Love Bytes is welcoming to their blog author Katie Porter. Katie joins us today to show us a very sexy exclusive excerpt of her story “Came Upon a Mightnight Clear”, part of the 2017 Holiday Charity Collection by Riptide Publishing.

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Welcome Katie 🙂

About Came Upon a Midnight Clear

Up-and-coming film producer Kyle Wakefield lives in the closet rather than risk the wrath of his influential, conservative parents. The only time he took a chance on love was a tempestuous teenage affair with Nathan Carnes. But when Nathan proved himself hell-bent on self-destruction and wound up in prison, Kyle closed off his heart.

Almost a decade later, Kyle’s production partner hires Nathan’s stunt company, Second Chances, to work on a big-budget action film in London. Nate is floored by his explosive reunion with Kyle. But he sure as hell isn’t surprised that Kyle still treats their mutual needs and Nate’s like dirty little secrets.

As the London holiday season casts its dazzling spell, the two men find themselves falling in love again. Kyle is one breathless kiss away from declaring himself to Nate and to the world but they cannot ignore secrets borne of youthful mistakes. To protect their bright new future, Kyle and Nathan will need all their passion and trust . . . and a little Christmas magic.

Publisher’s note: This is a lightly edited reprint of a previously published novel.

Available now from Riptide Publishing!

Amazon

Kyle had wanted to let loose. That tight, pained place in his soul had needed it. Seeing Nate again . . . Remembering how free he’d once felt in the arms of the young man he’d loved . . .

Kyle was strangling on the precepts that kept his life ordered and successful.

Don’t let it show.

Don’t let anyone know.

And don’ get caught.

That last one was imperative. He hadn’t been a monk for the last decade, but that meant Grindr-fueled hookups in the recesses of various cities. A guy had to protect his sanity. He’d stayed safe, got off, went home. Not exactly a stable emotional basis for accepting his homosexuality. Too much of it was cloaked in shadow and shame.

There, however, in a thumping underground club in the heart of Soho, he could let it show, and everyone sure as hell knew he was queer.

As for getting caught, that rule didn’t seem to apply when he looked passionately into Nate’s eyes. The Christmas lights, disco balls, and strobes didn’t dispel the power of his intent gaze.

“You heard me,” Nate said, so quietly but so near to Kyle’s mouth that the words registered as breath more than sound. “Do it.”

Kyle did. He levered up and hitched his ass on the table, then spread his knees. Tim and his partner, was it Mick?”laughed and watched the show. Kyle. The opening act. The center of attention in a gay nightclub. His heart hammered with excitement and anticipation. Although he knew sexual release was a ways off, he felt a very different sort of release when he and Nate locked eyes.

Kyle was right where he’d always longed to be. Being with Nate made him honest and real. Maybe he wanted to be that kind of person more often.

With a knowing, naughty smile, Nate grabbed one of the Jell-O shots. “You know where this goes, don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Then show me.”

Hands steady despite his gut-clenching arousal, Kyle stripped his purple V-neck T-shirt, an impulse purchase, along with the collar, on a drunken, giddy night out with Steph when they’d first gotten to London. The distance from America, from Virginia in particular, had felt like freedom.

He leaned back on one elbow and hooked a thumb under the waistband of his jeans.

“It goes right here,” he said.

The air thickened between them, all teasing gone.

Nate’s expression was as intense as when he prepared for a big stunt sequence, all focus and calculation. His mouth was serious, but he never compressed his lips. They rested together with a unique, stern beauty, rimmed above and below with a shade of evening stubble. Blunt nose, rough-hewn cheekbones, and a brow twisted in concentration. But his eyes . . . They were large and soulful, searching for something Kyle couldn’t name, couldn’t understand.

Kyle expected derisive words. A smirk. Hell, he half expected Nate to walk out at any moment, if only to prove a point: that Kyle was gay, closeted, and a goddamn hypocrite.

