Forbidden Pleasure by Lora Leigh

From the back cover:

The Club is private, exclusive and only for those men whose fantasies run to the more forbidden side. . . People have heard only fleeting rumors about The Club. Located just outside Washington, D.C., only its members know where men go when they want to indulge the desire to share their women with a carefully selected male partner. Former FBI agent John ‘Mac’ McCoy resigned his membership from The Club when he married Keiley Hardin. Tempting and innocent, sweet and sexy, she would never accept Mac’s desires to share her with another man. However, Keiley’s growing curiosity and Mac’s own fantasies of sharing his wife haunt his dreams. And his passions.

Unable to wait any longer, Mac invites his best friend Jethro Riggs, to their home with the intention of drawing Keiley into the pleasures that can only be achieved when two men love the same woman. But there’s more going on in Mac’s neck of the woods than a little additional pleasure. A past case involving astalker who likes to play games has shown up again, but now Keiley is in the middle of it all. Passion and pleasure, danger and desire combine as the forbidden becomes an addiction none of them can escape.


I've been a Lora Leigh reader for years. I started with Marly's Choice. Since then she was always like a trainwreck for me. Some of the plots were eye rolling material. Literally. But I kept reading her. I'm very glad I did because she has gotten SO much better. I think one of my biggest problems was the plot holes. Like how the characters got from Point A to Point B. Stuff like that.

Before I start the review, I have to admit that I have no idea how to pronounce the name Keiley. For half the book I was pronouncing it as Keeley. The other half I was pronouncing it as Kiley. I still have no idea what her name really is.

This is the 5th or 6th book in Leigh's Bound Hearts series. All the books in the series revolve around the hero's need to share the heroine with another man. Forbidden Pleasure can be read as a stand alone. There is a brief mention of a former character, but that's it.

Mac McCoy gave up his sexual lifestyle when he met and married Keiley Hardin. After having a childhood where sex was forbidden and looked at as a sin, Mac rebelled. Shocking, huh? He realizes that he was lucky to find a mentor (character from a previous book) familiar with the lifestyle or he might have turned into a very sexually depraved man. Huh. I know that I'm totally judging, but wanting to share the woman you're in love with sounds kinda depraved to me. Just sayin'. I read erotica (meaning erotic romance) where there are ménages. I have no problem with them. I mean it is labeled as erotica. What I had a hard time with while I was reading this book was the fact that Mac wanted to share Keiley indefinitely. But I digress...

Mac retired from the FBI when he married Keiley. He moved to his hometown and bought the farm where he grew up. So now he's a bonified farmer. A couple problems with this. First of all, if he had such an awful childhood in this place, why the fuck would he go back? Especially to stay. Doesn't make sense to me. This is the place he despised growing up. But now he's back with his wife. Ooookay, then. Second, he already gave up the sexual lifestyle that he was used to living. Would he give up his career AND move back to his childhood home on top of that?

Jethro Riggs was always Mac's "third". It was up to Mac to find the women. Mac was the "gentler" one that wasn't afraid of showing his "emotions". I kid you not, that's how it was described. Jethro had a hard childhood himself, so he counted on Mac to keep the current woman happy emotionally. Through Mac, Jethro was able to express his emotions without really expressing his emotions. *snort* Just a small note here. Leigh VERY specifically made sure the reader knew that Mac and Jethro had absolutely no homosexual feelings for each other. None. Zip. Nada.

Keiley has always known that there is something that Mac is holding back. She figures it has to do with sex, but she's not sure. Now, three years after their marriage, she's decided that she wants to know what it is. Except she doesn't. Then she does. Girl can't decide what she wants. When she was eighteen, her dad went to prison for embezzling, then her mom died so she was guilty by association. Because of that, she's very aware of gossip about her and she really cares what people think. Not to mention that there is a woman who has never forgiven Mac for never sleeping with her before he left town. Keiley is now on her grudge list.

So you have Mac that has held back sexually from Keiley for three years. You have Keiley who can't decide if she can accept Mac's sexual needs. You have Jethro who has waited three years for the call from Mac that Keiley is ready. You have a a woman who will do anything to destroy Keiley. Oh, and you have a stalker from Mac's old FBI days that has suddenly (after three years) set his sights on Keiley.

Somehow Lora Leigh makes it all work. After doing this review, I have no idea how, but she really does.

3.5 out of 5 stars