MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 As a massive fan of Christmas, I like to write about it... Here's my Christmas round up...

Have a wonderful Christmas! 

The Marina... The series so far...

 I looked up, “Oh no.” I groaned. There was a tailback of traffic as far as the eye could see.

Dad patted my knee, “It’ll be fine, son. I know a short-cut.”

Well they were famous last words... Dad turned off and headed in the completely wrong direction. I looked around at the unfamiliar streets, “Where are we going, Dad?” I asked in mild panic.

“Your father knows these streets like the back of his hand…” Mum piped up proudly from the back seat.

I snorted as we passed a road sign, “Then why are we headed for Birmingham, right now?” I muttered. Seriously? Asking for help from Dad was sometimes a real challenge.

He grinned and patted my knee reassuringly, “I’ll loop back on the ring road, son. Don’t worry.”

I tried my best to relax. I still had twenty minutes, after all…We pulled up at the traffic lights and somehow or other, Dad managed to stall the engine. I glared at him. “Are you freaking serious,right now?” I snapped, beginning to lose any remaining patience I was managing to hold on to...

El Paso

“Oh, my God.” I muttered as I shut the bedroom window. “Could they be more obvious?”
San Antonio and Seth were definitely getting more and more brazen. I was surprised they hadn’t been caught before now.
It was a stifling twenty-five degrees out there, which was surprising, since it was almost the end of September, and I preferred to have the windows shut with the air-con cranked up to max but Mum wasn’t a great fan of me spending all day and all night in my room and had come upstairs to ‘air’ the house.
She appeared in my bedroom doorway, almost giving me a heart attack. Usually she left me well alone… “Open that window and let some fresh air in!” she said, nodding to my window.
I bit my lip. If I opened the window, it would be all over for San Antonio and Seth – and they’d only just sorted everything out. There was just no way…
“I will in a bit.” I said, “I’ve just got the temperature in here perfect.”
Mum was in a bit of a mood, “Rubbish!” she said, marching towards my window, “I’ll do it myself!
Holy shit! She had hearing like a hawk. If she opened that window, San Antonio might as well kiss goodbye to his balls – because she’d be straight down the stairs and around to the treehouse to rip them off… “No!” I shouted, leaping off my bed and standing in front of her, “I said I’d do it. Just give me a minute!”
Maybe I’d been too hasty, or maybe Mum was having a Miss Marple moment, but she totally smelled a rat. “What are you hiding?” she asked suspiciously.
I blinked, “Nothing.” I replied, trying to look all innocent. It wasn’t me hiding anything. No doubt Seth was currently hiding the sausage but I didn’t really want to think about that right now, or ever, actually…
Mum narrowed her eyes, “Out of the way.” She demanded.
I sincerely hoped they’d finished and were now totally blissed out on each other and staring at the ceiling talking shit like they always did…
No such luck. As soon as the window was open, I could hear San Antonio and Seth as loud as anything...
Mum spun around and glared at me, “How long have you known this was going on?” she asked.
I shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I mumbled, “What’s going on?”
She came over to me and leaned down menacingly, “I’ll deal with you later.” She growled before sweeping out of my room.

I tried to send a text to San Antonio but there was no way he was going to have any inclination to read it. He was currently in the middle of what sounded like an amazing experience…



After Tiffany left, I lay on my bed for a good couple of hours just thinking about she’d said. I didn’t much care what she told anyone about me and El Paso. It wasn’t true… or at least, even if it was true that I felt more for him than I’d ever felt for her, it didn’t have to mean in a romantic way. There was no way I felt like that about him – we were just really good friends. She was just sore that I spent a lot of time with him and enjoyed his company.

I was just about to get ready for bed when another text came through.

I scrambled to a sitting position and fumbled for my phone.

All the tension I’d been feeling seemed to just drain away as I read the message.

“Are you still awake?”

I grinned and typed out an immediate reply, “Of course I am.”

“Good. Listen, can I call you instead of texting? I’m not a fan of getting writers’ cramp. I’ve got a better use for my right hand.”He sent an emoji of an aubergine and two laughing faces.

I shook my head. Chuckling to myself I sent back a smiley face. Seconds later, my screen lit up with a picture of El Paso pulling a silly face. I had no idea when he’d added that to my phone but it made me laugh all the same. “Hey, El.” I said.

His breathy voice came through loud and clear, "Lyle!" He exclaimed in a hushed whisper, "There's been a development."

6 days to go...

