A New Empire by Layla Reyne
Series: Fog City #3
Publisher: Layla Reyne (Self-published)
Release Date (Print & Ebook/Audio): November 11 (Ebook & Print); Audio TBD
Length (Print & Ebook/Audio): Approx. 52,000 words
Subgenre: M/M Romantic Suspense
Warnings: Explicit sex; explicit language; violence.
Book blurb:
Legacies were made to be rewritten.
Assassin Hawes Madigan wants to do right–by his family, his organization, his city, and the man he’s falling for, ATF agent Christopher Perri. But Hawes’s rules are being challenged by someone willing to kill for the old ways. To save his soul and his empire, Hawes must make an impossible decision: fight from the outside or bend the knee to win back his throne from within.
Chris is used to being the inside man, the one undercover. Now, he’s on the outside marshaling forces in support of the man and the ring of assassins he was supposed to take down. His mission shifted when he found something that’s been missing for ten long years–a home, with Hawes.
As Hawes and Chris make a dangerous play for control, the lines between allies and traitors blur. Trusting the wrong person could destroy the legacy Hawes envisions for the Madigans. But not trusting anyone, or each other, could mean lights out on their love and lives forever.
The King and King Slayer fight together in this thrilling conclusion to the Fog City Trilogy!
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“I’m a little offended it took you so long to get up here.”
Hawes reached out and pushed back a strand of hair that’d fallen across Chris’s face. “I was trying not to seem desperate.” He lingered there, tangling his fingers in the hair at Chris’s temple.
Chris’s gaze raked down his body, to the erection tenting Hawes’s slacks. So much for not seeming desperate. Smile wicked, Chris shooed Iris off his lap and off the bed. Sitting up, he swung his legs around to hang on either side of Hawes’s. His molten gaze burned back up Hawes’s body, as did his right hand, up the back of Hawes’s thigh and over his ass, kneading a cheek possessively. “You desperate, Madigan?”
Stepping forward, Hawes wove both hands into Chris’s hair, loosening the hair tie so the strands fell loose through his fingers. He cupped the back of Chris’s head, tilted his face up, and stared into those dark eyes as relief pushed balance and steadiness back into him. So much relief. Chris was here, alive, and he was letting Hawes touch him like this, after everything. “More desperate than you know,” he said, voice rough with need. “But we should talk. So much has—”
“We’ll talk, but I don’t think that’s what either of us needs right now.” Hand tightening on Hawes’s ass, Chris drew him closer and nuzzled his belly. “And I know about desperate.” He opened his mouth, and warm breath seared Hawes’s skin. “Fuck, baby, I know.”
Hawes’s stomach more than flipped, and his right hand did a fine imitation of its somersaulting, flitting above Chris’s left shoulder. “But your injury.”
Chris captured his hand and pressed it lightly against the bandages. “This,” he said, then using Hawes’s hand in his, pulled Hawes onto the bed with him, and once they were stretched out, dragged Hawes’s hand down to his crotch. “Has nothing to do with this.”
Hawes curved his fingers over Chris’s dick, stroking it through the denim. Hard as Hawes’s, and by the groan that rumbled out of Chris, aching just as badly. “Are you—”
Chris surged up, cutting him off with a kiss that silenced any and everything but Hawes’s need to be with him. His need to taste every corner of Chris’s mouth, to bury his nose in the crook of his neck and inhale the scent of eucalyptus, to feel every inch of his body against—inside—his own.
Need that was reflected in Chris’s words when they next broke for air. “I’m sure I need to be back inside you, as fast as I can get there.” Chris lifted his right hand and cupped Hawes’s cheek. “As long as you’re sure too. But if you need to talk now, we will.”
Hawes muffled his strangled, bitter laugh in Chris’s palm. He was the one who’d murdered Chris’s partner, he was the one who’d lied time and again this past week, he was the one who’d shot him, and yet, Chris was here, in his bed, hard with want and handling him with care. If there was no doubt in Chris’s mind, there was certainly none in Hawes’s. He’d gotten over any doubt about where Chris’s heart lay during the night they’d shared at Chris’s place, and over any doubt about his allegiance last night when Chris had shielded him from flying bullets. Hawes’s heart and mind were in the same place—with Chris.
He kissed Chris’s palm, then reached across him to the bedside table and retrieved a condom and lube from the drawer. “I’m good with after.” Rising on his knees, he finished undressing them, and once stripped, rolled the condom down Chris’s dick. Chris shivered under him, bucked as Hawes stroked his erection, covering it in lube. Then Hawes reached behind to ready himself. “What’s easiest?” he asked on a panted breath as he worked himself open. “With your shoulder.”
Red streaked across Chris’s cheekbones as he eyed Hawes hungrily. “Ride me. Unless you need more, and then I’ll make it work.”
He would always need more, but he understood what Chris was asking. If he needed Chris to exert more control so Hawes could let go, he’d find a way. Like he’d been doing the past two weeks. Tonight, though, there was only one thing Hawes needed. Ready, he snagged Chris’s hand and brought it to his hip. “Keep me steady.”
Chris fanned his fingers over skin and bone and squeezed. Hard. “Always.”
RITA Finalist Layla Reyne is the author of Dine With Me and the Fog City, Whiskey Verse, and Changing Lanes series. A Carolina Tar Heel who now calls the San Francisco Bay Area home, Layla enjoys weaving her bi-coastal experiences into her stories, along with adrenaline-fueled suspense and heart-pounding romance. She is a RWA® RITA® Finalist in Contemporary Romance (Mid-Length) and Golden Heart® Finalist in Romantic Suspense.
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