Cover of Kristina Lloyd's Undone

Kristina Lloyd’s Undone Tour is Here!

Sometimes, there are authors who take you on twists and turns you don’t anticipate. For me, Kristina Lloyd is one such author. Clever and dazzling, Kristina writes intelligent erotica—as in, she doesn’t do the expected, the cookie cutter, or the mundane. She does real, she does hard, and she does damn sexy. The first book I read of hers was Thrill Seeker, and I had a lot of similar things to say about her writing when I reviewed that book and got hooked in for more.

Today she’s here to tell us all about her new book, Undone. I’m delighted to have been able to ask her all sorts of questions about the book as well her personal interests, and now I get to share the interview with you. So, please read on to hear from the talented and lovely Kristina Lloyd!

Picture of Undone Blog Tour Logo

Hi Kristina! Thank you so much for joining us. I am so excited about Undone! It sounds positively divine. I’d like to start by asking some questions about the book. Tell us about your inspiration for the main character, Lana.

Somewhat prosaically, she was inspired by a friend of a remote friend on Facebook. I’m terribly nosy, as are most writers, and something about this woman caught my eye. When I checked out her profile, I found an intriguing and beautiful woman who looked to have an effortlessly great life. She didn’t have the conventional trappings of domestic bliss and wealth but instead owned a hip shop in London, had loads of friends, a couple of kids, excellent taste in clothes and so on. And I wondered what went on under the surface? If someone like that felt they were unraveling within, would their success and well-constructed lifestyle enable them to conceal it from those around them? And if so, for how long? When would the cracks start to show?

Nice. You always go so much deeper, which is what I love about your work! Speaking of, the plot of this book is classic dark, transgressive, edgy KL style: a naughty threesome goes horribly awry. (Or does it?) Where did you come up with this idea?

I had an idea to start with a dead body at a party and developed the storyline from there. I should stress: nobody dies during the threesome!

Phew! 🙂 So, without giving away too much, will you tell us a little about how this threesome sparks? One was a customer in the bar, right? What about the other man? And how did they end up jumping on this hot fantasy adventure?

Basically, Lana asks the two guys if they’d be up for it! She’s no shy, retiring violet. They’re at a weekend house party in the country. She’s briefly met Sol, and thinks he’s cute, and the other guy, Misha, the one who ends up dead, is a regular at her bar. She’s attracted to Sol, but he’s playing it cool, and Misha is hanging out with them that evening. Lana asks, “So what’s a girl got to go to get laid around here?” I wanted to establish her as someone who has ownership of her sexuality and is able to direct her desires accordingly. The men are surprised but they’re both kinky and open-minded, and so the three of them head off to the bedroom.

“Ownership of her sexuality”—this pleases me. As does Lana’s apparent vintage handcuff collection! Um, more deets on that, please. (Bonus if you have pics.)

Haha! Lana buys a cocktail bar and starts a vintage handcuff collection after getting divorced. I have a whole post about cuffs over at The Kinky Brits on Friday. And yes, there will be pics!

*Grins.* All right, can you tell us your favorite character to write in this story and why?

Oh, that’s a tricky one! The story is very much focused on Lana and Sol. They’re both quite complex characters, and there’s more to them than meets the eye. Probably Sol. I loved writing the part where we get to the heart of him.

If you could take any of them out to hang in Lana’s bar, who would you pick?

I’d happily drink a few tequilas with Sol. And the rest.

Speaking of the bar…what’s Lana’s drink of choice?

Martini. Her taste is for elegant classics.

Now, I know you’ve expressed some worry over the spoiler potential of this book. Did you want to say anything more on that here? 

The book has a couple of twists. Sooner or later someone will reveal them in a review. I’m just hoping to stave off that moment for as long as possible so readers can enjoy the book as it’s meant to be enjoyed.

That’s fair—and I promise to keep my lips sealed! Okay, next I have a huge question for you, but… your work often showcases a woman with “darker” wants than what’s considered “normal” and/or “acceptable” in most erotic romance—thank you for always doing that. There seem to be the walls confining the genre, and then there is you punching your awesomely intelligent fist through them. How does it feel to write women who have realistic interests that contradict the expectation?

