Those who know me well, think that it’s ironic that I wrote a whole series centering the damsel-in-distress-trope, but the thing is? I love this trope. I’m always trying to up the stakes in the suspense plots, to push the boundaries of realism, to make it even harder for my characters to untangle themselves on the way to the HEA

When it came to writing Ares and Josie, I wanted to make sure that it was the situation that caused her the distress. I wanted to write the story in a way that made it clear Ares was not out to save her from the perceived distress of being disabled.

I needed Josie’s autonomy respected. I needed her to stand up for herself and call people out on the toxic offers of help.

And even though Ares was going to be a forceful part of rescuing Josie, he needed to be the kind of Dom that listens. Actually respects boundaries instead of running them over. He needed to support her, offer that support in a way that could be refused.

It might be Ares’s nature to try and fix things for her, to make her life easier, to offer her help but Josie knows her own mind and just because she’s disabled, doesn’t mean she needs to be saved from her disability.

The thing about putting “help” in a kink setting is that help has to be consented to, even if the character has a disability. The boundary held and respected. When you put offers of help in that kind of setting in shines a light on how helpful help actually is…

Maybe it was my wishing for that (“help” being offered in a way that can always be refused, not with the expectation that it is accepted just because it was given) to be an every day experience that brought this forth – and I’m okay with that.

Flame For Keeps is out tomorrow.