Book Title: The Deviation
Author, Cover Artist, and Publisher: Rebecca Raine
Release Date: December 17, 2025
Tense/POV: first person, present tense, alternating POV
Genres: Contemporary MM Romance
Tropes: Rock star, first time bi, workplace romance, forbidden love, found family
Themes: Pining, coming out, integrity, trust, belonging, loyalty
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 88 000 words
It is Book 3 in a series where each book can be read as a standalone.
It does not end on a cliffhanger.
HEA guaranteed.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
When my quiet life fell apart, he turned up the music in my soul. How do I pretend we never happened?
Blurb
Johnny
I did everything my parents wanted: got a respectable job, married my childhood sweetheart, and pushed my rock star dreams into the background. It was enough for me… until my divorce cracked open the cage.
Now old cravings rush to the surface, and I ache to satisfy each one. Starting with the gorgeous man I lock eyes with at a musical festival. Calum is all kinds of perfect. As a manager, he could accelerate my music career. As a man, he reignites the fire in my soul. I can’t have him both ways.
When my band signs with Calum’s company, we agree to keep our distance. No one can know we’ve met before. How far we’ve gone. How deeply we’ve tasted. Our futures depend on the secrets we must keep.
Calum
If I’d known who Johnny was the night we met, this never would have happened. Getting involved with a client is forbidden, and I can’t risk my job—or my sister’s security—for some lust-fuelled romance.
Working together doesn’t have to be complicated. That’s what I tell myself every time we avoid touching. When his eyes tease, and his lyrics seduce. As our professional successes mount, the connection between us only grows stronger.
There are lines we can’t cross. Boundaries we can’t break. But when Johnny is all I want, all I think about… how do I stay away?
“Can I have a minute?”
Johnny’s eyes flash. With heat or anger, I’m not sure. He half turns to Gavin and Ned, who have stopped outside the open doorway. “You guys go ahead. I’ll be right behind you.”
The moment they’re gone, he comes at me. I rush to back up, but the empty foyer is tiny and within a few steps I’m flat against a wall with him in front of me. Placing his guitar case down, he lifts his arms to plant a hand on either side of my head. “Tell me,” he says with a growl.
“Hannah’s finished her exams for the year. We’re celebrating with pizza and a movie.” I shake my head. “I’m not… seeing anyone.”
He releases a breath, his shoulders sagging as his head falls forwards between us. “Fuck.”
I swallow hard. “What about you?”
Lifting his head back up, he looks at me with tired eyes. “No.”
My lungs start working again, and I take a deep breath as relief floods my body. Which is ridiculous. One of us has to break eventually. “I’m sorry about,” I gesture between us, “asking for this. I feel like I’m leading you on.”
“You’re not. I know the deal, and I agreed to it. Shitty though it might be.” His lips twitch. “Besides, I was already trying to figure out how to make it happen. You beat me to it, is all.”
My eyebrows lift. “Yeah?”
He nods, his eyes flitting between mine as he smiles. “Today was exciting and demanding and so much fun and I—” His elbows bend as he leans closer. “I need a hit of you before I lose my fucking mind.”
He’s so close. Closer than he’s been in almost six months. His skin radiates warmth, and he smells like an orgasm waiting to happen. Christ, I want it to happen. I fantasise about him every night and deny it to myself every morning. He thinks he’s going crazy? I left crazy behind months ago. “Johnny.” When he looks at me, I let him see the constant need inside me. Ebbing, flowing, crashing one day, rippling the next.
His eyes close as he draws a breath deep into his lungs. “I’m so hard I think I could come from the smell of you alone.”
My cock pulses at his words and I release a soft groan. My body straightens, easing off the wall. No, my brain screams at me. No, no, no. I can’t give in. I can’t. But my lips are parting and I’m burning all over and this is the only man who can soothe the ache.
“Time’s up.” He pushes away from me, turning abruptly to put several paces between us. I stare at his back as he takes shuddering breaths, rakes his fingers through his hair, adjusts his pants.
“Do they help?” I ask in a quiet voice. “These minutes.” He turns to give me a look, and I roll my eyes. “Maybe not today, but usually. Do they make it easier?”
“No.” The word comes out on the back of a twisted laugh. “Do they help you?”
I huff out a laugh of my own. “They’re torture.”
“Yeah,” he says with a sigh.
“Maybe we should stop.” His brows slam down as he comes back towards me, and I rush to explain. “What’s the point of doing this to ourselves? If we can never—”
“Because I need it,” he bites out, his hands reach for my face before curling into fists on either side of my head. “I need to get close to you, even if it’s only for a minute, even if I can’t touch. And wanting you hurts, like on a cellular level, but it hurts so fucking good.” We’re both panting now. Our chests rising and falling between us. Almost brushing, but not. “It’s this sharp, elemental pain,” he whispers, “and god help me, I’m a little bit in love with it.”
“I’m a little bit in love with you.” The admission leaves me on the barest breath of sound.
“Yes.” His lips tremble, caught between smiling and frowning. “We’ll stop, just… not yet. Yeah?”
We stare at each other for a long moment before I nod. His answering smile, though it’s slow to come, is so pure it makes my gut swoop with a flurry of excited butterflies.
“I’ll see you soon, Cal.”
He leaves me standing there, as he always does, hard and aching with my back up against a wall.
Rebecca is a long-time lover of all things romance. Whether it’s a book, movie, or real life, she will always have more fun if there’s a love interest thrown into the mix. She lives in Queensland, Australia with her very own hero husband, two quirky kids and one big, black dog. Other than reading and writing books, her favourite things include loud music, enjoying a glass of wine on the patio, organising everything in existence, and spending too much time on the Internet.
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