Safe In His Arms

Wicked Hearts #2

by Claire Thompson

In Wicked Hearts, Hank Seeley, Reese's controlling ex-lover, did his best to come between Reese and Jeff. Still bitter over Reese's desertion, Hank continues to use anger and sex to cover the shards of his broken heart. Not even bothering to pick up guys at bars, Hank orders in, calling for young rent boys to service him until he grows tired of them. When Russell Evans, a big bear of a man, shows up one night instead of the ordered twink, Hank ends up getting more than he bargained for.
Russell is a sex worker with issues of his own. He's also a Dom with lots of heart, who sees a glimmer of the real man trapped beneath the cold facade Hank presents to the world. Russell is used to comforting the lonely men who seek out his services, but he doesn't count on his own powerful reaction to the handsome, difficult Hank Seeley.
On this tough road to redemption, Hank will fall hard before he can hope to rise. The erotic exploration of dominance and submission is enough to draw the two men into a passionate connection, but in the end, it may not be enough. Unless Hank can face his own demons, he will lose the one thing worth fighting for - love.

Genres: M M Romance, BDSM, Contemporary, Romance, Gay, Erotica, Contemporary Romance

157 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 14, 2010

About the author

Claire has been writing for nearly two decades, and has published over 85 novels. She writes BDSM romance and abduction tales, spanning both m/f and m/m genres. She has received numerous awards for her bestselling work, including the NLA-Int’l Pauline Réage Award and the Golden Flogger Award for best BDSM fiction.. Her darker works press the envelope of what is erotic and what can be a sometimes dangerous slide into the world of sadomasochism. Ultimately her work deals with the human condition, and our constant search for love and intensity of experience.
Connect with Claire and get a FREE starter library!
https://clairethompson.net

Reviews

[Betryal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m going to say it now… Hank is a wanker. Now that I got that out of the way, on to my review, rants, ravings and thoughts.

It’s refreshing to say the least when one solitary man whom we all love to hate gets what is very deserving of him in spades.

By the sneaky hand of an escort boy who felt Hank should get back his own medicine for his malicious treatment of others, a swap is done to give Hank payback and what a moment it is to be frozen in time and freeze framed. This is one part that will never leave your or my mind. To find that amusing is an understatement. It’s hilarious! The look on Hank’s face when he opened the door to come face to face with Russell? Priceless. We can admit that Hank is a lonely guy right and just needs somebody to love and give the undivided attention he needs right? But I was starting to think he was completely certifiable. In some ways I dubiously believe he still is. :snickering: Not only does Hank not get what his preferences are served to him on a platter in his insistent demands to the escort agency like his Almighty self expects, but he is served with someone completely opposing and opposite to his tastes.

Russell is to my terminology just what is needed to bring Hank to his knees and temper his temperamental attitude and haughtiness not to mention his arrogance. Russell is challenged with dealing with Hank. Hank is a man’s man, a bear which normally is not my thing, in every sense of the word. I was yummified. It’s such a hot story that even though you might like to give Hank a spanking for his self absorbed defiance you’ll want Russell spanking you in turn. Oh stop and don’t say it… I’m turned on. :snickering:

Read how Hank begs, swallows his dominating pride while being dominated, get brought down a level or more and get mastered by the master.

I would elaborate more than... again I’d be spoiling it all.

Claire serves us up a dish with this book of scenes which hit on the D/s world in a light manner with her mix of amusement and comic relief. There’s never too much or too little with her stories. You can learn from the characters, their situations they get themselves tangled in and there’s a degree of educational circumstances. Her books along with this one is refreshing yet intense and holds your interest from the moment you open it on page one till you see the words we all abhore: The End.

Another great story by Claire and recommended for those D/s, BDSM lovers who are looking for that love story intermingled within that genre.

[Serena Yates · Rating 5 out of 5]

In many ways this second book, which tells us Hank's story, is even more fascinating than the first.

Having made me believe that Hank is the absolute villain in the first book, the author does an amazing job here with showing some of the background of this character. Does Hank get what he deserves? Yes. Is that the best part of the book? Surprisingly, I didn't think so. For me the best part was that Hank finally lets go of his preconceived ideas of what the world is like and manages to open up to another human being. He learns to grow and change.