Instead, Nate leaned forward and licked the notch at the juncture of Kyle’s collarbones. “That’s right, college boy. Can you handle it?”

“I’m here waiting.”

That serious expression didn’t abate. “You have no idea what it is to wait.”

Cold skittered over Kyle’s bare chest, despite the hot, grinding sweat of the club. That unease needed to go. He didn’t have the stamina to contemplate dark roads. This was the time for raunchiness, for forgetting old pains and lingering doubts. He shoved Nate’s wrist down his body.

From there, Nate took over. Good. Sometimes the man was a goddamn mule.

Nate slid the plastic shot glass down along Kyle’s tensing stomach until it nestled between skin and denim. For a moment he seemed to savor his prize, eyeing Kyle from head to crotch. The attention made Kyle feel worshipped. Stripping half naked, wearing his outrageous collar, the decisions that had made his gut churn in the hotel room were so perfect right now.

Nate glanced at the two men avidly soaking up the show. ‘Watch and learn, boys.’

With that, he slid his tongue and teeth down Kyle’s chest, past his abs, until Nate’s mouth hovered above the shot glass. Nate dug his blunt fingertips into Kyle’s hips. Holding him. Immobilizing him.

Kyle groaned.

Lowering farther still, Nate sucked on the shot glass. The sight of his sandy-blond hair, tinted with every color of the rainbow, was more than Kyle needed. Fantasies and memories and reality merged into a heady cocktail of want. He gripped the hair at Nate’s crown and twisted. Lifted. Nate straightened, his mouth pursed around a mouthful of Jell-O and shaped into a smile of pure sin.

He swallowed.

So did Kyle.

Ah, fuck.

“Damn that was hot,” Tim said almost reverently. His hulking bear of a partner was busy sliding rough hands up and down the smaller man’s heaving chest.

Fingers still tangled in Nate’s hair, Kyle yanked him close for a swift kiss of vodka and strawberry and man. “Again,” he rasped.

 

About the 2017 Holiday Charity Collection

20% of all proceeds from this title will be donated to the Russian LGBT Network.

Each year, Riptide Publishing releases a holiday collection in support of an LGBTQ charity. Twenty percent of the proceeds from this year’s collection will be donated to the Russian LGBT Network.

The Russian LGBT network was founded in April 2006. It is an interregional, non-governmental human rights organization that promotes equal rights and respect for human dignity, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity. They unite and develop regional initiatives, advocacy groups (at both national and international levels), and provide social and legal services.

To learn more about this charity or to donate directly, please visit their website: https://lgbtnet.org/en.

This collection would not be possible without the talent and generosity of its authors, who have brought us the following holiday stories:

• Cecilia Tan, Watch Point
• Roan Parrish, The Remaking of Corbin Wale
• Katie Porter, Came Upon a Midnight Clear

 

Pre-ordering this collection will allow you to download each story two days prior to its official release date, as well as save 20% off the list price of the individual books.

About Katie Porter

Katie Porter is the co-writing team of Lorelie Brown and Carrie Lofty, friends and critique partners of six years. Both are multi-published in several romance genres. Carrie has an MA in history, while Lorelie is a US Army veteran.

Generally a high-strung masochist, Carrie loves weight training but she has no fear of gross things like dissecting formaldehyde sharks. Her two girls are not appreciative.

Lorelie, a laid-back sadist, would rather grin maniacally when Carrie works out. Her three boys love how she screams like a little girl around spiders.

Connect with Lorelie and Carrie:

• Website: katieporterbooks.com
• Twitter: @MsKatiePorter
• Goodreads: goodreads.com/Katie_Porter_Books

 

To celebrate the release of Came Upon a Midnight Clear, one lucky winner will receive a $10 Riptide credit! Leave a comment with your contact info to enter the contest. Entries close at midnight, Eastern time, on November 25, 2017. Contest is NOT restricted to U.S. entries. Thanks for following the tour, and don’t forget to leave your contact info!