Today we are happy to have us join Love Bytes the wonderful Lane Hayes.
Welcome Lane 🙂

Title: Better Than Safe

Series: Better Than stories, Book 4

Author: Lane Hayes

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Cover Artist: Aaron Anderson

Length: Novel, 77k words

Release Date: September 25^th, 2015

Blurb:

Paul Fallon is a fashion advertising guru. He’s a genius at dealing with difficult editors, art directors, and designers alike. He thrives on the chaotic atmosphere and constant challenges. But in his personal life, he’s hoping for peace and stability. Settling down with a nice doctor or lawyer sounds perfect. Anyone but an artist. He’s been there, done that, and he doesn’t want to relive the heartache.

Seth Landau is a model, occasional guitarist, and aspiring painter. He’s quirky, flighty, and wise beyond his years. Life has taught him some tough lessons, then given him opportunities he never dreamed of. He’s learned to appreciate the fragility of life and to express it in his work. Seth’s flare for the absurd combined with a supple mind and a beautiful body are too alluring for Paul to ignore. Against his best intentions, Paul is drawn to the younger man whose particular brand of crazy challenges Paul to accept that things aren’t always as they seem. Sometimes taking a chance is better than being safe.

The Evolution of the Better Than Stories Series

It goes without saying that a series starts with one story. The first book in the Better Than Stories series is Better Than Good, which is my first published book. It’s a simple story. Boy meets boy. Boy falls for boy and suddenly, nothing is the same. It is a journey of self-discovery as told through a young law school student named Matt, who happens to be bisexual. He assumed his occasional attraction to other men was a passing phase. The type he’d likely outgrow. When he meets Aaron, he realizes he’s in over his head and it will take a measure of courage to be someone worthy of someone like Aaron.

Any writer will tell you their stories are like their children. You can’t pick a favorite. I agree wholeheartedly. However, I will say that each of my books are meaningful to me in different ways. Better Than Good was written for personal reasons. It was my cathartic way of sending my newly out gay son to college. I was worried about his reticence to embrace his gayness, but there was nothing I could do. This was his journey. I had fallen in love with the MM romance genre a couple years before he left for school and I identified with the message of hope I’d found in some of the better ones. I’ve always had characters in my head, but suddenly they were screaming for release! Matt and Aaron’s story had to be told!

I wrote a ton of short stories shortly after I’d submitted Better Than Good. I couldn’t let go of these guys. I loved them! And thankfully, readers did too. However, my publisher wisely suggested I try something new. I set the shorts aside for a while and rethought how to proceed. As tempting as it was to write a daily diary of everything Matt and Aaron did, it might get old. The best course of action was to write what I love… a good old-fashioned series! The characters were already in my head. I knew their stories well. It was just a matter of writing them.

Any good series revolves around a group of friends. People who are close enough to care about each other without needing too much room on the page. Better Than Chance is book 2. In my head, it came first, which is why it’s structured a little differently in the beginning. Jay and Peter had been together for a while and weren’t in the hurry Matt and Aaron were to have their story told. Lol! Better Than Friends, book 3 featured characters from the other two books who stood out. Especially Jack with his tattoos, his Harley and his refreshing sense of humor. I loved him!

And yes, when Seth came along in my newest release, Better Than Safe (book 4), I fell in love with him too. He’s wild, quirky and hard to figure out. Definitely not Paul’s cup of tea. Paul is a successful British ad exec whose primary clients are important designers and international haute couture corporations. He’s open to meeting a nice man with a stable career. Instead he meets Seth. A wacky artist slash fashion model is exactly the type of man Paul hoped to avoid. But Seth isn’t easy to ignore. He’s the kind of bad idea that makes even someone as careful as Paul think some things are better than being safe.

Exploring human relationships in romance has always been my favorite pastime. However, being on the other side of the page is thrilling. There are four books in the Better Than Stories series, three in Right and Wrong, and a brand new series coming in 2016, which features a character from Better Than Safe. Building worlds where complicated men meet and find pieces of each other in someone special is extraordinarily rewarding. This was what I was looking for when I sent my now 21 year-old son off to college three years ago… a platform of hope.

At your suggestion, Dani, I’m including a link to a new page on my blog featuring the Matt and Aaron short stories in the order they were originally posted on my website. There are five total. With any luck I’ll have this organized fairly soon so reader’s can format it to Kindle. It’s my next WIP. Enjoy! J

https://lanehayes.wordpress.com/better-than-short-stories/

Thank you so much for having me on your blog today, Dani! It’s always a pleasure!

