Title: A Little More Trust
Series: Hot Property, Book One
Author: Pauley J Ray
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: 09/06/2022
Heat Level: 3 – Some Sex
Length: 84600
Genre: Contemporary, LGBTQIA+, alpha males, blue-collar, businessman, home repair
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Description
Ethan Scott has everything he could possibly want: an amazing career, great friends, and more money than he’s ever dreamed of. Oh, and men. So many men. Yep, life is perfect, and he doesn’t ever see it changing.
Nate Sullivan has sworn off men. They can’t be trusted. Simple as that. After years of being lied to by the man he thought he loved, the very married man with a wife and kids, he’s promised to never give his heart away or get emotionally attached to anyone again.
Ethan thinks it’ll be a sure thing to get Nate into his bed, but when the sexy and frustrating decorator rebuffs him at every turn, he comes up with a new plan to tempt the man he can’t stop thinking about. A sex agreement. For the duration of Nate’s work contract, with no strings attached and definitely no hearts and roses or emotional fallout.
It sounds like the perfect deal. Nate gets to have the man he’s been craving since they first met before walking away, his heart intact. Ethan gets to have Nate in his bed, finally satisfying the itch he’s constantly trying to scratch. Problem is, Ethan’s still trying to extricate himself from his disastrous marriage and if there’s one thing Nate won’t touch, it’s a married man. When Nate finds out what Ethan’s been hiding, the betrayal of trust leaves him devastated.
Nate leaves, but Ethan’s determined not to let him go. Will Nate give him the chance to explain, or will he risk losing the only man he’s ever truly loved?
A Little More Trust
Pauley J Ray © 2022
All Rights Reserved
What a stupid idiot. A total, stupid idiot, I admonished myself as I fled Ethan’s house and almost ran to my pickup, slamming the door shut firmly behind me. Closing my eyes, I leaned against the headrest, banging my head on the foam a few times while my hands white-knuckled the steering wheel. But even behind my eyelids, I could clearly picture the man who made me more nervous than anyone I’d ever met.
Boy, he was something else. With his short, messy brown hair, close cropped beard that accentuated his chiseled jaw, straight nose, and sensuous lips I wanted on my own. And holy moly, his eyes, a deep, dark chocolate color I wanted to lose myself in. He could easily have been a model. Not one of those catwalk ones. No, with his muscles, I imagined him shirtless and on the cover of some fitness magazine, his skin glistening with a sheen of sweat I desperately wanted to run my tongue over, to find out if he tasted as good as he looked.
Sucking in much-needed air, I gripped the steering wheel even tighter, thankful my baggy t-shirt was hiding my first erection in months, which still throbbed painfully behind my zipper.
My brain ran over the conversation with my potential client, and I cringed. Talk about sexual innuendos. What the hell had gotten into me? I hadn’t meant the words the way they’d come out, but I should have guessed he’d be the type of guy to push things. The man was sex on a stick for heaven’s sake. Give him an inch…
God, I’d like to give him more than an inch.
“Stop it, stop it, stop it,” I shouted to myself. “Christ, what’s wrong with me?”
A sudden knock on the side window made me jump, and I turned my head and opened my eyes to see Ethan standing on the other side of the glass. I let out a long sigh and reluctantly lowered the window and stared at the man whose only goal was screwing with my head.
He grinned before saying, “You okay there, Nate?”
I gritted my teeth, trying to bring my emotions under control, which wasn’t easy when Ethan rested his large hands on the door frame and leaned into me. He smelled of earth and musk and a faint trace of coconut. I inhaled deep, his essence filling my lungs.
“Nate?”
What the hell was I doing? “I’m fine, thank you,” I managed to get out.
The sexy man focused squarely on me; his intelligent eyes locked on mine. Probably trying to figure out why he was staring at a mad man who shouts at himself in his truck. He continued to study me, and my pulse ticked up as time slowed between us. He jerked his chin once as if he’d come to a decision. “You ran off before I could say anything.”
I waited tensely for what came next, so sure I’d messed up my chances at what would be a lucrative job. My next couple of clients had called earlier in the week to cancel their bookings. One due to illness and the other due to a relationship split, so I needed this job, but after my cringeworthy performance a few minutes ago, I doubt I’d be considered.
“I’d like to hire you,” he said, and I clamped my jaw shut to prevent my mouth falling open in shock as I gawped at him like he’d gone crazy. He must have sensed my skepticism as he gave another heart-stopping smile. “I liked your ideas for the place, and I want you to be the one who puts them in to practice.”
I managed to push out a choked, “Really?”
His chuckle rippled over my skin. “Really.”
Unable to think of anything else to say, I stared at him in disbelief before my overactive brain kicked into gear. “But you don’t know how much the job’s going to cost.”
He dismissed my response with a flip of his hand. “You come highly recommended, and I don’t for a second think you’ll try and rip me off so, again, I want to hire you.”
“Thank you,” I replied, still somewhat stunned and a lot relieved.
“Don’t thank me yet.” And Ethan’s grin turned up a few megawatts making my toes curl. “I’m one of those rich people, remember, so I have no taste and I’m duty bound to criticize.”
Laughing at his comment, I was shocked by the alien sound, it’d been so long since I’d heard it. There’d not been a lot to laugh about in the last eighteen months since Steve, and I hadn’t thought I ever would again. Looking into Ethan’s dark eyes, I thought I caught a glimpse of a more heated emotion behind his teasing words. “I’ll bear it in mind,” I said, my voice lower than normal.
“So, can you start on Monday?”
My eyes lowered to Ethan’s big hands gripping the car door, the muscle in his
forearms shifting under his skin. What would it be like to have those hands on me, gripping my arms tight as he held me against him? I forced down the shudder trying to escape as excitement rippled through me. I shouldn’t want this, not after everything I’d been through. But the idea of being in this man’s space, the chance to be closer to him for the next few weeks was too tempting to ignore.
I gave a curt nod, and my heart rate increased at the satisfied expression on Ethan’s face, like I’d given him the best present ever. He stood up to his full height, and I had to crane my neck to look up at him through the driver’s side window. “See you Monday, Nate.”
I studied the charismatic man for a moment as he stepped away from the truck onto the sidewalk. Was I actually going to do this? As I fired up the engine, I had my answer in a heartbeat. Yes, yes, apparently, I was. “See you Monday, Ethan.”
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Pauley J Ray has been making up stories in his head for as long as he can remember, and now gets to write those stories down in his own gay romantic fiction, involving sexy, complicated, and flawed characters searching for their happily ever after.
When not writing, he loves meeting up with friends and can’t wait to get outdoors with his husband, hiking, camping and traveling to new and exciting places as often as they can.
He feels extremely lucky to be able to sit at his laptop, all day, every day, creating the heartfelt, angsty and passionate romance books he himself loves to read.