And that development, for me, was far more difficult to achieve in a believable manner than seeing the man "punished". That would have been too easy, and not half as emotionally satisfying as what actually happens. I think I will read ths book again. The psychology behind it was simply amazing.

[ElaineY · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sidney's review says it all for me so no need to repeat. I agree with everything he said but...yes, there's a but...SIHA is not a strong 4 stars for me. More a 3.75 because Hank was too nasty a person for me to like and when he's finally redeemed himself, I'm happy for him, it still didn't make me like him.

This could be connected to my disinterest in D/s relationships, the BDSM genre which could be, in turn, connected to my dislike of needy, morally ambiguous people like Hank. I do know rich, spoilt people like that in RL and I couldn't help thinking of them as I read this book, unfortunately. This didn't happen in the book but if Hank decided to sell himself and then found redemption, whether through Russel, another sex worker or Russell as a client, I could have liked him but I just couldn't like a Hank who stole without so much as a niggle of guilt.

Yes, he got the payback coming to him but even as that side of him was taken care of, the needy person in him reared its ugly head and I'm no Russell in my romance fiction world. I deal with that a lot in RL so romance is where I escape to for my feel-good fantasies. If you don't have that problem, then Safe in His Arms is a good story about the redemptive gift of love.

I also thought, as I read this book, that it would make a great movie. A Porn with Plot "adult" movie. LOL!

[Elisa Rolle]

I really didn’t like Hank in the previous book, Wicked Heart, and for sure I was not liking him in the first part of this book: not only Hank is a spoiled brat who is living out of his father’s money without doing nothing to gain them, neither being a decent man, he is also dangerous. Hank has a rage inside him that when it comes out, it hurts people around him. Hank is used to hire rent boys for sex, and more than once he is drunk when he is having sex with them so much that he is barely able to control his actions. True, when he realizes that he is going too much far away in the game, he always backs up but what if one time he will be too altered to be able to understand when the acceptable limit was reached?

With one of this guy Hank goes just a bit too much far into the pain/pleasure game, and the boy decides to take his vengeance: next time Hank calls for a twinky boy, barely legal and just a little that touch of shy that allows Hank to be the one in control, he instead welcomes in his home Russell, almost 40 years old red-hair bear, tall and strong and not at all shy. What I liked most of Russell is that his powerful exterior is only an addendum at his Dom’s attitude, it’s not what makes him a Dom. Russell is not only a Dom, he is also caring and kind, and he is able to see behind Hank’s public figure, to the lonely boy and now adult who would only want for people to like, and love, him.

Russell doesn’t force Hank to do nothing, not during sex or in his day-to-day life, but in a way he sets his pace: if Hank wants to be worthy of Russell’s love, he has to change, he has to be responsible and independent. But the independency is only on a financial level, since when it’s time to be emotioanally dependent, Russell is always ready to reassure Hank that he is indead, finally loved by someone, not for his money or power, but for the man he is, or he could be.

It’s not an easy change for Hank, but what I appreciated most about him is that he is immediately aware of his problem, and that Russell is part of the solution; Hank knows that he is lonely, he knows that he has gone too far away in his games playing with other men’s life, and now he has no one. He is not shy in asking Russell’s help, in admitting he loves him and needs him, Hank needs the help of a rent boy, even if Russell is not exactly your typical whore. Russell thinks to himself more like a sex worker than a whore, and part of his job is to make his customer’s comfortable with their sexuality. Since he is not so young, Russell’s customers are usually slightly older, and with most of them he has a friendly relationship, and maybe for this reason, even after he is involved with Hank, Russell will continue with his sex worker job, probably, and above all, since he needs to pay his bills, and as he is teaching to Hank, and adult man has to look out for himself.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1453702636/?...

[J.P. Bowie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this a couple of months ago...I loved the first book Wicked Hearts, and even though Hank came across as the kind of person I'd like to kick in the crotch, I hoped he'd learn from his broken friendship with Reese that you can't just walk all over people and expect to remain buddies.
Hank gets a second chance in this story but from a very unlikely source and for me, the author Claire Thompson managed to make a very believable change of heart attitude in Hank - after again, feeling he needed a good kick in the cojones.

