Book Title: A Little More Trust
Author: Pauley J Ray
Publisher: NineStar Press
Cover Artist: Jaycee DeLorenzo
Release Date: September 6, 2022
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: Opposites attract, businessman and blue-collar worker, richer vs poorer
Themes: Dealing with cheating and betrayal. Trust is a fragile thing
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 84 600 words /311 pages
This is the first book in the Hot Property Series. Each of the four books will concentrate on a different main character from a successful construction company. Each successive book will include spoilers from the previous one if the books are not read in order.
This book does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links
NineStar Press | Barnes & Noble
Sometimes it’s harder to trust than to love
Blurb
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?
My hands gripped his biceps as he deepened the kiss and slid his tongue against my lips. They parted of their own accord, and he delved inside, taking exactly what he wanted, my own tongue duelling with his, tasting the beer he’d been drinking and the bittersweet flavor all him.
Opening myself wholly to the kiss, I swayed into him, only to feel the frustrating, and familiar cold sliver of fear run down my spine. The inner voice, the one I always used to protect myself, reminded me why I didn’t do this. Why I couldn’t do this if I wanted to ensure I stayed intact, and I instantly stiffened, cursing at not being able to move forward when the decision had already been made. I so wanted this, what Ethan offered, so why was letting go and surrendering to my needs so difficult?
He must have sensed the shift in me as he gently separated us, and the desire I’d seen in his eyes moments before was replaced by a questioning look. “What is it, Nate?” he asked, his deep voice sliding over my heated skin. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.” As if sensing the struggle warring inside me, he asked again, “Please, tell me?” He was trying his best to get through to me to know why I’d shut down.
Again.
I turned away from him, my shame filling me at my inability to move past this. Ethan placed his finger under my chin and gently drew my face up to look at him, and the compassion in his eyes made my heart ache.
“I’m trying, Ethan, and I want this, I really do, but I can’t…”
“Can’t what,” he coaxed.
“I just can’t.” I shook my head in frustration, the words not coming as I tried to tell him I wanted what he offered so much, but my past continued to hinder me, and I needed something, anything, to help me overcome my fears.
“Why not?”
Ethan wasn’t stupid, and he must have guessed my breakup last year went deeper than a simple split and was the reason why I kept hesitating.
“What are you expecting to happen here?” he asked.
I frowned, unsure of what he wanted me to say. “I-I…” When nothing else came out, Ethan took the initiative to make things clear. “I want you, Nate. In my bed.” The intense look on his face instantly ramped up my desire. “And I can tell you want me too.” When I agreed, he carried on. “So, what’s holding you back?”
Unable to look at his handsome face, I averted my gaze. “I know you don’t want a relationship, and I’m okay with that. It’s just—”
“Just what, Nate,” he prodded.
I took a fortifying breath. “I haven’t been with anyone since…” I tried to say his name out loud, but it stuck in my throat. “Since my ex and I…” God, this is embarrassing to say. He’s bound to think I’m some stupid dork with absolutely no clue of how to please him in bed, and he’d be right. I wasn’t overly experienced sexually, and Steve had been quick to seize on my lack of knowledge whenever I didn’t perform as he expected me to. “I don’t want to disappoint you.”
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.
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