Book six in the Love in Xxchange Series
Chase Murphy lost everything—money, his best friend, and his confidence-but one man wants to help him regain what was taken from him along with a love that Chase never expected to have and doesn't believe he deserves.
Xavier Talbot has everything a successful man should, or at least he thought he did. Suddenly he discovers that his brother is a sick sadistic jerk, the boy he found on the streets and raised for the past several years is going to give Xavier a clear understanding of ‘empty nest syndrome', and the club he'd built up from nothing, The Xxchange, now seems like a sleazy place instead of the GLBT paradise Xavier had imagined. Then a chance encounter with one man gives Xavier a bit of hope in his rapidly depressing world.
Chase Murphy only wanted one thing—to find his best friend, James Stratton, who'd been kidnapped by a vengeful sociopath. Hurt and stranded in a town he has no intentions of staying in, Chase meets a man he wants to hate, but he can't stop thinking about Xavier Talbot no matter what he does. Slowly, seductively, the town and its inhabitants draw Chase in and make him rethink his opinion on forming friendships and the possibility of a long term relationship. He isn't sure he wants to hang around to see if things would work out, but it isn't until James is found that Chase discovers the truth about what it means to love people, as friends and, for Xavier, as a lover.
Reader Advisory: This book is best read in sequence as part of a series.
General Release Date: 30th January 2012
Xavier Talbot rolled over in bed and groaned. His head was throbbing and his mouth was as dry as could be. He suspected sunlight was creeping in through the blinds, not that he was willing to open his eyes and check. It was too bright behind his eyelids for the blinds to have been pulled closed properly. Xavier dragged an arm up over his brow and winced as his muscles protested the move.
What the hell had he done last night?
A groan from beside him had Xavier’s eyes popping open. Who the hell had he done last night?
Images flashed through his mind, blurry scenes from the night before. Walking into his office, finding… Oh no!
Xavier didn’t want to look. He really, really didn’t. That didn’t stop him from craning his neck and turning his head.
His stomach lurched as blond hair tipped with blue brushed against his nose. The hair moved, his bed partner’s head tipped back, and Xavier found himself looking down into worried blue eyes. Shit!
"Morning," Billy said, his voice thick with sleep and his breath ripe with the vestiges of alcohol.
"Jesus!" Xavier snapped to full awareness as he scrambled back, both from shock and to escape Billy’s potent morning breath. Had Xavier been a little less hungover and a lot less shocked he might not have misjudged how much mattress he had left.
As it was, he hit the floor with a resounding thud that shot through his entire body and knocked the air right out of his lungs. He wheezed, feeling like he’d been kicked in the gut. Billy peered over the edge of the bed, his eyes lit with amusement.
"If I’d have batted my eyes at you and called you Big Daddy, would you have gone right through the wall?"
Xavier narrowed his eyes at the little shit and then breathed a sigh of relief when he noticed Billy still had his silver shirt on. It wasn’t much of a shirt, granted, but it gave Xavier hope that he hadn’t done anything stupid, like fuck the man.
He cringed and closed his eyes. That would be like fucking his brother, and that was just…gross. But the thought spurred his brain into gear, and memories of last night came flooding back. He’d been in a foul mood because he was short staffed, because a couple of idiots had got into a fight over a twink, because the deposit from the night before hadn’t added up and he had a sneaking suspicion of why that was so—he’d had problems with his brother Randy ‘borrowing’ cash from the register before. The last thing he’d needed was to walk into his office and find Randy sitting at his desk.
Well, that was almost the last thing he’d needed. Seeing Billy’s blond and blue hair bobbing up and down had been the straw that broke the camel’s back—or Xavier’s temper.
Normally he kept a tight rein on his emotions, but finding his moronic brother using his office as a fuck room had thrown gasoline on the ember of anger boiling in his gut. And to know it was Billy Randy had been in there with—Xavier growled and opened his eyes to glare at the smaller man.
"What the hell were you thinking?" he snarled. Billy was like a brother to him, more so than Randy had ever been. Granted, Billy was a much younger, much more annoying, trouble-making brother—and those last two descriptions were really saying something, considering the crap Randy always seemed to stir up. But at least Billy’s brand of trouble wasn’t malicious. He was just naïve and he didn’t ever think about repercussions, whereas Randy was a bully who got off on his delusions of power.
Randy was an ass.
Billy shrugged and looked remorseful, sort of. He was hard to read sometimes. "Well, I told Randy I didn’t want to, but he wouldn’t leave me alone so I thought if I got him off he’d just shut up. It seemed like the quickest way to get him to go away."
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A native Texan, Bailey spends her days spinning stories around in her head, which has contributed to more than one incident of tripping over her own feet. Evenings are reserved for pounding away at the keyboard, as are early morning hours. Sleep? Doesn't happen much. Writing is too much fun, and there are too many characters bouncing about, tapping on Bailey's brain demanding to be let out.
Caffeine and chocolate are permanent fixtures in Bailey's office and are never far from hand at any given time. Removing either of those necessities from Bailey's presence can result in what is known as A Very, Very Scary Bailey and is not advised under any circumstances.
Reviewed by Literary Nymphs
This story is filled with great characters and Ms. Bradford has done a fine job creating their unique and interesting personalities...one of things I enjoyed most was the care and patience Xavier exercised...
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