Myles’ jaw dropped and his heart started to beat a little faster in his chest. Was Sage actually admitting something here? Best to check… “Uh?”

Sage shrugged, “There’s no point in lying about it – you surely knew how I felt about you back when we were kids?”

Myles felt as if his heart was going to burst, “You had feelings for me?” Like the ones I had for you?

He nodded, “Well, yeah.” He said, rolling his eyes. “Couldn’t you tell?”

Myles laughed, relief flooding through him so quickly he felt a little lightheaded, “What? Between the scowls, the put-downs and the downright avoidances you managed for months at a time? Hell, sure I knew you really liked me underneath it all.”

Sage frowned, “You really didn’t know?” he asked.

Myles closed his eyes for a moment and counted to five. Opening his eyes again he decided to spell it out for his old friend, “No, Sage.” He said, “It wasn’t obvious that you liked me at all. I was besotted with you, though and I managed to maintain the hope of a small child that one day you might feel at least something for me. I never gave up.”

Sage blinked, “Yes, you did.” He said, “You gave up on me when you went to Manchester. You forgot all about me. You left me without a backwards glance and never got in touch again – until now.”

Myles looked at him incredulously, “Well yes.” He admitted, But only because you sent me that text, telling me to get lost and die.” To never bother you again because you were so over our pathetic friendship and to go and bother some other straight guy that I hoped was less straight than they first appeared.

Sage closed his eyes, his face going red with embarrassment, “Uh, yeah.” He mumbled, “I didn’t mean any of it. I was kind of hoping that we were going to gloss over that part…”

Myles snorted a laugh. Sage was impossible to stay mad at. He was impulsive, grumpy and had made some pretty terrible decisions concerning the pair of them but everything was fixable, “Come here and kiss me and maybe I’ll consider it.”

Sage’s jaw dropped, “Kiss you?” he asked his eyes going round and his face getting even redder, “Are you crazy?”

Myles shook his head, “No.” he said, “Well, maybe I’m crazy about you but I’m definitely not crazy.”

Sage finally cracked a small smile. “A kiss.” He murmured, “I don’t know…”

“What’s one little kiss between friends?” Myles encouraged, sidling across the sofa towards him.

“Oh, God. It’s got disaster written all over it.” Sage muttered under his breath.

Available now for pre-ordering. Release date 20th December 2019

It's nearly here! Get cosy and read my Christmas Series

Get into the Christmas spirit this year with my Last Christmas Series...

 I’d been so damned focused on my own truth-or-dare challenge, I hadn’t been paying proper attention. Now it occurred to me that the very beautiful and very sexy Kane had pulled a name from the hat... and that name was mine. Shit. He was far too good-looking for this...

He smiled at me. I smiled back. Why wouldn’t I? He was gorgeous...

My eyes flickered towards Elliot who was gazing at Cristian with a bit of a love-struck expression on his beautiful face. I sighed. There was no way he was ever going to be interested in me. If I was honest, I wasn’t really bothered; I was just suffering from a little hurt pride. I’d spent money on him last Christmas – the least he could have done was to give me the gift back and tell me he wasn’t interested.

Kane’s eyes followed mine to look at his friend. They narrowed slightly as he took in what I’d just seen. Elliot was clearly setting his sights on Cristian. Kane took me slightly by surprise when seconds later, he was grabbing hold of my waist and lunging at me... As his lips bumped a little clumsily against mine, I had my epiphany. I closed my eyes and parted my lips. I was instantly in heaven. It was almost as if I'd been put on this earth just to meet Kane. I honestly felt that I'd been waiting my whole life to kiss the perfect man and he'd just been delivered in the sexiest packaging imaginable. Oh, my God! Talk about your ultimate Christmas miracle!

Kurt had gone to bed by the time I got back so I couldn’t talk to him until the next morning.

With a flash of genius inspiration I started to cook bacon. No one could resist the smell of bacon... He appeared in about ten seconds.
“Bacon?” he asked, looking at me hopefully.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “You get yours when you tell me what happened to Jonny’s nose.”

He went red, “He was disrespecting you.” He said sullenly, “I didn’t like it.”

Well. I hadn’t expected that. I looked at him, “He was disrespecting me?” I asked, “How? What did he say?”

He went, if possible, even redder, “He said you were a good lay, that you were nothing but a quick roll in the sack and that he didn’t think you had any sort of future.”

