Desire has many languages.
The forces that draw people into one another’s orbits, that place them on collision courses, or pull at them like gravity, take many forms.
Call it fate. Call it blind luck. Call it seduction. Even call it romance. Whatever name it’s given, it remains powerful. Inescapable.
For some, it looks like flowers and candle-lit dinners. Sweet nothings, and gentle, romantic poetry read under the stars.
But others find themselves drawn to more violent delights.
Others crave rougher, darker words.
Ash spent most of his life ashamed of the things he wants. Of the way his desires whispered to him, and the places and people they have pushed him toward. Holding the need back, until he could no longer resist, and it broke free in ways that nearly broke him. Even now, with Cat, the only partner that has made him feel both healthy and whole, he finds it hard to admit what he enjoys. To put words to what he wishes he didn’t wish.
The language he and Cat share has made it easier, not to hide. Cat has made it easier, to be seen.
Cat didn’t believe that relationships were safe for her. That her partners were safe, with her. She certainly didn’t believe she had a right to do the things she enjoyed. But then, Ash. The first person to trust her, without mitigation. And beyond trust, to enjoy her desires as much as his own.
Ash’s patience, his willingness to wait for her to do things her way and in her time, has allowed her to explore those desires, and what they mean when they are shared.
Mr. Prince does not let people hide. Prince, who has always known what he wanted, and how to get it, has seen no benefit to long-term arrangements. Though he and his ex-wife continue to engage in games of seduction with human playthings, he’s found no one worth being more than a toy. Some toys were more memorable, longer lasting than others, but ultimately, all of them were replaceable.
At least, they were all replaceable until he came across ones that weren’t.
Sparrow has never seen a reason to deny himself anything, to fail to indulge in whichever whim or pleasure is most pressing of a given moment. Those indulgences have gotten him into more than a few less-than-ideal situations, but they’ve also made sure he had a lot of fun. Except, aside from one of those less-than-ideal arrangements, no one has ever really given Sparrow enough of what he wants. They hold back, stop. Stop him, hold him back. While it’s fun, there’s always so much further he could go.
No one is willing to take things to their logical conclusion. To explore, how far is too far.
All four share an attraction to darker pleasures. To exploring the edges, looking over, to seeing what might be found there.
But when they do come together, somehow, it isn’t a collision. Regardless of the darkness, their attraction to edges, regardless of the strength and roughness of their desires, it isn’t gravity, pulling at their orbits.
It is, instead, the formation of a constellation. Something new, and different, and beautiful, appearing in the alignment of bodies in space.
So ask for what you really want, and remember that there’s no crime in being hungry.
Pledgebound is a web of stories about people with dark desires forming a family that manages to be healthy, despite itself. About the ways people can find the impossible, in each other.
While not all of the stories are explicit, they are all erotic. The sexuality in them is not traditional, nor typical, but it does not apologize for itself, nor make excuses for its existence.
Dark desires are not always pleasant, and neither is Pledgebound. It looks at damage directly, and does not flinch away from the harm that can be done in the name of love, or otherwise.
The stories are designed to be enjoyed. To bring pleasure to the reader. Whatever form that pleasure takes.
So, read and enjoy. Without apologies.