BEST LAID PLANS
by Cassie Stevens
M/M Erotic Romance - Short Contemporary
August 2010
Cover Art © 2008 Trace Edward Zaber
Amber Quill Press - Amber Allure www.amberquill.com/AmberAllure
ISBN 978-1-60272-735-9
Seth Foster's biggest mistake wasn't being in Jason's arms...it was running from them. Running and hiding are what Seth does best. Running down a football field, hiding from the world and himself what he truly feels inside. He thought tearing down the old house would purge the memories. He didn't realize buying the place would bring Jason Gentry back into his life.
Jason Gentry purged the heartbreak and all the anger that came with it years ago. It comes rushing back at the first sight of Seth standing before the old house. So does ache and want...and Jason's determination to see the house restored, to show Seth some things are worth saving. It doesn't take Jason long to realize that the thing that needs restoring the most is Seth. How can Jason give Seth what he most needs without further losing his heart in the process?
Jason has one night to re-introduce Seth to the life he never should have denied. One night to remember forever. If you love someone, let them go...right? Yeah, right...then run the other way before heartbreak catches you.
To read an excerpt of this book, click here
What The Reviewers Are Saying
FIVE LIPS! Watching these two find each other again, using the old house where they first fell in love as the glue that bonds them back together was a beautiful experience. I love how Ms. Stevens really made me realize how necessary it is to feel comfortable within your own body and accepting who you really are, which is what Seth had to learn. That really is a good lesson for anyone. This was a wonderful love story, one I will remember for a long time to come. ~ Tina, Two Lips Reviews
Best Laid Plans is a sweet story about trusting in those who love you. Jason was the rock in this duo and he was the one I was most drawn too. I liked the characters and love the interactions between them. I really enjoyed Best Laid Plans. It was a really great story and a sequel *hint hint* would be fantastic. ~ Ley, Joyfully Reviewed.
Excerpt
Seth Foster stared at the monster from the safety of the rusted iron gate guarding its front portal. No wonder parents forbid their children to go into the place. The house was an accident waiting to happen. A one-hundred-year-old monstrosity held together more by luck than nails. Doric columns rammed the edges of the wraparound porch into place, determined something would hold everything in place--they were probably the only thing sturdy about the house. Yet the porch still sagged in defiance, a perfect match to the rest of the three-story structure.
It was as gray and drab as Seth remembered. Scary in its own right, not needing the embellishment of tales woven in the dark where the only light came from a flashlight held under the storyteller's chin. Shutters guarded the windows...barely. In the right light, you could tell they'd once been painted dark green--the paint had soaked into the wood. But the last fleck of white paint on the rest of the house was long gone--picked away by trespassers, bored kids, or torn away by the elements.
Weeds cluttered the lawn as they always had, victims, too, of the weather. Today they were shin high. Oddly, morning glories twined around the iron fence rails, adding the only color to the place--pinks and purples.
Someone probably dumped some seeds along the edge.
Seth could appreciate the attempt. He'd been a kid once. The house was his playground then, his and all the other kids in the area, despite parental decree to stay away. Seth wished he'd listened.
"They say it's haunted."
Seth started at the voice behind him--close behind him--too close. His heart raced; his body...clearly had a mind of its own. Odd how the years that separated them hadn't wiped away the memory of that voice, or the other memories with it.
Before Seth could answer, Jason Gentry stepped next to him. Seth refused to glance his way, not even surreptitiously from the corner of his eye. He knew what the man looked like--it was hard to miss when his photo hit the pages at least once a year. Vanity made Seth wonder if Jason had noticed Seth's image also flashed through the media.
Seth wrapped his hands around the top rail of the rusted iron fence and kept his gaze forward.
"Yep, that's what they say," he finally replied.
"Its legends grow every year." Jason's chuckle wiggled through Seth, setting off tremors Seth wished he could deny. "Now it's our generation warning their children to stay away from the old Jefferson house."
"They should stay away. It's a safety hazard. A lawsuit waiting to happen for the owner." But Seth knew its allure was too great to resist.
"Which is now you," Jason said.
"Yes, me." Word traveled fast, even in a town this size, but then community was community. Although, Seth would bet Jason had as many and varied connections as he did.
"I was surprised to find you were the other bidder."
Not nearly as surprised as Seth was to learn it was Jason who'd forced him to up the sale price. Didn't matter. Seth was willing to pay whatever he had to in order to buy the house.
Jason shifted Seth's way. This time Seth couldn't resist a quick side glance. Want carried to him on the wings of Jason's scent--he still used Irish Spring.
"Why'd you buy it?" Jason asked.
"Why'd you want to buy it?" Seth countered.
"Memories?" Was that a shrug?
Seth sighed, nodded. "Yeah...memories."
Seconds passed, time when Seth was all too aware of Jason's perusal. It sent prickles down his spine. Memories of another time when Jason slowly peeled Seth's shirt from his shoulders, caressed his skin like ancient treasure, dotted kisses down--
"I noticed you went bald a while back."
So...Jason had been following Seth's media coverage. He resisted the urge to rub his hand over his head.
"I was losing it anyway. Makes it easier to play."
"Oh? Are you still in the game? Word out says you're thinking of retiring, that you referred to your last injury as a wake-up call. How are you doing with that, by the way?"
No sense denying it. Seth wasn't in town to make points with anyone or show-off. "Knee hurts like hell when it rains. Hip aches when I sit too long. Ribs are good to go, but I have my chiropractor on speed dial. As for my head...migraines are a bitch and sneak up on me when I least expect it. So yes, I'm retiring."
"Good. I know your parents have been worried. The glory faded for them the first time you took a hard hit."
