Fire and Clay by Noja Lina
General Release Date: 19th April 2022
Word Count: 49,053
Book Length: SHORT NOVEL
Pages: 178
Genres:
CONTEMPORARY,ENEMIES TO LOVERS,EROTIC ROMANCE,GAY,GLBTQI
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Book Description
Who will end up getting burned when they collide?
Ian is a skilled but foulmouthed photographer with an aversion to meeting new people, a short fuse and a relatively short stature. One evening, he starts a squabble with Victor before knowing that Victor is the best friend of Ian’s current crush.
With them being in the same social circle and Victor being a model and theater actor, they keep meeting over the course of several months. Their interactions feature an array of jabs at the other’s height, mild aggression and attempts to mock or one-up the other.
But, through instances of Ian involuntarily showing his caring side and Victor showing what he’s made of, several sparks and serious talks, some denial and three successful photoshoots, their relationship gradually evolves.
Will they get past their initial animosity? Will they get burned by colliding with the other? Or will fire come in contact with clay to create something beautiful?
Reader advisory: This book contains bullying, mentions of eating disorders, violence and threats.
Sweat had a habit of increasing when people stared—especially on a crowded and poorly ventilated bus on a humid day. However, by that point in his life, stares didn’t stimulate Victor’s sweat glands anymore.
Back in his teenage years, all the unwanted attention that came with having not-so-average features would curve his back and hook his gaze to the ground. Some people thought he was an exotic beauty. Some made fun of him for looking unlike everybody else. Too many people had too many opinions regarding him, and those opinions were all too different from each other. Being around people was intimidating and irritating.
Danny had always been aware of these things and had often tried distracting Victor by telling him a joke or a story to make him laugh. Many times, he’d succeed and Victor’s loud, baritone laugh called upon even more eyes to direct stares at him. Then, it had clicked. Deliberately making people’s eyes turn toward him alleviated the lack of control he had over his own existence and also gave him a bit of a thrill. That had been his first step in developing some self-confidence and a thicker skin against other people’s opinions.
Speaking of opinions, Ian’s assessments on him as a model looped within Victor’s mind far longer than he’d anticipated. When he’d called Victor “gorgeous” and “better than veteran models in some aspects”, it had felt surreal. Maybe that’s why it had left such a strong impression. On the flipside, Ian’s constant mocking of his height and designer knockoffs ignited Victor’s irritation in a way that was completely novel.
They had ‘accidentally’ stepped on each other’s feet, tripped, pushed and hit each other so much during the last two months that Hayden had advised them to get life insurance before meeting up again. Ian had ‘accidentally’ spilled his drink on Victor’s clothes during many outings while doing a fantastically poor job at not grinning afterward. Victor had been on the verge of violence on each such occasion, but he opted instead for saying things like “Should I get you another beer? I, at least, don’t have to show my ID when doing that…” because that always drove Ian nuts.
Whenever the four of them were supposed to go to a new bar, Ian never missed the chance to ask “Can the skyscraper fit in there?” while pointing at Victor. Whenever Victor had the chance, he’d look around asking if anyone knew where the hamster disappeared, then he’d look down at Ian and say “Oh, there you are!” On one such occasion, Ian had yanked him down by the collar, but Victor continued pouring oil over the fire by patting Ian’s head and saying “You could just ask me to bend over if you wanna see me. Or I could get you a telescope.” Victor was sure Ian would’ve bitten his nose off if Hayden hadn’t intervened right then.
Victor snickered as he remembered these things, not caring that it made people on the bus stare at him. It was new and unexpectedly fun having this kind of relationship with someone. Unlike with auditions, cast calls and other such situations, Victor had the chance to return all the meanness directed at him and it was cathartic, refreshing and thrilling. Playing with fire would obviously be thrilling and hot, but Victor would’ve been better off remaining unaware of those feelings.
Nolan had not done him any favors when, one day out of the blue, he’d asked Victor, “Are you and Ian dating?”
“No.”
“That was a strangely short answer… Would you want to?”
Victor’s software glitched and, after several failed attempts at getting some form of negation out through his mouth, he just grabbed his head and screamed.
