Psycho Roth (Patreon)

In honor of Halloween, I present demonic Roth:

His voice was detached, impersonal, completely devoid of all emotion, but his eyes belonged to the devil. Unblinking, malevolent. The fact that he was able to keep his expression blank while his demons raged sent a chill down her spine. 

**This is a raw draft of Bitter Confessions. Please do not share or distribute.

When I wrote Bitter Heat, I wanted to write a super detached, emotionless anti-hero. I guess I did it a little too well because a lot of readers said they felt like there was no chemistry between Roth & Jasmine and they didn't think it was a romance. I knew him being non-expressive and quiet meant that his gestures and actions would be way more important. It was a struggle in the first two books to go this route since I can't describe expressions and even through dialogue he's pretty stingy. It's really forced me to stretch to find ways to describe what's going on with him, but I think it's been a great exercise in storytelling. The great thing is in these later books, he lets down his guard a little and becomes gradually more open with her, which feels like a reward after years of fumbling around with him and having to write his POV on the side to understand why he's being a jackass. 

I can't really picture any man as Roth. Do you know of an actor that embodies quite menace? The threat of violence at any moment? And why do I think that's sexy??