Thank you! I’m not the only writer doing this, thank God, and I think it’s important we keep on doing it, keep challenging the current notion that softcore romance typifies female desire. I write a lot about women who get off on humiliation, degradation, forced submission, rough sex and shame. I think these are valid kinks but it’s not an easy sell. I think most people, even if they’re not into BDSM, can appreciate why someone might enjoy handcuffs or a spanking; less so the psychological aspects.

Excellent points, and I 100% agree. Keep working your magic, Kristina! Now it’s time to move on to some more personal questions. I would describe your stories as erotic thrillers—did you always write erotica, or did you start in the thriller genre (or some other genre) first?

I started in erotica. I’ve dabbled in horror, and I’d love to try my hand at writing a suspense thriller one day.

So are you a plotter or do you fly wild when you write?

I plot, in part because I’m accustomed to presenting my publisher with a synopsis to secure a commission. I invariably deviate from the plot but don’t go wildly off track. I’m usually writing the opening scenes as I plot, and that’s the nearest I get to free fall.

Tell us about your writing process. Where do you do it? Do you work on one project at a time, or many?

My process changes with my personal circumstances. Undone was mainly written around a day job, at weekends, on early mornings and evenings. I write better in the morning when I’m still a little doozy, and before my head has been overtaken by more ordered thought processes. I’d sometimes get up at 5am to work on Undone. I find evenings are better for editing. I’m always at my desk and I work in silence. No cafes or music for me. Ideally, I’d work on single projects. I prefer to immerse myself in a story rather than juggle several.

What’s your favorite genre to read, and what are you reading now?

I’m currently hooked on female-penned suspense thrillers. I’ve just devoured Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret and next up is Elizabeth Haynes’ Revenge of the Tide.

I used to devour those myself—I was an Erica Spindler fiend! But back to your thrilling and sexy book—say Lana makes you a drink. What’s your pick?

Margarita! It’s my fave, and I know she’d make a great one. Sharp, sour and salty. Yum.

And last but not least—the inescapable question when you’re hanging with me—what’s your favorite candy?

I don’t do sweet stuff! Can I have a bag of salted cashews instead? Or can I lick fresh sweat from a hot, naked man? I’m quite partial to salt. And to hot, naked men.

Ha! Well, there you have it, folks! The wonderfully talented and brilliant Kristina Lloyd! I’m so happy she joined us today to talk about her interests as well as her delicious new book, Undone. Thanks, Kristina!

Want to know more about Undone?

Here’s the blurb:

When Lana Greenwood attends a glamorous house party she finds herself tempted into a ménage à trois. But the morning after brings more than just regrets over fulfilling a fantasy one night stand. One of the men she’s spent the night with is discovered dead in the swimming pool. Accident, suicide or murder, no one is sure and Lana doesn’t know where to turn. Can she trust Sol, the other man, an ex-New Yorker with a dirty smile and a deep desire to continue their kinky game?

Buy it at:

Amazon UK paperback :: Amazon UK Kindle :: Amazon US Kindle :: Amazon CA paperback :: Amazon CA Kindle

Don’t miss out, everyone! I’ve got this one already on my nightstand, teasing and taunting me to dig right in. It’s going to be so good!

Thanks for joining us!

XX,
Jade

Kristina Lloyd writes erotic fiction about sexually submissive women who like it on the dark, dirty and dangerous side. Her novels are published by Black Lace and her short stories have appeared in dozens of anthologies, including several ‘best of’ collection, in both the UK and US. She lives in Brighton, England.

 

 

Jade A. Waters sipping a Jelly Bean while on vacation in Rhodes, Greece

Time for a Kinky Cocktail Story: The Jelly Bean

I am so excited, everyone! Kristina Lloyd’s blog tour for her new book, Undone, starts today. She’ll be stopping by later in the month to answer some questions for me, but in honor of her protagonist, Lara, owning a bar, Kristina wanted to kick off the whole tour with an all-day kinky cocktail party—that is, each of our sites hosts a special drink with kink! Cheers to that!

