A Tucker Springs Novel
Sometimes you have to get dirty to come clean.
When muscle-bound Denver Rogers effortlessly dispatches the frat boys harassing grad student Adam Ellery at the Tucker Springs laundromat, Adam’s thank-you turns into impromptu sex over the laundry table. The problem comes when they exchange numbers. What if Adam wants to meet again and discovers Denver is a high-school dropout with a learning disability who works as a bouncer at a local gay bar? Or what if Denver calls Adam only to learn while he might be brilliant in the lab, outside of it he has crippling social anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder?
Either way, neither of them can shake the memory of their laundromat encounter. Despite their fears of what the other might think, they can only remember how good the other one feels. The more they get together, the kinkier things become. They’re both a little bent, but in just the right ways.
Maybe the secret to staying together isn’t to keep things clean and proper. Maybe it’s best to keep their laundry just a little bit dirty.
Cat gives this one 4 Meows with a 3 Purr heat index...
Dirty Laundry is the third book in the Tucker Springs series though these books stand alone. In Dirty Laundry we get Denver's story. He goes one night to do laundry when a bunch of Frat boys are picking on another young man. he breaks it up and he and Adam enjoy a hot round of sex in the LaudroRama.
Not a man for relationships he is shocked finding himself hoping this twink does call him.
Adam is a grad student studying bugs. He has recently moved out of the frat house after a break-up. He suffers OCD and is having a hard enough time living in a new apartment now he finds himself wanting to see Denver knowing once he finds out about his problems he will leave.
I love stories about broken men. I especially love it when both characters are broken. Denver though big and strong feels like a dummy because he can't get his dream job because he can't pass a test. Adam has OCD with panic attacks. I love how Heidi did such a good job getting both Adams OCD right, though every case is different. I was able to relate to him having OCD though mine is nothing like his. What I really liked was how she used BDSM to help Adam. The BDSM is not overboard and not the major focus of the story but the aid to help bring both Denver and Adam together. There are a strong plot and some hot man-sex.
If you love sexy cowboys and bouncers, sweet nerdy college students, a touch of BDSM, an allover good romance and some hot man-sex you should like this.
This is a second time around for me and I liked it, even more, this time.
Excerpt...
THAT ADAM Ellery found his true love in a dirty laundromat was pretty ironic, considering his rap sheet of neuroses.
He didn’t recognize his destined partner at first. The beefy, surly-looking cowboy in a white tank top had nearly been enough to send Adam running for cover. The only reason Adam hadn’t ducked out the second their eyes met was because Cowboy had been bent inside a machine when Adam entered, and by the time he’d emerged in all his bulky glory, Adam had already deposited clothing and money into a washer.
To be fair, Cowboy hadn’t so much as glanced at Adam twice. Adam would know because he’d barely taken his eyes off the man. He’d had to use the smaller table to sort out his socks and underwear, which meant he had a lovely view of the choose-your-communicable-disease bathroom, but he knew where the larger man was at all times, and most importantly, he wasn’t blocking Adam’s way to either exit. Adam tried not to watch too overtly, because if Cowboy caught him, Adam probably would give off the wrong signals.
Because Cowboy was cut.
Not handsome. He wasn’t ugly, but he wasn’t magazine-slick, not even close. But muscles? Oh, yeah. Normally Adam didn’t go for muscles because muscles scared him. Muscles could hurt him. Muscles had hurt him on more than one occasion. Muscles stood good odds of hurting him again. On Cowboy, however, muscles seemed acceptable, at least for simple viewing.
It wasn’t that Cowboy looked ready to make trouble so much as Adam wasn’t taking any chances. Adam’s anxiety, always ready to tip into overdrive, had sprung into high alert once it realized the two of them were alone, and now his internal panic machine was set on potential attack! mode whether he wanted it there or not. It didn’t matter that Cowboy hadn’t done anything more interesting than shift clothes from a washer to a dryer, or read magazines other people had left strewn about the booths and tables. Anxiety didn’t work that way.
Relaxing as much as he could, Adam hurried about his business, and nothing happened except he ran out of quarters and had to go around the corner to the coffee shop and get change. He also got a latte, despite knowing the caffeine would wreak havoc on his nerves. He used the toilet there too, because it was a single-stall unit and much cleaner than the one next door.
When Adam returned, Cowboy was gone, and six frat boys occupied the laundromat in his stead.
None of them were older than twenty-two, and that was probably pushing it. They acted twelve. Three of them were definitely drunk, and two were possibly high as well. They weren’t as big as Cowboy, but they were bigger than Adam.
Unlike Cowboy, they noticed Adam right away, and they didn’t ignore him. They leered, and their evil smiles promised nothing but trouble—for Adam.
You don’t have to be such a victim. Adam could hear his ex’s lecture as if Brad were standing in front of him. If you act like a scared rabbit, they’ll treat you like one. Ignore them and act like you don’t give a damn about them. If you keep painting a fucking target on yourself, looking like you expect to be harassed, you will be.
Brad had brought up Adam’s cowardice and his penchant for panic in the presence of potential conflict many times, and Adam had done what he could to correct his deficiency. It just never worked. He wasn’t sure if he was too old to learn, if the bullying had started when he was too young, or if he was stupid. Sometimes he thought it was because he was nothing more than a rabbit. On the male evolutionary ladder, he occupied the bottom rung, where he had to survive by constant vigilance and the ability to hop the hell out of danger at a moment’s notice.
According to Brad, Adam’s problem was that he was mentally ill. Technically this was true, but even Adam’s mediocre therapist would argue clinical anxiety was more complex than that. Brad’s insistence in making Adam’s illness a blanket excuse had become a red flag of warning, which had led to their breakup and Adam moving out.
It had also indirectly landed Adam in this laundromat, his clothing held hostage by a pack of drunk frat boys.
Heidi Cullinan has always enjoyed a good love story, provided it has a happy ending. Proud to be from the first Midwestern state with full marriage equality, Heidi is a vocal advocate for LGBT rights. She writes positive-outcome romances for LGBT characters struggling against insurmountable odds because she believes there’s no such thing as too much happy ever after. When Heidi isn’t writing, she enjoys playing with new recipes, reading romance and manga, playing with her cats, and watching too much anime.
A member of Romance Writers of America since 1999, Heidi Cullinan has served as president of Rainbow Romance Writers, run local chapter newsletters, and volunteered for committees on the local and national level. In addition to teaching writing since 1993, she also served as the writer’s workshop coordinator for GayRomLit Retreat for 2013.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
They found exactly what they weren’t looking for.
