Excerpt
The daybed was a little too small, and Jake shifted, trying to get his feet in a comfortable position. The room was dark except for reflections from a streetlight shining through the one window. Yeah, he was tired after the flying and the socializing. He sighed.
“You liked her, huh? You’re going to take her out?” his brother’s voice murmured across the room.
“Yeah, I asked her out.”
“She really turned you on. That date should be hot.”
Realizing hormones pretty much ran his brother’s twenty-year-old life, Jake asked with a grin, “Now why do you think that?”
“Hey, man, I saw you trying to hide that boner when you ran out.”
Jake flushed, glad that the room was dark. “Did everyone see?”
“Nah, just me. I was beside you, remember?”
“Yeah, well, I was thinking of someone else.”
“Ohhh. Your boss, I’ll bet. You’ve got it bad for her.”
Should he go with that suggestion? “Yeah, I do.” Then he decided to be at least a little more honest to encourage Caleb to be the same. “But actually it was someone else.”
He heard his brother sit up in bed. “No shit? You got another woman?”
Why did he have to phrase it quite like that? “Just someone I met in LA.”
“Wow. No wonder you’re so tired, big brother.” He laughed. “What’s her name?”
“I’d rather just forget about it.”
“No fucking way. Is she one of those LA chicks? Is she an actress? Wow. Is she famous?”
“Famous? Yes, that’s right. Now give it a rest.”
Suddenly the daybed was a lot more crowded, and Caleb was sitting on his legs. “Ya gotta tell me, Jake.”
“I don’t gotta tell you.” Shit, why didn’t he keep his mouth shut?
“Why don’t you want to tell me?”
“It’s personal.”
“I’m your brother,” he wailed.
“I know, but I can’t tell you about this.”
Cal was quiet for a moment. “Why not, Jake? Will it shock me? Will it despoil my lily-white ears?”
Jake sighed. “Yeah, it would shock you.”
“Really? Awesome! Let me guess. Threesome?”
“No.”
“S and M?”
“No!”
Cal flopped backward. “Orgy?”
“God, no. Hey, baby brother, what the hell are they teaching you in that college? Are you speaking from experience?”
“Shit, no.” He gave an evil grin. “Wish I was, though.”
“Come on, you like to be tied up?”
“I might consider it.”
“You want to be with a bunch of women?”
“Well, no, not really. But don’t change the subject, bro. We were talking about your indiscretions, not mine.”
“No need. I’m not talking. Get off me. Let’s go to sleep.”
The big body didn’t move, and all Jake’s pushing didn’t budge him. Okay, he’d just go to sleep. Jake turned his head on the pillow and sighed. Ignore the runt.
Cal was quiet, then a voice came out of the darkness. “Jake, did you have sex with a man?”
Jake swallowed hard. “Why the hell would you think that?”
“’Cause I remember that guy. Tom. So did you?”
“Yeah, sort of, but don’t think it was something major. I mean, it just happened…”
“Awesome.”
“What?”
Caleb shifted and brought his face down so he was looking straight at Jake in the dim light. “I said, awesome.” He was quiet for a minute, then seemed to have made a decision. “Jake, my roommate is my lover. His name is Charlie.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah.”
They both just rested in the moment. Then Caleb practically pounced on him. “Tell me, Jake. Who was it? What did he do?” Suddenly Jake was being lifted by the shoulders and hugged by his giant of a brother. “Oh crap, Jake, I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have someone to talk to.”
Jake extricated himself gently from the bear hug and scooted back so he could sit up against the pillows. The light coming through the windows illuminated his brother’s handsome face. “Cal, why haven’t you told Mom and Dad?”
He looked a little sulky. “I didn’t hear you sharing your adventures at the dinner table.”
“Yeah, well this was a one-time thing. How long have you known you were…uh, liked guys?”
“It’s okay, Jake, you can say gay. That’s what I am, and I’ve known it since I went into puberty and all my raging hormones were pointing me in the wrong direction. Then I realized it was the right direction for me.”
