Author: Leta
Blake & Alice Griffiths
Title: Will & Patrick Do the Holidays
Series
Title and Number: Wake Up Married, Episode 3
Publisher: Leta
Blake Books
Release
Date: November 23, 2015
Genre: Romantic Comedy M/M Romance
Tags: gay, woke up married, tropes, rom-com, mafia,
forced marriage, disabled heroes
Heat
Level: 5!!!! Super hot!!
Pairing: M/M
Length: 117
Pages
Book Blurb
Follow
Will & Patrick as they do the holidays in this third installment of the
romantic-comedy serial, Wake Up Married, by
best-selling author Leta Blake and newcomer Alice Griffiths!
A couple’s first holiday season is always a special time. Thanksgiving,
Christmas, and New Year’s Eve are magical when you’re in love. Too bad Will and
Patrick’s marriage is a sham and they’re only faking their affection for each
other. Or are they?
Sparks fly in this episode of the Wake
Up Married serial. Will the sexual tension between Will and Patrick
finally explode in a needy night of passion? Or will they continue to deny
their feelings?
Episode
3 of 6 in the Wake
Up Married serial.
Excerpt
“Ah, the acrid smell of insulin in the morning.”
Patrick’s voice is still gravelly from sleep as he turns on the shower and
pulls down his black boxer-briefs revealing his tight ass.
Will looks quickly away and back to the syringe
he’s filling by the bathroom sink. “I can never get the last dose to eject from
the insulin pens. I always have to pull it out with a needle.”
“After living with you, I have an entire list of
ways they can improve insulin pen injectors.”
“I should have my lawyer queue up an appointment
for you with the pharmaceutical company.”
“You do that, puddin’-pop, and I’ll be there with a
PowerPoint presentation. It’ll consist of four words over and over. ‘Do your
damn job.’ If pushed, I might throw in a ‘Don’t make me do it for you’ as a
closing argument.”
Will pinches a bit of fat from his abdomen and
sticks himself quickly. He’s done this for years, but he never stops hating it.
Especially syringes. They’re somehow worse than the insulin pens. “I’ll ask
Owen to make that happen.”
Patrick snorts from behind the curtain. Will
glances over and heat floods his gut as he notices the shadow outline of
Patrick’s morning wood. “Oh, um, let me just—” He hustles to deal with the used
needle and ends up dropping the syringe in the sink. The scent of insulin grows
stronger. “Why does it smell like Band-Aids?” Will muses as he finally gets rid
of the used needle and cleans up the syringe, tossing the now-empty insulin
pen.
“It’s the preservative. Meta-cresol,” Patrick says.
“Mmm, so clinical. So sexy.”
“And you’re so weird.”
“Nothing like the smell of a hospital to get my motor
running.”
Will glances back at Patrick’s shadow behind the
shower curtain. He’s still got a half chub flopping around as he washes his
hair. Will clears his throat.
“Have you considered an insulin pump?” Patrick
asks.
Will tries to drag his mind from Patrick’s
erection. “I don’t want one.”
“Because?”
“I don’t like the idea of having something attached
to me. All the time. Something I have to rely on to do its job.”
“You trust insulin pens have the right dosage, that
the dial works, that they’re—“
“I know, Patrick. But I have the right to my own
preferences when it comes to my medical treatment.”
“Fair enough. So what’s the deal with your daddy?”
Patrick asks sans segue.
“What are you talking about?” Will packs up his
testing kit and uses a black marker he keeps in his murse to make a dot on the
back of his left hand. He can’t forget to drop by the pharmacy and pick up his
replacement insulin pens.
“Papa Molinaro. What’s the deal with him and the
holidays? He wasn’t around for Thanksgiving. Will he be dropping down the
chimney on Christmas Eve with a bag full of presents for you and a nice hard
dick for your mommy? Or what?”
Will rolls his eyes. “Thanks for that image.”
“You’re welcome.”
“He spends Christmas with his daughters. Or at
least he used to. I don’t keep in touch with him.”
“Ah, the half siblings you’ve never met. So, no
Christmas phone call from Papa?”
“No.” Will feels the familiar hot, impatient squirm
of nastiness in his gut. Conversations about his father usually bring it on.
“No Christmas card stuffed with cash?”
“No card, no text, no Skype, no email.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
“He’s obsessed enough with you to have you followed
by mobster spies but he can’t pick up a phone. At best, that’s inefficient.”
“At worst?”
“At worst, Starshine, you have a deeply
dysfunctional father/son relationship.”
“Wow. You really are a genius.”
Patrick barks a laugh and then begins to hum the
new Madonna song he’s been singing off and on for the last two days.
