Gender? What a mistake…at least according to my characters
That we shouldn’t accept
what society feeds us without questioning it first is one of my favorite
themes, particularly when it comes to tricky subjects such as same-gender
relationships. My readers probably know by now I mostly write gay m/m genre,
and even if the sex is very exciting, it’s not why I chose it. No, my aim is
more ambitious. I try to show people an alternative way of living their lives, urge
them to follow their sexual orientations no matter how unconventional, to think
before conforming.
To Seduce A Soul Mate,
Book 1 of the
Soulmate
Series, is the perfect example of what I believe in. My leading character,
Pirate Drake, is in a rut. He’s always been a heterosexual, attracted to women
alone, when here comes Martin–a green-eyed Irish devil who claims Drake is his
soul-mate. For one who has never considered men as possible mates, in bed or
out, the news is kind of hard to digest. Drake has never been with a man
before, and it scares him to death. But there’s something about Martin that
torments Drake, to the point he can’t eat, sleep or focus on anything besides
the blond, green-eyed devil. Call it attraction, call it destiny, call it love—whatever
it is, it drives Drake crazy. And what’s the one real thing’s holding him back?
The fear of being classified as gay by the people around him, which to him has a
negative connotation. What Drake needs is help to dig through his conventional
beliefs after discovering his soul-mate isn’t exactly the gender he expected it
to be.
“So what?” Is Peter’s
comment, one of the minor players in
To Seduce A Soul Mate.
“I don’t see why people are so biased in this age and time. Let me tell you
something. Life is too short to play silly games with your happiness. We don’t
have the luxury of time so if you find something truly special, you should grab
it with all your strength never, ever, letting it go, and the hell with
everything else.”
That’s one way of looking
at it. Another is through Plato’s theory on soul-mates, a very interesting one,
so I’ll let Peter fill you in.
“Plato had an interesting
theory of his own on the subject. He said that at the beginning of time, human
beings were strange creatures with two heads, four arms, four legs, two hearts
and so on. In short, they were two beings in one. Since they wanted to imitate
the gods, they became more perfect with each passing day until the gods feared
they would eventually have more power than they did. So they decided to
eliminate the unwanted competition by cutting the creatures in half and
scattering the different parts on Earth. This condemned each part to look for
its missing half, its soul mate so to speak. But not all creatures were
hermaphrodites, that is male and female halves attached together. Some were two
males or two females in the same body who kept the same sex also after
splitting. Of course, since the missing halves inevitably looked for each
other, Plato found homosexual relationships perfectly natural and acceptable.”
Yet another way of looking
at it comes from Rose Seymour, Drake’s mother. Her pragmatic view may seem
extreme to some, but it gets right to the heart of the matter.
“Homosexuality had never
seemed a scandalous behavior, rather an insecure person’s nightmare.”
But maybe the best
authority on the subject is Martin himself, the seducer, the silent voice in
the novel, yet the one doing all the underground work.
“Technically, I’m not gay.
I like men and women. I prefer the former to the latter, but it’s not that
important when it comes to sex.”
Then again, Andrea, a
character from
Spying
the Alcove, sums it up for Valerio, his heterosexual professor in
archaeology:
“Sex is meant to be shared.
It’s too precious to lock in a drawer, throwing away the key, or save for an
exclusive use alone. It’s free and has no limitations except our own. And
gender should never be an acceptable limit.”
Yeah, sure, sex is sex no
matter what, but what about love? More than the sex, it’s the feelings for a
person of the same gender that are hard to acknowledge, as though they were a
liability rather than an asset. Returning to Drake and Martin, in Book 2,
The Pirate’s Surrender,
what is most difficult for Drake to accept is that he’s falling in love with
Martin. That’s more serious stuff than living together and having fantastic sex
whenever they feel like it. Martin, on the other hand, has no qualms about
expressing his soul.
Martin leaned back on the
chair. He had not wanted to press the pirate in a corner, but when he had come
out with that ridiculous invitation to his parents’ house, he had not been able
to control it. Not that he regretted the things he had said, all true and very
much so in their context. No, what was getting to him was the fact he could not
handle it—being so close to the pirate and not be able to express his feelings.