I blinked. He might have put it crudely, which had clearly offended Kurt, but in all fairness, he’d got it bang on the money – because that was exactly the way I felt about him too... “Okay.”

Kurt frowned, “Okay?” he echoed, “What’s okay about that?”

I shrugged, “Well, it’s not like I’m in love with him or anything – we’ve just been messing around.”

Kurt scowled at me, “Well, I think you should choose better guys to mess around with – he’s a right wanker.”
Suppressing a smile, I nodded. "Okay," I agreed, "Good idea."

“Who’s the lucky guy?” Sebastian asked kindly. He was such a sweetheart and I could totally see how Kurt had fallen for his subtle charms.

I felt my face heating up. Shit. Was I that transparent? Sebastian had only met me a handful of times since he and Kurt got together last year – the last time being when they were home for the summer break. It had now rolled back around to the winter break and since Kurt had missed Christmas with his family last year, due to realising that he’d fallen headlong in love with his roommate, Sebastian, and had only been back for the New Year; they’d come over to us straight from university for Christmas this year, with plans to spend the first part of their Christmas break with us and to go back to Seb’s family for the New Year. “There’s no special guy.” I mumbled – lying through my teeth of course but there was no way I was about to tell them.

Kane raised an eyebrow, “Oh, yeah?” he asked, “So why are you blushing?”

“Get lost, will you?” I said defensively. Well, wasn’t that the wrong thing to say? All four of them turned to me with their mouths open and then...

“Oh, my God!” That was George.

“You really have met someone!” That was Kane, looking utterly delighted for me.

“What’s his name?” That was Sebastian.

“The boy’s finally been tamed. We have to meet this mystical creature.” And that was Kurt, grinning knowingly and looking like a Cheshire cat.

I smiled bashfully back at them all, my heart swelling with their combined enthusiasm, “I’d love you to meet him but he’s rarely around here – he’s a flight attendant...”

I didn’t actually expect any of them to know whom I was talking about, since he didn’t even live in France anymore. He was from across the border and his family lived in Turin, but he had his own apartment in Les Arcs and he spent most of his down time skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. He was totally into the same things that I was. He was amazing...

I was wrong about them being clueless though. Kurt was right on it. “Are you talking about Cristian Llardi by any chance?” 

Meet the Boys Next Door...

Finished!

Myles was close, now. Too close. Sage felt hot all over and he didn’t know what to do with his arms. They all of a sudden felt too long and were just hanging at his sides. What was he supposed to do with them when Myles finally got his way and they kissed? What the hell was he supposed to do with his mouth when it was pressed tantalisingly next to Myles’ beautiful full lips? Should he use his tongue like they did in the movies or was that only in the movies and normal people didn’t do things like that? But hell, nothing was more sexy than watching Elio kiss Oliver in Call Me By Your Name. Elio’s tongue licking up Oliver’s mouth was something he’d watched a million times on YouTube. It was an incredibly sexy move and he’d been dying to use the same action on Myles ever since…

He was panicking now and he knew it. What was more, Myles would know too and then he’d want to know why – and then Sage would have to tell him that he’d never kissed anyone before and Myles would know that he’d lied in school about all of the girls he’d supposedly got off with and then he’d think he was pathetic and it would all be over…

“I’ll never leave you again.” Myles said huskily, emotion turning his voice gravelly, “I never wanted to leave you in the first place.”

“But you did.” Sage reminded him, “Because I told you to go and you left.”

He nodded, “I didn’t know what else to do.” He sighed, “I was terribly under-confident when it came to you. I didn’t know if you liked me that way and you never really seemed to want me around. I didn’t want you to hate me by staying when you didn’t feel that way about me.”

Sage’s heart tightened in his chest. He’d always felt the same way about Myles but he’d had to protect them both against Danny’s violence. If Danny had any inkling that they were more than friends it would have ended in someone being, at best, badly hurt. He didn’t want to think of the worst-case scenario. “I felt exactly the same way as you.” He whispered, “I’ve always…” he trailed off.

Myles closed the distance between them and gathered him into his arms. No words were necessary as he lowered his mouth to Sage’s and captured his lips in his own.

Sage felt his whole world shrink right down to their kiss. It was all that mattered, all that he could feel, all he could comprehend. He had no idea if he was kissing Myles back properly, going more on what felt right in the moment than anything else. His tongue seemed to have instinctively developed a mind of its own and was chasing Myles tongue every time he felt it invade his mouth. It was heaven on earth. Everything he’d ever wanted and more. Totally against his will, he felt his eyes welling up with tears. Holy shit, was he going to cry? Simply from being kissed by Myles? How utterly mortifying.

