All First Chapter Samples

“I’m just saying…there’s something wrong about a sexy Santa.” Jules had the most boring taste ever in porn, considering what he was into in real life.

I snorted. “You’re insane. Sexy Santas are like gold medal DILFs. Everyone loves them.”

Who didn’t love an older man with a wicked gleam in his eyes?

Jules gave a long sigh like he was dying inside. “You’re ruining my childhood.”

“If you’ve never thought about a dirty Santa, you didn’t have much of a childhood.” Older men were the best and Santa could be the epitome of that with the right guy in the suit. “Come on, don’t you think this would be hot on someone? They’re going to sell really well.”

“It will be a cold day in fucking hell before I buy that brat another fucking Lego.” Derek’s words made sense. Technically. But they weren’t adding up. Pausing outside of the office, I knew he and Sean couldn’t see me, but since it didn’t sound like they were having sex again, I wasn’t worried.

There were only so many times I needed to walk in on those two.

Derek was clearly an interesting influence on Sean, but now I was at a loss about what he was losing his mind over.

Did he have kids somewhere?

Whereas some guys I knew had taken their time figuring shit out and had ended up with kids or married, Derek had never been that type. And I was pretty sure I would’ve heard of them by now. So who was he buying Legos for—and not just buying them, but sounding like he was getting ready to put a kid in time-out because they wouldn’t pick up their toys?

“Is everything okay? You’ve been sitting here quite a while.”

Asking for a spanking and for him to find my binkie would’ve been a slightly inappropriate response, especially since the man coming through the backyard was my best friend’s father.

“No, Mr. Hammond. Just thinking.” He winced, making me grin and feel lighter than I had in days.

“Please, Elliot, you’re twenty-four. A real adult. No more Mr. Hammond nonsense.” On one hand, he was right. Even though I looked young, I was a full-fledged adult with adult problems…but I liked calling him Mr. Hammond.

It was the closest I would get to calling him Sir or something even more perfect…like Daddy.

“But it’s a respect thing. You’re Ryker’s father.” To say that falling for my best friend’s dad made things difficult would’ve been an understatement of truly epic proportions.

Nathan was trying to kill me.

“Was I not supposed to ask?” He blinked at me, curious and almost innocent, like he had no idea why I was choking to death on the fry I’d just eaten. “I’m good with whatever it is. I’ve been researching different preferences and fetishes. People are weird.”

I finally managed to take a breath without coughing and reached out to take a sip of my water. Of course, I wasn’t stalling, I was just very thirsty. When I couldn’t put it off anymore, I had a hard time figuring out what to say. “You’re people too, don’t forget that part.”

So maybe I hadn’t actually answered his question. I was hoping that with his habit of conversation-hopping, he wouldn’t realize it until later. It didn’t seem to be working, though. He smiled and nodded, clearly not fazed by the idea of being weird. “Very true. But Gabriel likes it too, so I’m okay with that.” Then his voice lost some of his usual excitement and he started mumbling. “At least, I thought I was…I probably am.” I didn’t like the sound of that. I jumped back into the conversation before I could talk myself out of it. “Are you having second thoughts about what he wants?”

Gabriel hadn’t seemed like the kind of guy…master…who would push Nathan into something he didn’t want, and Marcus had nothing but great things to say about the guy. However, I didn’t want Nathan dragged into something he wasn’t ready for.

“It’s been a rubber ducky kind of day, and I’m out of here. My bathtub is calling me. I may or may not be in tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I’ll go to Asia or Australia. A cruise around the world is calling my name.” The barista who was at least in his mid-twenties swept past me in a whirl of drama and almost-sheer fabric as his flowy shirt moved around him.

I’d been standing in the back of the line long enough to have seen several customers get a little snippy with him, but nothing that was probably out of the ordinary. The woman with the bright purple hair he’d been speaking with just rolled her eyes and hollered after him.

“Drama queen! You’d better be here tomorrow. If you take that cruise without me, you’re a dead drama queen.” No one else in the room seemed to think the interaction was odd, so I tried not to react.

But it was…difficult.

I was starting to get the feeling that moving to the city hadn’t been such a good idea.

It was a rough bar in an even worse part of town and I couldn’t figure out what the little twink was doing working there. Well, I had an idea, but nothing that made sense. I had to be wrong. It’d been a few weeks, maybe longer, since I’d stopped in, but I knew I would have remembered him if I’d seen him before.

BJ’s was technically named after the original owner, but it was also a really big clue about what someone might find going on in the backroom most nights. It’d been a gay bar as long as anyone could remember, and most of the customers had come out in a time where you were either tougher than the bullies or you stayed deep in the closet. Most of them looked like they’d just gotten released from the state pen, even though I knew they all had regular jobs and were actually upstanding citizens.

However, when they walked into the bar, most of the trappings of civilization fell away. So I wasn’t sure what the hell Jake had been thinking when he’d hired the little twink. Pushing away from the wall where I’d been watching for the last few minutes, I headed toward the bar. I found an open spot in the corner and waited for Jake to wander over.