Chauffeur-slash-exotic dancer Kyle and forklift operator Nick connect, but family pressure and unemployment might ruin everything. 2nd Edition A Workplace Encounters Book Scarred former model Kyle Anderson leads a double life. By day, he works as a chauffeur for his uncle’s limousine rental company. Since his wages are too low for him to become financially independent, he works nights as an exotic dancer, donning a mask to hide his identity and the facial scars that got him rejected by his parents. Kyle catches the attention of Nick Giddings, a forklift driver who visits the club to let off steam. Nick is stuck in a low-skilled dead-end job after being kicked out of school for a prank he didn’t commit. The two men immediately connect, but when Nick is laid off and Kyle’s uncle pushes him to date a woman, everything comes crashing down.
Review
Nick sees Kyle dancing and convinces Kyle to go on a “date”. Though they are instantly attracted Kyle feels Nick won’t like him if he knows he’s scarred.
Nick sort of stalks Kyle when he meets him again without the costume, and convinces him his interest is sincere and they begin to date.
Nick is about to lose his factory job, Kyle is worried about coming out to his uncle, and both worry they may end up homeless and jobless soon, but they have each other.
**
This is the second short story in Serena Yates Workplace series. It has a similar pattern to book one in that these are men who find themselves on hard times and need the support of the other to become better men and have better lives.
If you enjoyed book one you will probably enjoy this as well.
However, I enjoyed book one a bit more than book two because I just didn’t bond as much with either MC in this book and found the ending with the uncle a bit much to take.
I think the writing is good and the smexy times were hot, but I didn’t connect with this story as much as I have in the past with Serena’s books.
ONE OF the joys of working in a large insurance company was that Frankie had a Monday-to-Friday job processing new insurance policies. He waved good-bye at five o’clock Friday evening and didn’t have to think about work or his colleagues until eight thirty Monday morning.
Until the day Frankie opened the e-mail from Human Resources. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Charlotte looked over from her desk. “What?”
“They’re sending me on a team-building exercise.” He didn’t appreciate Charlotte’s chuckle. “Winning Ways? What the fuck is that?”
“You’ve been caught. They get us all in the end. You get to spend the weekend in a swanky hotel, building egg wombs and sucking up to managers. Don’t sweat it. You’ll enjoy it.”
“Don’t bank on it,” he muttered. “Wait, egg what?”
“Egg wombs. You know.” At Frankie’s frown, she said, “You have to drop the egg out of a window without it cracking, using only a plastic bag and a cup.”
“Is that what they really call it?”
She shrugged. “Who knows? That’s what you’ve got to do. And the sucking up to the managers. They give you the ‘We’re all equal here. Call me Jeff’ speech but you know they’re just spying on everything you do.”
It was Frankie’s recurring nightmare—to be stuck in a small room with his colleagues and not be able to get away. He got that five days a week but at the weekend as well? “Karma’s a bitch.”
“What have you done?”
“Do you want the list?”
“You’ve been that bad?”
“Probably worse,” he admitted.
She smirked at him. “Frankie’s been a bad, bad boy, and now he is going to get his bottom spanked?”
“I wouldn’t mind if it was that sort of weekend.” Frankie grinned as Charlotte’s cheeks crimsoned. “Gotcha!”
“You’re wicked,” she said. “My mother warned me about boys like you.”
“My mother warned me about boys like me too. They sounded much more fun than the good, church-going boys she wanted me to meet.”
She gave him an odd look. “She knew you were gay back then?”
He rolled his eyes. “Girl, look at me. Could anyone not realize I’m gay?”
“You have a point.”
Frankie’s mum said it was obvious he was gay from the moment he came out of the womb. According to her description, Frankie flounced out to the song on the radio. Frankie thought that being born to Kylie must have been prophetic. It could have been worse—he might have been born to Meat Loaf.
“When are you going on the exercise?”
Frankie scanned the e-mail. “Next month. They’ve got a dropout and they want me to fill in.”
“Can you go?”
Frankie shrugged. “It’s not like my calendar is full or anything.” It would give him something to do. Since Chaz had thrown him out, his social life consisted of clubbing with Jonno or staring at the walls in his tiny flat, eating ready meals he could ill afford and wishing he had Sky TV instead of Freeview. “It might be fun.”
She gave him a dubious look. “Your life really is boring at the moment, isn’t it?”
“You have no idea.”
“Why don’t you come out with me and the girls? We’re going to try that new club in town.”
“Uh, gay, remember?”
“Uh, gay club, remember?”
He frowned. “There’s a new gay club in town? In this dump of a town?”
“God, Frankie, you really are out of it. It opened a couple of weeks ago. It’s near Primark, over the slappers’ shop.”
“I didn’t know. Anyway, why’re you going to a gay club?”
“Ignorance is no excuse, and I’m going to a gay club because most of my mates are dykes and the rest of us are married. It suits us fine not to be hit on by sleazebags. Anyway, the booze is cheaper and the music’s better.”
