A warm Love Bytes welcome to author Keira Andrews visiting our blog to talk about her newest release A Clean Break
She kindly answered some questions for us, shares an excerpt and there is a Giveaway!

Welcome Keira! 🙂

Blurb:

They’ve escaped to the outside world—but can they really be free?

David and Isaac have found happiness in each other’s arms. In faraway San Francisco, Isaac’s brother Aaron helps them explore confusing “English” life and move beyond the looming shadow of their Amish roots. For the first time, David and Isaac can be openly gay, yet they struggle to reconcile their sexuality with their faith. At least they don’t have to hide their relationship, which should make everything easier. Right?

But while Isaac thrives at school and makes new friends, David wrestles to come to terms with the reality of the outside world. Haunted by guilt at leaving his mother and sisters behind in Zebulon, he’s overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the city as he works to get his carpentry business off the ground.

While David and Isaac finally sleep side by side each night, fear and insecurity could drive them miles apart.

Available from:

Amazon

All Romance

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

iTunes

Smashwords

             1.Tell us about your inspiration for David and Isaac.

2. What was your research like? Did you base Zebulon on an existing Amish community?

3. Can you give us an idea of what we’ll see in the next book in the series?

4. Where is your favorite place to write? Do you like quiet or noise?

5. What do you have planned after your Amish stories are done?

6  Do you have a prefered genre to write in or/and read in?

“David?”

He jerked up from where his chin had fallen to his chest, blinking at Isaac standing by the bed. “Uh-huh. I was just…” He looked at the pen and pad of paper abandoned on his lap.

Isaac smiled softly, reaching out to brush back a wisp of David’s hair. “Sorry to wake you.”

David rubbed his eyes. “I shouldn’t be napping anyway. I’ve only been up a few hours.” Granted he’d woken just after five, which somehow seemed early now. The wooden blinds were open, and the room was warm with morning sun.

“How’s your letter coming?” Isaac asked as he climbed onto the other side of the bed near the mirrors.

He leaned beside David against the padded headboard, and their shoulders rubbed. They were both wearing new T-shirts and what the English called sweatpants. Isaac hadn’t put the gel in his hair, so it sat flat against his head, giving him tiny bangs again.

The only words on the page were Dear Mother. “Still working on it,” David answered. An understatement if ever there was one. “I thought you and Aaron were having breakfast and spending some time together.”

“We are. But you know you don’t have to hide up here, right? Unless you want some time alone. Which is fine.”

“I know.” Truthfully David didn’t want to be a…third wheel, as the English said. But he’d also been determined to finally get his letter written.

“I meant to ask—is that the side of the bed you like? I guess I’m used to sleeping on the left, but maybe you are too.”

“I had my own bed at home, so I don’t mind which side I take now. I hope you like sharing with me better than Nathan.”

Isaac pursed his lips and tapped his chin. “Hmm. I suppose so. But if you start snoring all of a sudden the way he did, I’m pushing you to the sidewalk.” He frowned. “No. The curb. I think that’s how that goes.”

David smiled. “I’ll do my best.” He nodded at the paper in Isaac’s hand. “What do you have there?”

“It’s what I wrote to my parents. I wanted to sleep on it before I mailed it. Can you…?” He held it out.

David unfolded the page. Isaac’s script was tight and neat, as if he’d been concentrating on making every letter perfect.

Dear Mother and Father,

It is hard to know what to say. I know you all must be hurt and angry at my decision to leave. I need you to know that I did not make this choice lightly. I cannot live in Zebulon or any other Amish place. I prayed on it a lot, and I know in my heart that God has a different path for me.

I was not sure whether to tell you this or not, but I am with Aaron in San Francisco. That’s in California. You should know that he cares about you all very much. He teaches math in what they call a high school, and he has a very nice wife. There are no children yet.

David is here with me. Neither of us wanted to hurt you or his family, but we realized we could not stay. David has been a loyal friend. He helped me see the truth in my own heart. I hope you can forgive us for going into the world. I will write more soon, and if you will write back to me, it would make me very happy. I hope Ephraim, Nathan, Joseph, and Katie are well. Please tell them I miss them. I have enclosed a note for each of them as well.

Your son,

Isaac

David refolded the paper and exhaled a long breath. “It’s good. That was nice, what you said about me helping you see the truth. Thank you.” Although he was sure Isaac’s parents wouldn’t thank him for it.

Isaac smiled. “I didn’t even know I was gay.” He shook his head. “It still feels odd to say that out loud. Gay. But without you I’d still be there, miserable and hopelessly confused about why I didn’t want to date any of the girls, no matter how pretty they were.”

