Amanda’s not loving life in her new home town. Her roommate is a weepy hermit, the rock climbing gym is substandard, and she hasn’t whipped anyone in months. So when an odd encounter leads her to believe that Derek—the good-looking, sweet-tempered climber every woman wants but no woman gets—is a submissive, she’s ready to take control and give him a night to remember.
There’s something special about Amanda, something that’s been calling to Derek ever since he met her, even if he doesn’t understand what it is. He’s yearning to give her everything she needs, until he finds out that what she needs is for him to submit. Derek is strong, smart, and well-adjusted. Why would he get down on his knees for a woman? And why is he just now realizing that that’s what he’s always wanted to do?
Derek may be new to BDSM, but Amanda’s new to relationships. Neither one of them knows whether a Domme with a grudge against the world and a man who’s surprised to learn he’s a submissive can make love work, but they both know what they want: someone to call Mine.
He took her coat from her. Beneath it she wore the tank she’d been climbing in: blue tie-dyed cotton with wide straps that plunged where his eyes shouldn’t go.
“Will you be warm enough? I could get you a sweatshirt.” Then he wouldn’t have to worry about corralling his eyes. He hung his own jacket next to hers, not minding the cool air on his bare arms. He’d only just managed to think down his reoccurring erection. A chill wouldn’t hurt.
“Come here,” she said, not answering the question, as she often didn’t.
Since she seemed to prefer it when he kept quiet, he kept quiet. He moved towards her. She snapped her fingers and pointed to the ground.
“Sorry, I ...”
“Neil,” she said, a hint of exasperation in her voice.
“Neil who?”
READ MOREShe stepped back from him, the confusion on her face mirroring the confusion he felt. Something had gone wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what it was. Her face expressed a vulnerability that tore into him. Somehow he’d both disappointed and alarmed her.
He stepped towards her and she stepped back again, shaking her head at him, lifting a hand as though to physically stop him. He stopped.
“What did I do?”
“Nothing. You didn’t do anything.”
She turned her back on him and ran a hand through her hair, pulling the headband free. She went to where he’d hung up her coat and stuffed the headband into a pocket, then massaged her temples with both hands. When she turned to him, her hair stood out around her face like he’d never seen it before. The wild tumble of silky curls surrounding her round features lent a softness to her solemn expression.
“You got anything to drink? I could use a drink.”
COLLAPSEK on Cama Sutra wrote:It's far more rare, at least in my reading experience, for a submissive male hero to be portrayed as enjoying the emotional aspects of submission, of enjoying caring for and serving another, as opposed to glorying in the physical triumph of enduring pain. Which is why I so enjoyed Tanya Chris's latest erotic romance, Mine. For its hero, handsome, unassuming, slightly goofy Derek, is someone who yearns for a girlfriend who will tell him what she wants, and who will demand that he give it to her.
on The Blogger Girls:The unusual setting and framework of the story only serves to set it apart from other, more generic fare, and highlights the randomness of human connection. We make meaning in our lives whenever we can, and much of the significance carried by this story is presented in a climbing harness, replete with idiosyncratic metaphors. I genuinely enjoyed reading this novel, and if you are interested in a BDSM lifestyle, you probably will too.
If you’re tired of the formulaic newbie, natural sub meets self-assured, train-them-to-please Dominant but still like a BDSM romance, Mine will fit like a good pair of climbing shoes. Like a good climb, Amanda and Derek face risk and failure. They struggle to hold onto the other. They find their footing and then they fall, but they still go one move higher.