Available now for pre-ordering; release date 20th December 2019

What were you doing last Christmas?

Get into the Christmas spirit this year with my Last Christmas Series...

 I’d been so damned focused on my own truth-or-dare challenge, I hadn’t been paying proper attention. Now it occurred to me that the very beautiful and very sexy Kane had pulled a name from the hat... and that name was mine. Shit. He was far too good-looking for this...

He smiled at me. I smiled back. Why wouldn’t I? He was gorgeous...

My eyes flickered towards Elliot who was gazing at Cristian with a bit of a love-struck expression on his beautiful face. I sighed. There was no way he was ever going to be interested in me. If I was honest, I wasn’t really bothered; I was just suffering from a little hurt pride. I’d spent money on him last Christmas – the least he could have done was to give me the gift back and tell me he wasn’t interested.

Kane’s eyes followed mine to look at his friend. They narrowed slightly as he took in what I’d just seen. Elliot was clearly setting his sights on Cristian. Kane took me slightly by surprise when seconds later, he was grabbing hold of my waist and lunging at me... As his lips bumped a little clumsily against mine, I had my epiphany. I closed my eyes and parted my lips. I was instantly in heaven. It was almost as if I'd been put on this earth just to meet Kane. I honestly felt that I'd been waiting my whole life to kiss the perfect man and he'd just been delivered in the sexiest packaging imaginable. Oh, my God! Talk about your ultimate Christmas miracle!

Kurt had gone to bed by the time I got back so I couldn’t talk to him until the next morning.

With a flash of genius inspiration I started to cook bacon. No one could resist the smell of bacon... He appeared in about ten seconds.
“Bacon?” he asked, looking at me hopefully.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “You get yours when you tell me what happened to Jonny’s nose.”

He went red, “He was disrespecting you.” He said sullenly, “I didn’t like it.”

Well. I hadn’t expected that. I looked at him, “He was disrespecting me?” I asked, “How? What did he say?”

He went, if possible, even redder, “He said you were a good lay, that you were nothing but a quick roll in the sack and that he didn’t think you had any sort of future.”

I blinked. He might have put it crudely, which had clearly offended Kurt, but in all fairness, he’d got it bang on the money – because that was exactly the way I felt about him too... “Okay.”

Kurt frowned, “Okay?” he echoed, “What’s okay about that?”

I shrugged, “Well, it’s not like I’m in love with him or anything – we’ve just been messing around.”

Kurt scowled at me, “Well, I think you should choose better guys to mess around with – he’s a right wanker.”
Suppressing a smile, I nodded. "Okay," I agreed, "Good idea."

“Who’s the lucky guy?” Sebastian asked kindly. He was such a sweetheart and I could totally see how Kurt had fallen for his subtle charms.

I felt my face heating up. Shit. Was I that transparent? Sebastian had only met me a handful of times since he and Kurt got together last year – the last time being when they were home for the summer break. It had now rolled back around to the winter break and since Kurt had missed Christmas with his family last year, due to realising that he’d fallen headlong in love with his roommate, Sebastian, and had only been back for the New Year; they’d come over to us straight from university for Christmas this year, with plans to spend the first part of their Christmas break with us and to go back to Seb’s family for the New Year. “There’s no special guy.” I mumbled – lying through my teeth of course but there was no way I was about to tell them.

Kane raised an eyebrow, “Oh, yeah?” he asked, “So why are you blushing?”

“Get lost, will you?” I said defensively. Well, wasn’t that the wrong thing to say? All four of them turned to me with their mouths open and then...

“Oh, my God!” That was George.

“You really have met someone!” That was Kane, looking utterly delighted for me.

“What’s his name?” That was Sebastian.

“The boy’s finally been tamed. We have to meet this mystical creature.” And that was Kurt, grinning knowingly and looking like a Cheshire cat.

I smiled bashfully back at them all, my heart swelling with their combined enthusiasm, “I’d love you to meet him but he’s rarely around here – he’s a flight attendant...”

I didn’t actually expect any of them to know whom I was talking about, since he didn’t even live in France anymore. He was from across the border and his family lived in Turin, but he had his own apartment in Les Arcs and he spent most of his down time skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. He was totally into the same things that I was. He was amazing...

I was wrong about them being clueless though. Kurt was right on it. “Are you talking about Cristian Llardi by any chance?”