They kissed softly, and David rubbed Isaac’s nose with his own. Putting the letter aside, they stretched out on the bed. “Your father asked once what I thought of you.” David slowly circled his hand on Isaac’s bare stomach under his shirt. “It was a Sunday, I’m sure. Out by the barn, waiting for church to begin.”

In his mind, David could hear the clatter of buggies arriving in the damp morning. The whinnies of the horses, and the quiet rumble of the men talking. He’d been watching for Isaac, hoping to spot him before the service.

“When was this?” Isaac asked, a smile playing at his lips.

“A week or two after you came to work with me. I was already having such lustful thoughts for you, and I must have blushed as red as an apple when he asked. But I told him you were an ideal student. He seemed pleased—he even smiled. He was proud of you.”

“I wonder what he thinks of me now,” Isaac whispered. “Or if he’s already forgetting me, like he did Aaron.”

David continued his circles on Isaac’s stomach, focusing on the warmth of Isaac’s belly to keep the tension at bay. “Do you think it would ever cross their minds? That the reason we left together is because we’re…together? I can’t imagine my mother would even think of such a thing. No one ever talks about it—not even the preachers really. It’s like being gay just doesn’t exist.”

Isaac tangled their feet together. “Like we don’t exist. The real us, I mean.” He sighed. “I don’t think my parents would suspect it. Aside from Anna, I don’t know if anyone has.”

David bolted upright with a spike of adrenaline. “Anna? Anna doesn’t know. She can’t.”

“Actually, I think she does.” Isaac squeezed David’s leg.

David leaned against the headboard and jerked his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around himself. Every conversation with his sister from the past months reeled through in his mind. “But…”

Isaac sat and folded his hands in his lap, fiddling with his fingernails. His foot jiggled. “I’m sorry to upset you.”

“I’m not…I…” He forced air into his lungs. “Why do you think she knows?”

“You said yourself nothing gets by her. The day we had church at my house, when I was helping your mother up the ramp? She asked if I could drive Mary and Anna home from the next singing since you’d be taking Grace.” He swallowed hard, his gaze returning to his hands. “The way Anna looked at me… I just knew. She was so sad for me.”

Nausea seethed in his gut, and David rested his forehead on his knees. “I can’t imagine how you felt hearing that.” He could, though. Devastated. Heartbroken. Hollow. “I hated pretending. I never should have. Not then, after everything between us.” When Isaac’s fingers brushed through his hair, David leaned into the touch.

“I felt like the time I got kicked by Abram Lapp’s mule.”

“Please forgive me.” David lifted his head. “I never wanted to hurt you, but I knew I was hurting you all the same. I was weak.”

Isaac’s eyes glistened. “We’re all weak sometimes.”

“Never again. Not when it comes to you.” David pulled Isaac into his arms, murmuring into his new short hair. “Never.”

Isaac held on tightly. “Of course I forgive you. Always, my David.”

Their lips met, and everything else was forgotten as David tasted Isaac, breathing him in with a familiar heady rush as they stretched out, bodies entwining and tongues seeking. Moving on top of him, David licked and kissed down the column of Isaac’s neck as he rolled his hips.

He loved the sensation of Isaac beneath him, eager and responsive, making little noises in his throat that sent blood rushing straight to David’s cock and left his head light.

“Do you think it’s worse?” Isaac asked breathily, tugging at David’s clothing. “To do this on a Sunday when we should be worshipping at church?”

David pushed himself up on one arm. He raked his eyes over Isaac—flushed cheeks and his wet lips parted. His amber eyes already dark with desire and his hair sticking up where he’d slid down the pillows. David shoved up the hem of Isaac’s tee until it bunched around his neck.

He ran his fingers around Isaac’s nipples and through the light hair scattered over his chest. Then down over his quivering stomach, drinking in the way Isaac’s breath caught as David dipped into his bellybutton and teased the hair below his waistband. Isaac’s cock tented his sweatpants, and David knew he wasn’t wearing anything underneath.

“I want to worship you,” he whispered.

Copyright © Keira Andrews

After writing for years yet never really finding the right inspiration, Keira discovered her voice in gay romance, which has become a passion. She writes contemporary, historical, paranormal and fantasy fiction, and—although she loves delicious angst along the way—Keira firmly believes in happy endings. For as Oscar Wilde once said, “The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means.”

You can find out more about Keira and her books at her website, and on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to her monthly newsletter for news, giveaways and more.

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