Happy Reading!

Lane Hayes xo

My stomach growled. I was dead tired, hungry, and more than a little confused. Seth turned the corner before my brain could catalogue any further complaints. I studied his casual attire as he came closer. Worn black jeans, a white T-shirt with paint stains, and an unbuttoned black and blue striped cardigan. He looked more like a wacky artist than a sophisticated couture model, I mused. His sharp features were undeniably attractive but it seemed as though he’d chosen the basic clothing to downplay his beauty. Or maybe he’d just painted and couldn’t be bothered. There was something ridiculously appealing to me about our very opposite looks. Corporate formal versus art student chic. I glanced down at the sushi and willed my dick to behave.

“There you are. What kind of pasta do you want? I don’t have time to make it myself, but don’t worry, I’m buying pre-packaged but fresh. Your choices are spaghetti, tagliatelle, or pappardelle.”

I looked at the three choices he held up and pointed to the one in the middle. The tagliatelle.

“Really? I was thinking basic spaghetti but—”

“Then why did you ask?”

“I want your opinion. If you want the tagliatelle, we’ll get that one. Done.”

“Good. Let’s go. Do you have wine?”

“Yes. Hmm. I don’t know about the tag—”

“Seth. Get the spaghetti. I’m not bothered.”

“What do you mean by not bothered?”

“I mean….” I took a step forward so we stood toe to toe, Italian loafer to dirty white trainer and gave him a pointed glare. “I don’t give a shit. Pasta is pasta. It doesn’t matter to me what shape it comes in. At all.”

“You’re hungry, huh?”

“What tipped you off?”

“Sarcastic and cranky. Let’s go. You need food.” He turned away, carrying his basket of goods toward the front registers.

“What about wine?” I called after him.

He stopped in the middle of the aisle and curled his finger, motioning me to come to him with a devilish grin on his handsome face. I complied. We were alone for the moment, surrounded on either side of the cramped space by white bread and a variety of colorful cereals chock-full of preservatives and food dyes. I eyed him warily, wondering why he was stalling.

“I told you I have wine. Good wine too.”

“Marvelous. Let’s go.”

“But… there’s a catch.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course there is. What is it? You need to swing by the dry cleaners first or—”

“Kiss me.”

“Are you crazy?”

“Why is it so crazy?” he asked innocently.

“Here are a couple reasons. One, we’re in the middle of a market in a family oriented part of town and two, we’re barely friends. Not lovers. Friends don’t kiss.”

He grinned. “Sure they do. What they probably don’t do is say something like, ‘you look so fucking hot in that suit, I wish I could take it off you right here next to the Cheerios and Wheat Chex,’ so I won’t go there, but I still think it’s okay to kiss.”

I stared at him with my mouth wide open, unable to find my voice. When he chuckled in amusement at my expense, I acted with uncharacteristic impulse and reached out to cup his neck and draw him close to me. He gasped in surprise at the quick movement. I smiled as our noses brushed, perversely pleased by his shock, and suddenly glad to be the one pushing him one step further. I licked his bottom lip before fusing my mouth over his in a swift but passionate kiss. I backed up with a grin and sauntered away, taking care he didn’t see me adjust my trousers as I moved with purpose to the front registers.

I set my bag of tomatoes on the conveyer belt and stepped aside when Seth joined me a moment later.

“You play dirty,” he muttered as he set the contents in his basket with mine.

“You asked for it.”

“Maybe I did. Beware. I can play dirty too.”

I bit my cheek hard and turned toward the rack of magazines nearby, hoping to diffuse the sexual tension racing through my body. Stress, exhaustion, and hunger were suddenly non-issues. All I wanted now was sex. The one thing I couldn’t have with this man. Not without risking more than I was willing.

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Lane Hayes is grateful to finally be doing what she loves best. Writing full time! It’s no secret Lane loves a good romance novel. An avid reader from an early age, she has always been drawn to a well-told love story with beautifully written characters. These days she prefers the leading roles both be men! Lane discovered the M/M genre a few years ago and was instantly hooked. Her first novel was a finalist in the 2013 Rainbow Awards and her third received an Honorable Mention in the 2014 Rainbow Awards. She loves travel, chocolate, and wine (in no particular order). Lane lives in Southern California with her amazing husband and the coolest yellow lab ever in an almost empty nest.

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