“How did you end up with lesbians for friends?”
Charlotte grinned at him. “Some of us aren’t narrow-minded little pricks like some people I could mention.”
“You mean….”
“Uh-huh.”
She did a dramatic head roll to their manager who sat not ten feet away, oblivious to their conversation. Ed Winters was a 1950s Tory poster boy. He disliked women, black people, anyone from the Indian subcontinent, curry, the French, the Irish, dogs, and particularly hom-o-sex-uals—he always enunciated the word as if a bad smell was under his nose.
Frankie grinned at her. Taking the piss out of Ed was one of the few joys in his life. “I’m on for the club. You say where and when.”
Maybe he needed a change from the scene with Jonno. Those clubs were hook-up sites, and much as he needed action, he needed fun. God, he really needed some fun.
“Done. Don’t worry. I’ll make sure the straight girls don’t treat you like their pet poodle for the evening.”
He shrugged. “They can be my bitches.”
“They’ll love it. Do you want to bring the leashes?”
“I worry about you sometimes.”
Charlotte tossed her hair. “You love it.”
“Hell yeah!”
“Mr. Mason, Ms. Tiller, is something wrong?” Winters peered over his frameless glasses to stare at them.
They shook their heads and smirked at each other when he scowled and turned away.
Frankie looked at the files on his desk, and the e-mail telling him he had to play nice for a weekend. Charlotte was one bright sparkle in a sea of beige and gray. He pecked disconsolately at the keyboard. “Okay, I’ve confirmed my attendance at the egg womb thing. Now you take me out.”
Charlotte looked up from her phone. “Friday? The girls can’t wait to meet you.”
Frankie nodded. “I’m all yours.”
“Ah baby, if only that were true.” Charlotte blew him a kiss and turned her attention back to her own work.
Hmmm, a new club, potential new meat. Frankie needed something new to wear. He might be short of cash, but he could work that budget. Frankie rocked at the vintage look.
TITLE: Anthony & Leo
SERIES: Frankie’s – Book Three
AUTHOR: Sue Brown
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 30000 words approx.
COVER ARTIST: Paul Richmond
RELEASE DATE: March 25, 2015
BLURB: Watching Marchant train his new sub leaves Tony unhappy at not having found a Dom of his own. Running Marchant’s BDSM club, Tony sees who the Doms prefer and it isn’t him—too big, too old, and too hairy. When his friend Jordan suggests he look outside the club, Tony’s mind turns to Leo, a man he met in a traffic jam. Tony manages to arrange a date and happily learns Leo is funny, very toppy, and not averse to Tony’s lifestyle. As a bonus, Leo sells sex toys.
When tragedy strikes the club, Tony fears he can’t help the mourning club members, but Leo offers his unwavering support. After such a tough start, Tony believes Leo is the Dom he’s been looking for… until he catches him kissing another man.
Pre-order:
Dreamspinner Press – http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=6188
To celebrate the release of Love’s Medicine (Surf Bay Book 4, out March 1st), you can save $5.99 on the first 3 Surf Bay books: Lost & Found, Full Circle and Saving Michael! Hurry, sale ends March 5th at 8am PST!
This countdown deal will run in the US and UK. All 3 books are 99p in the UK. At 8am PST (March 5th), the prices will return to normal, and the sale will end.
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Love’s Medicine is the 4th book in the Surf Bay series, but can be read as a complete standalone.
Matthew Doner is starting over. After a five-year prison term that alters every aspect of his life, he receives a bequest from his aunt with the stipulation that he use the money to make things right. Breaking free of the long-standing role he’s played and inspired by the few who support him, he decides to create a safe place where people like him can find purpose and start a new life.
Julian Capeletti likes challenges. He is confident, brash, stubborn, and just what Matt needs. Desperate for work after a downturn of luck, he accepts the job to renovate Matt’s crumbling building.
Over the course of a year, romance simmers between them as they restore the house. But there’s a bigger renovation that must take place in their hearts. To become better men, they need to learn to trust each other even with secrets and painful memories they fear may rip them apart. Review
Matt went to jail for a white collar crime (he didn’t commit) and now wants to establish a halfway house for criminals because he has seen what happens to men who are faced with no prospects after serving their time in jail.
Julian is hired as Matt’s contractor and he and Matt start setting sparks off one another right from the start.
The romance between them is a slow, but oh-so-hot, burn and when they come together – it is awesome!
There are a lot of obstacles in Matt’s way to having the halfway-house of his dreams and Julian is there to help him through the rough patches.
What I loved about this (and all Jaime’s books) is the sizzling hot chemistry between J and Matt AND the deep emotional connection she gives them without losing their personalities to the mush. They are still “tough guys” who love deeply and as we see J in the sequels to this book you can see he’s still rough around the edges but ever so smoothed out by Matt’s presence.
Blurb
