Adara Wolf and R. Phoenix invite you into the world of dark, dangerous men—and the men they love 😉

Your Mafia Doms series combines MM mafia romance and various D/s kinks. How does BDSM work in the mafia underworld? What are readers to expect?

A: Obviously, healthy BDSM dynamics include discussion with your partner and making sure to respect limits. The Mafia Doms… play a lot more loose and dangerous than that. Part of it is that they do know their partners (Silvano and Cristiano especially are tuned into Kyran’s and Fox’s desires) and part of it is that they don’t always want to follow rules (Knives and Maddox…). Since this is fiction, we’re able to have them do more extreme kinks without having to worry about serious damage to the characters.

Despite that, Silvano in the very least is very aware of what healthy BDSM practices are. He gives pointers to the other characters. Cristiano knows, but he cares a lot less and is not the teaching type.

There’s a darkness in all of them, necessitated by the world they live in, and morals sometimes go right out the window in favor of passion and possession. Let’s call it RACK instead of SSC (except for Evan/Helios and Ilya/Micah, who play a lot safer than the other three couples!). … and sometimes, the “consent” part of RACK is murky.

Your characters—arms dealers, assassins, enforcers—must have a bunch of trust issues due to their line of work 🙂 But D/s dynamic usually does require trust. How do they cope with that?

R: Funny you should mention trust. Our most recent title, the aptly named Trust, is all about a poor abused woobie having to relearn how to trust other people — and he places his trust in bratva leader Ilya. This trust allows him to get out of a bad situation and into a much healthier one.

For the others, well, they have had to learn quickly. Everyone wants to make connections in some way, and finding “their” people is the challenge. In these books, they often have to make decisions between trusting or falling prey to consequences.

There’s also the issue of authority: one of your MCs, the son of a gang leader, has an identity crisis over being not only gay but also a sub because if his family finds out, they’ll disown him at best. Do higher stakes make a D/s relationship more unstable or maybe more thrilling?

R: Kyran finds it more unstable. He doesn’t get a thrill out of doing the unthinkable; he feels shame over it. Not only does he have to worry about what his family might think about his relationship with another man, but the fact that it’s Silvano Cresci — their sworn energy — makes it even more terrifying. Once he gives in to the inevitable, he accepts love, but it’s never something he finds easy.

Mafia in real life is scary, but mafia romance might be quite enticing. Why is it so popular, in your opinion?

A: It’s a fantasy, both a power fantasy and one of being protected and cherished. These men have strong passions, and are willing to do even the worst things to be with the ones they love. The idea of somebody who will go so far as to murder to protect you can be very romantic—although not something I would ever want to live in real life!

Was there any specific research you had to do to make your mafia stories more convincing?

A: Mafia in fiction is as much a fantasy as knights and vikings. Sure, they’re based on real life, but most people don’t write them accurately. Raissa and I actually researched a lot of what real life organized crime does, and it’s often not very romantic. It can be incredibly mundane. Nobody wants to read about credit card fraud or grifting grandmothers out of their pensions, though. Gun running (which is one of the Cresci group’s main forms of business) isn’t as lucrative as fraud, but it seems higher stakes and less real.