[Manuela]

***2016 has been a very unstable year. Not only have I lost favourite role models in droves, I have been into dark places more times than I could count. Yes, I experienced highlights as well but the darkness has had a big impact this year and the only way to keep it at bay was reading, mass reading, back to back books with no stopping and no reviewing. I do apologize to all the writers that I won’t be able to review their books yet but I will get to it. Promise!***

[Nile Princess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claire is still queen! Really loved this one. Russell is THE epitome of a dom/alpha for me. I love a kind, caring dom who has the best interest of his sub at heart. A true dom doesn't have to posture at being an alpha. He just IS and Russell is an alpha to his very core.

Claire never disappoints and this one hooked me from the beginning. Hank, a spoiled rich 'kid' (30) finds that money can't buy the thing he wants most - his ex bf/sub to take him back. After 12 yrs of emotional abuse and control, his ex has found the resolve to break up with him. Hank falls back on the escort service where he is a regular client, but he is so rough with the guy they send over that the guy decides to seek revenge one night when he's working the phones. Instead of sending over Hank's usual shy, blonde twink, he dispatches a guy who's 6'3 and 250lbs of bear. Enter Russell.

I LOVED Russell. From the first meeting, he is in total control, and he has a sense of self and morality that is endearing. Hank finds himself at a total loss and yet, he is intrigued. Things unfold at a natural, believable pace and makes this a very good read, but there were a few things that kept it from 5 stars.

The timeline gets a bit confusing after their second hookup. At the end of Chapter 5, it's their second meeting and at the beginning of Chapter 6, they are 'together' and there is supposedly all this stuff they've discussed that we weren't privy to. We later find out that it's been three weeks, but a bit of better editing was needed there.

I skipped over certain parts that I felt were way too saccharin. I always dislike when authors have these long speeches, pages and pages of dialogue that either sound too preachy or too 'feminine' for an m/m novel. Hank's reunion with Russell gave me hives. His apology to Reese was much better. Sometimes less is more.

The caning scene just felt strange. Maybe it came too late in the book, but it just felt like the book could have ended and then oops, maybe we should have them elevate the level of trust. There should have been some buildup to that, at least we should have seen Hank think about it prior to the event.

I think that was it. Outside of that, I loved the book. Loved Hank and Russell and loved the ending.

[J'aime · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not usually read books out of order. Safe in His Arms is the sequel to "Wicked Hearts" (a gay twist on Dangerous Liaisons/Cruel Intentions). I'm very familiar with that storyline, and while I was interested in reading it, it didn't seem like a "must-read now." However, when this came out I was instantly captured. Redemption is a very compelling storyline for me. So, I finished this last night while waiting for book 1 to be shipped. Fortunately, this can easily be read as a stand-alone novel.

It's plain right off that Hank's a pompous, arrogant ass. Not exactly protagonist material, but then Claire Thompson works some magic. Hank feels betrayed, and he's angry. He takes it out on an escort, who decides to get a little revenge by sending Russell for Hank's next appointment instead of the twink he ordered. Russell is a bear of a man with a gentle heart, and won't let Hank abuse him. Hank is shocked by someone standing up to him, and intrigued. Russell sees past the bravado and anger to the pain inside Hank, and also the potential. They begin a relationship and Hank begins to change.

Overall, I loved this story. Hank's a piece of work, but it's satisfying to see him get taken down a peg by someone without malicious intentions. The sex is hot, with a mild BDSM element (readers who avoid BDSM should still enjoy this) but the character development is off the charts. I liked Russell immediately, but also came to appreciate Hank. The only thing that bothered me was that even after they began a relationship, Russell continued as a "sex worker" to make money toward achieving his dreams. I can understand the need, but it seemed off that he would commit to Hank and still continue selling sex. Their relationship is unconventional to begin with so the story wasn't ruined by this fact, but it still irked me a bit. Overall, I highly recommend this and look forward to reading Wicked Hearts now.

[Ebook Addict Reviews]

I was very much looking forward to Hank’s story. I was very curious to see how Claire was going to redeem what by the end of Wicked Hearts seemed to me an utterly unredeemable character. Hank was one of those characters you really love to hate. So with that said, I did approach Safe In His Arms with a bit of trepidation but by the end was so in love with not just Russell but Hank as well.

