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Gemini Heat
As the metropolis sizzles in early summer temperatures, identical twin sisters Deana and Delia Ferraro are cooking up a heatwave of their own. Surrounded by an atmosphere of relentless humidity, the sisters find themselves rivals for the attentions of Jackson de Guile—a wealthy entrepreneur and master of power dynamics—who draws them both into a web of luxurious debauchery. Their erotic encounters become increasingly bizarre as Deanna and her twin vie for the rewards that pleasuring him brings tainted rewards that only serve to confuse their perceptions of the limits of sexual experience.
256 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1995
4 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
About the author
Portia Da Costa
170 books516 followersI'm a Sunday Times, New York Times and USA Today bestselling British author of romance, erotic romance and romantic fiction. My novels have been published by a variety of different houses, both in the US and the UK, and translated into many languages including German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian and Japanese. I'm best known for my many novels for the pioneering British erotica publisher Black Lace and I writing books with contemporary, paranormal and occasionally futuristic settings. I'm now venturing into historical erotic romance too, with a new novel for Harlequin Spice set in London in the year 1890.
I also write as Dorothy Starr and Megan Paul
I've been writing for publication since 1990, and have had over twenty novels published and around 100 short stories. I've contributed to many different short story anthologies and women’s magazines. I've also written a number Spice Briefs for Harlequin.
I'm a member of Romance Writers of America, the Passionate Ink RWA Chapter, the Romantic Novelists Association [UK] and the Society of Authors [UK].
I live in the heart of West Yorkshire, UK, with my husband and my cats. When I'm not writing I enjoy reading, watching TV and movies, hanging out on Twitter and Facebook, and online life in general. I was formerly a librarian and have also worked in local government.
I also write as Dorothy Starr and Megan Paul
I've been writing for publication since 1990, and have had over twenty novels published and around 100 short stories. I've contributed to many different short story anthologies and women’s magazines. I've also written a number Spice Briefs for Harlequin.
I'm a member of Romance Writers of America, the Passionate Ink RWA Chapter, the Romantic Novelists Association [UK] and the Society of Authors [UK].
I live in the heart of West Yorkshire, UK, with my husband and my cats. When I'm not writing I enjoy reading, watching TV and movies, hanging out on Twitter and Facebook, and online life in general. I was formerly a librarian and have also worked in local government.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 5, 2014
Gemini Heat by Portia da Costa was first published in 1994 – twenty years ago. I'm happy to report that this modern classic has stood the test of time.
The book played a major role in my life, since it inspired me to write and publish my first novel Raw Silk. Funny how small chance events can produce large consequences.
After years of my enjoying my husband's tales of Hagia Sofia and the Grand Bazaar, we'd finally managed to make it to Turkey. We stayed in a tiny boutique hotel in the heart of old Istanbul, two narrow houses that had been converted to serve a handful of guests. The hotel, which adjoined an ruined haman (bathhouse), featured a boulder-strewn, cat-filled garden and a view of minarets and the Sea of Marmara from the window of our fourth floor room. In the white-washed stone lobby, above a divan spread with rich embroidery, I found a book swap shelf, a common feature in traveler's locales around the world. Leave a book, take a book – we cycle our reading and share our passions. Having run low on reading material, I picked up a slim black and gray volume. The cover featured a moderately discreet image of a couple in an ecstatic embrace. Gemini Heat was the title, authored by Portia da Costa.
The novel was published by a UK imprint called Black Lace, whose slogan was “Erotic fiction for women”. A benighted American, I'd never heard of Black Lace. At the time, I hadn't read much erotica, though I'd written some personal fantasies and shared them with my lovers.
Gemini Heat astonished and aroused me, with its intelligence, its erotic diversity and its unabashed heat. Identical twins Deanna and Delia Ferraro look enough alike to fool most people, although their styles and personalities could not be more different. Deanna is brash, bold, even a bit wild, a freelance artist with a penchant for hippie-style clothing and a taste for adventure. Delia is shyer and less experienced sexually, but more polished and organized, as accomplished at her job in corporate middle management as she is in cooking or home repair. One evening, with busy Delia's blessing, Deanna attends an art opening using an invitation intended for her twin. The paintings on show turn out to be of the erotic variety, stirring her hot blood to the point that she allows a seductive stranger to fuck her on a balcony overlooking the crowd. Only the morning after do she and Delia realize that her partner was Jackson Kazuto de Guile – millionaire businessman, unabashed sybarite, and Delia's boss – and that he'd thought Deanna was in fact his employee Delia. And now, despite her more cautious personality, Delia wants her turn with the delicious and demanding Jake.