“But you never told the folks.”
“For a long time I just kind of denied it. Then when I met Charlie and really got committed to the idea, I just got tongue-tied. You know, Dad and Sean are such alphas.”
“I notice you didn’t include me in that description.”
“Well, you’re the pretty one. And you were always so comfortable with Tom. Man, I thought he was cute. Of course, I was just a kid, and he couldn’t see anyone but you. Fuck, that guy loved you.”
“You knew that?”
“Fuck, yeah. Didn’t you?”
“Not for a long time.”
“Wow. Poor guy.”
“Yeah.”
“So is that who you were with? Did he move to LA or something?”
“No, it wasn’t Tom.”
“Yeah, and I guess he wouldn’t be famous, or I’d probably have seen him. So who was it?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“If it doesn’t matter, why won’t you tell me?”
“Don’t want to.” Shit, what was he, five?
“So what did this unknown guy do?” Cal grabbed him again. “I’ll bet he sucked you off, didn’t he? That’s a pretty heteroflexible activity. Who doesn’t like getting their cock sucked? Right?”
“Yeah, right.”
“So who was it? Tell me, Jake. You know I’m not gonna tell anyone. C’mon, tell me.”
Jake sighed. “Okay. Have you ever heard of a model named Roan Black?”
Dead silence was followed by a soft whisper. “You are shitting me.”
“No.”
His voice rose. “Roan Black sucked your cock? The most beautiful man in the world sucked your fucking cock?”
“Shhh!”
Caleb fell back on the very crowded bed. “Baby, that doesn’t make you gay, it just means you’re smart.”
Tara Lain believes in happy ever afters – and magic. Same thing. In fact, she says, she doesn’t believe, she knows. Tara shares this passion in her best-selling stories that star her unique, charismatic heroes — the beautiful boys of romance — and adventurous heroines. Quarterbacks and cops, werewolves and witches, blue collar or billionaires, Tara’s characters, readers say, love deeply, resolve seemingly insurmountable differences, and ultimately live their lives authentically. After many years living in southern California, Tara, her soulmate honey and her soulmate dog decided they wanted less cars and more trees, prompting a move to Ashland, Oregon where Tara’s creating new stories and loving living in a small town with big culture. Likely a Gryffindor but possessed of Parseltongue, Tara loves animals of all kinds, diversity, open minds, coconut crunch ice cream from Zoeys, and her readers. She also loves to hear from you.
You can find Tara at Lain
After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane enjoys writing sexy, passionate stories that also explore the human psyche. CJane has traveled all over North America for work, and her characters are travelers too, traveling into their own depths to find what they need to get to the happy ending.
Mickie B. Ashling is the pseudonym of a multifaceted woman who is a product of her upbringing in multiple cultures, having lived in Japan, the Philippines, Spain, and the Middle East. Fluent in three languages, she’s a citizen of the world and an interesting mixture of East and West. A little bit of this and a lot of that have brought a unique touch to her literary voice she could never learn from textbooks.
Nick is an award winning narrator with a fan following for his work in fiction, specifically in the romance genre. His performances in two of Amy Lane’s books, Beneath the Stain and Christmas Kitsch, made him the recipient of Sinfully M/M Book Review’s Narrator of the Year – 2015. When he’s not in the booth, Nick enjoys spending time with his wife, Jessica, and kids, (aka their beagle Frank and cat Stella), drumming in his cover band, exploring rural back roads with his wife on his motorcycle, or being enthralled in a tabletop role playing game with his friends.
After years of hearing characters chatting away in her head, CJane Elliott finally decided to put them on paper and hasn’t looked back since. A psychotherapist by training, CJane enjoys writing sexy, passionate stories that also explore the human psyche. CJane has traveled all over North America for work and her characters are travelers, too, traveling down into their own depths to find what they need to get to the happy ending.
