The King by Tiffany Reisz Also by this author: The Virgin, The Queen, The Queen (The Original Sinners: White Years, #4), The Confessions, The Bourbon Thief, The Bourbon Thief, The Night Mark, The Red, Michael's Wings: An Original Sinners Collection, The Lucky Ones, The Chateau (The Original Sinners, #9), The Rose, Winter Tales, The Priest (The Original Sinners, #9), The Pearl (The Godwicks, #3)
Series: The Original Sinners #6
Also in this series: The Virgin, The Queen (The Original Sinners: White Years, #4), The Priest (The Original Sinners, #9)
Published by MIRA on December 1, 2014
Genres: BDSM, Erotica
Format: eBook
Goodreads
Cunning. Sex. Pure nerve. Only this potent threesome can raise him to his rightful place as ruler of Manhattan's kink kingdom.
Bouncing from bed to bed on the Upper East Side—handsomely paid in both bills and blackmail fodder—Kingsley Edge is brilliant, beautiful and utterly debauched. No carnal act or chemical compound can relieve his self-destructive apathy—only Søren, the one person he loves without limit or regret. A man he can never have, but in whose hands Kingsley is reborn to attain even greater heights of sin. He plans to open the ultimate BDSM club: a dungeon playground for New York's A-list that'll change the scene forever.
The club becomes Kingsley's obsession—and he's enlisted some tough-as-nails help. His new assistant Sam is smart, secretive and totally immune to seduction (by men, at least). She and Kingsley make a wicked team. Still, their combined—and considerable—expertise in domination can't subdue the man who would kill their dream. The enigmatic Reverend Fuller won't rest until King's dream is destroyed. It's one man's sacred mission against another's….
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Deidre’s thoughts…
Where to begin… The beginning? The end?
In The White Years, Ms. Reisz has set the tone of continuing her Sinners lives in their present through the re-telling of their past. The micro-thin layers of time are peeled back and layered over again to embed the reader even deeper in the history of how each of her Sinners came to be, which in turn explains the richness and beauty of their complex lives in the present. It started with The Saint, and The King continues without disappointment.
I will say there’s something about The King that’s different from every other book in the entire Original Sinner series. I end up saying this about all of them once I’ve read them, I know, and yet I felt this difference more so with The King than I did any of the others. There were plenty of sexy times for sure, as I’ve become accustomed to from Reisz, snarky wit and wisdom, twists and turns of possibilities within the personalities and motives behind actions -bows to the Queen writer with the wicked sharp pen- but there was just something about The King, a certain je ne sais quoi. It pulled on my heartstrings in a way that I can’t really describe. It made me laugh and sigh. Bite my nails, rail against real injustices and a betrayal I didn’t see coming, then nod my head in understanding with a new found respect for a character that I’d only just come to know and love, for she wielded a far greater influence on how Kingsley became King than many would give credit for.
We’ve long read of Kingsley Edge, the infamous ruler of Manhattan’s underworld, and parts of his history. We’ve gotten glimpses from his early days as club owner and kink aficionado from various other stories, and grown to love his nefarious ways throughout The Red Years—you know you’ve dreamt about that Rolls Royce—and even felt the magnetism of young love when he was a teen with Søren. In The King, we see him in his transformation from the young man he once was, to the man he would become. It’s painful, eye-opening, and absolutely beautiful.
And if I gave stars for ratings in my reviews, I would lay all I had before a pair of polished Hessian boots.
Happy reading!
Q/A with Tiffany
-Do you have a favorite book or author you like to recommend? Do you have a comfort read?
I have a set of books I regularly recommend to people. Want to read amazing literature? Read my favorite novel of all time All the King’s Men by Kentucky author Robert Penn Warren. Want to read the most moving love story I’ve ever read? Read The Vintner’s Luck by Elizabeth Knox. My comfort reads are Sherlock Holmes short stories and Agatha Christie’s Poirot novels.
-What is your guilty pleasure?
I’d need to feel guilt to have a guilty pleasure. Buying office supplies I don’t need is probably the closest I get to a guilty pleasure. I buy them and think about all the people out there who don’t have awesome office supplies like I do and I feel bad for them.
-Favorite Meal?
Coffee and an ice cream sandwich is my version of a “Power Lunch.” The combination of tastes is glorious.
-If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?
My non-writer dream job is train engineer (what? I like trains). My realistic non-writer job would be working in a bookstore. That’s what I was doing when I started my writing career.