The story piles one erotic episode on top of another, as Deanna and Delia pretend they are the same woman, alternating in the role of “Dee” and discovering new dimensions of their sexuality. There are sex clubs and opulent mansions, Jacuzzis and massages, exhibitionism and voyeurism, lesbian and gay male interactions, bondage and beatings, lovely fetishistic articles of clothing that get torn to shreds in the throes of lust, and lots of intense orgasms. Jake involves a cast of co-conspirators (especially the notorious red-headed author Vida Mistry) in his education and sexual conquest of the twins.
The book was a perfect fit to my own erotic inclinations. It pushed all my personal buttons. I was delighted to discover the existence of Black Lace (though the other Black Lace authors I sampled did not come close to Ms. Da Costa in their ability to excite me). And after I'd calmed down a bit, I began to think, “I'll bet I could write a book something like that.”
But that's another story.
I'm reprising this now because I just finished rereading Gemini Heat. (Yes, the same dog-earned black and gray paperback!) I wanted to know if it could still move me now, after I've published more than fifty single author erotic titles of my own and read at least three times that many by others. Would it seem clichéed or silly? Would I find it tame?
I'm pleased to say that I still would place this novel among my top ten or top twenty erotic books. Ms. da Costa excels at describing the internal state of her characters. The sexual encounters that occur in Gemini Heat are far less extreme or outrageous than they seemed upon my first reading, but their impacts upon the characters (which is really what counts in my view) remain intense.
Meanwhile, in these days of sub-genre tyranny, I value the diversity in this book more than ever. In 2014, erotic romance reigns. (Black Lace officially rebranded itself that way a few years before it folded.) The thrillingly sensual lesbian interactions in Gemini Heat would probably get the book rejected now – not to mention the description of the M/M sex show at Club Seventeen. Then there's the hero's decidedly non-alpha appearance and behavior. Sure, Jake is a Dom, but he is not tall, gruff and muscle bound. He's slender, graceful, elegant, as one might expect from someone who is part Japanese, with long, silky hair and smooth, mostly hairless skin. He's as intuitive and sensual as any woman. Ms. da Costa is perfectly comfortable with a hero who shows some feminine characteristics, but I suspect that many of today's readers might reject such ambiguity. In fact, despite his adeptness at power games, Jake is a switch – that becomes quite clear in the final chapter of the novel. I loved the breadth of the author's sexual imagination, but I'm willing to bet that if she submitted this novel today, the publisher would want to attach all sorts of Reader Advisories.
I didn't realize when I first encountered Gemini Heat that it was one of Portia da Costa's very first erotic novels. Now I suspect that her experience writing the book must have been similar to mine, writing Raw Silk – that the book is an uncensored outpouring of her personal favorite fantasies. I've read and enjoyed a lot of her later work, but with the exception of the brilliant Entertaining Mr. Stone, none of these novels has made the same impression on me as her tale of the horny twins and their diabolical seducer. Her writing has become smoother and more controlled, technically more accomplished, but rarely reaches the same level of raw heat.
I'm not getting rid of this paperback from Turkey, though it might eventually crumble to dust. For me, it's a very special book.
The book played a major role in my life, since it inspired me to write and publish my first novel Raw Silk. Funny how small chance events can produce large consequences.
After years of my enjoying my husband's tales of Hagia Sofia and the Grand Bazaar, we'd finally managed to make it to Turkey. We stayed in a tiny boutique hotel in the heart of old Istanbul, two narrow houses that had been converted to serve a handful of guests. The hotel, which adjoined an ruined haman (bathhouse), featured a boulder-strewn, cat-filled garden and a view of minarets and the Sea of Marmara from the window of our fourth floor room. In the white-washed stone lobby, above a divan spread with rich embroidery, I found a book swap shelf, a common feature in traveler's locales around the world. Leave a book, take a book – we cycle our reading and share our passions. Having run low on reading material, I picked up a slim black and gray volume. The cover featured a moderately discreet image of a couple in an ecstatic embrace. Gemini Heat was the title, authored by Portia da Costa.
The novel was published by a UK imprint called Black Lace, whose slogan was “Erotic fiction for women”. A benighted American, I'd never heard of Black Lace. At the time, I hadn't read much erotica, though I'd written some personal fantasies and shared them with my lovers.
Gemini Heat astonished and aroused me, with its intelligence, its erotic diversity and its unabashed heat. Identical twins Deanna and Delia Ferraro look enough alike to fool most people, although their styles and personalities could not be more different. Deanna is brash, bold, even a bit wild, a freelance artist with a penchant for hippie-style clothing and a taste for adventure. Delia is shyer and less experienced sexually, but more polished and organized, as accomplished at her job in corporate middle management as she is in cooking or home repair. One evening, with busy Delia's blessing, Deanna attends an art opening using an invitation intended for her twin. The paintings on show turn out to be of the erotic variety, stirring her hot blood to the point that she allows a seductive stranger to fuck her on a balcony overlooking the crowd. Only the morning after do she and Delia realize that her partner was Jackson Kazuto de Guile – millionaire businessman, unabashed sybarite, and Delia's boss – and that he'd thought Deanna was in fact his employee Delia. And now, despite her more cautious personality, Delia wants her turn with the delicious and demanding Jake.
