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Tethered

Name: Tethered
Author: Sande Baulch

Sande Baulch 5 stories

This story contains themes of: self-harm, sexual assault abuse

Sex Secrets Romance/Drama Erotic

Story Notes

Modern romance often sells brooding detachment, obsessive surveillance, and unilateral boundary-pushing as the pinnacle of passion.

And how many of us devour those stories like a cheap, slightly shameful, but undeniably delicious Woolies mudcake? 🙋🏻‍♀️ We roll our eyes, power through every glaring red flag and questionable subplot, telling ourselves, “It’s fine, I’m just here for the spice.”

At surface level, Tethered has all the dark romance fixings you know and love, set between the sprawling estates of Surrey and London’s universities. The checklist is loud and proud: teenage protagonist? Check. Age gap? Check. Arranged marriage? Check. Love triangle? Check. And everyone’s favourite guilty pleasure: rich people behaving badly? Double check!

Underneath all of that, my goal here is twofold:

1. To write a genuinely gripping and erotic-as-hell Dark Romance (obviously). Grounding the plot, setting, and even the dry financial motives of Miriam's marriage firmly in 21st-century realism without ignoring the periphery so the world has a pulse.

2. To hold a popular leading man archetype up against the light and pull the thread on why we fall for them in the first place. I wanted to contrast them against the wildly misunderstood, deeply taboo, yet intensely consensual world BDSM. And it was important for me to do so through the eyes of someone who thinks she knows it all, rather than an innocent ingénue that just wants to impress the bad boy.

I chose to rely on strict, limited third-person narrative and tell the story through three distinct POVs to ensure Tethered leans heavily into dramatic irony, subtext, and the agonising friction between individuals interpreting things through different lenses.

This has without a doubt been my most difficult project to date. Writing characters that conflict with my personal principles has tested every ounce of my sanity, and the fact that I didn’t know jack shit about the modern British aristocracy, life, locations and education in England has resulted in an absurd amount of time deep in research rabbit holes (If anything ever happens to me, someone is going to be incredibly baffled by my online search history).

But I must admit it’s also been the most rewarding. There’s still a lot more of it to write, but it’s unfolding how I envisaged, and am proud to represent a community that’s been a meaningful part of my life for years.

Summary

Eighteen-year-old Lady Miriam Jarvis is not the saint everyone assumes she is. Living under the watchful eye of high society and the tabloid press, the poised, immaculate daughter of the Earl of Lindley is also Dark_Passenger: an anonymous online author writing intense, subversive erotica. As her dark fantasies bleed into reality, she becomes tangled in a secret, illicit dynamic with her father’s Head of Security: a man whose strict discipline and boundaries feel to Miriam like the intoxicating D/s power-exchange she has always craved. Knowing her father is desperate to ensure his “Poppet” never loses the home where memories of her late mother warm even the coldest room, Miriam isn't surprised when he arranges a marriage to the son of a business associate. Torn between her desire for an older man who she believes offers her the fantasy she desires and a reluctant ally whose own secret life shatters every assumption she had about control, submission and desire, Miriam is about to learn the difference between true dominance and predation.

Genre: Romance,Erotica

Author: Sande Baulch

Status: 2d ago

Chapters: 21

Rating: n/a

Age Rating: 18+

Prelude

r/EroticaConfessions Posted by u/SpiceRackSiren • 14 hours ago

Why do we keep romanticising this???

(Rant/Unpopular Opinion)

Is anyone else just… done with the “Dark Hero” who is actually just a predator with abs? I just finished a Top 10 story on EroticLit (won’t name names) and I’m genuinely shaken. The MMC doesn’t ask. He doesn’t negotiate. I get that it’s fiction, but the comments are full of girls saying “I wish a man would dominate me like this.” No, you don’t. You want a Dom who listens to your safe word. You don’t want a guy who treats your “no” like a suggestion. Why are we acting like a total lack of consent is the peak of romance? If he’s actually scary, it’s not a kink, it’s a police report. 🚩🚩🚩

---

u/scrbanshy81: Louder for the people in the back! 📢

u/VelvetBDSM_Mod: The ‘Alpha Protector’ trope is fine for a fantasy, but can we acknowledge that IRL, a guy acting like he owns you without a simple conversation beforehand is just a massive red flag? Safe, sane, consensual. Anything else is just trauma with a high-end soundtrack.

u/Hyp0Nimf0 As someone who’s been in the scene for 20 years, these stories make my skin crawl because they teach young subs that OBEDIENCE UNDER DURESS is the same thing as SUBMISSION. It’s NOT! It’s FAWNING which is an AMYGDALA RESPONSE TO STRESS! Your body responding IS NOT craving or consent: IT’S TRYING TO SURVIVE THE SITUATION.

u/scrbanshy81 Replying to u/Hyp0Nimf0: Hear hear! If it’s not an enthusiastic YES, it’s a NO!

u/Kink_Not_Shame_99 Replying to u/SpiceRackSiren: Okay, but it’s fiction. I’m a literal lawyer in real life, I know what a crime is. But when I’m reading, I want the fantasy of being “claimed” by someone so obsessed they lose their mind. It’s called CNC (Consensual Non-Consent) for a reason. Just because the author doesn’t write a three-page contract scene at the start doesn’t mean we don’t understand it’s a fantasy. Let us have our dark corners, damn.

u/SpiceRackSiren [OP] Replying to u/Kink_Not_Shame_99: I’m not saying you can’t like CNC! I’m saying these stories aren’t CNC. There’s no negotiation. There’s no aftercare. The guy just asserts dominance and the girl folds. It’s the “attractiveness as an excuse” trope. If the guy was a 50-year-old high-school janitor instead of a hot Footballer, we’d call it a horror story.

u/Ginger_Snap_22 I’m with OP on this one. I think some authors use the “Protector” trope to excuse literal stalking. It’s the “he’s doing it for your own good” excuse. It’s gross. I’ve lived through a relationship with a possessive guy and it didn’t feel like a spicy chapter. It felt like walking on eggshells for three years until I forgot who I was.

u/Throwaway_London_Girl Replying to u/Ginger_Snap_22: THIS. There’s a specific vibe in some of these stories where the FMC is inexperienced and the guy is way older. The power imbalance isn’t “hot,” it’s gross! He knows she doesn’t have the life experience to tell him to fuck off. The author makes her “arousal” the justification, like “Oh, she’s wet, so it’s fine.” Biology isn’t a contract!

u/Daddy_Issues_Daily Maybe some of us want to explore the feeling of being completely overpowered without the safety net of a vanilla romance. Isn’t that what erotica is for? Exploring the Taboo?

u/Clinical_Stare The issue isn’t the taboo, it’s the framing. When the narrative rewards the MMC for being a monster, it sends a message. Look at the real-world Wade Wilson and Ted Bundy fans - women literally obsessed with a MURDER because he’s “HOT”.

u/Throwaway_London_Girl Replying to u/Clinical_Stare Spot on! When we romanticise the abuse in stories, we’re training ourselves to ignore the warning signs in the pub or the office. If he’s brooding and possessive in a book, he’s a hero. If he’s doing it at your flat, he’s a stalker.

u/The_Labyrinth_Walker Honestly, I think some of those authors know exactly what they’re doing. They’re poking the bruise on purpose to show that it’s more insidious and damaging than people realise.

Let Sande Baulch know what you thought about this chapter!

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