“That’s still stuck in your head, huh?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“Better than ‘We Three Kings’ mixed with
‘Scarborough Fair,’” Will mutters. Finished with his morning insulin rituals,
he starts the water in the sink to begin his shaving routine. “Tony doesn’t do
anything he doesn’t want to do, and being a reliable member of our family was
never something he was good at.”
“When did you last see him?”
“It’s been three years. It can be ten more for all
I care.” Will pumps shaving cream into his hand and smears it on his face. “He
sweeps in on a whim, wreaks havoc on our lives, and sweeps out again.”
Patrick is quiet behind the curtain and Will
glances over to see that he’s rinsing out his hair.
“There’s no pattern, unless you count my mom
getting serious with anyone. As soon as my dad gets wind of her being happy
with someone else, he has to come to town and wreck it.”
“With his dick.”
Will sighs. “Everything’s about sex for you, isn’t
it?”
“Nope. A lot of things. But not everything.” He
turns off the water and throws back the curtain. Will averts his eyes quickly,
but his hands are already shaking enough that he’s not sure he should be
trusted to shave himself. Patrick goes on. “But it’s all about sex between your
parents. The Hurting Times churns
with scintillating tales of your mom inappropriately hopping on your dad’s
pole.”
“Like you know anything about ‘inappropriate’.”
Patrick laughs. “Like I know about that time they
banged in the bathroom at some old lady’s funeral. The Hurting Times forum had pages dedicated to that one.”
Will’s ears grow hot.
“And, hey, for the record, even I know a funeral
home toilet is a bad place for sex. Public bathrooms are tourist destinations
for germs.” He shudders and slings a towel around his hips, thankfully covering
his dangling dick. “It’s not sanitary.”
“You are such a jerk.”
“So you tell me.” Patrick grabs a hairbrush and
runs it through his wet hair. The dark auburn looks almost brown and glistens
brightly in the overhead bathroom lights. “There’s evidence of a genetic
component to addiction.” Patrick’s eyes go foggy as he muses, “But is it
addiction or abuse? Both probably.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You, mainly. But I’m also talking about them. If The Hurting Times gossip about the two
of them is even half true, they are their own kind of addicts. Addicted to each
other. Addicted to sex. Addicted to falling in love. Especially your mother.
But it’s possible your father uses the intense sexual connection between them
as abuse.”
“I…” Will’s fingers clutch at the razor and he
drags it against his skin carefully. “I didn’t think you believed in psychology
mumbo-jumbo.”
“I don’t believe in spiritual mumbo-jumbo. And,
yes, psychology is a lot of bull-honky, but as a neurologist, I can’t deny that
thoughts and experiences have physical effects on brain tissue. Dubious and
whoo-hoo as most psychological theories seem compared with hard science. What’s
your dad’s sign?”
“Really?”
Patrick shrugs and sidles up next to Will at the
sink, examining his own face in the mirror.
Will sighs. “Early November. So, what’s that?
Scorpio?”
“Ah. And your mother’s a Scorpio too.”
“How do you know? The Hurting Times again?”
“I know because I’ve met her.”
Patrick’s arm slides against his as he reaches for
the can of shaving cream. Will moves slightly to the side but Patrick just
scoots closer. Will can smell soap on his skin and shampoo in his hair. He
wonders what those curls would feel like slick and wet under his fingers.
Patrick rubs on shaving cream and reaches for his
razor. His naked chest slides against Will’s bicep.
Will tries to concentrate on shaving, but Patrick’s
reflection in the mirror is distracting. His normally pale skin is flushed from
the shower and his nipples are pink and peaked. Will clears his throat and
scrapes his razor over his face again.
“Addiction,” Patrick muses on. “You didn’t stumble
into that on your own. You drink…and your parents screw. That’s how these genes
play out. And with both of them being Scorpios…”
Patrick’s arm rubs against him, and Will clicks his
tongue against his teeth. Between this touching
and Patrick’s speculation about his parents’ sex life, Will can’t tell if he’s
going to pop an inconvenient boner or if his balls are going to shrivel up into
his body.
“Two Scorpios can burn down a barn from the heat of
their mutual orgasms.”
Ball-shriveling wins out. “Okay, well, this
conversation has covered everything I never wanted to think about. I’m going to
be late to work.”
Patrick studies Will in the mirror.
Will wipes his face clean of cream, decides not to
care that he’s got one stripe of shiny skin on an otherwise stubbly face, and,
grabbing his murse, leaves the sink to Patrick.
He dresses quickly. He really is going to be late.
Not that anyone at Good Works would say anything to him.
“Do you have surgery scheduled?” Will calls out as
he slides his wallet into his back pocket and hitches his bag on his shoulder.
“No.”
“Meet you here tonight?”
“Will there be more Capheus?”
“Yes. And more Lito.”
