Book Title: The Red Zone
Author: Beth Bolden
Publisher: Beth Bolden Books
Cover Artist: Cate Ashwood Designs
Release Date: August 11, 2021
Genre: Contemporary gay romance
Tropes: Friends to lovers, sportss
Length: 97 000 words
It is a standalone story.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
Spencer’s deep in the Red Zone and it’s time to even the score.
Blurb
Nine years ago Spencer Evans became the first player out of the closet to be drafted into the NFL. Everyone believed he had aspirations to change the world but all Spencer ever wanted to do was play football for a team that accepted him wholeheartedly. But they never would, and Spencer began to conceal all the parts that made him different.
When a terrible injury forces him to re-evaluate his life and his choices, he realizes there’s only one man who can help him.
The very first gay sports agent, Alec Mitchell has given his life and his career to making queer athletes’ dreams come true. He can’t help but think of Spencer as the one who got away—professionally and personally.
Alec thought he’d buried his desperate longing for Spencer ages ago but it turns out it was just lying dormant, waiting for the right spark. When he begs Alec to take him on as a client, everything they’ve been burying for years surfaces once again.
With Alec’s help, Spencer can change everything about his life he’s come to hate. An extraordinary future—and an undeniably extraordinary man—are waiting for him. The play has been called. All he has to do is catch the ball and score.
Got an appearance on Good Morning Football tomorrow, the message read, and trying to figure out what I should wear.
Spencer ignored how his fingers were trembling, and after thinking for a moment, typed back, That blue shirt, the one that made your eyes pop last time.
Didn’t know you noticed, ’cause you never told me. Not cool. Alec’s texts always came through so quickly, it was like he couldn’t wait to answer, and they never failed to make his heart beat a little faster. Not just because of the inevitably flirtatious nature of the words, but because Alec obviously wanted to talk to him.
I noticed. He’d done a lot more notice. Spencer wasn’t proud of how far Alec could push him sometimes, but nobody needed to know that he’d watched that particular segment with his hand wrapped around his cock, imagining Alec crawling towards him, those unearthly eyes alight with pleasure and interest and affection.
Can’t wear the same thing, even if you like it. What about this one?
The best—and the worst—were the selfies that Alec would send. This one was not only hot, with Alec draped in a silvery-gray shirt, a few little tantalizing glimpses of skin on display, his handsome face was warped in a silly expression, his tongue out.
Spencer would definitely be keeping this one for later, the ridiculous face and all.
Gray is so boring, though.
But Alec? Alec was anything but boring. He was interesting and funny, and God, he set Spencer’s insides alight with all his fierce loyalty and the joy that was right there, just below the surface.
Not for the first time, Spencer considered just dispensing with the pleasantries, and saying, let’s meet up. Tonight. I can’t do this anymore, you’re making me crazy. I need to know what you feel like. I need to know what you taste like.
But he didn’t, because the chance of all of this ending, of Alec turning him down, was too terrible to contemplate.
If he lost him . . . even the tiny bit of Alec that he was privileged enough to know . . . Spencer didn’t know if he’d ever get over it. Surely, Spencer thought, if Alec wanted something to happen, something would have happened.
No, he just wanted to text. So Spencer would text.
Is it boring on me, though? Another picture came through, this one with Alec batting his eyes adorably.
Spencer laughed out loud. Couldn’t help himself.
Before he could overthink it, he switched apps, and took a short video of himself nodding vigorously, and then sent it off.
Alec’s reply came back almost instantaneously. You’re the worst. No gray, then. What about dark blue?
I like blue, Spencer texted back. But not as much as I like you.
Always with the blue, Alec responded, don’t you like anything else?
The answer was easy enough. He didn’t think about it too much before he typed it out and pressed send. It was simpler with Alec to not spend too much time and effort worrying about being too forward.
The only thing he couldn’t do was take it off texting.
But for the last year, it hadn’t just been him pushing them further, it had been Alec, too.
Yeah, give you two guesses what else, and the first one doesn’t count.
A lifelong Pacific Northwester, Beth Bolden has just recently moved to North Carolina with her supportive husband. Beth still believes in Keeping Portland Weird, and intends to be just as weird in Raleigh.
Beth has been writing practically since she learned the alphabet. Unfortunately, her first foray into novel writing, titled Big Bear with Sparkly Earrings, wasn’t a bestseller, but hope springs eternal. She’s published twenty-three novels and seven novellas.
Author Links
Blog/Website | Facebook | Twitter | BookBub
Instagram | Newsletter Sign-up
Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win
a $25 Amazon gift card
