Book Title: Reluctant Rockstar
Author and Publisher: Frances Fox
Cover Artist: Frances Fox
Release Date: August 1, 2023
Genre: Contemporary M/M Romance, MM Rockstar Romance
Tropes: hurt-comfort, found family, oblivious MC
Themes: gardening-as-therapy, finding yourself, rock band, mild D/s
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 24 000 words/ 95 pages
It is a standalone story and does not end on a cliffhanger.
Buy Links
Universal Link | Amazon US | Amazon UK
A tired rock star and a judgemental gardener…what could possibly go wrong?
Blurb
The Purple Lizards are a rock world phenomenon, but lead singer Martin’s tired of his rock-and-roll persona. He’d rather be at home with his garden. When he gets home from tour he finds his gardener has had a heart attack and Simon, his grandson, is helping him out. Simon’s different to Fred. He talks, for a start. Martin and Fred have a perfectly functional friendship based on long silences and discussions about heritage vegetables. Simon talks about personal things as well. It makes Martin prickly.
Simon’s at a bit of a loss. He stepped up to help his grandfather whilst he was in hospital despite his misgivings about the absent Martin. But Fred clearly likes him, which is unusual for a start. Fred prefers plants to people. That he actively likes a rock star who used to smash up hotel rooms is really strange. Simon’s reserving judgement. Apparently the band have a break in their tour coming up. He’ll see whether he can work for the man once he’s spent some time with him.
A tired rock star and a judgemental gardener…what could possibly go wrong?
Chapter 6: Simon
“We can’t do this again,” Martin said, roughly scrubbing his hands with the paper towels Simon had found in the glove compartment. “I…it’s not right.”
Simon shook his head. “What do you mean?” He was standing on the ground outside the passenger door. They’d had to perform a very gymnastic manoeuvre to get the door open and detach from each other without anyone dislocating anything.
“You’re my employee, you’re ten years younger than me; and Moira will get Fred to kill me and bury my body under a grapevine,” Martin said succinctly, finally scrambling out to join him, holding his undone trousers up with one hand.
There was a little pause.
“Ah, well,” Simon said, looking at him with his head cocked to one side. He held up his fingers, counting off Martin’s three points. “Temporary employee. Who cares, I’m twenty-seven, not seventeen. And as for Moira…” He stopped. “Well yes. That’s valid. Kind of. But I really don’t think she’ll be that pissed about it. She likes you a lot. She’s always going on about how worried she is that you don’t have someone.”
“I’m pretty sure her imagined someone doesn’t include her grandson, though,” Martin said, grimacing. “She’ll think I’m corrupting you.”
Simon snorted painfully. “You’re kidding, right?” he said. “She used to run these parties in London in the seventies, before she married Fred and ended up down here. Every so often I ask her about them and she says I’m too young to know. I’m not sure even Fred knows the half of it.”
Martin looked at him with arched brows. “Really?” he said. “Well, okay. Perhaps she won’t skin me. But it’s still complicated. It makes things complicated.” He looked at Simon sadly. “Things out there are complicated enough. I don’t want complications here, too.” He waved a hand around vaguely, but clearly enough indicating out there meant with the band and here meant Sandiford.
Damn.
“So…one and done, then?” Simon asked glumly. “We just pretend it never happened?”
He watched Martin bite his lip and look at the ground. That was not the expression of someone who was decisively ending a thing before it had really begun. Simon could see his point though.
Martin was a real surprise. Simon had expected a stereotypical rock-and-roll god, all mouth about gardening and the food bank, but not really engaged with it on a day-to-day basis. Instead he’d got a quiet, funny guy who was clearly very conflicted about a lot of things…his career, yeah, but Simon had also been very aware of the way he’d folded into Simon’s arms just now and let him take the lead. It was a definite contrast to how he was out of the sack. Passenger seat. Whatever.
Bearing that in mind, Simon took a careful step toward him where he leaned against the side of the van trying to tuck his shirt back in to his jeans. “A kiss for the road, then?” he asked. “If we’re pretending it never happened?”
Martin shot him a startled glance and then went back to concentrating on his buttons. Simon took another step and he looked back up at him, meeting his eyes. “Yeah,” he said with a smile. “Why not?”
It was different from before. That had been the culmination of a week of sexual tension bolstered by hot greenhouses and wet t-shirts. This was an after-sex kiss.
Simon relished it. Martin’s mouth was soft and warm and giving under his. He leaned his weight against the smaller man, pressing him against the side of the van. Martin made a sound of satisfaction and wrapped his arms around Simon’s waist, dragging him close. Simon rested his arms over Martin’s shoulders, first stretching them out on the roof of the van and then bringing them round Martin’s neck to burrow fingers into his hair and cup his jaw and put him where he wanted.
Martin liked that. He made a small sigh of satisfaction and allowed Simon to arranged him as he liked.
“There you go,” Simon said against his mouth between kisses. “That’s it. I’ve got you.”
There was a long, long interval of soft, sweet after-play. Stroking hands under untucked-again shirts. Open mouths and laving tongues along jawlines. Whispered breaths and quiet moans.
Simon felt them both begin to get hard again and he started to slow things down. Martin allowed it. Foreheads pressed together, they breathed in time, eyes shut, resting against each other.
Martin swallowed.
“One and done, yeah?” he said, quietly. “I wish it could be different. But I can’t.”
I’m a writer of MM Romance! The Rockstar Series is coming this summer. If you like to read spicy MM stories about vulnerable guys looking for love, I’ll have you covered.
Social Media Links
Blog/Website | Newsletter Sign-up | Facebook
Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win
a $20 Amazon Gift Card
