Framed and imprisoned at eighteen, six years later Santiago “Santo” Valentine is not the frightened teen he once was. Taught by Master Salvatore Moretti, and with walking papers in hand, Santo is determined to turn the family name around and distance it from the drugs and prostitution his father’s legacy is built on.
Santo seeks revenge on his father, the man who framed him, and the whereabouts of his younger brother, Luca.
When he finds him, in the worst place a child could ever be—a children’s home simply known as “The Pound,” where unwanted children disappear—Luca has a friend he refuses to leave behind.
At the first sight of Ezra’s brilliant, ice-blue eyes, something shifts in Santo, and he knows he has to help this boy, too.
Ezra, dumped at The Pound when he was barely eleven years old, takes one look at Santo and knows his heart is lost. He also knows he has no chance with him. He might be seventeen, but he’s nothing more than Santo’s little brother’s best friend.
After a massive error in judgment, Ezra runs, obliterating all trace of him.
Santo, sent to investigate a dancer for his club six years later, crosses paths with Ezra. Santo’s reckless behavior shocks them both and leaves them stumbling to trust their hearts.
***
This is a gay romance with BDSM scenes and lots of men-on-men action. Due to sexual content, it is advised that readers are 18 and over.
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I don’t sleep—I can’t—all I do is pace the floor, trying to get a plan together. I want to go straight there, have the element of surprise while it’s the middle of the night.
“We can get in there and grab him and get out again before anyone knows what’s happening. Fuck knows what’s happened to him in the last six years.”
“We can’t, Boss. It may be the worst place in the city for kids, but it will be legal. They would have made sure the paperwork was all in order when they took him in. What has happened to him since then is anyone’s guess, but we need the official backup. We need the law with us.” Gabriel fills me in calmly, but I spot tension in his eyes.
“Who do we need?” I stop pacing and lean back against the polished-concrete work surface of the kitchen island. “Has Sal been brought up to date?”
“The message got through to him at zero-twenty hours, Sir. He sends his congratulations,” Manny replies.
“We need Sebastian Winters. I’ve put the call in, and he will meet us there at oh-seven-hundred hours. He will get him out for us.” Gabriel states matter-of-factly.
“He’s with us, isn’t he?” I question.
“He is, Sir, all the way. One of the best. He’s a ruthless bastard. But he’s your ruthless bastard.”
“Okay, we did good tonight. Go and get some rest. Meet me back here at six-thirty,” I say as I walk towards my bedroom as they nod.
They only have four hours of respite, but they are the best. All come from military backgrounds. Gabriel was a Navy SEAL, Manny and Joel were both Raiders, and Mickey was a Green Beret. Each had their reasons to leave, and all did so with honorable discharges. I’m grateful to have them by my side.
Stripping off, I step under the hot water. I need another shower to get rid of the stink of cigar smoke. Again, I make plans for Luca. I’ll need a doctor to check him over, maybe a therapist to help him readjust, and I’ll need a tutor to get him back into education. Most of all, I need him back with me. Getting out of the shower and toweling off, I pull my leather pants back on and match it with a black turtleneck cashmere sweater. Winter is approaching, and I’m used to all-year heat. The prison was located out in the desert, and the relentless sun never let the temperature drop.
Striding into the open-plan room, I find Gabriel sitting on the caramel-colored, suede sectional sofa, watching a rerun of a baseball game on the sixty-inch flat-screen TV that’s fixed to the bare brick wall.
Under the dim lights, as I wait for the music to begin, I know I’m dancing purely for him, to show off my talents. There are at least one hundred men out there. My normal M.O. is to block them out and let the music fill me. Tonight is different. Tonight is all about the man who gazed into my eyes as he filled me, and I saw a look of total bliss wash over him. I’ve had partners since I left, not many but a few. I kept up with my submissive training but picked a professional Dom who wasn’t looking for anything more. We are good friends, and when I feel the world siding against me, I go back to him so he can center me.
The music starts, and Hozier’s Take Me To Church imbues my chest. Bending over, I grab the pole and pull myself upside down, and the applause picks up. As I hang perpendicular to the post, the muscles in my arms pulsing, I embrace the fire running through them. I walk through the air before curling my knees around the steel, a smile breaking out on my face as I think of the other steel pole I’ve gripped tightly tonight. The minute he entered me, I knew I would never want, or have, another man again. The sounds of our heartbeats echoed in my ears as he pushed inside. The way the tendons stretched and his blood vessels pulsated in his neck made him look even more beautiful to me.
It was so much more. It was the total opposite of everything I expected from him. I’d sneaked into his den, knowing it was what I wanted in my life. Yet tonight was purely us, with soft words, sweaty bodies and deep, searching looks and kisses. This wasn’t the fucking I expected from him. Why was he vanilla? Do I want that from him? I’ve always imagined him as my Dom, not my lover.
Before I realize it, I have worked through the whole of the first song without paying it any mind. Considering the whoops and cheers and the bills being thrown onto the stage, it seems I’ve done okay. The first bars of the next song float into the air, and although it’s an older one, the lyrics beat through my heart. Possibility by Lykke Li. I know, I admit it, I’m a Twilight junkie. So, shoot me. This one takes more concentration, making me focus on my moves rather than A. the ache in my ass and B. the hottest man on the planet watching me.
You will normally find her in the living room—typing away—with her dog, Maud. As a hopeless romantic, JJ dives into her stories, always falling in love with her men, making sure they get the happy ever after they deserves, even if they do have to work hard for it.
As a bona fide bookaholic, coffee-addicted, wine-drinking and swear-like-a-sailor type of girl, she has yet to work out how to act her age!! LOL. And she has no intentions of growing up or growing old gracefully.
JJ lives in a small, very quiet, village in Lincolnshire, UK, with her husband and dog, and spends all day dreaming up stories full of really hot men.
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