Light or Dark?

Light or Dark?

My latest short story to be accepted (due for release in the summer), Dark Captive, is a very dark story (one of the darkest I have ever written). Here is the blurb:

Laura has been kidnapped. She is bound, gagged and cannot see, and taken to a strange building. Her other senses are very important in determining where she is and who has taken her.

Her captor, Todd, is a Dominant who relishes his role. And Laura is special. He loves having submissives who challenge him and punishes Laura for trying to escape and cares for her when she stumbles—unable to see where she is going—in equal measures.

As the evening progresses, Todd keeps her off balance giving her out-of-this-world experiences, always making sure she climaxes. On the one hand he caresses her and the next he slaps her. Being into BDSM, Laura finds it very arousing, but that goes against everything her head is telling her. She shouldn’t enjoy it – should she?

Kidnap stories are on the edge of romance as, by their very nature, they are taking control away from someone and it’s necessary to include ‘trigger’ warnings for readers. But lots of readers like them and they are akin to BDSM stories, particularly those that like D/s stories where the Dominant takes control from the submissive – or in this case the Kidnapper from the captive.

But what makes someone write such a dark story – ah, well. I always say I put myself in the shoes of my heroines so maybe I yearn for someone tall, dark and masterful to dominate me?! (I have a very strong personality so that takes some doing!) I do admit I am a sucker for reading kidnap stories or alien abduction romances.

For that is the key here – at the end of the day it is still a ‘romance’. Without giving anything away, while the captive is out of her comfort zone, she finds herself enjoying the experience.

A slither of fear—or excitement went through her belly, knotting her stomach. I’m not aroused him. I’m not!

Although some of my other stories are dark, eg, ‘Collared by Wolves’ where the heroine gets captured by the bad guys who threaten violence, however, I don’t always write ‘dark’ stories. My ‘Friends & Acquaintances’ series are what I call my ‘romantic comedies’. One reviewer even described them as cheesy. Yup! That was my intention. Good, old fashioned, light hearted romance (with sex scenes). And the middle one in the series, ‘Friendly Seduction’ still remains my favourite book to write. I had such fun taking the micky out of erotic romance as the heroine tries to explain to the hero, a writer of sci-fi, why women like reading erotic romances.

He smiled indulgently. “If I understand correctly, you—and every other female reader possibly—like reading about manly heroes with beautiful heroines.” He counted these off on his fingers. “The hero has to be a leader of some sort and be dominant but caring, and there has to be some sort of conflict or misunderstanding, maybe even a kidnapping. If there is some BDSM involved and even a ménage a trois, that would be even better.”

“That’s it in a nutshell.”

Readers have commented that the humour in my stories is one of my strong points when writing and I certainly have great fun with these lines.

So what about you? Do you like ‘dark’ stories or ‘light’?