“It’s a TV date with the hubby, then,” Patrick
says, stepping out into the room with his sharp grin in place.
The hubby.
“First person home calls room service,” Patrick
adds. “Order stuff we both like. We can share.”
“Deal.”
“Oh, and Will? For the record, you’d still be hot
even if you wore an insulin pump.”
“Thanks. But I’ll stick with the pens.”
Walking out of the pharmacy twenty minutes later
with his new insulin pens, Will wonders what kind of sex Libras and Aries are
supposed to have. You already know the
answer to that. Hot enough to burn down a barn.
“God, just stop.”
He rubs a hand
over his hair and decides to focus on the day ahead. He’ll take it one step at
a time. Just like AA has taught him.
Author
Bios
Leta Blake
Author
of the bestselling book Smoky Mountain Dreams and the fan favorite Training
Season, Leta Blake's educational and professional background is in psychology
and finance, respectively. However, her passion has always been for writing.
She enjoys crafting romance stories and exploring the psyches of made up
people. At home in the Southern U.S., Leta works hard at achieving balance
between her day job, her writing, and her family.
You can find out more about her by following her
online:
On the web: http://letablake.wordpress.com/
On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/letablake
Alice Griffiths
A long-time reader of romance novels, Alice Griffiths finally
took the plunge into writing, teaming up with best-selling author Leta Blake
for the 'Woke up Married' serialized comedy. A lover of tropes, Alice enjoys
mining old ideas and putting a fresh, funny spin on them. Formerly working in
the newspaper industry, Alice is now an art curator. She lives in Sydney,
Australia.
You can find out more about her
by following her online:
On Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Alice_Author
Giveaway
2 copies of Will & Patrick Do the Holidays (Wake Up Married, Episode 3)
Rafflecopter Code:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
ALPHA BOOK CLUB REVIEW
Title: Will and Patrick Do the Holidays
Series: Wake Up Married, Episode 3
Author: Leta Blake and Patty Griffiths
Genre: Gay Romantic Comedy, Serial Style
Pages: 117 Pages
Release Date: November 23, 2015
Publisher: Leta Blake Books
Stars: 4
Heat: 4
Blurb:
Follow Will & Patrick as they do the holidays in this third installment of the romantic-comedy serial, Wake Up Married, by best-selling author Leta Blake and newcomer Alice Griffiths!
A couple’s first holiday season is always a special time. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve are magical when you’re in love. Too bad Will and Patrick’s marriage is a sham and they’re only faking their affection for each other. Or are they?
Sparks fly in this episode of the Wake Up Married serial. Will the sexual tension between Will and Patrick finally explode in a needy night of passion? Or will they continue to deny their feelings?
Episode 3 of 6 in the Wake Up Married serial.
Review:
This episode of the “Will and Patrick” saga was finally a book with some heat! For all of you who have been dying for a little sexy action between our two guys.. well this book delivers!!
In this episode we get to follow Will and Patrick as they spend time with Will’s family during the holiday season. The way Will’s family treats Patrick is so unfriendly and full of snide remarks about Will’s ex-boyfriend Ryan. It really made me have some hateful feelings towards Will’s Family and I hope they are able to redeem themselves in following installments.
The overall dynamic between Will and Patrick is changing in this saga. These two are going from strangers married to something more.. Will wants to spend time with Patrick. Patrick begins to enjoy spending time with Will and the chemistry between the two.. heats up.
For most of this saga the chemistry has been at a slow burn or non-existent stage, well the authors definitely bump it up a notch as these guys finally reconnect. To say their bedroom life will be boring.. would be very misleading. In addition to the chemistry heating up, episode three shows us a different side of Patrick as he lays claim to Will in more ways than one. Patrick is embracing his married life (well more than he was in previous episodes) and we get a sneak peak of Alpha Patrick, possessive and sexy Patrick, and doctor Patrick who is always worried about and caring for his husband. I think out of the characters, Patrick has done the most growth in this serial thus far and it will be exciting to see how far the authors take him.
In addition to the fun and sexy stuff in this Saga, I appreciate the author's ability to deal with a chronic disease and allow the reader to see some of what a diabetic and alcoholic has to deal with on a daily basis. The restrictions, treatments, and never ending pull towards alcohol are very real and the authors do a great job of showing this in the book. Creating Will with these chronic conditions and then having him meet a brilliant doctor and subsequently marry him allows Will to have someone who not only wants to help take care of him, but understands the disease process and issues that Will has to face daily.
At the end of this episode I think there are a couple sentences that sum up Will and Patrick’s feelings.
“Despite everything, despite how stupid it might be, Will’s happy, and Patrick is too. The Consequences can wait.”
ARC provided by author via IndieGo PR. Reviewed by JLoves2Read for Alpha Book Club and Gay Book Reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment