“Now kiss me like you mean it.” Our teeth collide as Dale mouth bears down brutally on mine.

All I can think of to do is toss my head from side to side. To still me, he grabs my hair with one hand, and with the other he pulls my wrists over my head, pinning them to the damp ground.

“This’ll go easier for you if you behave, pretty boy,” he teases before his lips again devour mine.

When I can finally manage to twist my head to the side, my belly heaves, but all I bring up is spit. Though sickened and worn, my struggle rekindles when his fingers find my crotch, and I understand just what he has in mind. He rips down the zipper of my shorts, and then yanks them and my boxers to my knees. With surprising composure, he smooths his hand over my belly and groin. “Your skin is silky, just like I knew it would be.”

He then flips me over like I’m a child’s doll, and my fighting spirit returns in full force. “Don’t do this…” My kicking doesn’t help.

“I’m gonna do what I want now that I got you alone. You might even like it.”

He spits a few times and drives several fingers between my ass cheeks. I hear myself beg. “Please, Dale, don’t do this!” And then his bruising weight is just…gone. The probing fingers disappear. He no longer breathes into my ear. In fact, it’s obscenely quiet, and I’m incredibly aware of my naked‐ness. My need for modesty compels me, so before I think to pray or call for help, I yank up my shorts. Only then do I release the air bursting from my lungs—the breath I’ve held on to since I was dragged into the alley.

“You’re fuckin’ dead.” Not Dale’s voice. But one I know well. Bodie’s here… “Get the hell outta here, cowboy!”
I close my eyes in an effort to block out the world. Too bad life doesn’t work that way.

“Shut. The. Fuck. Up.” And then the sound of fists meeting flesh. Pounding and pounding. And soon a coppery smell. Blood.

“B-bodie?” My voice erupts as a mere rasp.
The sounds of a brutal beating stop. “I’m sorry,” he says. Strong arms lift me from the ground and carry me. I don’t ask where we’re going. I don’t much care. I just want to be out of this alley. Across the planet from Dale, if possible. Far from the excruciating pain and the smell of blood and the debilitating fear.

“I’m sorry—I should’ve taken care of you first.”

“It’s all right.” Damp and terrified, my shivering is out of control.

“This ain’t all right.” His breathing is more labored than mine.

“Set me on my feet, Bodie. I can stand.”

He hesitates while considering my request, but ultimately complies. “Can you hang on to me on the back of the bike? Do you have the strength?”

“I-I think so.”

He leads me to the parking lot behind Surf’s Up where his Harley is parked. “Let me help you get on.”

“Bodie, you can’t leave the bar. G-go back inside and tell Mika I’m sick. I’ll take an Uber home.”

“Fuck that.” He helps me to climb onto the bike and then carefully mounts in front of me. “Put your arms around me, Ollie.”

 

New England State of Mind Book 1

by Mia Kerick writing as Jude Munro

Genre: M/M Contemporary Romance

When they say be careful what you wish for, do you pay attention?

Neither did Oliver Tunstead.

Oliver wishes for nothing more than to get his mind off his crappy bartending job, pile of debt big enough to swallow him whole, and playboy ex-boyfriend/boss who refuses to back off. Too bad distractions, like the hot little convertible he has his eye on, cost megabucks. And Oliver is flat broke. Renting the spare bedroom in his rundown beachfront cottage is his only option to pick up the cash he needs—a risky proposition, as Oliver is the polar opposite of a people-person. When he responds to a bizarre ad in the Waterfront Gazette seeking summer housing, he gets more than he bargained for. But Oliver can cope… After all, how much harm can a single quirky tenant do to his tightly guarded life in three short months?

Where Oliver is a loner by design, urban cowboy Bodie is a loner by necessity. A family dispute long ago dropkicked him onto the path of a lifelong wanderer. This changes when Bodie moves into the tiny beachfront cottage and starts working the door at Oliver’s bar.

Despite Oliver and Bodie’s nearly paralyzing instinct to avoid commitment, they fall into a wary romance. And to their surprise, life as a couple is sweetly satisfying; that is, until their jealous boss devises a cruel plan to destroy the tentative bond they’ve built. True to form, Bodie hits the road, leaving Oliver to lick his wounds alone.

Can these wounded souls defy their urge to flee and fight for love?