Let’s give a warm Love Bytes welcome to author Sammi Cee , who is joining us today to talk about her new release “Kamari’s”, which is book 3 in the succesfull Takoda Outreach Center.
Check out the exclusive excerpt and have a chance to win a wonderful prize!
Welcome Sammi 🙂

Title: Kamari’s: A Best Friend’s Brother Romance

Author: Sammi Cee

Series: Takoda Outreach Center. Book 3
Genre: MM Contemporary Romance

Standalone: Yes, but more enjoyable if series is read in order

Tropes: Best friend’s brother, HEA, Close proximity, Friends to lovers

Amazon Buy Link

Blurb:

 

Sharing an apartment with your brother’s best friend wasn’t supposed to be complicated—or involve feelings.

In a triumphant stand, Lachlan tells his father he’s gay immediately following his high school graduation. He’s done letting the man who destroyed their family control him.

When Lachlan’s spontaneous declaration tilts his world on its axis, Kamari, his brother’s best friend, comes to the rescue and offers him the perfect solution. Roommates.

Fresh out of college, Karmari’s back in Takoda and ready to live his life to the fullest. He’s happy to help out Lachlan by giving him a place to stay, but he doesn’t expect how quickly they bond.

Lachlan’s eager for new experiences, and Kamari‘s more than happy to go along for the ride. But living in such close quarters, the lines between friendship and love start to blur. Can Kamari trust that Lachlan is old enough to know what he wants or will he let the man who’s already ruined Lachlan’s childhood convince him to let him go?

Takoda Outreach Center: When you’re holding hope in the palm of your hand… Low-angst. sweet stories of finding your happily ever after where you least expected it.

Takoda Outreach Center Reading Order

Heavenly Melody: Avi’s Takoda Outreach Prequel

Jasper’s: An Age Gap Romance

Fisher’s: A Contemporary MM Romance

Kamari’s: A Best Friend’s Brother Romance

 

 

When he’d walked into my room and told me he was scared to sleep in a new place alone, and asked if he could get in bed with me, it had felt so vivid and real, that I’d woken up actually lifting the side of my blanket so he could crawl in and cuddle up to me. That’s when I’d glanced at the clock, saw it was five am, and called it. Time to run these crazy thoughts right out of my system.

Finishing up, I opened the door, making a heavy-lidded, bare-chested, boxer-wearing Lachy jump. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were up. I wanted to use the bathroom before I go for a run.”

“You’re going to run, too?” I asked, perplexed. Was I still asleep?

He scratched the side of his head, his fingertips disappearing into his black, sleep-rumpled hair. It shouldn’t have been so adorable sticking out at all odd angles, but it was. Please tell me I’m still asleep.

“Yeah, I don’t really go to the gym too much in the summer since my job’s so physical, but I like to still get a run in. That path around the lake looks like a perfect spot.”

His hand dropped from his head to scratch through the thick, black hair matting his chest. Good Lord, he was only eighteen, how did he have so much sexy chest hair? Swallowing back a groan—and suppressing the urge to glide my fingers through that luscious hair—I fought the urge to run out of the apartment like a coward, and asked, “You wanna run together?”

He smiled, sort of dreamily, like maybe he wasn’t really quite awake yet, and said, “Sure.”

I stepped aside so he could take his turn in the bathroom, then banged my forehead into the wall the minute the door shut behind him. Being in the presence of the live version of the man I’d been dreaming of was definitely worse. This was supposed to be a win/win offer for Jasper’s little brother so that he had time to explore life and not stress about his living situation. Me fantasizing about him was not part of the deal. So, okay, maybe pretending to see him as a little brother type wouldn’t work. New Plan. Friends. We would be close friends. Friends and roommates who game together and run together. Perfect. Adjusting myself as I walked to the kitchen for water, I repeated my new mantra. Friends. Friends. Friends.

 

 

Lachlan~

 

I’d just pulled on a pair of sweats after my bath when Kamari yelled, “Dinner’s here.”

In the living room, on the two crates in front of the couch, were plates with a chicken sandwich, coleslaw, and macaroni and cheese on them. As I eased down in what had become my spot since my first night, Kamari walked in with two bottles of water. “This looks great,” I said, gesturing toward the food.