I admit to having the niggling feeling that Hank caved a bit to quickly to Russell’s dominate nature. I think maybe I just wanted him to suffer just a bit more in the very beginning. I’ve been told I have a blood thirsty nature and well, Hank was a real bastard in Wicked Hearts. But I thought that the trials Hank went through not only redeemed but humanized Hank. It was not an easy journey for either Hank or Russell but by the end of the story I felt both were better for it.

There is so much more I want to say but I’m afraid to give to much of the story away so I will end by saying that Safe In His Arms is an excellent sequel and one I highly recommend, but you definitely need to read Wicked Hearts first to get the full effect of the story.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5*

When we read about antagonist characters, we often want something bad to happen to them. Well, if you read Wicked Mind, you knew about Hank. He's rich, handsome, 30 yo who never held a job, and also physically and mentally abusive. This book starts 3 weks after the first book. Meeting with Reese and Jeff led Hank to be thrown out of a gay club. To deal with rejections, he rent a high class rent boy, whom he abused. When he called for another service, the agency sent another person, Russel.

Russel is a very independent dom, someone that could handle Hank. When Hank's father got into financial trouble, Hank lost his only weapon in life: money. Would Russel still want to be him that now Hank is poor?

I like this story. It's about redemption, and the author doesn't make it easy for Hank. Neither do other characters that he wronged. That makes me feel for him. We meet Reese and Jeff again at one point. Warning about Russel. He never stop taking clients even at the end of the book, so all romance scenes are taking place while he still sleeps with other men.

[Juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like others I really disliked Hank in Wicked Hearts and I have no doubt Claire Thompson did it intentionally and it totally worked. In this book I was blown away at how much I loved and felt for Hank. He did ALOT of stupid things but man when he finally saw the error of his ways I was blown away.


I will totally read this book again and I loved every minute of it.

[F. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this more than Wicked Hearts but both were very good. Who doesn't love watching a bad boy get his comeuppance and turn his life around. This series is two of the best books I have read by Claire Thompson. It was an added bonus to get some BDSM thrown in. Liked how the BDSM wasn't used to fix the bad boy.

[T.T. Kove · Rating 4 out of 5]

D/s relationships are generally not my cup of tea, but I had to read Hank's story. And I really did like it, even if the D/s aren't for me - but it was what Hank needed. I'm glad he got his redemption. I like Hank a hell of a lot more now than I did in Wicked Hearts. *g* It's a really good book. Go read it!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good kinky m/m romance about the seemingly irredeemable cruel and controlling 'best friend' from the previous book, who's slowly spiraling toward rock bottom. If you'd told me after I finished reading Wicked Hearts that Claire Thompson could make me care about and like this guy, I would not have believed you.

[Valentina Heart · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one more than the first one. The personalities of the characters were completely opposite which made the whole of it very interesting. There are some parts that push too much and it's not a solid 5 star read, but it has all those intriguing bits I love so here we are. It is a classing Thompson book, and those who like her work shouldn't be disappointed.

[CB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ohhh, mean and sexy but not really (it actually makes sense if you read the books). 2 MC's (1 for each book in the series, this one and the first "Wicked Hearts") who were raised without love so don't believe in it, of course, meet their love. This MC has the farthest to fall and boy, does he -- there is the struggle to recover.

[Ingrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found it very hard to warm to Hank esp because I read the first book again before reading this one. It made it difficult to get into the book and see why Russel did like him. In the end Claire's writing makes up for a lot of things and I love the D/s aspect of the story.

[Marsha Spence · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this follow up to Wicked Hearts. Hank grows from a jaded playboy to a real person. I enjoyed the BDSM element as well. Russell was likable and I don't know how he put up with Hank. But, I enjoyed the story very much.

[Gail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as I hoped. A 2.5 that I rounded up. I really wanted to like Hank before I finished this book but I just couldn’t. Kinda wondered about Russell as well. Somehow I couldn’t relate to either of them.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice, with unexpected twists and turns. I like books like that.

[Wendy McQuiston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intense

It's amazing what can happen in the matter of ones life to change them into what they should have always been.

[LaShonta]

Don't like cheating.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

GOOD BOOK