EXCERPT
“How much trouble am I in for getting out of the car without permission?” Kingsley asked.
“None,” Søren said, and Kingsley was wildly disappointed. “Let’s go. We can make it back to school by tonight.”
Kingsley followed him back to the car. The driver opened the door for them. When they were alone again, Kingsley said, “Or…”
“Or what?” Søren demanded.
“Or we could find a hotel and fuck in a real bed for once.”
“We’re not on a date. And here I was wondering where the real Kingsley had gone.”
“What do you mean?” he asked as the driver opened the car door for them. He slipped inside and Søren followed. They were on the road again before Søren answered.
“When you were with Claire—I wasn’t sure you were the same Kingsley I know and barely tolerate.”
“Why? Because I like kids?”
“You were good with her.”
“Kids are fun,” he said. What else was there to say?
“I never considered you would like children.”
“Well…I do. So what?”
“Nothing,” Søren said, laughing to himself. “Nothing at all.”
“I know you see me as some kind of pervert,” Kingsley said. “But believe or not, I am a human being. Yes, I like kids. I might want kids someday. I don’t have much of a family anymore. If I want a family I’ll have to make my own. Sometimes I have thoughts that don’t have anything to do with sex. I’m not just your toy, you know. I have feelings and—”
His impassioned “I have feelings” speech ended abruptly when Søren grabbed him hard by the back of the hair and brought his mouth down in a brutal kiss. Kingsley almost pulled away so he could finish his tirade before realizing he wanted the kiss so much more than the fight.
Kingsley returned the kiss with equal and greater passion. Søren yanked Kingsley’s jacket off him and threw it on the floorboard. Kingsley pulled his own shirt off and rolled on to his back on the bench seat. He’d remember the sensation of leather on his bare back all his life.
“Have you ever had sex in the back of a Rolls Royce?” Kingsley asked, trying not to rip Søren’s shirt in his rush to unbutton it. He needed Søren’s skin on his skin right now.
“No,” Søren said. “But ask me that question again in an hour.”
Before Kingsley could respond to that, Søren grabbed his wrists, pinned them over Kingsley’s head and kissed him again—deeper, slower, but no less punitive. Kingsley groaned, and Søren slapped a hand over his mouth.
“Quiet,” Søren said into Kingsley’s ear. “We aren’t alone, and I’ll gag you until you choke if I have to. Understand?”
Kingsley nodded against Søren’s hand. A curtain and partition separated them from the driver. He couldn’t see them, but if they were loud enough, he could hear them. He’d disobeyed Søren’s orders to stay in the car, he’d yelled at him and talked back. He was going to get it this time.
Good.
Søren kissed him again. Kingsley kept his sounds of pleasure to a minimum even when Søren reached between their bodies, unzipped Kingsley’s pants, and stroked him hard. Every muscle in Kingsley’s stomach tightened. He sucked in his breath sharply from the shock of pleasure. It took every bit of self-control not to moan audibly.
“You like this?” Søren asked.
“God, yes, so much,” Kingsley said, lifting his hips against Søren’s hand. He spoke in French and English. He was about to lose control of more than his language skills if Søren didn’t stop touching him like that.
“I think you like it too much.” Søren rose up on his knees and looked down at Kingsley.
“I don’t. I really don’t. I like it exactly as much as you want me to.”
“You’re pathetic when you’re turned on.”
“I am so pathetic right now.”
About Tiffany Reisz
Tiffany Reisz is the USA Today-bestselling author of the Romance Writers of America RITA®-winning Original Sinners series from Harlequin’s Mira Books.
Born in Owensboro, Kentucky, Tiffany graduated from Centre College with a B.A. in English. She began her writing career while a student at Wilmore, Kentucky’s Asbury Theological Seminary. After leaving seminary to focus on her fiction, she wrote The Siren, which has sold more than half a million copies worldwide.
Tiffany also writes mainstream women’s suspense fiction, including The Bourbon Thief (winner of the RT Book Reviews Seal of Excellence Award) and the RITA®-nominated The Night Mark.
Her erotic fantasy The Red—self-published under the banner 8th Circle Press—was named an NPR Best Book of the Year and a Goodreads Best Romance of the Month. It also received a coveted starred review from Library Journal.
Tiffany lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband, author Andrew Shaffer, and two cats. The cats are not writers
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