Book Title: Sweet as Pie
Author and Publisher: Beth Bolden
Cover Artist: Morningstar Ashley Designs
Release Date: April 13, 2023
Genre: Contemporary MM romance
Tropes: Grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract, small town
Themes: Family responsibilities, necessary change, unexpected love
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 80 000 words
It is a standalone story.
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Blurb
Luca Moretti is grumpy—and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Wrangling six—Italian—siblings and the family’s restaurants would make anyone cranky. But when his mother requests that he save his aunt’s struggling Italian deli in charming, picturesque Indigo Bay, he has no idea that he’s about to overdose on sweetness.
Luca expected his aunt’s stubbornness—she’s a Moretti, isn’t she?—and his cousin’s resistance to actual work, but the last thing he expected is the absolute ball of sunshine known as Oliver Billings.
Oliver loves Indigo Bay. Loves owning his small artisan bakery, Sweetie Pie’s. Helps nice old ladies cross the street. Even volunteers for the local Sweethearts Festival.
Sweet isn’t really Luca’s style, or so he thinks. But when he discovers Oliver can be a little spicy too, his prickly exterior begins to crumble like a well-baked crust.
If Luca isn’t careful, he’s going to develop a taste for sweets—and a particular baker’s pie.
And one or two servings will never be enough.
Then the man lowered the box, and Luca realized why he’d been feeling dejá vu since the moment of the collision.
It was the same man from the car.
The man he’d not wanted to find attractive, because he’d lectured him, unbearably, on crosswalks and how to use them, but had anyway.
Out of the car, he was even more attractive. Taller than Luca had imagined, but still a few inches shorter than him. Slim and strong. The purple beanie was gone, and a messy fringe of sandy brown hair swooped over his forehead.
“You again,” the man said, clearly unhappy if his frown was anything to go by. “Do you ever watch where you’re going?”
Luca knew he was supposed to apologize. Beg for forgiveness, maybe.
But instead he was thinking about the man making him beg for something else.
“I was—”
“Probably looking at your phone again,” the man said, not letting Luca even get the rest of his sentence out.
“Uh . . .” Luca hesitated. Because he had been doing exactly that. Again. At least he’d been doing it on the way out of his bed-and-breakfast, and not while he was crossing the street. “Sorry. It was an important message.”
Those hazel eyes, glowing and intent, swept up and down him. Taking in every single inch of his T-shirt and shorts. The bare legs and the bare arms. Luca felt naked under his gaze.
Naked and aroused.
“So you do know how to apologize,” he said archly.
“Yes.”
“Well, luckily for you, you didn’t wreck the muffins. Joy would’ve had your head.”
“Joy . . .”
Luca was not used to men leaving him this tongue-tied. He could be charming. He could. But he felt like he was still catching up from the first time they’d met, and now this occurrence had set him back even further.
“She owns the Sweetheart Inn?” The guy shook his head. “You really are kind of clueless, aren’t you?”
“Not usually,” Luca managed.
“Oh?” An eyebrow went up.
Luca liked sex, though he’d always assumed he had pretty vanilla tastes. But the idea of this guy hovering just out of touch, completely naked, as Luca groveled and begged for any scrap of attention, turned him on beyond belief.
But it was so foreign. So strange. So utterly unlike anything he’d ever imagined wanting that he shut that thought right down.
“Trust me, it’s not usually an issue,” Luca said, more firmly this time.
“See that it isn’t,” the guy said. He re-arranged the box, gripping it with one hand as he shoved a hand through his hair. “I’m thinking maybe you need a proximity alert, so I can avoid all potential accidents.”
“You’re saying you don’t want to see more of me?” Luca grinned.
Luca felt the heat in the glare directed his way. “I’m sure that’s not an issue you typically have.”
Okay, so they’d each noticed the other was attractive. That wasn’t crazy. Lots of people thought Luca was attractive. If he wanted a date, he never had trouble getting one. It was the second date that typically didn’t go well.
And the guy? Luca had thought he was attractive in the car, lecturing him, but out of it, he was really attractive, so no, it wasn’t exactly a shock.
“No,” Luca agreed calmly. He wasn’t going to apologize for being good-looking. Or pretend he wasn’t. That would be stupid.
“You staying here?” the guy asked.
You wanna come up to my room and see? The question was right on Luca’s tongue, and he was debating on whether it would be insane to ask it, but after he nodded, the guy plunged ahead.
“Then I’m sure I won’t be able to avoid you,” he said. “See you around.”
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 has published over forty novels and novellas.
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