The Opposite of Love - Novel Synopsis

                                                                                      

The Opposite of Love

—T.A. Pace

For a woman who is exploring her sexual boundaries for the first time, there is a fine line between adventurous and dangerous, especially in Las Vegas.

Melanie Leon is a 39-year-old woman who has never been married and has no children. A Las Vegas resident since the age of six, her career in real estate has dominated her adult life, and her friends and family—particularly her mother—are adamant that she start getting serious about finding a mate. Facing it as a challenge and approaching the endeavor willing to work, she meets James Perolo, a 42-year-old Metro police officer.

James was born and raised in Las Vegas until the age of twelve when his alcoholic, drug-addicted prostitute mother sent him to California to live with his grandmother. He grew up under her care to become a police officer in Los Angeles, transferring back to Las Vegas when he was twenty-two. During his subsequent twenty-year career, he has gone from idealistic kid who wants to fix the Las Vegas that destroyed his parents, to motivated pragmatist who wants to limit the effects debauchery and poverty have on his community, to defeated realist who simply wants to make sergeant, get a desk job, and avoid the dregs of Vegas society.

James finds in Melanie a proud, classy, independent woman—a different breed from the type of woman he usually dates. However, he finds himself tugging her in directions that she’s never gone before to prove that she is willing to sacrifice her comfort for him in a way his mother was not.

Melanie finds in James a handsome blue-collar man with virtuous beliefs and boundless sexual energy. She has stepped outside her norm to date him, and he pushes her boundaries sexually, challenging her to try things she’s never done before—some with very positive results, some not as much. From spanking, to exhibitionism, to sex clubs and more, Melanie is taken on a journey that both scares her and turns her on immensely, once she can get past not knowing what’s around the corner. This is especially hard for her, as she has been clinging desperately to her sense of control since her father died in a terrible accident when she was nine.

Melanie and James come to a roadblock in their relationship—James because he has not told her the truth about his mother, and Melanie because she is still holding onto the horror of her father’s death, something she has never talked about with anyone.

An homage to Erica Jong’s “Any Woman’s Blues,” “The Opposite of Love” is a psychological/sexual ride through Las Vegas and its local sex scene as experienced by two lovers who will challenge each other’s ability to accept them, as well as their own ability to accept themselves.