The story piles one erotic episode on top of another, as Deanna and Delia pretend they are the same woman, alternating in the role of “Dee” and discovering new dimensions of their sexuality. There are sex clubs and opulent mansions, Jacuzzis and massages, exhibitionism and voyeurism, lesbian and gay male interactions, bondage and beatings, lovely fetishistic articles of clothing that get torn to shreds in the throes of lust, and lots of intense orgasms. Jake involves a cast of co-conspirators (especially the notorious red-headed author Vida Mistry) in his education and sexual conquest of the twins.
The book was a perfect fit to my own erotic inclinations. It pushed all my personal buttons. I was delighted to discover the existence of Black Lace (though the other Black Lace authors I sampled did not come close to Ms. Da Costa in their ability to excite me). And after I'd calmed down a bit, I began to think, “I'll bet I could write a book something like that.”
But that's another story.
I'm reprising this now because I just finished rereading Gemini Heat. (Yes, the same dog-earned black and gray paperback!) I wanted to know if it could still move me now, after I've published more than fifty single author erotic titles of my own and read at least three times that many by others. Would it seem clichéed or silly? Would I find it tame?
I'm pleased to say that I still would place this novel among my top ten or top twenty erotic books. Ms. da Costa excels at describing the internal state of her characters. The sexual encounters that occur in Gemini Heat are far less extreme or outrageous than they seemed upon my first reading, but their impacts upon the characters (which is really what counts in my view) remain intense.
Meanwhile, in these days of sub-genre tyranny, I value the diversity in this book more than ever. In 2014, erotic romance reigns. (Black Lace officially rebranded itself that way a few years before it folded.) The thrillingly sensual lesbian interactions in Gemini Heat would probably get the book rejected now – not to mention the description of the M/M sex show at Club Seventeen. Then there's the hero's decidedly non-alpha appearance and behavior. Sure, Jake is a Dom, but he is not tall, gruff and muscle bound. He's slender, graceful, elegant, as one might expect from someone who is part Japanese, with long, silky hair and smooth, mostly hairless skin. He's as intuitive and sensual as any woman. Ms. da Costa is perfectly comfortable with a hero who shows some feminine characteristics, but I suspect that many of today's readers might reject such ambiguity. In fact, despite his adeptness at power games, Jake is a switch – that becomes quite clear in the final chapter of the novel. I loved the breadth of the author's sexual imagination, but I'm willing to bet that if she submitted this novel today, the publisher would want to attach all sorts of Reader Advisories.
I didn't realize when I first encountered Gemini Heat that it was one of Portia da Costa's very first erotic novels. Now I suspect that her experience writing the book must have been similar to mine, writing Raw Silk – that the book is an uncensored outpouring of her personal favorite fantasies. I've read and enjoyed a lot of her later work, but with the exception of the brilliant Entertaining Mr. Stone, none of these novels has made the same impression on me as her tale of the horny twins and their diabolical seducer. Her writing has become smoother and more controlled, technically more accomplished, but rarely reaches the same level of raw heat.
I'm not getting rid of this paperback from Turkey, though it might eventually crumble to dust. For me, it's a very special book.
May 19, 2009
The heat is all Deana Ferraro can think about as she pretends to be her sister, Delia, at an art exhibition called Visions of Eroticism, which is part of collection owned by J.K. de Guile. Deana has done her twin sister a favor by going in her stead, and she can hardly keep her head on straight as she wilts from the May heat, along with the erotic pictures she views. It seems she is surrounded by every kinky fantasy imaginable. But her fantasies are about to become a reality as a very tall, dark and handsome man comes up to her and proceeds to have sex with her, as they watch the party goers from a balcony. Deana is shocked at herself, but so aroused that she allows all her inhibitions to fly out the window. This is the best sex of her life.
The strange man is actually J.K. de Guile, or Jake as he calls himself. And he happens to be Delia’s boss! He assumes that Delia was the one he was with at the exhibit, and when she goes to his office, he gives her another taste of what Deana had experienced. As both sisters become enthralled by this master of seduction, they decide to play a game called The Gemini Game. Since it seems Jake can’t tell the sisters apart, and they both go by the nickname, Dee, they take turns having sex with Jake. But both sisters don’t realize what they are getting themselves into with de Guile. He takes them both on a sexual odyssey where they both become his willing slaves and will do anything he says, even if it means losing their identities in the process.
