Book Title: Leading Man (Hollywood Heartthrobs Book 1)
Author and Publisher: Valerie Ullmer
Cover Artist: Valerie Ullmer
Release Date: September 2nd, 2022
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: Interracial Romance, Feelings long denied, Insta love, Friends to Lovers, Opposites Attract, Hollywood Actor, Personal Assistant
Themes: Trusting Yourself, free to be who you want to be, pursuing dreams
Length: approx. 54 000 words/183 pages
It is part 1 of a 3 book series but does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Blurb
Spencer Atreus.
Gorgeous movie star, workaholic, and the ultimate laid back, can’t-help-but-love-him kind of guy.
Oh, did I mention gorgeous?
But the reason I, Westley Lee, hid my attraction to the man was two-fold.
I loved my job. As his personal assistant, he depended on me and I’d come to crave being wanted by him, even though it wasn’t exactly as I imagined. Also, being part of his life, even in the peripheral, was better than not being with him at all. And while it screamed desperation on my part, every intimate thought I had about him was locked in the recesses of my mind as I kept up appearances.
Until one night changed everything.
Seeing Spencer in pain crumbled all the walls I’d built between us to protect my heart. And in a moment of pure weakness, he saw through my barriers and I was unable to keep him in the dark about my feelings.
But will we find our happily ever after when a threat endangers our entire future?
I was single and eager to find another avenue of employment after I’d left a corporate job I hated, the one job that fit the Master’s in accounting and hospitality I’d earned the previous year. Despite my introverted, erudite personality, I found I meshed well with Spencer’s work ethic, so I had no issues working whenever he needed me.
What I hadn’t expected was the way my heart jolted with a surge of attraction for the enchanting, dark-haired man with satin gray eyes and a quick smile.
But my feelings of romance died a quick death. As close as we became after spending the bulk of our time together, there wasn’t any flirting or general signs of attraction on his part. With as many women as Mason threw at him, there was no use learning their names because they left as quickly as they arrived. And I knew if these gorgeous women never turned his head, I never stood a chance. With the parade of women coming in and out of the house, Mason also became flirtatious with me when Spencer was occupied. He, not the women, were the reason I stayed away from the main house unless we were working.
As time went on, I prided myself on being indispensable as an organized, proficient assistant. I observed, made note of everything, and never delved into his secrets. Never one to dwell on the impossible, I locked down my initial attraction and with it; I found myself unwilling to share my own private life with Spencer, not even the open fact I was gay. It wasn’t conscious on my part. I’d rather concentrate on what I could control and forgo the rest.
I wasn’t worried about his reaction. Mason was gay after all, but somehow, my instincts told me things would change between us if I divulged something so personal. And I wasn’t willing to risk my job.
We passed the next few hours with an examination, X-rays, and an orthopedist consultation. After much back and forth, the specialist determined Spencer didn’t need surgery, but he needed time to recover, which meant he was out of commission for the next month. Ice packs, decongestants to reduce swelling, and a fourteen-day run of prescribed antibiotics and pain medicine, along with an emphasis on the fact he couldn’t sneeze or suck on a straw during the time he was healing. Spencer looked so put out by the restrictions, I hid my smile at the last suggestion.
I dropped the pouting man at home, grateful to find it empty of guests as I dragged him upstairs.
“Will you be okay until I get back with your prescriptions?”
He stripped out of his shirt as I forced myself to keep my eyes from tracing the defined lines along his stomach. When he nodded, I escaped with a sigh. After a half an hour, I returned and let myself into the kitchen, whipping up a veggie and cheese omelette, two slices of toast, and finishing with a glass of milk, taking everything up to his room.
Since he was alone, I knocked once before I let myself in.
After cursing under my breath as the plate wobbled on the glass, I balanced everything before glancing up. The next words died in my throat.
There was Spencer, fast asleep, spread eagle on the bed, face up, and dressed in indecent, skintight boxer briefs. I forced myself to ignore the sight as my eyes moved up, watching for a moment as his chest rose and fell with deep breaths. I contemplated the best method to wake him without jarring his injury, but the problem solved itself when his head shot up as he sniffed the air. He opened his non-bruised eye and focused on the plate in my hand.
I shook myself out of my shocked desire and stepped closer. “Okay, pills time. And remember, you need food whenever you take them.”
He swung his legs to brace himself on the floor before he held out his arms. My instinct screamed at me to walk into his hold and kiss his injury better, but taking me by surprise, he stared at the plate in my hand and groaned, “Food.”
I held out the plate, and he snagged it out of my hand before he inhaled the hot meal and made another noise that did notgo straight to my already interested dick. Rather than acknowledge that tidbit of wank material, I busied myself with shaking out an antibiotic, punching out a decongestant pill from the sealed sleeve, and followed up with the pain pill. With them in my hand, I halted when he took a bite and whimpered, sending an unwanted flutter of something unfamiliar through me. Unfamiliar, yet salacious.
Valerie resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband. While she had been interested in writing a romance novel for years, it wasn’t until she wrote her first book that she really became hooked, and now she can’t stop. She has notebooks full of ideas, and she plans to write most of them in the years to come.
When she’s not writing or learning about the craft of writing, she can be found surfing the internet way too much, watching Investigation Discovery and thinking that her neighbors are up to no good, and finding new ways to get her husband to laugh.
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