A warm welcome to author Brandon Witt back at love bytes to talk about his newest re release “Mascara & Bandages: A Mary Boys Novella”.

Brandon shares an exclusive excerpt and brought a wonderful giveaway with him!

Welcome back Brandon 🙂

Mascara & Bandages

Ariel Merman is a new drag queen who finds a family at Hamburger Mary’s. After a performance as Ariel, Zachary Cooper walks home in his makeup and is physically assaulted by homophobes. Zachary’s worry that the attack has thrown a wrench in his good fortune is eased when he looks into the eyes of his doctor.

Dr. Teegan Chau is a little lost after divorcing his wife and coming out of the closet, but he can’t deny his attraction to the young man he patches up. When Zachary takes the initiative and asks Teegan out, romance is the easy part of their blossoming relationship—as they deal with an ex-wife and child, being a drag queen in a heteronormative culture, Zachary’s lingering trauma, and Teegan acclimating to life as part of an out-and-proud gay couple.

The challenges seem daunting. Can Zachary and Teegan make it through the rough patches and take a chance on love?

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Teegan forced himself to check on a couple of other patients and kill some time talking to the nurses. The last thing he wanted was to go into the kid’s room—Zachary’s room—and get choked up. He needed to quit thinking of Zachary Cooper as a kid. He was only four years younger than Teegan, but he looked so small. So helpless. So broken.

Gay bashing was always going to be a thing. Violence against others would be a constant. It didn’t matter if it was due to sexuality, race, religion, or because you wore the wrong brand of tennis shoes in the wrong neighborhood. But the increase of gay bashing since the passage of marriage equality was getting to Teegan. It wasn’t rampant, only one every several months, but noticeable, nonetheless. And it mostly seemed to happen to the ones like Zachary. The smaller, more effeminate ones. The ones who both stood out and were seen as easy targets.

It made him angry. Well, that was an understatement. But it also made him feel guilty. He could pass as straight. Hell, he had passed as straight for twenty-eight years. And he had the ex-wife and daughter to prove it. And the times he didn’t pass, his lean, muscled body protected him from those looking for an easy outlet for their hate.

Teegan paused outside Zachary’s door, making sure he had his emotions under control. Chances were high Zachary would be asleep, but Teegan wanted to check anyway. Just to stand over his bed for a few moments, to guard him while he slept. The guy’s guardian angel was slacking, so someone needed to do it.

He opened the door and padded silently over the linoleum, past the bathroom and the empty bed, which he was sure wouldn’t stay empty much longer, and then over to Zachary. The only illumination in the room came from the hallway, the blinking lights of the machines, and the moon glowing through the sheer curtains. It was dim but bright enough to make out Zachary’s delicate features.

At first Teegan thought he was asleep, but then Zachary’s eyes fluttered open, and he flinched, letting out a soft cry of pain.

“Sorry.” Teegan held out a hand. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I wanted to check and see how you’re doing. I’m Dr. Chau. Do you remember me? I saw you right before surgery.”

Zachary’s eyes narrowed, then opened wider after a few moments. He started to nod, then grimaced.

“You don’t need to move. You’re going to be sore for a bit.” Teegan walked closer to the bed. He started to pull a chair over, then realized Zachary would have to turn his head to look over at him, so he stayed standing. “Do you go by Zachary or Zach? And you don’t have to answer if it’s too hard to speak.”

His lips moved tentatively before he actually spoke. “Zachary.” His voice was raspy.

Teegan reached for the water on the bedside table and lifted the straw to Zachary’s lips. “Here. Drink this if you can. Only small sips.”

He did, with only minimal wincing. “Thank you.”

Teegan’s eyes burned again at the words. He took a second before he spoke again. “I won’t keep you. You need your sleep. I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m okay.”

Teegan started to turn away, but then Zachary spoke up again. His voice sounded more alert. “Wait. You said surgery?”

“Yes. You don’t remember?” Fear flitted through him. Maybe the brain injury was worse than he’d estimated, though it was too soon to know.

Zachary’s brows knitted. “Kinda. It’s all foggy.” The confusion left his expression, replaced instantly by fear. “What surgery did I have? I hurt all over. What’s wrong?”

Teegan placed his hand on Zachary’s left shoulder, where he knew there were no injuries. “You’re going to be okay. Nothing huge. Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll be here when you wake up, and we can go over what injuries you have in the morning. Maybe when your family shows up.”

