April Vine: Holding Cynthia (Romancing the Coast, book 2) by Libby Campbell

Libby Campbell is here today again with her book HOLDING CYNTHIA! Don't miss the author interview where Libby shares some insights into writing, travels and spankings :)

Cynthia’s entire life has been turned inside out. Antony offers her one more change – will she consent to what he is dishing out?

Antony Jacobson first held Cynthia Donohue in his arms at a wintry December wedding. Four months later, the statuesque, silver-haired woman continues to haunt his thoughts.

Cynthia is about to move to the West Coast to be closer her daughter. As her plane touches down in her new city, she steels herself to cope on her own. When she finds Antony waiting at the arrivals gate, a wave of gratitude and desire floods through her.

A lifetime of independence hasn’t prepared Cynthia for a submissive role in a relationship. She craves love, romance, and someone to share sunsets. But deep down she believes her dreams are out of her reach. Worse, they are a betrayal of her feminist principles. That’s fine: indomitable, handsome Antony will wait.

She is tired and aching beyond all memory so Antony takes charge. Very quickly, he realizes there is something wrong, very wrong, with Cynthia’s health. He insists that she see a doctor.

She says he is overprotective. He agrees. He is also determined to look after her if she won’t look after herself. A trip over his knee shakes Cynthia to the core. In spite of herself she likes – she wants – this loving correction. More importantly, she agrees that he may be right about seeing a doctor.

Is Antony too much, too soon, or is he just what the doctor ordered?

Publishers’ note: Holding Cynthia is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults. Tough stuff, but worth it. Nothing in this book should be interpreted as Blushing Books’ or the author’s advocating any non-consensual spanking activity or spanking of minors.

Antony pulled his hand back and crossed his arms over his chest. “And when I dropped you at the massage center, what did I say?”

“You said I could call you for a ride home.”

“No, I told you to call me.”

“Told, asked. Same difference.”

“You may be a whiz at French, but you obviously need a few lessons in the English language. When I tell you to do something, it’s not multiple choice, pick the most appealing option. It’s an order, pure and simple. Do you understand?”

“Yes, I get what you’re saying.”

“And when you fail to obey me, there will be consequences. I want that clearly understood.”

“Con-se-quences,” Cynthia said the word slowly, pronouncing the se syllable as say, as if she were speaking French. She dragged it out to delay answering. “Would you care to elaborate?”

“Remember when I warned you that last night’s smack might just be a starter if you didn’t behave?”

She nodded.

“I wasn’t kidding. When you fail to look after yourself, I will spank you.”

His words hung in the air between them like a sudden frost.

Her mouth was chalk dry. “Spank me?”

“Yes, spank you. Bare your bottom and turn you over my knee. I want to keep seeing you. I want to see you well, managing your health sensibly. Obviously you’re forgotten how to do that over the years and you need some supervision. My supervision. And when you disobey me, I will punish you in the good, old-fashioned way. Do you understand?” His voice was level, calm. Most of all it was authoritative.

“What? You think I’m going to just submit to that?” Even as she asked the question her pussy clenched with desire and her fingers itched to touch him, to say yes with caresses. She wanted her body to consent so she wouldn’t have to say the words out loud.

“That is exactly what I think, Cindy.” He emphasized Cindy in a way that said he was going to use that name affectionately and proprietarily whether she agreed or not. He was telling her what the conditions of seeing him would be as if he sensed, quite rightly, that this was what she wanted.

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Don’t miss these other great books from Libby Campbell and Blushing Books:

Seeing Ronnie.(Romancing the Coast, Book 1)

Simon in Charge – 3 book boxset, featuring:

Simon Says, Winning Sadie, and Sadie Says I Do.

Winning Sadie is also available as an audio book from Audible. Buy it here.

Libraries or bookstores?

Both. I love my local library. I mean love it. At Christmas I take the librarians a bit box of chocolates to say thank you for their help. But I can’t resist stores either and Victoria BC has a few outstanding, independent bookshops. I have to talk sternly to myself before I go into them. A person has only so much shelf space after all. Then there is Amazon. How great is it? I want to read a book? A minute later it’s on my Kindle. Magic! If I love an ebook or a library book, I buy a print copy so I can have it to hold and cherish.

What genres do you write in?

This one – erotic fiction, which I love. It’s playful and fun but still challenges me to write well. In the past, I’ve also had one YA book and one contemporary fiction novel published as well.

Do you like to outline or just dive right in when writing?

As a minimum, I draw a graph, outlining the acts, the change in the ordinary world, the halfway point, the crisis and the climax. Then I scribble all over it as my story builds.

Recently I’ve started collaborating on a time travel novel with another Blushing author. This has forced both of us to do a lot more outlining. We have an enormous spreadsheet with all our chapters outlines on it as well as ancillary spreadsheets that collect character details and research points.

Where do you find inspiration for writing?

In the world around me: in what I read, what I see, what I hear on the news. Stories pop up in my head constantly but there’s a lot of chaff in that wheat.

One thing for sure, once I’m writing a novel, I’m always surprised at how the universe starts to ‘speak’ to me about it. For instance when I found the perfect house for Simon and Sadie to buy in Sadie Says I Do, I wondered what obstacle might make it hard for them to move in quickly. Later that same week, I read an article about a prominent Canadian whose house sale was snarled up with liens by the Canada Revenue Agency (our tax office)

If you could travel to any time, what time period would you like to explore?

I’d love to visit Victorian England if I could live as one of the upper classes. My roots are English but, on my mother’s side at least, my family were the ruled, not the ruling class.

I’d want to be the Victorian lady with a handsome, stern but loving husband who lets her sleep until 9, shop for fine clothes, and play cards until early morning hours.

Do you have a favorite vacation spot?

My favorite vacation spots are quiet and remote; I don’t seek bright lights. I’ve spent months in the Australian outback which I adored. These days, my husband and I frequently escape to Salt Spring Island, in the Canadian Gulf Islands (the other half of Washington State’s San Juan Islands). Seguro Island in the Simon in Charge series and Seeing Ronnie is a fictional island based on Salt Spring. A lot of the features are the same: the lovely ferry ride to get there, the Saturday markets, the wonderful hiking trails in the forest, and the history of the blacks who moved there to escape slavery.

We love Salt Spring because of the lack of light pollution. On summer nights we sit on the lawn, listening to the frogs, watching the bats come out to feed, while counting shooting stars.

Would you rather do the spanking or be spanked?

I’m always the spankee.

Libby Campbell, spanking writer and mischief maker

Libby Campbell writes in the bay window of her mock-Tudor home. Her muse is fueled by coffee, chocolate, and many cups of fragrant tea. Libby and her leading man share a love of hiking, beach walks, road trips, and an occasional night of dancing. They live in a leafy, seaside neighborhood on a rocky Canadian island.

Libby savors her evening bubble baths where she sings along to her favorite music, safe in the knowledge that no one can hear her. She loves all animals, but particularly small dogs with big attitudes and big ones who think they are lap dogs. A woman for all seasons, Libby is happy cuddling in front of a winter fire, watching a summer sunset, listening to birds in the spring, and walking in the autumn rain.

Optimistic by nature, Libby wants a solid HEA in her reading and her writing. She writes the stories she wants to read. To see what she’s working on now, or how she formed her earlier novels, visit her Pinterest boards where she pins pictures that inspire her characters and their worlds.