California firefighter Hayden Hurst is starting to realize there’s more to life than fighting fires and drinking with his buddies. He has room in his home and his life for someone special, but no one has stood out among his hookups. And while he’s out at work, admitting he’s gay is very different from showing up at social functions with a man. He’s afraid that’ll be too much for his less-than-accepting “friends.”Broadway dancer Jez Bouchet hasn’t been mistaken for straight since he was gay-bashed at seventeen. After getting a lucrative job offer in Hollywood, he uproots his life in New York and drives to Los Angeles. His brother, who is Hayden’s best friend, arranges for him to crash at Hayden’s place.
The attraction between Hayden and Jez is unexpected but fiery, and they succumb before they’re even sure they like each other. But Jez hates Hayden’s homophobic friends, and Hayden knows Jez is too flamboyant for him to fly under the radar. Then there’s the complication of Jez’s brother.
Despite those hurdles, they fling themselves into a relationship. But Jez has secrets: a tiny spoiled dog and a determined stalker. If he doesn’t come clean, he might torch their burgeoning relationship before it has a chance to bloom.
Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon
Cat gives this one 3 Meows with a 2 Purr heat index...
Hayden is a firefighter that is out ( but to me doesn't seem proud). He didn't want to get involved with a man because he didn't want to deal with bringing him around his friends a couple was real asses) or didn't want to hurt his feelings if he didn't so he just got off with hookups. His friend Miquel asks him for a favor to let his younger brother Jez stay with him until he finds a place of his own.
Jez is moving from New York to California. He has a reason he is uprooting his life and also he is hoping to see his brother and them get back closer. Miquel's apartment is too small so he asks Hayden to let Jez say there. Jez had a childhood crush on Hayden but there is a six-year age difference.
There is a lot going on in this story. There is an attraction between the two men but I saw no real chemistry. I guess you could call this a good case of opposites attract. The premise was really good but for me the pacing was slow and time seemed to jump around. I really liked Jez. There is a few sparks but most of the sex scenes are off the page ( that isn't a problem for me.) One of my favorite things was Jez's pug fang. who can resist an adorable dog!
So if you like hot firefighters, sexy dancers, opposites attract, fade to black sex scenes and an adorable dog you may like this!
Excerpt...
HAYDEN DROVE along the wide tree-lined road toward home. Sometimes it was altogether too quiet, but he’d never been tempted to get a roommate. He often had the guys over during major sporting events for beer and snacks, and that had helped to combat the loneliness.
Maybe—just maybe—if Miguel had gotten a job in Pasadena, they could have roomed together. But Hayden wasn’t comfortable sharing his private life with his other coworkers. Hayden understood Miguel’s reason for asking for this favor, but that didn’t make him any less wary.
Eh. How bad could it be? Miguel was his best friend. Jez needed a place to live, not a ready-made bestie, even if Hayden were in the market. Miguel could perform any required mentoring or basic friend services.
A small U-Haul cube van sat by the curb, parked askew with the wrong end toward the front door. Hayden pulled out his phone and grimaced. Shit. He had ignored a couple of calls from an unknown number. He should have known that was Jez.
He didn’t like being late. He had already been a little unsettled by the teasing at the bar, and the truck loomed like a guilt trip.
Hayden parked his truck on the street behind the cube van and got out. A few boxes had already made it to the porch, but of Jez himself there was no sign. Presumably he was around somewhere outside. Hayden had the spare key in his pocket, and he never left his doors unlocked, so Jez wouldn’t have been able to make himself at home. Miguel would have mentioned if Jez had taken up cat burglary in his spare time. Hayden frowned. This had all been set up last-minute. Surely if Jez was running from legal troubles, Miguel would have at least warned him.
Yeah. Miguel wouldn’t hide a bombshell like that from him.
He strode up the walk to his front door and found a guy stretched out on the couch on his porch, an arm draped across his face. His bright teal T-shirt had rucked up, revealing a strip of flat, toned brown belly. There was some sort of graphic on the T-shirt, but the guy’s other arm obscured it.
Whether Jez—and this had better be Jez—looked like Miguel or not, he wasn’t built the same as his brother. Jez lacked both Miguel’s height and bulk, although he appeared to be as fit as Miguel, in a different way. Jez’s black hair was fluffy or perhaps spiky, tipped with a vibrant red the likes of which never occurred in nature.
What sort of role had Jez landed that would require that hairstyle? Miguel had been vague, although he had been adamant Jez was moving to California for work. Whatever Miguel had or hadn’t said, Hayden suspected a bit of desperation behind Jez’s move. Acting was a hard business, and maybe Jez was trying a different coast in a bid to make it somewhere. It might have been more the dream of a job than actual employment that had brought him back across the country.
Without a mortgage, Hayden could afford to float Miguel’s brother for months, rent-free if need be. If Miguel needed him to.
“Jez. Hey, Jez.” Hayden didn’t yell, but his gruff, impatient tone startled Jez awake and he swung upright immediately, blinking and looking slightly lost.
For all of a second or so. Long enough for dread to curl around Hayden’s belly, sending despair through him as he stared at the hottie swan, former ugly duckling Jez. Breathtaking, even if Jez wasn’t his normal type. Hell, he wasn’t supposed to find Miguel’s little brother attractive. But no matter how his brain screamed out in denial, the sudden dampness of his palms, the increase in heart rate and breathing, and a twitch in his groin told the truth.
Then Jez scowled and leaped to his feet with an unexpected grace. He was shorter and slighter than Hayden and almost at the opposite end of the spectrum from his brother. If Miguel got the mass, Jez got the looks. Not that Miguel was ugly, but wow.
Was Jez maybe a little too graceful? A little something? Then Hayden noticed the graphic on the tee. A unicorn with a rainbow mane, shitting rainbows. Fuckity fuck fuck. The last thing he needed was an effeminate gay guy rooming with him. When the guys met him, the teasing would be relentless, and Jez wasn’t even his damned type.
Author of gay erotic romance, writing for Loose Id, Carina Press & Dreamspinner Press. Occasionally NSFW. KC Burn has been writing for as long as she can remember and is a sucker for happy endings (of all kinds). After moving from Toronto to Florida for her husband to take a dream job, she discovered a love of gay romance and fulfilled a dream of her own—getting published. After a few years of editing web content by day, and neglecting her supportive, understanding hubby and needy cat at night to write stories about men loving men, she was uprooted yet again and now resides in California. Writing is always fun and rewarding, but writing about her guys is the most fun she’s had in a long time, and she hopes you’ll enjoy them as much as she does.
enjoyed the excerpt
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