Now, I had a few ideas running through my head on cocktail options, and as you know, alcohol tends to make people fairly uninhibited. So I thought—in the spirit of a good cocktail party story—I’d be a little extra open today. The following semi-fictional story is inspired by a vacation I took in Greece a few years back, on which I discovered a delightful new drink called “The Jelly Bean”…as well as an incredibly handsome man.

I hope you enjoy the tale…

THE JELLY BEAN

by

Jade A. Waters

“‘The Jelly Bean’? Well naturally, that’s what I’m going to have,” I said, waving my menu about with a squeal.

“Naturally.” Sia rolled her eyes, because after knowing my candy obsession—in particular, jelly beans and licorice—for over a decade, she wasn’t at all surprised.

Our waiter came out from inside the deli, then, and I dropped my menu to the table with a gulp. He was the epitome of all the Greek features I’d been drooling over this entire vacation: gorgeous, tall, and dark, with stunning rich brown eyes and nearly black hair that waved down to the bottom of his ears. And that smile—oh fuck me, that smile—had me sitting back in my chair with a gasp.

“Hi there,” I said.

“Hello, lovely. So you’ll have The Jelly Bean, I take it?”

I flashed him my grin in response. His English was superb, but that accent had me squirming in my seat. Why yes, hot Rhodes waiter. I will have whatever sweet thing you’re offering.

Out loud I said, “Yes please!”

Behind his shoulder, Sia shook her head with another eye roll.

“I’ll have a beer.”

“No problem.” He went inside to fetch our drinks, and my jaw fell open.

“Oh hell-oh,” I said.

“Here we go…” Sia muttered.

See, I admit, vacation sex is my thing. It’s not intentional, but it happens. Foreigners rock my world, and there’s something magical about meeting a man in another country and living a brief romance with him—and don’t get me started on an accent talking dirty in my ear while I’m fucking. I guess for me it’s when in Rome, do a Roman…or something like that. There was the make-out with the Floridean on our Hawaii trip, the beach sex with the Dutchman in Aruba, the park romp with the Roman in Italy, the virginity-shattering of the Croatian in Rovinj, and the sensual island sex with the Texan in Puerto Rico. And of course, I’d already given that bar manager a blow job in the kitchen a few days ago, right before he bent me over one of the tables and then took me skinny dipping in the sea…

But the whole encounter had ended with him being a tremendous ass, so now I needed a better memory. I’d made it two weeks of our vacation through Athens, Ios, and Santorini without a hint of play, and we had only four more days for me to amend my vacation fling, dammit.

Hot Rhodes waiter came back with Sia’s beer and my blue and red glass of wonder. The Jelly Bean, you see, is a concoction of curaçao, grenadine, lemonade, and ouzo, and it tastes exactly like it sounds. I took a sip while they watched, the cool, candy-sweet taste washing down my throat as we sat in the unbelievably torrid, muggy air.

Our waiter grinned again.

“So where are you girls from?”

“San Francisco,” we chimed.

“Wow. San Francisco! We usually only get visitors from the east coast this far over. You two came a long way!”

“We did,” I said. “We wanted the full Greek tour.”

Sia gave me a look, but we made small talk with him for another twenty minutes because the place wasn’t busy midafternoon. Nikolaos—that was his name, and damn, even that fabulously Greek moniker stirred my blood—seemed tickled by his California customers. By the time I’d downed half my second Jelly Bean while devouring my Greek salad and a side of dolmas, we’d already started flirting hard. Sia, the perfect wing woman, laughed and played along, but it was on the way back from the ladies’ room that Nikolaos grabbed my hand and backed me against a wall.

“You’ve got a smile like some American actress…I can’t remember her name. But oh,” he said, looking me over, “you’re beautiful.”

Well, shit, handsome. Take me home now.

“Thank you,” I said. “You’re damn sexy yourself.”

“What are you girls doing later? I work late tonight, but you should come for dinner…”

Which is precisely what we did.