Damn it! He couldn’t deny it even if it wasn’t true. He didn’t want to date Ian, just fuck him and overwhelm him. That little shit had no business being that hot while still being a little shit. He wasn’t even that attractive, but the way he acted kept stirring up things within Victor. When Ian had yanked Victor by the scarf after the snow fight, bringing their faces close together to make his threat more effective, a spark had appeared, and it had stayed lit within Victor ever since. That spark had no business being there—both because this attraction was illogical and because Victor had better survival chances in mating with a praying mantis than in mating with Ian.
Rubbing his face, Victor tried debugging his system of all such thoughts. That spark wasn’t going to lead anywhere, except maybe to third-degree burns, so he might as well ignore it until it got extinguished on its own. With Ian’s personality, that might happen seamlessly—and soon.
During that day’s photoshoot, Ian might have an ‘evil plan’ in store for Victor again. But instead of feeling dread or irritation at that prospect, excitement swelled up inside Victor’s stomach. The thought of withstanding any kind of shit Ian pulled with so much awesomeness that even the likes of Ian would be forced to acknowledge it, made Victor smirk all the way up to the bus stop closest to where Ian lived.
From there to Ian’s door, he thought it’d be fun using some seduction tactics to make Ian flustered. Victor could then use Ian’s slip-up against him whenever he’d get on his nerves in the future.
However, when the front door opened, Victor was caught off guard by Ian smiling from ear to ear with sparkles dancing in his eyes.
“Hello, Victor.”
“Uh, hi…”
“Okay, enough talk. Strip,” Ian said, clapping his hands together and still smiling widely.
Victor remained stiff for a moment, just staring at an overly enthusiastic Ian. “Oh, wow, I didn’t think I was capable of blushing anymore, but…” But Ian ordering him to strip made the blood rush to two different regions of his body.
“Are you uncomfortable taking off your clothes?”
“No. Acting school definitely cured me of that.” Victor belatedly realized he could’ve used that chance to make a sex reference and regretted not doing it.
“Did you ever act in a play naked?”
“Not officially, but there was an assignment where we had to perform naked.”
“Cool.”
“Yes, it was—in more ways than one.”
“Well, it’s sufficiently warm in here, so lose the wannabe fancy shirt. I gotta see what I’ll be working with,” Ian said, clapping and smiling widely again.
Victor wanted to joke by requesting striptease music but decided against it since Ian seemed eager to get to work as fast as possible. It didn’t look like Ian had any ‘evil plan’ for that photoshoot, just a lot of enthusiasm for the process itself. Ian’s passion radiating from every pore got Victor excited again. He couldn’t stop himself from smirking as he unbuttoned his shirt with his eyes glued to Ian.
When he was done with the last button, Victor took his shirt off with swift movements, slightly thickened his voice and looked through lidded eyes as he asked, “So…where do you want me?”
Ian wasn’t smiling anymore. Victor could practically see the lump in his throat going down as he swallowed hard. It had never occurred to him that he could impress Ian with his body. Working for a fashion magazine, Ian had probably seen many bodies far more breathtaking that Victor’s. However, seduction relied on actions and attitude more than attractiveness, so Victor knew that maintaining eye contact with Ian while undressing would have greater impact than the world’s most handsome man suddenly appearing there.
“Out of those pants for starters,” Ian said.
Victor tilted his head and wiggled his eyebrows.
Ian continued without playing along. “Wear the ones on the chair over there. Also, can you put contacts on by yourself or should I help?”
“I can handle it. Just tell me everything I need to do to prepare. But first, I gotta use your bathroom.”
“Sure. There’s a clean, orange towel in there that you can use to wipe off the sweat on your…” Ian trailed off while pointing and staring at Victor’s chest.
“Body?”
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Noja Lina
New writer on the romance block, Noja Lina likes writing uplifting contemporary romance stories. These stories are centered around engaging male characters, usually dealing with personal struggles alongside love struggles.
Noja lives in Romania, specifically Transylvania. When she’s not working at her full-time job or working on one of her stories, she enjoys her one-sided love relationship with various forms of Asian media, enjoys adding another cooking fail to the collection and hanging out with friends over a cold beer.
Find Noja on her website, on Facebook and on Twitter.
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