“I don’t have family. Well, except for Mary’s….” His gaze hardened suddenly. “No. Please tell me now. I’m awake, and I think I’m clear enough that I’ll remember.”

The strength in Zachary’s eyes and voice surprised Teegan. He was tougher than he looked, despite his small stature, hospital gown, and smeared mascara.

“You sure?”

“Yes.” There was no doubt in Zachary’s tone.

Teegan sighed. “Okay. It’s a pretty long list, but it looks like there’s no lasting damage, so it’s all basically good news.” He waited for Zachary to say something, but he didn’t. “You have three broken ribs. Two on the right side and one of your left. There’re several bruised and injured ones as well, but nothing was punctured, so we were fortunate in that sense. The spinous processes of your T12 and L1 have hairline fractures but there doesn’t seem to be any further damage to your spine, so again, we’re lucky there. Your right shoulder was dislocated and your ulna in your right arm”—he gestured to his own forearm—“is broken near the wrist. You have a slight brain contusion. Uhm, bruising and swelling, which makes sense given what you went through. I want to keep you for observation for at least another day, but I think we lucked out in that area as well, so you should be okay. Basically you have a lot of healing to do that will take a couple of months, maybe more. A lot of it will be pretty painful, honestly, but it seems as if nothing lasting has happened.”

“Wow. That’s a lot.” As Teegan spoke, Zachary’s eyes had continued to widen at the ever-growing list of injuries. He seemed as if he were now reciting the list in his mind. Zachary’s next words surprised him. “How’s my face?”

Teegan thought he must have heard wrong. “Excuse me?”

“How’s my face? Is it injured?”

“No. Well, you have a scrape on your chin that was probably from the impact with the sidewalk, I imagine, but your face is in good shape. Most of the time, with… situations like this, there’s broken noses or jawbones, missing teeth. I’m guessing you protected your face with your arms, which is probably how your ulna was broken.”

“May I see it?”

Teegan hesitated again. “Your face?”

Zachary started to nod but caught himself. “Yes, please.”

Again with the please and thank you. Like a polite child asking for a favor instead of a man who should be raging in anger. Teegan glanced around the hospital room. There would be a mirror in the bathroom, but he didn’t want to move Zachary. He almost rolled his eyes when the obvious solution hit him. “I’ll see if there’s a hand mirror at the nurse’s station. I’ll be right back.” He headed toward the door and then turned back around. “Will you be okay?”

Zachary smiled weakly. “Yes. But I’ll be better once I’m sure my face really is okay.”

There wasn’t a mirror at the nurse’s station, but one of them had a small compact in their purse. Teegan loosened the bandage as gently as he could and held the mirror in front of Zachary’s face.

Zachary gasped and raised his uninjured left arm and started to touch his chin, but paused with his fingers floating above the wound. “Will it scar?”

“No. I don’t think so. It’s superficial. If you apply vitamin E, I bet it won’t be noticeable in a few weeks.” Teegan marveled at the relief that washed over Zachary’s features. He seemed more concerned about the chin wound than the brain contusion. It wasn’t that he was unattractive. He wasn’t. His face was more nondescript than anything, though he did have symmetrical pleasantness about him. Typically the patients who were the most concerned about such small injuries were the ones who could pass for models or possibly found the majority of self-worth in their appearance. He hadn’t pegged Zachary as that type.

Zachary continued to inspect his reflection. “Oh, no. I look horrible.”

“I really think you’ll heal without any scarring.”

“No, not that.” Zachary moved his hand up to his mascara-smeared cheeks. “My makeup is all over the place. You must think I’m….”

As the words trailed off, Teegan heard behind Zachary’s tone some of the fragility that he’d expected at the beginning. Fragility that didn’t seem completely based in aesthetics, even if that was Zachary’s concern. Like he feared Teegan would see him as weak or… as whatever the ones who harmed him had seen in him. A burst of protectiveness surged through Teegan again. “Hold on. I’ll be right back.”

This scavenger hunt took less time since he knew which nurse to go to, and he was back in Zachary’s room in a matter of minutes. “One of the nurses had some makeup remover sheets or cloths—whatever they’re called. I can’t say I’ve ever taken off makeup before, but do you mind if I try to clean you up a little better?”

The expression that crossed Zachary’s face nearly broke Teegan’s heart. Zachary didn’t speak but nodded with a little wince.