He'd been talking to Seth's parents? When? And why hadn't they mentioned it? God...if they knew...
Forcing bravado he didn't feel, Seth did rub his head. "But I'm keeping the head just like it is. The ladies seem to like it."
"So I've noticed. I hardly recognized you without the latest starlet slash ingénue slash socialite dripping from your arm."
Jason's sarcasm cut through Seth's façade quicker than a ceramic knife through butter. He shot the man a full glare and the impact of seeing Jason face-to-face finished the job. Seth's heart was exposed, pounding, aching, damning him to hell once more. An erection those aforementioned ladies lusted after swelled his Jackson Tate trousers.
Smile lines crinkled the corners of Jason's brown eyes, emphasized his kissable lips. Seth longed to trace his finger down Jason's pointed nose, then dot a kiss to the tip. He was clean-shaven and tanned, teeth blindingly white in that hint of a smile. Brown hair curled around his ears and down his neck, not too long, not too short. And probably just as soft as Seth's fingers remembered.
Jason wore a long-sleeved dusty rose shirt with the cuffs rolled up to expose strong forearms and the collar open, tempting a tongue to delve into the V and taste. Light gray trousers hugged his trim hips, and Seth longed for a rear view to see if Jason's ass was as tight as he remembered.
He took a small step back, needing to put some distance between them. Jason represented everything he'd fought to deny, and here he was, undoing all the efforts Seth had taken to prove it was wrong, a mistake, a lie.
He found a smirk in his bag of tricks and unleashed it. "What can I say? They know a good thing when they see it."
Jason's eyebrow lifted. "Indeed."
How could one word have so much damn power? Mean so many different things?
"The look fits you," he added. "I can appreciate the...allure."
Jason turned away, leaning forearms on the fence rail. The snub hit below the belt. Seth longed to grab his arm and force Jason to look at him again. An image of him standing behind Jason leaped into his head, their trousers around their ankles and--
"What are your plans for it?" Jason's question cut through Seth's fantasy and yanked him back to reality where he belonged.
"I'm going to tear the son of a bitch down."
"So much for memories."
"Some aren't meant to be savored." Seth let his anger build, hoping it would chase away the other feelings and the temptation that went with it.
"Ohhh...I see. You blame the house." He snuffed and turned his head Seth's way. "That house didn't make you gay. You're gay because--"
Fists at his sides, Seth closed the distance between them, hovering over Jason. "I am not gay. I have scores of women who can swear otherwise."
Jason was far from intimidated. In fact, he didn't budge. "Okay, I'll give you that one. The media is awash with the list of women you've fucked. You're bisexual."
"It was one time!" He jerked his index finger up, right in front of Jason's oh-so-perfect nose. "It was the night. The storm. The fear. One time!"
"Technically, I believe it was five times that night."
"Shut the fuck up!"
Jason merely grinned, lifted that dark eyebrow. "Yes, we certainly can't risk someone overhearing that one of NFL's all time great running backs is gay. Excuse me...bisexual. Oops...there's that word again. Imagine the ripple of fear that would send through locker rooms everywhere. Clenched butt cheeks and cupped genitals all around. Perhaps a little envy and disappointment a few of them didn't know that back in the day."
"I'm not going to stand here and listen to this shit." He avoided brushing Jason's delectable backside as he walked by. It wasn't easy. No matter how he denied it, Seth wanted to yank those hips to his groin and dry hump Jason until they both came.
"Go ahead and run, Seth. After all, it is what you do best," Jason said calmly. "But you can fuck a thousand women twenty-four seven and it still won't change a thing. It is what it is. Deny it all you want, but don't blame that house. A house that's over a hundred years old, has withstood earthquakes, the elements, and time. A house with a rich history before it fell into neglect and became neighborhood fodder for ghost stories and a forbidden playground for kids."
Seth meant to keep walking. His feet were glued to the sidewalk, trapped by Jason's words, his voice.
"You're Seth Foster. Do something with all that purported money that came your way instead of using it as a weapon. What greater gift to the community you came from than to restore one of its historical homes?"
"And I suppose you're going to tell me you bid on the house to do just that."
The silence lasted so long Seth looked around to make sure Jason was still there. "Well?"
Jason leaned his elbows on the fence rail. "I bid on it because you did."
Confusion screwed up Seth's face. "What?"
Jason shrugged one shoulder. "You're not the only one capable of petty acts of revenge. You wanted the house, and I wanted to make you pay to buy it." Another shrug and then he pushed away from the fence and stalked toward Seth. "You act like you're the only one who was affected that night. Did you even stop to think about what you did to me afterward? How you hurt me? Shut me out? Left me? After all our years together, everything we did, and you just walked away without another word."
He circled Seth now, and Seth very much felt like prey being sniffed out. A mate being targeted. He stood statue-still waiting for something...anything...everything.
"I must've killed you a dozen times over in my books," Jason told him. "Made you the lackey, the villain, the imbecile. Then the lover, the hero." These last words whispered over Seth's ear, so close the heat from Jason's breath slithered down Seth's collar.
"Isn't it time we put the past behind us?" he asked. "Turn this place into something good and purge the night that changed us both?"
Seth's gaze wandered toward the behemoth. Jason was still so close Seth could almost taste him. "White elephant. Money pit."
"True enough." Jason pressed against his back. Seth longed to lean into him, feel those arms around him, give in to what he'd denied himself all this time.
"I'm between books," Jason said. "You're a free agent. Maybe we could do some of the work ourselves. Put to use those rusty skills we used to have working with my dad on construction."
"Yeah." Seth snickered. "We'll just be a couple of working stiffs."
"Stiff indeed."
The words gave Seth the hard-on from hell.
