And...for the first time, I'm sharing the blurb as well! I hope you like it.
At ten years old, Noah Jameson and Cooper
Bradshaw collided mid-air when they dove for the same football. For three
years, they were inseparable…until one day when Noah and his parents
disappeared in the middle of the night.
Noah and Cooper never knew what happened to each other. Now,
seventeen years later, after finding his boyfriend in bed with another man,
Noah returns to Blackcreek looking for a fresh start. And damned if he doesn’t
find his old friend grew up to be sexy as sin. Coop can’t believe Noah—the only
person he trusted with the guilt over his parents’ death—is back. And gay… Or
that Cooper himself suddenly wants another man in his bed for the first time.
There’s no denying the attraction and emotion
between them, but can they overcome the ghosts of their pasts to have a future
together?
Cover design by B Design.
Cover photo by jackson photografix
COLLIDE will be available November 2013.
Here's an unedited excerpt. This is the first time Cooper is really acknowledging is attraction for Noah.
Here's an unedited excerpt. This is the first time Cooper is really acknowledging is attraction for Noah.
As much as the words scared him,
he couldn’t not share this. Couldn’t not trust his friend with what he was
felling, even though it killed him. “I saw you with him.” It was hell when the
one person you always felt like you could tell everything to was the one to
have you tied in knots. The one you wanted to run from. Needed, too, yet Cooper
couldn’t make himself flee.
“Jesus. I saw you kissing that
guy and…what the hell is wrong with me? I had a beautiful woman in my bed
and…shit.” Cooper shook his head. Slid both hands through his hair and yanked
as though that would somehow change things. “I wanted to kill him.”
I wanted to be him…
Dizziness hit him. All he could
do was thank God he was already sitting down. Noah watched him. His eyes
intense, looking, searching, always finding things inside Cooper that no one
else could see.
They burned Cooper’s skin and
were bright with…fuck. He didn’t even want to think of that.
Noah took a step toward him, but
when Cooper shook his head, he stopped. He only had on jeans, the button undone
and Cooper hated himself for even noticing that. For looking at the cut of his
abs, and the long muscles of his arms.
He jerked his head the opposite
direction. Still he couldn’t quiet his brain that kept telling him he shouldn’t
be thinking the things he was, and everything else that begged him to explore
them.
“Cooper,” Noah started, but Coop
squeezed his eyes shut and Noah stopped talking. Which made no sense
considering Noah couldn’t even see his face, but somehow he’d known.
“I’ve never felt jealousy like
that in my life.” He spoke so softly he wondered if Noah could even hear him.
Somehow he knew he could, which was good since he didn’t have it in himself to
speak any louder. He saw Noah’s hands on the other man’s waist as he’d kissed
him against the wall. Saw Noah’s nails digging in. Saw how roughly Noah had practically
slammed the other man into the wall. He hadn’t had to be gentle. It had been
rough and primal and it splintered every fucking thing Cooper thought of
himself. Hit buttons he didn’t know he had and sprouted feelings he wanted to
forget.
“It’s wrong. Tell me it’s fucking
wrong, Noah. That I shouldn’t feel this way. It’s not right.”
He heard Noah come toward him.
Knew his friend stood across from him, probably leaning against the back of the
couch, but Cooper still couldn’t make himself look at him.
“You think I’m wrong, Coop? The
way I live my life? That I shouldn’t feel or be attracted to who I am?”
Cooper heard it. The pain,
disappointment, and anger in Noah’s voice.
“No.” He finally managed to look
at him. He was such a pussy, sitting on the floor like this, but couldn’t make
himself move. “If that’s who you are then there’s nothing wrong with it.” But it
was different for Coop. Wrong for Coop. He wasn’t gay. He loved women. He’d had
a lot of them. He’d been raised to believe it should be one man and one woman.
“So why does it make it wrong for
you to—”
“Wonder what your hands would feel like on me
like that?” He hated himself for admitting it, but needed to say it too. Needed
the words out because they were the only truth he understood right now.
“Wondered how it would feel to touch you? To feel you?”