Greek dinners, for those who don’t know, happen mighty late. Sia and I had explored half the area by 10 that night and still had time to head back to our hotel for a nap and shower. It was so blazing hot—in fact, this was the year that Athens caught fire, 2007—that we lived in a layer of sweat from the second we left the shower until the moment we crawled our way back in. This meant we returned to the deli restaurant sweaty all over again, despite a good hour of freshening and dolling ourselves up. But, Nikolaos didn’t seem to mind. Not through dinner as we chowed on gyros and more drinks (Jelly Beans for me, of course), and talked to his friends who had joined the hang out. Not when Sia wandered off with some adorable Australian and a promise to meet me back at the hotel in a few hours.

And definitely not when Nikolaos talked me onto his moped and took me back to his apartment.

The place was a wreck, but I was all eyes-on-Nikolaos. He could have been a model, some Greek beauty blessing the pages of a magazine I would surely take home as a souvenir. However, I had better things in mind for this guy, and by the feel of his cock rising up between us, it was obvious he did too.

Nikolaos pulled me into his chest when the door shut behind us. He ran his fingers up my cheek, then stroked his hand through my hair. When he rolled his pelvis up against me, I let out a quiet purr only because I’d had three Jelly Beans and I wasn’t sure if I was coming off louder than I thought.

“You’re an aggressive little thing,” he said.

“I am.”

“And you almost look Greek.”

“But I’m not.”

“Are you sure you’re not a Greek-American actress? You look like an actress. And your Greek is fantastic.”

“I’m totally not. I just have a good tongue.”

That might have been the Jelly Beans talking, but Nikolaos took the bait. He leaned down and kissed me then.

And yeah. We were all tongues.

Tongues, fingers, hands, lips—we were naked and rolling around on the bed in no time. Nikolaos, it turned out, looked like a model from head to toe, and I, apparently, was his favorite shape. He spent several minutes running his hands up and down my body with heavy inhalations that made his nostrils flare, then he buried those fingers so deep in my cunt and his tongue so furiously against my clit that my Jelly Bean fueled groans had to have woken his neighbors.

“I’ve never fucked a Californian,” he growled.

“Perfect. I’ve never fucked a hot waiter from Rhodes.”

Our lips sealed back together when he frantically searched his nightstand for a condom. I barely noticed him putting it on, because moments later he plunged inside me, hard and filling, his hands gripping at my breasts and his cheeks so bright.

“Your smile…” he moaned. “It’s like fucking a celebrity…”

This somehow turned me on more. So as Nikolaos thrust in me, bit at my shoulder, nipped at my lips, and groaned in my ear—I writhed with wild calls that were twice as loud thanks to all those Jelly Beans. My body quaked with excitement as he pushed faster and deeper, and when he erupted with a grunt and I hadn’t yet come, he was right back down between my thighs lapping at me until I shuddered with cries that put everything before them to shame.

I remember thinking as we lay there—Nikolaos panting against my thigh, me trying to catch my breath, inhaling the smell of musty sex and dirty room and Greek humidity—that vacation sex was, even when terrible, awfully fun. I’m not one for notches on a bedpost, but maybe a map to mark my foreign conquests might make for a good chuckle.

Nikolaos slid up along my body, planting kisses over my face and tracing the circumference of my nipple with a fingertip.

“So you leave in four days?” he said.

“Yep. Four more days.”

“Hmmm.” He ran his fingers down my stomach, then slipped them between the sensitive, pink lips of my pussy. “Maybe you and your friend can come back to the deli tonight for dinner again…and have another Jelly Bean.”

“Oh. For a Jelly Bean, huh?”

Nikolaos gave me a quick kiss, and when he leaned back, he nodded with a grin.

“I just might,” I said.

I always have liked sweet things.

***

Want to read more awesome stories, posts, musings, and articles from the cocktail launch party? Click right here to see the full menu! And please be sure to swing on by to join the Facebook party all day today!

As for me…I think it’s time for another drink…

Jade Discovering The Jelly Bean While Visiting Rhodes

Jade discovering The Jelly Bean while on vacation in Rhodes, Greece…this may have been her second round. (Third?)

Hiccup.

XX,
Jade