Re-releasing: December 5, 2014
See Missy Welsh for eventual buy links.
BLURB:
Every Time a Bell
Rings
Brian
dropped everything last year when his mother became ill so he could take care of
her until the day she died. People he thought were friends didn't stick with
him and he's somehow become kind of a recluse without meaning to be. Only Mike,
his best friend since they were kids, has stuck by him and is now saving him
from homelessness after a fire destroys Brian's apartment building days before
Christmas. Though Mike has to go down South for the holiday, Brian stays in
Mike's apartment with his slightly singed kitten Oreo. Brian's only goal is to
set his affairs back in order before everything shuts down for the holidays and
then make it through those holidays in one piece. He's lost so much—his only
real possession is a photo album of his mom that he risked death to save from
the fire—and he's feeling lost and very alone... until Mike, his hot neighbor
Trent, and even little Oreo conspire to give Brian the best Christmas possible
and a future that looks a lot brighter.
An Angel Gets His
Wings
Mike
Sharp is in Little Rock, Arkansas, visiting his family for Christmas while his
best friend Brian Bailey's up north walking right into Mike's plans to hook him
up with his neighbor Trent. Unfortunately, it seems like someone's conspiring
to get Mike panting after his third cousin, twice removed (or something like
that) named George Whitlock. George who keeps sneaking up on him, being all shy
and cute, and then having the audacity to give Mike great big calf eyes that
are just begging Mike to drop to his knees. Mike will not give in because, if
he does, he could lose his entire family when they discover he's gay.
EXCERPT:
Mike’s
apartment building was two floors with four units on the quiet, family-oriented
Casterton Avenue. The structure was old and brick with high ceilings and
original oak woodwork throughout. I’d always loved the balcony because he had
plants all over it. The plants were gone now, but he had replaced them with an
abundance of kitschy, lighted Christmas decorations. His electric bill must be
outrageous.
He
carried the album like the precious cargo it was all the way from the car to
the hallway outside his apartment door. The whole neighborhood seemed fast
asleep, so it rattled me when the door opposite Mike’s suddenly opened. Then
there was this hunk of divinity standing there, and my libido kicked in with a
flash of heat that sizzled through me because my every wet dream was embodied
in this man.
And
I was covered in soot and probably had tear tracks on my face. Not to mention
the fact I hadn’t been with a man in over a year. At least the plumbing hadn’t
forgotten how to work. That was nice.
“Hey,”
he said, his voice deep and scratchy. “Mike told me what happened, man. Glad to
see you’re okay.”
“When?”
I asked. It was practically morning. Oh wow. Had they been together when Mike
got the call from the ER nurse? I stared at him, unable to believe he was
involved with his neighbor and hadn’t told me.
“Oh,
well.” Mike looked a little sheepish. “I kind of freaked out when they called
me. I accidentally woke Trent up while I was trying to get the door locked to
leave. He helped.”
Suspicions
gone, I mumbled, “I’m really sorry,” and meant it to both of them.
“Jeez,
Brian,” Mike said. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about.”
“We
got through it,” Trent said and smiled as he patted Mike’s shoulder. The
gesture and his expression didn’t look like anything more than friendship to
me.
“Okay,”
I said lamely.
“Oh!”
Mike said, making me jerk. “Forgot all my manners! Brian, this is Trent Stewart.
Trent, Brian Bailey.”
Trent’s
big paw came out to grasp my hand, making mine look delicate. All of me felt
delicate around this guy despite the fact we were about the same six-foot
height. Probably because he had about fifty pounds of hard muscle on me. I
really loved that.
The
rumpled, just-woke-up thing worked in his favor too. His dark blond hair stuck
up in the back and his face was pink on one side. I tried to keep my eyes above
his neck because he wore only a pair of black sweatpants that barely hung onto
his slim hips and showed off his rippled abs like a frame. But I was too tired
to get any of my body parts to obey me now, and couldn’t resist sliding a
glance up the trail of blond past his navel and over the pelt covering the
center of his mounded chest. His nipples were pink and peaked, and I had a
momentary fantasy of suckling them while I played in all that golden hair. To
let the world fall away and give into sensation while wrapped in his arms and—
Oreo
dug a few claws into my gut, making me flinch, and Trent dropped my hand.
“Damn,”
he chuckled. “That looks like something out of Alien.”
“It’s
Oreo.” I fished her out. “My kitten.”
Trent
reached over and patted her back. He could’ve palmed her entire body. “Both of
you were really lucky.”
I
nodded. We were, sure. Maybe tomorrow it would feel that way.
“Look,
Mike said he was going out of town tomorrow,” Trent said, brown eyes looking
right at me, “so if you need anything, you just come to me.”
I
nodded at his sincerity. “Thanks.”
He
smiled again. It was a really sweet smile. “Well, I’ll let you go. Just wanted
to make sure you were okay.”
He
moved back into his apartment and shut the door with one more glance back.
I
turned to Mike and found him grinning knowingly at me. “Shut up.”
He
giggled, then let us into his place. Whispering, he said, “Did you just pick
out your Christmas present?”
About Missy:
Missy Welsh stares into space a
lot, has conversations with cats, takes notes while people-watching, records
conversations (not the ones with cats), named her laptop Norbert and her phone
Pushkin, has backups of her backups’ backups, faints at the sight of a misused
semi-colon, and will often ask socially unacceptable questions of strangers.
Basically, she’s a writer.
Find
Missy Here
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