Noah cursed and for the first
time, Cooper couldn’t read him. Had no idea what his friend was thinking.
Probably because he didn’t know what he was thinking either.
“What’s wrong with me?” Cooper
hated the weakness in his voice. The need to ask such a question. He knew who
he was and what he wanted. He’d never been the type to try and bend to fit
someone else, but this? Wanting another man? This was different.
“There’s nothing wrong with you.”
Noah’s voice was hard—not angry, but firm, telling Coop he believed what he was
saying.
And then he took a step forward.
And another one.
Cooper’s heart stopped. It was
like a fist tightened around his chest keeping him from breathing.
Noah hadn’t shaved and he noticed
the stubble on his jaw. Why the fuck was he noticing that shit?
Cooper couldn’t move as Noah kept
walking toward him. Didn’t know if he wanted to. He should because he wasn’t
gay and shouldn’t crave Noah to keep getting closer but he did.
Noah stopped in front of him.
Looked down at Coop while he looked up at his friend. His eyes said so much,
but nothing at the same time. All Cooper knew was they were intense beams
pointed right at him.
Noah kneeled in front of Cooper.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he
asked panicked. Forget that Noah hadn’t even done anything yet.
“I don’t know,” Noah replied, the
same confusion in his voice that Cooper felt. Noah reached out and touched
Coop’s hand that rested on his knee. He looked down to see it was red, swollen
from punching the wall.
But that’s not what he paid
attention too. He watched Noah’s fingers trace his muscles. Watched as a hand
that matched his in size, fucking caressed
him.
He wanted to punch Noah.
Wanted to run.
Wanted to ask for more.
The touch shot up his arm as Noah
explored. It wasn’t like they’d never touched each other before, but this was
different. This was…intimate, which in a lot of ways Cooper felt was a stupid
word for what they were doing, but it was all he could come up with.
Noah’s fingers traced his, as
though he was drawing them. Then slowly…slowing trailed up his arm.
Push him the fuck away!
Cooper knew he shouldn’t but he
watched—fascinated—and felt.
His fingers brushed his hairs as
they ran up his forearm. His bicep. Cooper shivered. Couldn’t take his eyes
away.
Noah reversed his path, heading
down again. Cooper risked a glance at him to see awe in Noah’s eyes as he
watched what he was doing to Cooper too. Which made no sense. This was normal
for him. It was what he did, but that’s the only way Cooper could explain it.
When he got to Cooper’s wrist, he
circled it with his fingers. They touched. A woman would never be able to wrap
one hand fully around his wrist like that.
And he liked it. He fucking did
and he tried to blame all sorts of things: having his friend back in his life
after all these years, drinking tonight. None of it was true though and he knew
it.
Noah lifted Cooper’s hand toward
him. His cock ached, and the fist around his chest tightened. His brain
screamed at him to be a man and use his fist to punch Noah in the face, but he
didn’t. He watched.
Watched as Noah bent toward his
hand. Watched as Noah pressed his lips to Cooper’s swollen knuckles. Watched as
Noah’s eyes squeezed tight, his mouth still pressed to Cooper’s hand.
And then he opened them. Pulled away
and Cooper finally let a heavy breath escape his lungs.
“There’s nothing wrong with you,”
Noah said, before he stood up. “Nothing at all.”
He took a few steps backward and
Cooper wanted to ask him to stop. Ask him where he was going, but he didn’t.
Couldn’t. Part of him hoped Noah would walk out the door and never come back,
because if Noah left, he could forget about wanting him. Coop could block these
thoughts from his head and just keep going the way he had been for his whole
life.
But the other part… It wanted to
trap him here. To find a way to keep Noah to himself so he could explore the
desires inflaming him.
“Take care of your hand. You
should clean it and wrap it. I…I…” for the first time all evening Noah skipped
over his words, but found his ground quickly. “I have to go before I do
something both of us will regret in the morning.”
And just like that—no shirt and
all, he walked away, grabbing his keys off the table and slammed the door.
Cooper didn’t stop him. All he
could do was sit there and look at his hand.