Teegan sat on the edge of the bed facing Zachary, careful of the monitors and to not disturb or shift the mattress too much. After pulling out one of the wipes, he tentatively smoothed it over Zachary’s cheek with his thumb.

They were silent as Teegan cleaned one side, got a new sheet, then started on the other. Occasionally, Zachary’s gaze would flick up to Teegan’s, then dart away. Teegan thought his eyes were green, but it was hard to tell in the dim light. Zachary wasn’t handsome, but the more makeup Teegan removed, the… prettier Zachary looked, which seemed rather strange. As he worked, the silence grew charged with energy between them. At first Teegan thought he was making it up, but after a bit, he was sure Zachary felt it too.

Maybe the feeling was nothing more than their closeness. Zachary’s warm breath on Teegan’s hand. The heat of their bodies radiating off each other. The glistening of Zachary’s full lower lip, freshly cleaned and kissable.

Kissable! The thought jolted Teegan upright, causing Zachary to let out a groan as the bed shifted.

“Oh, sorry.” Teegan started to reach out and touch Zachary by way of apology, but drew his hand up short before he made contact. He moved for the compact instead. He held it up for Zachary’s inspection. “I… uhm… couldn’t get all of the mascara off, I was afraid of hurting your eyes, but the rest is clean.”

“That’s okay. I wear it by itself sometimes anyway.” Zachary looked at his reflection, then let out a relaxed sigh. “That’s better.” His gaze flicked up to Teegan’s and held this time. “Thank you, Dr.… I don’t remember your name.”

For a split second, he didn’t remember either. “Teegan, er… Dr. Chau. Dr. Teegan Chau.”

A shy smile played at the corner of Zachary’s lips. “Thank you, Dr. Chau.”

“You’re welcome.” Again he felt the urge to kiss Zachary’s lips. See if they were as soft as they looked. He broke their eye contact. “Well, I should let you rest. Anesthesia always wipes a person out.”

“Actually I do feel pretty exhausted, but it was so nice of you to….” His words trailed off, and his expression changed, a different emotion cutting through whatever had been between them a moment before. “Wait a minute. You said I had surgery. For what?” No sooner had he said the words than his eyes widened and he glanced down at his crotch.

So he did remember part of their earlier conversation. That boded well for his head injury.

Zachary gazed back up at him, fear in his eyes.

Teegan nodded, confirming the unspoken question. “Your right testicle was crushed and had to be removed. The left had a tear, but I was able to repair it.”

Zachary looked down at his crotch again, then back up at Teegan, before he darted his eyes quickly away to stare out the window. But not quickly enough to keep Teegan from seeing shame wash over him.

“Later you can have a prosthetic put in, but it may or may not be covered by your insurance. And there are choices to be made on what you’d like it to be. Before long you won’t notice that it’s gone.”

A tear glistened as it rolled down Zachary’s cheek, and he let out a broken laugh. “Well, I guess tucking will be easier from now on.” He glanced back over at Teegan, appearing shocked, obviously not having meant for Teegan to hear. “I just mean….”

Teegan rescued him, as much as he could but not nearly to the level he wanted to. “It will all be fine. I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through tonight. But you’re going to make a full recovery, and life will hopefully get back to exactly what it was before in a few months.”

Zachary wiped the tear away with his uninjured hand and met Teegan’s gaze once more. Strength cut through the exhaustion. “Thank you, Dr. Chau.”

“You’re welcome, Zachary. I’ll see you in the morning.”

After checking on a few other patients, Teegan crawled into the cot at the back of the break room to hopefully sleep for a while. At first he lay there, mentally raging at the ones who’d hurt Zachary. Wishing he could find them and pay them back tenfold. After a while, those thoughts gave way to the remembered heat between him and Zachary, or spark, or whatever it had been. Probably just in his mind. That’s what it had been—exhaustion and the fallout from an emotional case.

But those large, expressive eyes. And those soft lips….

Brandon Witt received his roots in the Ozark, grew wings in Denver, and is learning to fly in New Orleans. When not snuggled on the couch with his two dogs and his partner, Stephen, he is more than likely in front of his computer, nose inches from the screen, fingers pounding the keys.

 

Website: http://www.brandonwitt.com

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Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Brandon-Witt/e/B008FV6Y4M/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1454952325&sr=8-1

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4896623.Brandon_Witt

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO5cFqYKyNyDCxExAonFPRA

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