For they had grown, as he feared they would the moment he agreed to live with
his soul-mate. Now simply looking at him was laden with the urge to kiss, hold,
have him in any way possible. And he longed to say the words burning in his
heart, just could not afford the chance to lose his beloved over them. Even
more frustrating, he had watched Drake developing much the same feelings. Too
bad the pirate in him refused to acknowledge them, holding them back behind a
wall of apparently impenetrable male strength. It drove Martin mad every time
he perceived it, then he got more furious in bed, when the sheer passion of
Drake’s response made it crumble miserably, to reveal a depth of emotions that
would have frightened Martin had his soul-mate let them free.
How does Drake solve his
dilemma?
Drake stared in empty
space. “I scorned his soul-mate theory so much he vowed never to bring it up again.
And he hasn’t. But the truth is I was scared. To be with him meant so many
changes in my life I wasn’t sure I was ready for them, like having sex with a
man, something I never dreamed of before Martin, or worse coming to terms with
the possibility I might want to spend my life with a man. That took a lot of
adjusting since I was scared of passing off as a fag, which I—”
“Love has nothing to
do with being straight or gay.” It was his
philosophical mate who supplied the right words. “You fall in love with a
person, not with his or her gender.”
“Love has nothing to
do with being straight or gay.” Got it? I
think I made my point. In case I haven’t, I’d like to leave you with a few
excerpts from the books mentioned above.
Feeling every second closer
to danger, Valerio shifted nervously, hoping Andrea would take his arm off his
legs. “I don’t like men, never had.”
“What is it you don’t like?
The Greeks used to think the highest art form was the male body.”
“They were Greeks.”
“So we’re Italians, their
proudest heritage.”
The Professor grinned. “Not
enough to change my tastes.”
“Only because you haven’t
found the right person,” Andrea assured.
“What do you mean?”
“That physical attraction
has no rules or boundaries. A man could fall for another man even if he’s never
considered them as possible mates.”
“Hey, Martin baby, aren’t
you going to join in?” she asked, stopping to raise her head. Her hands kept
working fast as she turned to the pirate. “I don’t know if he told you, but he
loves cock, probably more than I do.” She bent on Drake’s erection, her tongue
running on the stem in a playful mood. “And they tell me he’s quite good, too.”
“He knows, Jo Jo,” Martin
assured, “but he’s not interested.”
Drake opened his mouth to
protest, then closed it. Fear and excitement mingled together in an odd
tenseness that clutched his body in a tight spasm. Wanting to say something, he
turned to look at the Irishman and it was his undoing. The green gaze sucked
him in a bottomless pit until no escape was possible. Unable to tear his eyes
off, Drake went deeper inside Martin’s web, feeling the electricity coursing in
his veins as if it were blood, heart thumping in his throat while his mouth,
suddenly dry, burned for the chance to kiss the blond devil. Licking his lips,
the pirate swallowed hard. “I may have changed my mind,” he breathed at last.
Martin’s grin was
priceless. His mouth broke into the most wonderful smile Drake had ever seen
and it had the power to melt his heart while stiffening his dick to a steel
hardness. Weighed down by the urge to kiss him, he pushed the blond head down
to his crotch. But the instant the Irish’s hot mouth closed on his enflamed
dick, the jilt of intense erotic fulfillment plunged him straight back into
Thanksgiving. And the pirate knew he would never be free now.
“I’m sick and tired of the nonsense claiming that to stick your cock
automatically makes you superior, while who takes it is considered inferior.
This is male chauvinism if I ever heard it! And it can’t be justified in any
way.”
Unable to keep still, he shifted position, curling on himself.
“Take us for example. You’ll end up sticking it in more times than I’ll
ever do it to you. Does that make me your inferior or less of a man?”
He slammed a fist on the mattress enraged. “Just think if it were true,
all women—I repeat all—would be inferior by default, and you know that’s
bullshit.”
He did not wait for Drake’s confirmation. “The truth is we’re fucking
equals, men and women, you and I regardless of which position we assume in bed,
of what we do and how we do it. It’s high time we stopped using sex to
determine balances in social relations, or rather their unbalances. Who gives
what to whom should have nothing to do with how we treat our fellow human
beings.”
His breath played on Drake’s face. “This basic respect is lacking in
today’s relationships, whether it’s lovers, colleagues, friends—”
“Fucking-friends,” Drake
retorted.
Laura Tolomei
Check out my blog @
LallaGatta for more exclusive
and fiery hot excerpts on my
sagas and series!
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