It turned me on so much whenever I saw her hands shake. She took the little square in her fingers without picking her elbows up off the carpet. “I thought you said you were clean,” she said.

“I am. I just like the fact that this shows you what’s coming. You’re about to get fucked, Ms. Hamilton. In case there was any doubt.”

She could barely tear it open her fingers were trembling so much, but she was waggling her behind at me at the same time. Wetness oozed down beautifully; I wasn’t going to need lube, that was for sure.

“Good. Hand it back to me.”

I took the condom from her and rolled it onto myself. She hadn’t turned to look at me and I wondered about that. Was she that completely submissive to me at that moment? I decided to find out.

“Face on the carpet. Reach back and spread your cheeks. Show me where you want me.”

She did it without hesitation. So hot. I wondered if I was even going to last three seconds inside her.

Better take it slow. I rubbed the head up and down against her, getting it good and slick.

I decided to fuck her with just the tip. I wrapped my hand around my shaft and fed the two inches or so sticking out into her. That produced a lovely whimper. So did the thrusts that followed, shallow but numerous. Yes, that was nice.

Her whimpers took on a desperate edge and she began to rock back against me, but she couldn’t make me go deeper with my fist around my cock like it was.

“What do I have to say to get you to fuck me for real?” There was a hitch in her voice, almost like she was about to cry.

“Hush now. I’m getting to that.”

“Please?”

“I mean it. Hush.”

She fell silent and I felt her slip back down into surrender. So amazing. So trusting.

Time to reward her for it. I stopped teasing and slid all the way into her. Her head came up with a gasp and I guessed that she wasn’t expecting me to go so deep.

There are a lot of parts of sex I like. I like kissing and I like orgasm and I like everything in between. But there’s something special about that first moment of penetration. I get pissed off when they don’t bother to show that part in porn. That first time the key fits in the lock is special. I wondered if she felt it, too. It seemed like it, as she kept her head back and a long moan of pleasure slowly escaped from her. Each time she breathed I felt her squeeze me. She turned her head to the side and I saw her eyes were closed in ecstasy. And to think I hadn’t even started to move yet.

I love that first minute or so after penetration, while my partner’s body is molding inside to fit me.

Ricki Hamilton was reshaping her insides in the shape of my cock.

I had to be careful with thoughts like that. Almost made myself come. Maybe it was just the intensity of the moment but it felt to me like a perfect fit, and I don’t just mean like a hand in a glove—heart, mind, soul, I was in her and it felt like I belonged there.

Get Your Copy of Taking the Lead

Now available everywhere including:

Indiebound bookstores | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes | Google Play

Win a Copy of Taking the Lead

Okay, as promised, you can enter for a chance to win a paperback copy of Taking the Lead. Yay!! You have until midnight on Friday, February 19 to enter. To all my non-United States readers, I am so sorry, but I have to keep this giveaway in country. I’m a broke writer, so paying to ship something internationally is a little more than I can do.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer and disclosure: I received a free advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.