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The Deeper He Hurts by Lynda Aicher Series: Kick #2
Published by LoveSwept on September 6, 2016
Genres: BD/sm, Contemporary Romance, M/M Erotica, M/M Romance
Character(s): Nerdy/Geeky, Reclusive Heroes
Pages: 224
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In this wild and sensual Kick novel from the RITA Award–nominated author of The Harder He Falls, a sizzling affair tempts the tech guru of a popular outdoor-adventure-sports company to come out of the closet and embrace his desires.
Asher Ruggiero, a partner at Adrenaline Kick Adventures, is living a lie. As a control freak whose big Italian family thinks he’s straight, Asher likes his encounters concise, dirty, and discreet—until his company’s new rafting guide walks into work, dripping with brooding, intense sexuality. Sawyer Stevens is a mystery man with secrets and rough edges, and he makes Asher want to get to know him inside and out.
Ever since the tragic death of his parents, Sawyer has dedicated himself to the rush of adrenaline that comes from pleasure and pain. Moving from one guy to another, hiding when life gets too complicated—that’s all he can handle. So why does Asher make him long for something lasting and honest, when the gorgeous geek can’t even be true to himself? Sawyer wants to give Asher his heart, but he just doesn’t know how. After all, a life without integrity is a life without passion—and that’s the one thing Sawyer craves.
Erin: This book, y’all. Holy hell talk about a hot, sensual, intense, and fraught with tension book! I started reading and could not put this one down. Asher and Sawyer are sooooooo incredible, and their story gripped me from the get go. This one is VERY heavy, and the BDSM is not for the faint of heart, but it all worked so so perfectly and fit these two guys so fabulously well. The power exchange between these two is profoundly deep and even though the sadism and masochism might be hard for some to understand, I found it beautiful and so well written.
This is the second book of the series, but you absolutely do not need to have read the first one in order to fully appreciate these characters or the setting. Which can I say, the whole extreme adventure angle is just so different, and I’m really enjoying that aspect of these books quite a bit. But back to Sawyer and Asher. These two are so completely compelling. Of the two, though my heart ached for Sawyer and his backstory, it’s Asher who my heart bled for. A more complex, fascinating, and unique character I have not come across in some time. His guilt, the heavy burden of his family’s expectations of him, his dark desires, and his utter control over every aspect of his life completely drew me in. It’s not just the fact that looking at him in his dark framed glasses and button down shirts and neatly pressed khakis that you immediately think nerd only to find this fierce and intense Masochist hidden underneath, but it’s the way he views himself and his needs that kept me so captivated. I have never, in all my reading of BDSM, come across an explanation of masochism that truly made me understand like I did here in The Deeper He Hurts. I’ve used the word craving before when talking about the many aspects of BDSM before, but I’m not sure that’s entirely appropriate. For Asher, this part of himself, and being able to have an outlet, is completely vital to his total self. It’s not happiness, it’s more than that. It’s a settling of his soul and heart and mind and seeing him and Sawyer together, was indeed a beautiful thing to experience. Yes the scenes and dirty talk and descriptions are hotter than hell, but it’s so much more than that.
Sawyer is broken and he’s looking for anything to make him feel alive, even going so far as to harm himself and put himself in dangerous sexual situations. When he realizes that Asher can be the one who can help him find the peace he’s so desperate to find, he’s both terrified and willing to do anything to keep him. It’s the dichotomy of these two, the push and pull, and the way they are such a perfect fit that really got to me. They’re both broken and searching, both surviving but not living, and definitely both aching to fill the empty parts of their souls.
Ash pulled off, glanced up to catch the molten gaze staring down at him. He didn’t need his glasses to see the passion that darkened Sawyer’s eyes or the parted lips and heavy eyelids. Just like with the pain, Sawyer didn’t resist the sensations. He embraced them all, wholly in the moment.
The wonder of that rare quality sank into Ash with the awe it deserved. He trailed his fingers down, the tips grazing over the scars on Sawyer’s thighs. How had it felt when he’d inflicted them? When did he learn the art of breathing with the pain, of processing the signals into something other than excruciating or intolerable?
Where did he store all those feelings? Did they ever burst free? Would anything—anyone—ever reach deep enough to break him out of the pain?
Ash was on his back, breath trapped, eyes wide before he knew what had happened? Sawyer hovered over him, smirk blazing. That dimple got him every time. It hid and revealed so much at once.
“You were taking too long,” Sawyer explained in a smoky tone that crawled through Ash’s groin.
“To do what?”
“Anything.”
All. The. Feels.
If you pick up The Deeper He Hurts simply to read some scorching hot BDSM scenes, then you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. This is a beautifully portrayed, brilliantly written love story. It’s a story about expectations, both your own and others, and being true to yourself. I am quite in awe of how much I loved this story and how much respect Lynda Aicher has shown an aspect of BDSM that is most often misunderstood. I cried, a lot. There are so many emotions, so many feels. The way Sawyer and Asher discover each other, the way they trust and communicate is something you don’t often see, especially in a book about BDSM. And … their I love yous were some of the most satisfying I’ve read in a long time.
I’m still floating from how good this book was and I really can’t wait for book 3!
She's a Texan, though she drinks her tea plain and NOT sweet. She loves cheesecake, strawberry limeade's from Sonic and her favorite color is purple. In her books, she loves an HEA, but she never minds if the road is rough to get there, as long as the reward is worth the struggle.
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| Overall: | 4.5 |