He handed me a water as he passed me to sit down. “I know chicken sandwiches are your favorite, so I figured we’d try the ones from the diner down the street. They haven’t done us dirty yet.”

Kamari and I both enjoyed keeping in shape, and neither of us particularly cared for fast food. After his third night at his new job, we’d both been pretty tired, and using my DoorDash app, we’d found a nearby diner to try. We’d ordered food from them three times since. “No, their food has been pretty amazing so far.”

To hide my pleasure at his thoughtfulness, I reached forward and grabbed my plate, then took a large bite of the sandwich.

Kamari wolfed a bite down. “Man, this is delicious.”

After I chewed and swallowed my own, I agreed. “It really is.”

“We have to try the breaded chicken next time. I bet it’s good.”

“You didn’t have to get grilled if you prefer breaded,” I said, still a little surprised that he’d remembered my off-hand comment about preferring a chicken sandwich over a burger any day.

He shrugged. “Na, I like both.”

We ate in silence, another thing that I’d learned about Kamari. He didn’t like to be distracted from his food, and he didn’t think mealtime should be accompanied with the TV on. After we were done, he grabbed our trash and took it to the kitchen. While he was gone, I gingerly moved back on the couch to recline in the corner. As much as the bath had helped, the tightness in my right shoulder sent a sharp pain from the base of my neck and down my back if I moved too quickly.

“You still hurting that bad?” Kamari asked.

I nodded. “Yeah, just my shoulder, really. I’ll rest tonight and tomorrow, and I’ll be good as new.”

Kamari gnawed that delectable lower lip between his teeth, then nodded—to himself I thought—left the room and came back in with a blue bottle with a pump. He waved it in front of me. “Get comfortable. This gel is the bomb. My moms gets it for me. I’ll rub some on your shoulder for you.”

Did he mean to touch me? With those long slender fingers? Good grief, just watching the man dance gave me a chubby. Wincing from the pain at turning my body too sharply, I grabbed one of the blankets on the back of the couch and covered my lap. Thankfully, the blankets had appeared one night after we’d watched a movie and agreed that while the air in the apartment was perfect to sleep in, it blew too cold while just hanging out. We’d both been battling goose-bumped skin and fighting sleep by the time the movie had ended.

Once I was reasonably comfortable, or as much as one could get when the guy they had no business crushing on had secretly become the object of their every fantasy, I looked up to find Kamari watching me with an odd expression on his face. “Um, I’m ready,” I said to break the awkward silence.

He blinked, then grinned—not his normally radiant toothy smile, not unhappy, but…something.

While he concentrated on pumping some of the gel into his hand and moving behind the couch, he said, “Uh, you should probably take your shirt off. This stuff goes on cool, but it kinda burns if it rubs up against cloth while it’s doing its thing.”

Glad that he’d moved behind me now so he wouldn’t see the blush scorching my face, I shrugged out of my t-shirt. Except for that first time outside of the bathroom, I’d made sure to keep my chest covered. It made me self-conscious knowing that he’d be able to see my chest hair when, judging by his weird reaction in the hall, it grossed him out or something, but I couldn’t think of an excuse to leave my shirt on if he planned to rub the gel on the pain in my shoulder.

The first swipe of the gel on my back startled me with how cool it felt on my skin. It warmed quickly under the heat of Kamari’s hand, his fingers massaging into my shoulder blade. An involuntary groan slipped past my lips as he added his other hand and really dug into my flesh all around the injured area. It felt so good. Kamari’s hands on me—something I’d begun longing for—left me aching. By the time he began massaging my neck and then both my shoulders, I couldn’t even think. I became a boneless heap of loose muscles and x-rated thoughts, and since he couldn’t see my face, I sighed in pleasure and let myself be swept away.

Sammi Cee was raised in a family of readers. Summer vacations consisted of a good book while sitting lakeside from as far back as she could remember. After growing up and having her own children, her appreciation of how the written word could transport you on an adventure, bring you to tears, or give you hope, took on a whole new meaning.

These days Sammi is watching her children develop into fine young ladies while doing the things she enjoys most: drinking coffee, eating chocolate, and writing her own stories.

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