Book Title: The Way You Lie (Isle of Kala, book one)
Author: Crea Reitan
Publisher: Dragon Fire Fantasy, LLC
Cover Artist: Rebeca Covers
Release Date: July 10, 2025
Tense/POV: first person, present tense, alternating POV
Genres: Contemporary M/M Romance
Tropes: Forbidden love, Age gap, Dad’s best friend, secret relationship
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: approximately 92 000 words
It is a standalone story.
It ends on a cliffhanger — not for this couple,
but for the couple featured in the next book.
Buy Links – Available in Kindle Unlimited
Sometimes a happy ending comes with heartbreak.
Blurb
Sometimes a happy ending comes with heartbreak.
Falling in love with my father’s best friend wasn’t on my to-do list. Yes, he’s hot. Sure, I’ve been flirting with him since I was sixteen. Of course I’d be down for a little fun.
When Laiken begins returning my flirting, things get heated. It was supposed to be sexy summer fun and nothing more. We weren’t planning on making this a forever thing.
But falling in love isn’t a choice.
As it turns out, not everyone agrees and sometimes disapproval is loud, painful, and heartbreaking.
***
This is a LGBTQIA+ story with content not intended for those under 18 years of age due to graphic scenes and situations.
I try not to stare like a savage beast while I tend to other patrons at the bar. I’m not sure I succeed in that. In fact, I’m positive my eyes are glued to Elijah the entire time. Waiting for him to return.
Songs play. Several. Because I’ve been obsessively staring, ready to pounce, I see when they turn for the door.
My entire body stills as I watch them leave. Elijah glances at me, sends me a flirty smile, and then leaves.
A sour taste fills my mouth, making my stomach churn. The beat of the drums reverberates through me, making everything inside me dun-dun-dun. I feel it like I’m in a tube.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell Beth and drop my towel on the bar. She doesn’t stop me as I push my way through the crowd and head for the door that Elijah walked through. I hurry so I don’t lose him.
I don’t know what I’m doing. I have no idea what I’m going to say. All I can do is follow where my feet take me.
It’s raining, though it feels more like a mist than rain. I look around, looking for the direction they headed. My muscles tense as I turn.
Elijah is leaning against the side of the bar with his arms crossed over his chest. He stares at me with an amused smirk. I don’t see the guys anywhere, but I do see Cash. He’s talking to a group of people I recognize as residents.
This fucker played me. He was looking for a reaction, and he got one. I have half a mind to go back inside. I need to go back in. I’m on the clock. I’m working.
Instead, I gesture with my head for him to follow me as I walk around the opposite side of the bar. As soon as he rounds the corner, I press him against the wall.
His lips part in sexy surprise as he stares at me. What am I doing?
“You don’t leave with strangers,” I tell him.
“Are you worried about me, Laiken?” he asks, voice breathless.
Worried. Am I worried? I’m about to go fucking feral.
I’m not sure what comes over me. The next thing I realize, my mouth is on his. I’m kissing him in the most manic, possessive way. The kinds of kisses you write about. There’s something animalistic in the way I tell him he’s mine through our kiss.
His hands flatten against my stomach, push upwards over my chest and shoulders, and around my neck. He presses against me. My grip is reflexive. The growly voice inside me wants to dig my fingers into his skin, to leave marks on him so he knows who gets to touch him every time he sees them.
I think I’m devouring him whole. Sucking on his tongue, biting his lip. Losing myself in the hypnotic taste that is Elijah Cain.
When he moans, sirens go off in my head, and I pull backward. Oh fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!
“Lie,” I say.
His cheeks are flushed. His lips are puffy. His tongue sneaks out to lick them. My entire body throbs with want for this man.
“Laiken,” he responds, his voice just as quiet as mine had been.
I shake my head, taking a step back. Letting him go, though everything inside me is screaming to hang on tightly. “We can’t do this,” I insist. “We can’t. This can’t happen again.”
Elijah frowns.
“I’m sorry,” I say and move further away. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
His frown deepens as he crosses his arms over his chest.
I force myself to move. “Don’t leave with strangers,” I repeat.
“Seems to me like you don’t get an opinion on who I leave with,” he mutters.
My feet pause, but I know that anything that comes out of my mouth is going to lead us somewhere we can’t go. We can’t.
Nason’s son!
Taking a deep breath, I leave him at the side of the bar and go back inside. Elijah doesn’t come back for the rest of my shift.
Crea lives in upstate New York with her dog and husband. She has been writing since grade school and has a habit of creating secondary, and often tertiary characters that take over her stories. When she can’t fall asleep at night, she thinks up new scenes for her characters to act out.
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