Paolo paced the cafe with scratchy eyes and an aching head, listening out for the tap at the back door, despite the fact that it was, as ever, four in the morning, a full hour before Luis usually showed up for work. And even that was another hour before his official start time. There was every chance he wouldn’t rock up until six. If he turns up at all.
Groaning, Paolo dropped into the nearest chair and buried his head in his hands. His memories of last night were fuzzy thanks to the bottle of Toni’s finest they’d sunk. He should’ve warned Luis that shit crept up on a man, but he’d been too busy kissing him. Idiot. He’s supposed to be able to trust you, not worry about you throwing yourself at him every time you have a beer together.
Reason told Paolo it hadn’t gone down that way. That it was Luis who’d made the first move. Luis who’d pushed him against the front door and kissed him. Luis who made his dick so hard it gave him a stomach ache. But as Paolo sat alone in the dark cafe, reason seemed a distant memory. All he could clearly recall was waking alone on the couch with the imprint of Luis’s mouth on his lips.
Damn fucking chianti.
With another groan, he hauled himself to his feet and finished up the jobs he’d neglected last night. At quarter to five, the delivery arrived with crates of bacon, sausages, eggs, and black pudding. The bakery lorry arrived next with the bread. And then the milkman, and the greengrocer with the mushrooms and tomatoes. Paolo signed for it all, then gazed around the kitchen. Putting the deliveries away by himself had been his normal until a few weeks ago, but he’d grown used to Luis helping, or sometimes even taking the task away from Paolo entirely. How did I ever manage without him?
The thought solidified the fear that he’d truly fucked up last night. If Luis freaked out and left, Paolo would be on his own again, and it scared him more than he cared to admit. Less work gave him more time to do the things that mattered, like keeping the accounts in order and visiting Toni and Nonna. Like sleeping and eating proper meals. Luis’s company mattered too. He didn’t talk much, but he didn’t have to. His quiet presence was a balm to Paolo’s noisy soul, and Paolo needed that in his life like he needed cold beer and hot coffee. More than that.
Despite waiting for the soft tap at the back door, when it came, Paolo jumped a mile. He set down the box of bacon he’d been ferrying to the fridge and opened the door.
Luis was stood where he usually stood, three feet back, as if he expected the door to be slammed in his face, half hidden by the shadows of the lingering night. A night that had ended with them kissing against a different door.
Stop it.
Paolo waved Luis inside. Luis passed him in a haze of fresh scented shampoo and man, and Paolo’s head spun, but he blamed the smouldering hangover at the base of his skull and ignored it. “Can you put the rest of this away? I need to brush down the grill.”
Luis nodded. “Sure.”
He reached for the bacon box Paolo had abandoned and took it to the fridge. Despite having a million and one things to do, Paolo didn’t move.
Luis came back and eyed him over the stack of boxes still cluttering the kitchen. “What’s up?”
“What?”
“You seem out of it. Hungover?”
“Little bit,” Paolo admitted. “What about you?”
“Not yet. Ask me at lunchtime.”
Luis’s grin was as quiet as the rest of him, and Paolo spent much of their time together chasing it down, needling Luis until he set it free, but in the growing light of the early morning, it wasn’t enough. Paolo was torn between wanting to punch him and kissing him again.
And again. And again.
He couldn’t remember why they’d stopped.
Reformed gangster Luis falls hard for his boss. When friendship turns to love, it’s up to Paolo to convince him second chances are worth the pain.
Luis Pope is back on the street after a six year stretch in prison, but life on the outside seems just out of reach, especially when the whole neighbourhood knows his face for all the wrong reasons.
Paolo’s temper makes it hard to keep staff, and he knows Luis’s rep all too well. But his nonno believes in redemption, and Luis isn’t the tough guy Paolo remembers. Prison has left its mark, inside and out, and all the kindness in the world can’t fix the three inch scar on Luis’s skull.
And it can’t keep ghosts locked up. Luis’s the best worker Paolo’s ever had, and Luis’s happier than he’s ever been. But his old life doesn’t want to stay in the past. Trouble comes to call, and when it makes him an offer he can’t refuse, keeping Paolo safe hurts the most.
Redemption is an angsty, standalone MM romance novel, with second chances, found family, friends-to-lovers, and buckets of hurt/comfort themed loveliness.
Garrett Leigh is an award-winning British writer and book designer.
Garrett’s debut novel, Slide, won Best Bisexual Debut at the 2014 Rainbow Book Awards, and her polyamorous novel, Misfits was a finalist in the 2016 LAMBDA awards.
When not writing, Garrett can generally be found procrastinating on Twitter, cooking up a storm, or sitting on her behind doing as little as possible, all the while shouting at her menagerie of children and animals and attempting to tame her unruly and wonderful FOX.
Garrett is also an award winning cover artist, taking the silver medal at the Benjamin Franklin Book Awards in 2016. She designs for various publishing houses and independent authors at blackjazzdesign.com, and co-owns the specialist stock site moonstockphotography.com with renowned LGBTQA+ photographer Dan Burgess.
Website: http://www.garrettleigh.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/garrettleighauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Garrett_Leigh
