Book Title: How to Bed a Millionaire
Author: Dieter Moitzi
Publisher: Self-published
Cover Artist: Dieter Moitzi
Release Date: July 7, 2021
Genre: Light M/M Summer Romance
Tropes: Friends to lovers, millionaire and poor student, summer romance
Themes: romance, love, comedy, summer, French Riviera, ritzy
Length: 70 309 words/ 247 pages
This is book #1 of the Light Hearts Trilogy
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A sunny-funny summer romance, first in the Light Hearts Trilogy
Blurb
Take a scrawny French student and a hunky housekeeper; put them in a swanky summer villa; add a pink car named Sean and a ruggedly handsome delivery man—and voilà a sunny-funny summer romance.
Twenty-year-old Trevor is overjoyed. An Australian millionaire offers him the summer job of his dreams: to catalog the library of his summer house in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat—one of the ritziest and most exclusive spots on the Côte d’Azur.
What unnerves him, however, is the presence of a young housekeeper who turns out to be as drop-dead gorgeous as he is stilted, obnoxious, and conspicuously straight. Of course, Trevor’s quirky sass and light-hearted banter soon create an atmosphere of crackling tension between the two men.
What if the housekeeper isn’t as straight as Trevor thinks? What if Trevor is just the kind of person that housekeeper has been looking for all his life? And what if things aren’t exactly what they seem?
“Oh my God!” Chao whispers. “Oh my God!” He shoves me aside to stare at the door which, yes, is pretty much closed now. “What have you done?”
“Er… I touched the door. Manifestly.”
“Why the dickens would you do that when I told you expressly not to?” He rubs his face.
“It was already too late!” I hiss. “What’s the big deal, anyway?”
“The big deal? The key’s outside! And without the key, the door cannot be opened from inside, you… you fuckhead.”
All right. We’re back to swearing.
I glower at him.
He glowers back, but I detect a hint of panic in his eyes. Apparently, being locked in doesn’t bring out the best in him.
“I’m sure a staff member will come and find us in no time,” I try to soothe him.
“But nobody’s here! Haven’t you noticed that yet? We’re all alone. Literally all alone, you and I!”
Oh. I guessed as much, yes. Frankly, I’d have preferred to get the confirmation under different circumstances, though.
“How come?” I ask, genuinely puzzled.
“I sent them all packing last week.”
That strikes me as a bit presumptuous on the part of a housekeeper. “Why would you do that?” I enquire. “Did someone touch your door inadvertently?”
Chao doesn’t find that funny. “They weren’t needed because I was supposed to stay here all by myself,” he spits. “I didn’t know a certain Mr. Trouble would show up in a pink yoghurt pot, run around half-naked, then get us trapped inside the food storage room.”
“So, you thought why not fire everybody? Your logic escapes me.”
“I didn’t fire them. I gave them paid leave, you sanctimonious nitwit.”
“How generous of you.” My voice is dripping with sarcasm. “But never mind. Basically, what you’re trying to tell me is that no one will come to get us out of here. Like, we’re definitely trapped.”
He nods with pinched lips.
I throw my hands up. “Well, great. Congrats. Let’s just stand around, then, and wait until we starve.”
He stares at me. If he were less la-di-da, he’d be doing something else, I’m sure. Like slap me or throttle me. Finally, he shakes his head and makes a slow hand movement to point at the full shelves around us. “Starve? Not very likely.”
“Oh. Right. Thank God for hand-canned sardines,” I say drily. “And, you know, preserves from Fauchon.”
“Your sarcasm isn’t helpful. You wouldn’t happen to have your cell with you, would you?”
I stupidly pat my pockets. “Er, no.”
“Fuck.”
We both know where his cell is—at the bottom of the pool—but I deem it wiser not to mention it. He really looks ready to blow a fuse. Hopefully he isn’t claustrophobic because I wouldn’t know how to deal with that.
I shiver and wrap my arms around myself. “Is it me, or is it freezing in here?”
“Duh. This room is basically a fridge. And I might add, you’re scantily dressed. Again.”
Lord, there are so many things I could reply with, none of them flattering. But at this point, I prefer to hold my tongue. I start to walk toward the back of the room instead.
“What are you doing?”
“Trying to check if there’s no other way out.”
“I don’t think so.”
“That sounds pretty much like ‘I don’t know for sure.’”
He doesn’t answer, just stares wretchedly at the door as if to pry it open by sheer telekinesis.
The shelves stop right before I reach the three freezers. And there’s… another door in the wall.
I turn around and grin cheerfully at Chao. “Come here, sunshine. Maybe I’ve found an emergency exit.”
Born in the early 70s, I grew up in a little village in Austria. At the age of 18, I moved to Vienna to get my master’s degree in Political Sciences, French, and Spanish. Today, I’m living in Paris, France, with my boyfriend and work as a graphic designer.
In my spare time, I write, read, cook fancy recipes, take photos, and as often as I can, I travel (Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Egypt, the UK, and many more places). My literary tastes are eclectic, ranging from fantasy, murder mysteries, gay romances to dystopian novels, but I won’t say no to poetry or a history book either. I’m more a hoodie/jeans/sneakers kind of guy than a suit-and-tie chap.
So far, I’ve published two short-story collections as well as four poetry collections. My first murder mystery novel “The Stuffed Coffin” has been released on January 6, 2019 and is also available in German and French. The French version has won the prestigious French Gay Murder Mystery Award 2019 (Prix du roman policier – Prix du roman gay 2019). My second novel “Till Death Do Us Part” was released on June 24, 2020. You can also find me on Rainbow Book Reviews, where I write book reviews under the pseudonym of ParisDude (for French reviews, have a look at my review site livresgay.fr).
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