GEMINI HEAT was released back in 1994, and I believe at that time, readers would have been shocked and appalled by the sex scenes that Portia Da Costa wrote. Almost fifteen years later, those same scenes are meant to arouse and will probably still shock most. This is not necessarily a simple romance between a man and a woman. Many lines are crossed, and I am not talking about sisters enjoying the same man. There is sexual torture, changing of partners during sex, and going beyond the limit of what is acceptable.
The Black Lace line is known for pushing the envelope when it comes to erotica, and with GEMINI HEAT, that is no exception. Da Costa tries to give some understanding to the characters of Jake and the Ferraro sisters and their actions, so I guess you can say everything they undergo is with their permission. This book all depends on how comfortable the reader is with the raw, hardcore sexual acts.
GEMINI HEAT is all about decisions. Should Delia stay with her comfortable but boring boyfriend Russell, move on to her wonderful neighbor Peter who may be in love with Deanna, or enjoy what she has with Jake till things get too much and too deep? The same goes for Deanna, who is pushed to her own limits with accepting not only Jake but other women in his life such as his female servant, Elf, and the dominant Vida Ministry who likes to punish Deanna in the most creative ways.
I am very much a traditional romance reader at heart, and GEMINI HEAT pushes many buttons that made me gasp. Shocking and arousing, GEMINI HEAT heats up the pages in ways you wouldn’t believe.
The strange man is actually J.K. de Guile, or Jake as he calls himself. And he happens to be Delia’s boss! He assumes that Delia was the one he was with at the exhibit, and when she goes to his office, he gives her another taste of what Deana had experienced. As both sisters become enthralled by this master of seduction, they decide to play a game called The Gemini Game. Since it seems Jake can’t tell the sisters apart, and they both go by the nickname, Dee, they take turns having sex with Jake. But both sisters don’t realize what they are getting themselves into with de Guile. He takes them both on a sexual odyssey where they both become his willing slaves and will do anything he says, even if it means losing their identities in the process.
GEMINI HEAT was released back in 1994, and I believe at that time, readers would have been shocked and appalled by the sex scenes that Portia Da Costa wrote. Almost fifteen years later, those same scenes are meant to arouse and will probably still shock most. This is not necessarily a simple romance between a man and a woman. Many lines are crossed, and I am not talking about sisters enjoying the same man. There is sexual torture, changing of partners during sex, and going beyond the limit of what is acceptable.
The Black Lace line is known for pushing the envelope when it comes to erotica, and with GEMINI HEAT, that is no exception. Da Costa tries to give some understanding to the characters of Jake and the Ferraro sisters and their actions, so I guess you can say everything they undergo is with their permission. This book all depends on how comfortable the reader is with the raw, hardcore sexual acts.
GEMINI HEAT is all about decisions. Should Delia stay with her comfortable but boring boyfriend Russell, move on to her wonderful neighbor Peter who may be in love with Deanna, or enjoy what she has with Jake till things get too much and too deep? The same goes for Deanna, who is pushed to her own limits with accepting not only Jake but other women in his life such as his female servant, Elf, and the dominant Vida Ministry who likes to punish Deanna in the most creative ways.
I am very much a traditional romance reader at heart, and GEMINI HEAT pushes many buttons that made me gasp. Shocking and arousing, GEMINI HEAT heats up the pages in ways you wouldn’t believe.
July 11, 2017
Hot, hot, hot. Gemini twins with a thirst for life. Need I say more. Well worth the read. What happens between twin sisters Diana and Delia? Quite an enjoyment! If you love to read BDSM with a storyline, you will enjoy this one.
December 27, 2017
Deliciously hot - I think this book is the one to blame for getting me properly addicted to erotica.
June 3, 2008
Deana is the wild one and Delia is the more conservative one. They usually celebrate they birthdays together every year so when Delia has other plans, she give Deana her invite to an art showing of erotica called Visions of Eroticism the de Guile collection. There Deana meets a guy named Jake. Jake and Deana have instant chemistry right away. There is just two problems, Jake is Delia's boss and Jake knows Deana as Dee.
Come join this sexual ride called Gemini Heat. I know that twins are not everyones forte' but Portia Da Costa did a very tasteful job with this book. Gemini Heat was my first book by this author but now I am hooked.
Come join this sexual ride called Gemini Heat. I know that twins are not everyones forte' but Portia Da Costa did a very tasteful job with this book. Gemini Heat was my first book by this author but now I am hooked.
March 18, 2009
Interesting dynamics between these two women, so alike and yet different. It's not clear who is playing whom. Interesting read.
Read
October 24, 2010Very adult in content, so be warned to keep this away from the kids. Interesting, but not really my sort of thing.
Read
January 8, 2018Hot Steamy read, twisting turning storyline that adds to the heat...thoroughly enjoyable!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews