California Dreamin' Pax winner

Thanks to everyone for hanging out with us this week as we celebrate our dreams in the California sun! The Golden State is a perfect place to fall in love, that's for sure. Since it's Saturday, it's time to pick our giveaway winner. And the winner is...

Helen!

Please contact Vivien with your email address and expect to hear from us soon!

Don't forget to check back with us in November when HEAVY PETTING #2, our Pax all about our friends and pets will be out. See you then!

Twelve-Thirty by A.J. Llewellyn

The California Dreamin’ Amber PAX™ anthology really resonated for me. I couldn’t wait to sign up for it, because just like Montago Melon, the lead character in my story, Twelve-Thirty, I spent most of my life dreaming about living in California. Growing up in Australia, America was an obsession for me. I was hooked on the whole culture of what I perceived to be California. To me, it represented freedom. The music, the movies, the TV shows, even comic-strips like Charlie Brown preached that you could be whatever you wanted to be.

Growing up in my very restrictive family, California wasn’t just my destination, but my state of mind. My mother died when I was six and my two grandmothers raised me and my brothers. I think they couldn’t cope with us kids. I know my dad kept traveling. He couldn’t either. When I was ten, they sent me to Northern California to visit distant relatives and I loved it. I can still remember arriving two weeks before Christmas and how gorgeous all the stores were.

I’d never seen snow before (Australia has wonderful ski country, but I lived in Sydney) and I’d never experienced a white Christmas, since the seasons are the exact opposite in the land down under. My aunt was a district manager for Avon products. She had on hand all kinds of luxury bubble baths and lotions, she drove a huge Cadillac and dressed (to me) like royalty in an elegant suit and fabulous, sweeping winter coats.

That first Christmas was unforgettable. My cousins and I got to shop at a massive department store, the likes of which I’d never seen, and we baked brownies (a novelty for this Sydney kid), and I tried my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Christmas, like everything else here was bigger! Better! Brighter! Most of all, there was the sense of adventure and freedom I’d longed for. It was there. Really there.

As I grew older, I saw the other side of the “California Dream.” In fact, within twelve months of my arrival, my aunt was terminated from her job. Like most Americans she was a single paycheck away from poverty. In short order, she lost her home, her car, she had to pull my cousins out of their fancy private school, and then she learned she had breast cancer. She couldn’t afford to be sick here. She had to go back to Australia where there was nationalized medicine, but died after a prolonged battle with the disease.

I look back now on that Christmas and realize she’d pulled out all the stops for us. She wanted me, and my cousins, to have a fantastic Christmas. I have never forgotten it, or her, and the things she wanted for me. I like to think she’s in Heaven with my mum, watching over me, and I hope she knows the child in me will always adore what she did for me. The adult in me is very much like her. I probably spend my money when I should save, and I love Christmas more than is rational.

My years here have been a mixture of blessings. I still feel the freedom, and I still believe in the dream. I have never regretted coming here, and I have never wished any of my experiences away. I am grateful for all of them. Hello lesson, thank you teacher.

Twelve-Thirty is very much a personal story for me, but one that has two men who love each other and find that-- just like old Mamas and the Papas song-- love is always there, it is real, and never-ceasing, just like the clock that always says Twelve-Thirty.

What about you? Have you ever had a dream destination – and followed it? Or, are you planning to?  I’d really like to know! 

Here is the synopsis of Twelve-Thirty. Please check it out – and leave a comment to qualify to win all five Amber PAX™ California Dreamin’ stories!

Tago Melon has always dreamed of living in California, but when he gets his wish it turns into a great big, bloody nightmare.

Australian-born Montago Melon, Tago to all those who know him, has lived in a fantasy world since he was a kid. His heart is in Hollywood, and his family constantly accuse him of California Dreamin’. When his grandma dies and leaves him money, and his long-last aunt reaches out to him from California to offer him a job, he jumps at the chance of a new life, swimming pools, and movie stars. He soon learns that some dreams come with a nasty after-taste…

Byrne McCallum is California born and bred. Working for the dynamic Ondine Bartholomew in a hot new Hollywood set-salvaging company, he becomes immediately intrigued by Ondine’s latest employee, her naïve but super-smart nephew, Tago. Bad things happen to Tago the moment he lands at LAX, but Byrne plans to change the guy’s run of luck. He hasn’t felt this way about a man in a long time. Can they make a go of things? Can they have a Hollywood ending?

*_*_*

Twelve-Thirty by A.J. Llewellyn is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

Finding Your Place by Vivien Dean

In 2004, I moved from the UK to California when my husband's company relocated us. As much of an adventure as it had been going to England to get married five years earlier, living in the Bay Area was equally exciting. I had lived in a lot of places in my life, but except for a couple years in Phoenix as a small child, all of those places were in the midwest and east coast.

California was new. Best of all, the Bay Area was as varied as all of the places I'd lived in before combined.

That's part of the reason I set my werewolf series here. Anything you might want, you can find. It's just a matter of driving to it. Beyond that, however, I wanted a world that was used to fighting for minority rights. One of the aspects of the Bay Area that I love the most is how tolerant it is of diversity. It's taken decades for LGBT issues to make the national stage, during which time San Francisco has been waging its own war against discrimination. In the Bay Wolves series, werewolves are second-class citizens. They have zero rights compared to the rest of the population. They are feared and shunned, when all they want is to live their lives like everyone else.

San Francisco is the perfect backdrop for that sort of change.

Placeless, my story in the California Dreamin' pax, is the second book in the series. The hero, Keaton, was rescued in book one, Boundless, from a group that caged werewolves for sport and sex slavery. Originally from the midwest, he stays in the area as he doesn't feel he has anywhere else to go. It's not easy, though. He has difficulty controlling his shifts, and he feels too alone to share it with the other survivors from the group. When his life gets turned upside down after helping someone, he struggles to do the right thing without putting people he cares about in danger.

One of those people is Scotty, an independent wolf activist with a penchant for getting in trouble. Scotty has no idea that Keaton is a wolf, and though he hates lying, Keaton wants to keep it that way. He likes that Scotty treats him like he's human. He's been desperate for real contact like that ever since he got changed a year ago.

But what Keaton really needs is to learn is that he's stronger when he's not alone. He needs to find his place, not just in the world as a whole, but among his own kind.

For Keaton, staying in California doesn't have to be a dream. With the help of his pack, it's reality.

*_*_*

Placeless by Vivien Dean is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

Missing, But Not Dead by Christiane France

A few years ago a friend and I drove down the west coast from Vancouver, Canada to San Francisco. I love the sea and I love beaches and somewhere along that thousand mile strip of coastal highway the idea for a series was born. With the help of fellow Amber Allure author, KC Kendricks, the fictitious town of Amethyst Cove came into being. This is my second book in the series with a third in the planning stage. KC’s third will be out later this year.

When Greg Stewartson, ex-cop, private investigator, and half-owner of Amethyst Cove Security & Investigations, meets Ash Tyler, a handsome and very sexy nurse, their mutual attraction turns Greg’s world upside down. Greg would love to just concentrate on their budding romance. But he also wants to help Ash find his biological family—the one Ash says he had before he was taken into care, adopted and moved from California to Michigan more than twenty years ago. Although if they were Ash’s real family what made them vanish almost as effectively as if they’d never existed in the first place?    

*_*_*

Excerpt:

Late in the afternoon I was putting the finishing touches to a report on the first stage of my investigation into the disappearance of stock at a sportswear store when Ash called.

“Hi, babe. How’s your day going?”

“Hi, yourself. And my day’s going just fine. Yours?” I leaned back in my chair, closed my eyes and gently stroked my cock. It didn’t take much to imagine it was Ash’s hand rather than mine.

“I just finished, but it was busy as usual. What are you doing right now?”

“I, umm…” I quickly straightened. “Nothing, why?”

He gave a soft sexy chuckle. “Nothing? Or nothing you want to share with me?”

“If you were here I’d share it with you in a heartbeat, darlin’, but since you’re not… Where are you?”

“I’m at home. I was about to take a shower, but then I got to thinking…”

“About?”

“How much nicer it would be if you were here to share it with me.” He hesitated then added, “I want you, babe. I want you so fucking bad I can taste it.”

“I want—” before I could finish, I realized Ash had hung up. I saved the file I was working on, closed down the computer and had almost made it out the door when Sheldon called me back.

“Excuse me, boss. We haven’t found your man as yet,” he said, sounding a tad apologetic. “Do you want us to stay late and keep looking or what?”

I was tempted to pretend I hadn’t heard and keep on going, but Sheldon has one of those high-pitched voices that are impossible to ignore. I paused and turned to face him. “That’s up to you guys. If you want to stay, fine. If you don’t, then you can pick it up again in the morning.”

“I’ll check with Jimmy. If we get lucky, I’ll give you a buzz.”

“Thanks.” As the door closed behind me, I made a mental note to turn off my cell. For the next little while I intended to be totally unavailable.

Cool mysteries and hot romance - http://www.chrisgrover.ca
Latest Release: THE GHOST WORE DENIM
Coming soon from Amber Allure: RISING DAMP
http://www.facebook.com/chris.grover.71
http://twitter.com/chrisgrover2
http://christianefrance.blogspot.ca/

*_*_*

Missing, But Not Dead by Christiane France is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

Living the Dream by Sean Michael

My contribution to the California Dreamin’ AmberPax is Living the Dream. 

That’s the expression that’s always used, isn’t it? I’m living the dream. What does it really mean, though? For most people I imagine it means a good job making lots of money, a partner, vacations… but when “living the dream” leads to stress and heart attack at an early age, Went is forced to go on vacation to re-evaluate his life. He’s not supposed to have brought work along, but really, it’s all Went knows at this point.

Then he meets Chip, who used to be just like him, but who has come up with a whole new meaning for living the dream. Chip is enjoying life and he’s healthy and happy and more than willing to have fun with Went as long as the man’s around.

At some point, the dream morphs again for both men – are they going to be up to the task when it does?

You’ll just have to read the book to find out!

Wentworth “Went" Dawson, young CEO and owner of Dawson Dynamics, is on an enforced vacation after suffering a mild heart attack. He has a list of foods he shouldn’t eat and a prescription for downtime, which is why he’s at Lake Tahoe, California, sitting in the hotel restaurant working on his laptop.

Chip knows all about life in the fast lane and heart attacks, the very reasons he sold his dot-com company six years ago and is now experiencing his own personal joy in the mountains, skiing, snowboarding, swimming, and hiking. Putting in a shift at the restaurant for spending money, he’s immediately attracted to the man with the laptop, and a little flirting proves that Went is interested also.

Will Went and Chip simply have a quick vacation fling, or is there more between them than meets the eye?

It’s available at Amber Allure: http://www.amberquill.com/store/p/2050-Living-The-Dream.aspx

*_*_*

Excerpt:

Laughing, he leaned past Chip to grab the first lube he saw and a bright pink condom from a pile of rainbow colored packages. “Pink?” he teased.

“My asshole doesn’t mind. It’s totally secure in its manhood.”

That had him laughing again. Shit, he’d forgotten how laughing made sex that much better.

“Good for your asshole,” he teased, slicking up his fingers with what appeared to be raspberry flavored lube.

“I hope so, man. I truly do.”

“Yeah, me too.” He’d hate to be found wanting.

He pressed a single finger against the asshole in question. He took his time, circling the tiny wrinkled ring, slicking it and wetting it. When he finally sank his finger in, he moaned, the tight heat amazing. The dragon seemed to come alive, moving with Chip’s body. Mesmerizing. Sexy as hell.

He fucked Chip with just the one finger, watching the man move. It was easy to tell that Chip wasn’t lying when he said he loved sex.

Pushing in another finger, he slowly opened Chip up. He couldn’t wait to bury himself inside there.

“You going to get it up for me again, beautiful? Gonna fuck me hard?”

“Already up for you again.” He’d have to be dead not to be.

“Love to hear that.” Chip spread wider, balls swinging.

Went made it three fingers, spreading them wide to stretch Chip.

“Oh…” The word was accompanied by an arch, Chip’s body curling up.

“God, you’re sexy.” Like honestly, truly.

“More, beautiful. Now.”

“Okay. Let me put the condom on.” He tugged his fingers away and tore open the package. Wow. That was really pink. Really. He stuck it over his prick, which turned it really pink, too. Oh God. He didn’t think he could do this. “Um…can I have a different condom?”

Chip chuckled, then leaned in, ass rubbing his cock. Oh.

“Fuck…” Closing his eyes, he pushed forward, his prick sinking into Chip’s body. The pink rubber would do just fine.

Sean Michael

Smut fixes everything

www.seanmichaelwrites.com

*_*_*

Living the Dream by Sean Michael is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

Hopefully His by Shawn Lane

When I signed up for the California Dreamin’ Pax, I admit I had no story in mind. I’ve just lived my whole life in California so it’s always easy to write a story set there.

So when it came to the time for me to actually write the story I turned to one of my favorite series I have been working on over the past few years, the His series, which is an alphabetical series. I was up to “H” and thus Hopefully His was born.

Actors and doctors are both sexy heroes and often reader favorites so for Hopefully His I decided to use both. Tyler and Jack were created and suddenly a story was crafted around them. Jack’s a pretty flawed guy, I think, but also, to me, anyway, likeable and believable. I hope you will think so too if you read it. Jack might hopefully win Tyler’s heart yet. 

*_*_*

Hopefully His by Shawn Lane is now available at Amber Allure.

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

LATEST PAX RELEASE - California Dreamin'

Genres: Gay (M/M) Erotic Romance

The titles listed below comprise the California Dreamin' AmberPax™ Collection. Buy all five together and receive a 35% discount! To purchase any of the titles individually, click on the covers below to go to the books' separate pages. 

Hopefully His by Shawn Lane Extended Amber Kiss (Gay)

Living the Dream by Sean Michael Extended Amber Kiss (Gay)

Missing, But Not Dead by Christiane France Novella (Gay)

Placeless by Vivien Dean Extended Novella (Gay)

Twelve-Thirty by A.J. Llewellyn Novella (Gay)

 

In conjunction with our newest release, we will be having a giveaway! Any comment made from today throughout the week (10/19-10/24) will be eligible to win the entire pax collection. A winner will be picked at random on Saturday from all comments received.

Twelve-Thirty by A.J. Llewellyn

Australian-born Montago Melon, “Tago” to all those who know him, has lived in a fantasy world since he was a kid. His heart is in Hollywood, and his family constantly accuse him of “California Dreamin’.” When his grandma dies and leaves him money, and his long-last aunt reaches out to him from California to offer him a job, he jumps at the chance of a new life, swimming pools, and movie stars. He soon learns, however, that some dreams come with a nasty aftertaste.

Byrne McCallum is California born and bred. Working for the dynamic Ondine Bartholomew in a hot new Hollywood set-salvaging company, he becomes immediately intrigued by Ondine’s latest employee, her naïve but super-smart nephew Tago.

Bad things happen to Tago the moment he lands at LAX, but Byrne plans to change the guy’s run of luck. He hasn’t felt this way about a man in a long time. Can they make a go of things? And better still, can they have a happy Hollywood ending?

Genres: Gay/Contemporary/Romantic Comedy

Heat Level: 3
Length: Novella (25k words) 

Read a short excerpt...

...The kind, friendly female GPS voice guided me out of the airport. For about twenty seconds, we got along fine, but then she wanted me to get on the freeway, and I wasn’t ready for that. I pulled over and pressed buttons for surface street directions.

“Recalculating,” the voice said. She sounded pissed. I seemed to have this effect on people lately. “Turn left on La Cienega Boulevard.”

I waited in line at the lights, which took forever, and practiced pronouncing the street name. We say everything wrong in Australia. I got blasted by several car horns, and squinted. A car was coming right at me. Holy shit! I was driving on the wrong side of the street! I veered back over to the curb, shaking like crazy. Focus, idiot.

A car horn sounded and I jumped once more. Man, I was a bundle of nerves.

“Recalculating,” the electronic voice seemed to scream. As the animated map on the GPS screen whirled around, I glanced up and saw a huge billboard poster for Arnold Schwarzenegger in some big action movie. Man, he looked all old and wrinkled. The drought had gotten to him, too. I was surprised some movie magic person hadn’t Photoshopped his saggy skin.

“Drive straight, one hundred yards, turn left on Century Boulevard,” the navigation voice instructed. I took my foot off the accelerator.

All of a sudden, two men in black jackets, pants, and balaclavas appeared out of nowhere, brandishing guns. I braked hard.

“Get out of the car!” the one closest to me bawled. The other guy seemed to be circling the vehicle. Terror gripped my heart as the guy beside me approached my window. Damn! Why had I lowered the damned thing? What was so great about fresh air, anyway? He had a massive shotgun aimed at my face.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. What the hell went wrong? It all started out so easy and smooth. Then it went to hell faster than I could say “G’day.”

And here I was staring at a gun pointing straight at my head.

I gulped, distracted momentarily as I caught a glimpse of the car parked in front of me, and the bumper sticker I should have noticed earlier.

And heeded.

Welcome to California. Now Go Home.

The man with the gun cocked it, glared at me, and snarled, “Get out of the car. I won’t say it again. Leave everything in there. Put your wallet and cell phone on the seat beside you.”

Leave him all my things? Everything? Was he high?

Probably.

When I stared at him, too frightened to move, he shrieked, “Now, tell me why I shouldn’t shoot you.”

Alarm flooded my system. I had no good reason why he shouldn’t. Well, actually, I did. Fifty-thousand of them, as in the dollars stored in my bank account and due to be transferred to the brand new American account I planned to open. I also had the two checks for Barbie. Absurdly, as the gunman glared at me, and swore and called me all kinds of things, I couldn’t take it in. I didn’t hear him. His red lips moved from behind the mask, but all I could think was, I didn’t bring any gifts for Ruby...

Placeless by Vivien Dean

(Part of the Bay Wolves series)

Keaton McGrath had been a werewolf for only a few weeks when he was kidnapped and put into service for anyone willing to pay for his company. Now, a year later and rescued from that life, he’s trying to figure out how to be both human and wolf in a world that doesn’t want him. His only escapes are nightly runs, a chance to let loose the energy of the animal within, but when one of those runs ends with him finding a hurt girl in the park, he can’t control his wolf’s fury when he smells her attacker nearby.

Barely keeping himself from killing the man, Keaton calls 911, then leaves before he can get linked to the crime scene. His hopes to remain anonymous are dashed when Scotty Trumbauer, a local blogger and independent wolf activist, finds him out. Though Keaton’s warned that Scotty is bad news, the chemistry between them is too powerful to ignore, especially when Scotty leaps to defend him.

Keaton just wants to do the right thing without putting the people he cares about in danger. He has to learn, however, that a wolf is stronger when he’s not alone...

Genres: Gay/Dark Fantasy/Werewolf/Shapeshifter/Suspense/Thriller/Series

Heat Level: 3
Length: Extended Novella (39k words) 

Read a short excerpt...

...The woman’s scream came as I was lacing up my right shoe.

I froze. My blood ran colder than my skin.

It iced even more when the scream cut off.

She was in pain. I could tell that from the timbre. I wish I could say I knew the difference because of all the acting classes I took down in LA, but the truth was, my knowledge was firsthand experience. I became an expert listening to and witnessing every kind of scream imaginable as the men and women who’d shared my fate were punished or subjugated or, rarely, pleasured.

Run.

I wanted to. Christ, how I wanted to. My instincts shouted at me to get as far from the source of the screams as possible. My skin crawled with the urge. My hands balled into fists, and I tensed to take flight in the opposite direction.

My feet remained in place.

Someone was hurt. Someone I could help.

Wouldn’t I have wanted someone to help if they’d heard my screams?

The first step was the hardest. My leg felt too heavy, like I moved it through a waist-high snowdrift. The second was the same, but the third came down faster, the fourth even faster after that.

Within six feet, I was running, and most importantly, it wasn’t in the opposite direction.

My night vision remains sharp outside of my wolf form. I picked out the shape on the ground from forty feet away, but almost immediately the smell of blood assaulted me.

Fresh. Hot.

My wolf howled to be let free again.

My pace faltered, but I pushed through the urges to reach the woman’s side. I trembled as I crouched next to her. She was alive. I could hear the soft throb of her pulse in the blood as it flowed from wherever she was hurt. She lay in a crumpled heap, half on her side. Long blonde hair tangled in a sticky mess to hide her face. Though she wore a skirt, it was pushed up around her hips, exposing the pale skin of her toned butt.

I swallowed against the bile that rose in my throat. She’d been raped. Now that I could push past the scent of blood, I detected semen. There was tequila, too, but drunk or not, nobody who screamed like that wanted what was happening to them.

Whoever had done this couldn’t be far away. Looking up, I scanned the trees around us. Their trunks rose like skeletons from their graves, no longer the comfort I’d found in them during my run, but they couldn’t hide the assailant. He was weaving between them, heading toward Kezar Drive, leaving behind a trail of bloody fumes that infuriated my wolf even more than he already was.

I made the choice in the space of a single blink. Leaping over the woman’s inert body, I pulled my T-shirt over my head as I ran, shimmied out of my sweats, and shifted back.

My wolf took over. My seven months of captivity, helpless to retaliate or risk the silver spray or electric collar, required vengeance.

I caught him long before he hit the street. At the last minute, he heard me and broke into a run, but it was too little too late. I leapt and landed on his back, my jaws clamping around his neck. He yelped in pain, and we fell to the wet grass, rolling until we slammed into a tree.

His elbow smashed into my belly. For a moment, my lungs revolted, threatening to weaken my hold, but when he began to thrash hard to get free, I fought, too. Against my fears, against his determination. This was one battle I would win. My wolf demanded it...

Missing, But Not Dead by Christiane France

(Part of the Amethyst Cove Mysteries series)

When Greg Stewartson, ex-cop, private investigator, and half-owner of Amethyst Cove Security & Investigations, meets Ash Tyler, a handsome and very sexy nurse, their mutual attraction turns Greg’s world upside down. Greg would love to just concentrate on their budding romance, but he also wants to help Ash find his biological family—the one Ash says he had before he was taken into care, adopted and moved from California to Michigan more than twenty years ago.

As Greg begins investigating, he also starts to wonder, if the missing persons were Ash’s real family, what made them vanish almost as effectively as if they’d never existed in the first place?

Genres: Gay/Contemporary/Mystery/Detective/Series

Heat Level: 2
Length: Novella (19k words) 

Read a short excerpt...

...Ash took off his shoes, tucked them in his pockets, and rolled up the bottoms of his pants. I followed suit with mine and then wriggled my toes in the wet sand. Walking barefoot on the beach definitely counted as one of life’s small pleasures.

“This is one of the things I missed most when I lived in Detroit,” Ash said with a sigh. “Strolling along the beach at night and trying to imagine what lies beyond the horizon. When I was small I liked to imagine there were islands out there where the sea creatures spent their evenings having fun and socializing with their friends. Didn’t you have imaginary friends when you were a kid?”

“I had enough with two brothers and a sister.”

“You were lucky.”

“I guess.” There were times I could cheerfully have drowned all three, but I’d had a great childhood. Kids needed playmates and I could understand an only child like Ash using his imagination to create what nature had denied him. “What about real friends?”

“I had a few before Jack took sick, and we kept in touch for a while after I went to live with the Tylers. But you know how it goes.”

“Life moves on.”

“Sure does. Things happen. People change. I tried to find some of them the first time I came back. One of them was in prison on a charge of attempted murder, and another had joined the military and was somewhere overseas. My best friend back then lived in the apartment next door, so I went over and talked to this guy who told me he was the super. He said if my friend and his family ever lived there he knew nothing about it. The units were rented out on a monthly basis for cash only, and he’d never known any of the tenants to leave a forwarding address when they vacated. I then asked if records were kept of former tenants, and he said there was no point. The information they gave was mostly fiction, so the no lease, no check policy worked fine for all concerned. After that I gave up.”

We’d reached the giant pile of rocks marking the southern end of the beach. Over time, the rocks had settled into a haphazard collection of nooks and crannies. I found a spot that had room for two and was high enough we wouldn’t get wet if we’d misjudged the time of the next incoming tide. I beckoned for Ash to follow. The rocks were still warm from the sun and I could hear soft music playing somewhere nearby. I leaned back and closed my eyes. “This feels like heaven.”

Ash sat beside me and placed a hand on my stomach, then he leaned over and kissed me gently on the lips. “And how’s this?”

“Fantastic.” Between the music and the murmur of voices I knew there were other people enjoying the night the same way we were. This was what passed for Lovers Lane here in the Cove. It was where the kids came, along with anyone else who was concerned with keeping their private affairs private. And if there were those who wanted to play peeping Tom, too bad. It was now too dark for them to see much if anything. I cupped Ash’s face in my hands and deepened the kiss.

He moved his hand lower, and, as he touched my shaft, I felt it swell and lengthen. I pulled back a little and sighed with pleasure. “That feels amazing. Just don’t stop.”

He unsnapped my jeans and lowered the zipper. I eased my legs apart to give him access, but his cold hand came as a surprise and I tensed.

“Relax, babe.”

I sucked in a breath. “Your hand is like ice.”

“That’s okay. It adds a little extra thrill.”

“You think?” Actually it did. His cool fingers on my hot flesh felt a tad kinky, and I decided I liked the feeling. Then his mouth replaced his hand and it took every bit of my self-control not to lose it then and there...

Living the Dream by Sean Michael

Wentworth “Went" Dawson, young CEO and owner of Dawson Dynamics, is on an enforced vacation after suffering a mild heart attack. He has a list of foods he shouldn’t eat and a prescription for downtime, which is why he’s at Lake Tahoe, California, sitting in the hotel restaurant working on his laptop.

Chip knows all about life in the fast lane and heart attacks, the very reasons he sold his dot-com company six years ago and is now experiencing his own personal joy in the mountains, skiing, snowboarding, swimming, and hiking. Putting in a shift at the restaurant for spending money, he’s immediately attracted to the man with the laptop, and a little flirting proves that Went is interested also.

Will Went and Chip simply have a quick vacation fling, or is there more between them than meets the eye?

Genres: Gay/Contemporary

Heat Level: 3
Length: Extended Amber Kiss (12k words) 

Read a short excerpt...

...“Dude, you’re working ’til when?”

Chip grinned, shrugged. “I took a shift ’til five, then I’m hot-tubbing it, man, soaking my bones.”

Bennie snorted. “You and your bone.”

“Hell yeah.” He just needed a little cash to play with, then he wouldn’t snag another shift for a week or so. Tips were shitty until the snow started falling, anyway.

“Chip, table nine. He’s not going to serve himself.” Andrea snapped him on the ass with a towel.

“Oooh. Do it again!” He wiggled his ass, still laughing happily as he headed out to table nine. “Hey, man! How goes it?”

The guy at table nine was good-looking, with short blond hair and a square jaw. The steel-blue eyes that looked up at him were stressed to the gills, though, the lines around them pronounced. Maybe it had something to do with the laptop. Who brought work to Lake Tahoe?

“Can I help you?” Blue Eyes asked.

“I think that’s my line, beautiful. You want a cocktail? A lemonade?” A hand job?

Blue Eyes blinked. “Oh. Right.” One hand rubbed over the handsome face. “Sorry. Um…I should probably just order a coffee.”

“You sure? We make a killer whiskey sour.”

“That’s tempting. Probably not the best idea on an empty stomach, though.” Blue Eyes looked back at his computer, typing stuff.

“Do you need a menu? The specials are potato soup and lobster mac and cheese. That’s our thing, the mac and cheese.” He should know. He owned the restaurant.

“Oh yeah?” Blue Eyes pulled himself away from the laptop, glance moving up along Chip’s body. “Sure, lobster mac and cheese sounds good. I’ll have that whiskey sour, too.”

“Rock on, dude.” Chip grinned and nodded, then headed in to enter the order. Gary was a whiz in the kitchen, and worked his ass off. Good man.

It kind of felt like Blue Eyes was watching him leave. He swore he could feel those eyes on his ass. Chip let himself wiggle, rock back and forth. Play.

When he brought the drink back, he didn’t have to wait to get Blue Eyes’ attention again. He had the full attention of that hot gaze.

Oh, yummy.

“One whiskey sour, just for you.” He flirted—not enough to be nasty, but enough for the man to know he was interested...

Hopefully His by Shawn Lane

(Part of the His series)

In Southern California, aspiring actor Tyler Larson works in his aunt’s diner while awaiting his big break. One day, to his surprise, Tyler recognizes a customer, a local doctor named Jack Ridgley with whom he’d had a hot-as-hell one-night-stand. At first, Jack claims not to remember Tyler, but later reveals he hasn’t truly forgotten him either.

Since Jack has a long-distance lover, however, the men embark on developing only a friendship, but they soon have trouble keeping their thoughts—and their hands—to themselves. Just as Tyler’s acting career starts to take off, Jack begins to find Tyler too tempting to resist and resolves to make the handsome actor his...hopefully...

Genres: Gay/Contemporary/The Arts/Series

Heat Level: 3
Length: Extended Amber Kiss (12k words) 

Read a short excerpt...

...“That guy’s here again.”

Tyler Larson froze just as he held the paper cup under the orange juice spout. “The hot guy?”

His coworker, Janice Choi, smirked. “Yeah.”

Tyler thought about it. “Which one? The one who owns the car dealership?’

She shook her head. “Nope.”

He bit his lip. “The one who wears the cowboy hat?’

“No! Geez, you like too many guys.” She rolled her eyes. “The one in the scrubs.”

Tyler’s mouth fell open. “My sexy doctor?”

“You don’t know he’s a doctor. He could be a nurse or a technician.”

“A brain surgeon.” Tyler shook his head. “A cardiologist. Saving hearts every day.”

Janice snorted. “More likely breaking them. Why don’t you go ask him his name? Strike up a conversation.” She nudged him toward the coffeepot.

“Mr. Jensen’s here for his to-go order.” He waved the paper cup.

“I’ll take care of that. You go check on your hottie.”

“I’m not his waiter.”

Janice took the paper cup. “You are now. I’ll switch with you for that one. He’s at table thirty-five.”

Tyler nodded and attempted to swallow back his nervousness. He could totally do this. He was not shy. Never had been. He headed over to table thirty-five.

Crap.

Janice didn’t say he had someone with him. He could see the back of the head of the other man’s sitting across from his hottie. Looked like he was wearing scrubs, too. He couldn’t recall Dr. Hottie ever bringing someone with him before.

Tyler got a few feet from the table when he noticed Dr. Hottie, blond and classically handsome in a “soap opera doctor” sort of way, wore a gold band on the ring finger of his left hand.

Double crap.

“Hi,” Tyler said brightly as he stood before them. “My name’s Tyler and I’ll be your server.” He smiled at Dr. Hottie, then turned his attention to the guy with dark hair, dark eyes, and dark sexy stubble across his too sexy jaw sitting opposite Dr. Hottie and almost dropped the coffeepot. “Jack?”

Tyler knew he couldn’t be mistaken. The guy had to be Jack Ridgley. As in the guy who broke Tyler’s heart his first year of college. He’d had a huge crush on the older college student and they’d had a one-night stand. Only Tyler hadn’t realized until he woke up alone that it had been a one-night-stand. Jack was gone and Tyler had never seen him again.

Until now...