Summer House
by R.J. Scott
M/M Contemporary
Release date: May 29 2015
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Ashby Sebastian Sterling-Haynes has had a lot of boyfriends, but he's never found the one.
The only person he can form an attachment to is his fourteen year old niece, and even that is in jeopardy when babysitting her cat goes all kinds of wrong.
Veterinarian, Connor Lawson is much happier working with animals than with people. He has deliberately returned home and to the Summer House he recalled from childhood holidays for peace and quiet and the chance to heal from wounds no one would ever see.
When his next door neighbor comes into the practice with a cat that has been in a fight he hides in his office because this Ashby guy is all kinds of dangerous. Too hot, too rich, too titled, and way too sexy for his own good.
Can two men who refuse to believe in love ever learn that love is the easy part of the journey to forever?
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Excerpt:
A few beers turned into more beers and a certain level of moroseness that Ash hadn’t indulged in for a very long time. Together with the rest of the party, he’d just waved Ben and Chloe off for their one night alone in a hotel in Aston-Under-Wold, and Stephanie had gone to stay with friends. He had no responsibilities left tonight except for himself. Even Landon and Rachel had disappeared and his mum and dad not long after. Darkness had fallen slowly on Upper Fordham, and here he was in the beer garden blocked from everyone else’s view by a well-placed hedge and comfortable on the garden chair he’d borrowed from the main area.
This place was different from the city, quiet, open, with stars dotted bright in the velvet-black sky. Ash was tired and stared up at the stars with thoughts on a loop in his head.
“…join you?”
Ash opened one eye and looked up, and up, into the expectant face of one Connor Lawson. He looked about as worse the wear for drink as Ash was.
“Why?” Ash had to ask.
“Think I owe you an apology or something.” He held up his left hand with two beers hooked between fingers. In his right hand was hooked a similar garden chair to the one Ash had stolen. The beers were bottled but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Ash closed his eye. “Help yourself,” he said. Apology was not what he wanted at the moment. He needed quiet so he could sort through the thoughts in his head in order to present them in some uniform way to his brothers when the time was right. But he couldn’t exactly say that to Connor, could he?
Connor settled himself next to Ash, and Ash felt a bottle being pressed to his arm. He took it with a soft thanks and took a sip from the already opened beer.
“So I talked to Landon. He explained a lot,” Connor began.
Ash sighed. Landon was effusive at the best of times but didn’t often stay on topic and Ash wondered what his brother had said.
“Like what?”
“That he needed help with Rachel, and that even though you are who you are, he asked you for that help.”
Even though you are who you are? Thanks, Landon. “Nice. Anything else?” Ash couldn’t help the hint of sarcasm in his tone.
“He’s clearly the sensible brother. Every family has a sensible one.”
“So what does that make me?”
“Well Ben seems like a nice guy, so that just leaves you as the odd one out. But I’m drunk,” Connor said. “So I’ve lost perspective.”
Ash actually opened his eyes at that. He could ignore the character assassination, he’d heard it all before, but this was new and Connor’s tone was soft. “Sorry?”
“Hey, at least you’re looking at me now.” Somehow Connor had moved closer and was far too near for comfort.
“Rachel is a friend,” Connor continued. Ash waited for the punchline, about how Connor had just been protecting this friend. But the intriguing blond said nothing. Instead he was staring right at Ash with a blank expression. Ash wished he could see Connor’s hazel eyes to see what the other man was thinking. Clearly this was not a social visit, but maybe Ash would get to the bottom of the other man’s animosity.
Ash finally snapped at the silence. “You clearly have something to say, so say it.”
“I’ll be watching Landon. I’ve seen what people like you do to people like Rachel.”
That had Ash’s full attention. He sat forward in his chair, the beer dangling from his hands. “Wait? People like me?”
Connor shrugged and swallowed some more beer. “Rich, entitled, taking what they want from people who can’t fight back.”
Ash’s beer buzz slipped away as he considered the words. “What the fuck?” Taking from people who couldn’t fight back? Ash wasn’t like that, neither of his brothers were like that. What the hell had happened to Connor to make his point the finger at the brothers?
Connor leaned forward in his chair so they were really close. Suddenly he wasn’t all cosy drunk, but deadly serious. In a low commanding tone, he said very firmly, “Your brother hurts Rachel, he needs to know she has me in her corner. She needs a lawyer and I’ll get one. I won’t let entitled shit happen to someone else.”
***
About RJ
RJ Scott has been writing since age six, when she was made to stay in at lunchtime for an infraction involving cookies. She was told to write a story and two sides of paper about a trapped princess later, a lover of writing was born.
As an avid reader herself, she can be found reading anything from thrillers to sci-fi to horror. However, her first real true love will always be the world of romance where she takes cowboys, bodyguards, firemen and billionaires (to name a few) and writes dramatic and romantic stories of love and passion between these men.
With over seventy titles to her name and counting, she is the author of the award winning book, The Christmas Throwaway. She is also known for the Texas series charting the lives of Riley and Jack, and the Sanctuary series following the work of the Sanctuary Foundation and the people it protects.
Her goal is to write stories with a heart of romance, a troubled road to reach happiness, and most importantly, that hint of a happily ever after.
rj@rjscott.co.uk
www.rjscott.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/Rjscott_author
www.facebook.com/author.rjscott
www.librarything.com/author/scottrj
www.tumblr.com/blog/rjscott (some NSFW (not safe for work) photos)
www.pinterest.com/rjscottauthor/
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Lily Velden lives on the east coast of Australia, her family having emigrated from Holland when she was a child.
