All First Chapter Samples

“I’m really into the pizza flavors we’ve been working with this round, but the pineapple…I feel terrible for saying this…but I’m not sure it goes in macaroni-and-cheese.” I winced as boos and laughter went around the room.

I loved the members and I loved all the interesting ideas that popped up, but voting was the hardest part of advising the most delicious club on campus. “I’m going to have to vote no.”

Ugh.

How had I gotten roped into judging again?

Every semester I said I wasn’t going to do it because it was too stressful, and every semester I somehow ended up doing it again.

College students were pains in the butt sometimes.

This could not be my fault.

Somehow I just needed to channel some Daddy energy next time and not the little energy I had to be radiating.

“I don’t care if he’s an alien or has the most boring kink on the planet. The snark will stop.” Skyler’s stern words ripped through the room, bringing everyone to a standstill.

I’d seen the explosion coming, but I’d thought it would take something worse than Loki ironically calling me riffraff to set Skyler off.

However, as his eyes narrowed and he leaned toward the counter, everyone in the store sucked in a breath. “The only one that gets to insult my customers is me.”

He was fucking serious.

This place got weirder and weirder.

Eventually, I was going to move out to the suburbs where everyone hid their kinks like they had when I’d been living in the country. But since it seemed like the city had to do everything differently, I waited to see what would happen.

Joseph,

I’m going to have to admit that I’ve started this email several times with everything from To Whom It May Concern to Dear Joseph, and it’s just gotten more graceless from there. First introductions should always be done in person so chemistry can, hopefully, override awkwardness. But since that isn’t the case here and Conner is insisting that I email you (because he couldn’t find a smoother Daddy at the moment?), I’ve given up figuring out how to start this without it sounding inelegant or overly professional.

My goal from here on out is overly professional in case you’re wondering.

“Sweetheart, I need to sell you.” My mother’s insipidly sweet tone had me looking up from my menu. I hated the restaurant and we’d been here a thousand times over the years, but studying it was better than making small talk.

“Excuse me?” It wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d ever told me over lunch, but I had a feeling it would end up being in the top ten at the very least.

Her smile just went sweeter and she reached over the table and patted my arm. “It’s for charity.”

That didn’t make it any less weird.

“What kind of charity?” Getting that information seemed like a good place to start.

“The LGBT Educational Center.” When she paused and smiled, I just blinked. That earned me a sigh and she pretended to be disappointed in me. “Many young LGBT youth don’t get the same opportunities that you did, sweetheart. It’s our responsibility to help those that are less fortunate.”

I knew better than to fall for this polite line of shit.

She’d never cared one way or the other about who I slept with as long as they were from the right family. This we have to be charitable to the LGBT community bullshit only started when my cousin came out as pan and that’d been a lot trendier than just general run of the mill wants to sleep with dudes gay.

So now she and Aunt Maggie were in some kind of weird competition that seemed to involve me.

Yay.

“Yes, you and Dad went to a lot of trouble to make sure I got the degrees you wanted.” Two could play the polite asshole game.

Could someone die of boredom?

The fact that I’d have preferred to have been home writing the blurb for my latest book rather than hanging out at the party said something about my lack of enthusiasm. Unfortunately, only Jonah would have understood how frustrating it was to boil an entire book down to two paragraphs of teasing, so there was no point in making the comparison.

That just left glaring at anyone who tried to talk to me and hiding from anyone who tried to flirt with me…which was a surprising number of people in the crowded room, considering how downright unfriendly I was attempting to be.

Maybe asshole was the new “in” personality this season.

Oh, that would be good in a book.

Scrambling to pat my pockets, I quickly remembered Austin had stolen my notebook and pen. He had the crazy idea that if I couldn’t work, then I’d have to talk to everyone. It was ridiculous. I could ignore them without a pen and paper. I had a great imagination.

„Gestern hat er mich gefragt, ob ich denke, dass er das Haus babysicher machen muss, um die Erfahrung realistischer zu machen.“ Ich mochte Blake … verdammt, ich mochte den dummen Mann vielleicht sogar so sehr, dass ich ihn lieben könnte, aber das …

Wes schnaubte, legte sich zurück und streckte sich auf dem Teppich vor der Couch aus. „Hat er einen Scherz gemacht … war er sarkastisch oder so?“

„Nein.“ Ich seufzte. „Das ist das Verwirrende daran. Er hat es ernst gemeint.“ Und ehrlich, ich dachte, ich hätte ihm gut genug erklärt, worauf ich stehe, damit er es versteht, aber nach einigen seiner Kommentare war ich mir da nicht mehr so sicher.

Wes rollte mit den Augen. „Er weiß doch, dass es nicht wie Magie ist, bei der du dich in ein seltsames außerirdisches Kleinkind verwandelst, oder?“

Hoffentlich.

„Er ist sehr wörtlich.“ Und irgendwie spießig.