With This Bling by @lbgregg virtual tour | Spotlight, Excerpt & COMMENT Giveaway { @RiptideBooks | @TTCBooksandmore }

Caesar Romano’s catering career is doing better than he’d ever dreamed. And so is his love life—even if his boyfriend’s house in Staten Island is way too far from civilization for his liking. But then in short order, Caesar is duped into helping his cousin propose, is tricked by his best friend and business partner into appearing on live television, and is harassed by a thug-like personal trainer and his far too beautiful wife. In fact, Caesar is almost too busy to notice that something is troubling his PI boyfriend, Dan Albright.

Almost.

Laid-back, open, charming—that’s the impression hunky former NYPD Detective Dan Albright gives everyone. Caesar can add sexually adventurous and a bit of an exhibitionist. But he also knows that Dan is hiding something—something dark and a little dangerous—and when Dan’s silence over his mysterious past threatens to harm them both, it’s Caesar’s turn to save the day.

But then again, a break-in, a gallery party, an heirloom ring, a new suit, and a stalker with bad BO are all just a typical week for Caesar Romano.

Buy Links: Riptide Publishing | Amazon

Excerpt:

Chapter One

Service Call

My phone buzzed on the kitchen counter, and I raced downstairs at full speed, haphazardly tucking a bath towel around my naked ass as I hit the landing. I was alone in Dan Albright’s sleepy house on Staten Island, while Dan—who had “nothing pressing today”—braved the late June humidity for his daily run.

Sunshine poured into the kitchen, warming a row of spiny potted herbs on the windowsill. Outside, the neat suburban backyard burst with green shrubbery and midsummer flowers. A plump gray bird sat on the clothesline and a squirrel frolicked in the grass, both a reminder that I needed to get the hell back to the city because, honest to God, it was like the country out here.

I snagged my phone mid-ring, and my favorite cousin’s Italian mug stared back at me. Joey and I looked nearly identical, except for his product-slickened hair, his penchant for gold chains, and his ability to carry off scrubby facial hair. He rarely called, so I skipped the preliminaries. “Hey. Everything okay? Who died?”

“What? No. Jeez, can’t a guy call his family just to say hello?”

“You’d think so, but that’s never been the case.”

“Where’ve you been, Caesar? I haven’t seen you in two weeks. Not since you busted your rib.”

“Working. We have more business than we can handle.” Solid truth. I hadn’t taken a day off since starting my new career in the catering world, unless you counted the three days the doctor had ordered me to rest. “It’s wedding season. We have a wedding, a shower, a dinner, and the Fourth coming up. Stop by Posh Nosh if you want to see me.”

“I would, but I have school. I’m busy too. I get it. Are you home?”

“Home?” I didn’t even know what that meant these days. I’d been ping-ponging between my humble room at Nana’s house in Brooklyn, the job in the city, and Dan’s bed in the hinterlands. I’d spent more time on public transit in the past two weeks than I had in the last year. Honestly? I was fatigued. I tucked my towel, watched a robin pull a worm from the grass, and revised my plans. “I’ll be at Nan’s tonight.” My libido could take a rest. And missing dinner with Nan was never a smart idea. “What do you need?”

“Me? Well, uh, I need advice.”

His words gave me pause. Joey asking me for advice? That was a first. Our whole lives, he was the one offering his unsolicited opinion on everything from my fashion sense to my love life. Never the other way around. “Are you for real?”

“Yeah. I thought, maybe—and not because the entire family is breathing down my neck and flapping at me or anything—that I’d pop, you know, the question.” He exhaled. “It.”

I grabbed a Diet Coke from Dan’s massive Viking fridge and a peanut butter cookie from the white ceramic jar on the counter. Joey’s intended was my best friend, Poppy. She was also my sort of business partner and the mother of a future relative. We were stuck with each other till death do us part. Therefore, with my cousin’s best interest in my heart, I got tough. “Joey. If you can’t say it without saying ‘it,’ you need to rethink your plan.”

“I want to ask her to marry me, okay? There. I said it. Marry. Sheesh. I thought maybe you’d have some insight or suggestion that would entice her to say yes sometime before our kid is in college.” His snit ended on a sigh. “And my ma’s texting ten times a day wanting to know when we’re setting a date.”

“So is Mrs. McNamara. So what? Even I can’t believe you haven’t asked Poppy yet, but this is between you and her. Not me. Not her parents or yours. Not anyone but you two.”

Their parents collectively frowned over what they perceived as Poppy’s breezy, modern attitude toward her unwed pregnancy. Like this was 1976 or something. I didn’t have a horse in the race. I’d love Poppy and Joey no matter what. Plus, I knew better than to poke my nose in where it didn’t belong. Poppy would lop it off with a carving knife. “If you’re going to be a lawyer, you need to work on your powers of persuasion.”

“I’m working on them, but you know how she is.”

I did. “She can be stubborn. I know . . .”

“She says she’s not wearing a wedding dress with a maternity flap.”

“The word ‘flap’ does diminish the allure. So you better ask now, because she’s starting to show. If you need backup, I’ll do what I can.”

“Yeah. About that. Backup’s not what I need.”

A car horn caught me off guard so I shoved the entire cookie in my mouth and, with the sweating soda in hand, went to the living room to investigate.

Outside, things were pretty much business as usual on Dan’s boring, residential street. Just another perfect summer morning in a postcard-worthy neighborhood tucked close to picturesque Wagner College. Possibly the only sliver of Staten Island I appreciated. Manhattan lay sun-streaked and sparkly in the distance, the city’s bold towers and shimmering glass an hour-long bus ride away.

I needed a pair of pants and to get my ass to work. Instead, I perched on the arm of the sofa, arranged my towel so no parts of mine adhered to the leather, and sipped my drink. Family first. “What do you need?”

“A full-on, all-out plan to wow her.”

“Wow her, or woo her?”

“Wow. Woo. It’s all the same. She’s five months.”

“She is indeed. Are you talking fireworks? Or something in a tiny blue box?” The air conditioner clicked and a breeze fluttered my towel, while in the street the sun steamed the pavement. Today would be a scorcher.

Joey huffed in my ear. “No. I want to do something special. Something that’s not pedestrian. Something outta the box, you know?”

“Yeah. I know.” I heard those words all the time. Every day, in fact.

To read the entire excerpt, or for more information on this book, series and author, visit Riptide Publishing. 

When not working from her home in the rolling hills of Northwestern Connecticut, author L.B. Gregg can be spotted in coffee shops from Berlin to Singapore to Panama--sipping lattes and writing sweet, hot, often funny, stories about men who love men.

For more info on L.B., because surely one can never get too much of a good thing, you can follow her on her preferred social media, Facebook. You can also e-mail L.B. at lbgregg at lbgregg dot com, visit her website www.lbgregg.com, be her GoodReads pal or follow her sporadic appearances on twitter.

To celebrate the release of With This Bling, L.B. Gregg is giving away a Romano and Albright mug with swag, and a $40 gift card to Amazon! Your first comment at each stop on this tour enters you in the drawing. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on December 12, 2015. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. Entries. Follow the tour for more opportunities to enter the giveaway! Don’t forget to leave your email or method of contact so Riptide can reach you if you win!

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