Series: Permanently Black and Blue, Book One
Author: C.R. Scott
Publisher: NineStar Press
Release Date: April 13, 2020
Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex
Pairing: Male/Male
Length: 77100
Genre: Contemporary, LGBTQIA+, Young adult, high school, in the closet, musicians, coming-of-age, family drama
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Synopsis
Shaun’s an outsider. He has a dark past
and an even darker habit of cutting himself and burying his emotions under his
skin. The only thing he’s got going for him is his guitar and a head full of
lyrics.
When Jesse moves to town, bringing big
bright smiles and warm blue eyes into Shaun’s dark life, he insists they become
friends.
But that’s going to be a problem for
Shaun. He’s never had a real friend before. Oh, and he’s also finding himself
hopelessly attracted to Jesse’s undeniable charm, which is definitely not going
to work out.
Being gay isn’t brutal and Shaun has an
image to uphold if he’s ever got a shot at becoming the death metal God he
knows he’s destined to become.
Excerpt
Deep Cut
C.R. Scott © 2020
All Rights Reserved
For the first time ever, Jesse almost
had a room to himself.
The new house had four bedrooms. It was
their house this time, so they could do whatever they wanted with it. They kept
the bunk beds though, and as usual, Jesse got stuck with the top while Sam got
the bottom.
Already, the room was covered in
half-emptied boxes, clothes, various personal items, and discarded fast-food
wrappers.
Jesse hung over the edge of his bed so
he could see the tiny screen on their TV. His younger brother, Sam, had
convinced him to do two-player in Call of Duty. He’d wanted to finish unpacking
his stuff, but after an awful lot of complaining on Sam’s part about how
completely bullshit it was internet wouldn’t be installed for almost a week,
he’d agreed.
They were wasting a perfectly good
Sunday evening and had been for the last few hours. Jesse sat with a blank
stare, zoned out, the controller hanging loosely from his hands, when a soft
voice from the doorway snapped him to attention.
“Jesse, I wanna come up.”
Brian stood in the doorway, a pout on
his little round face. He picked his way into the room and stood directly in
front of the TV.
“Get out of the way!” Sam’s hands were
occupied. He nudged the three-year-old with his foot.
“Stop it,” Brian whined. “Jesse!”
“You should be in bed,” Jesse sighed.
“I can’t sleep. Lissa won’t stop
crying.” Brian stepped over a pile of clothes and started up the ladder.
Jesse rolled his eyes, but he dropped
the controller and crawled to the edge of the bed. He lifted Brian off the
first rung and dragged him to the top bunk.
“Oh, man! I got you,” Sam laughed as he
blew Jesse’s character away on-screen.
“Fuck you, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Dude, Brian, go sleep with the twins.
We’re busy,” Sam said as he started a new game.
“No.”
“Leave us alone! Go back to your room!”
But Jesse knew that wasn’t happening.
Just as Brian had mentioned, he could hear baby Melissa wailing in the other
room.
Monica shuffled past their door. She had
PJs on, and her hair was bedraggled. The baby quieted somewhat, but that was
just because she was getting attention. As soon as Monica tried to go back to
bed, Lissa would start up again.
Brian watched Sam and Jesse shoot each
other up. After a while, his head started nodding. The toddler slumped onto
Jesse’s pillows and was soon fast asleep.
“So…are you nervous about starting
school?” Sam asked abruptly.
“No.” It was the truth. What was there
to be nervous about? “We’ve been to a million other schools before. This one’s
no different.”
“I guess,” Sam said. “But…I don’t know.
Those other schools were different— Crap!” he cried as Jesse’s character
skillfully sniped his.
“Should’ve ducked,” Jesse snickered. He
earned a middle finger for his efforts.
As they waited for a new game to load,
Sam returned to the topic of school. “This is different,” he said again. “Like
when we were living with Joey, that was temporary.”
“Mmm, another of Mom’s boyfriends,”
Jesse agreed.
“Yeah,” Sam said. “But there’s no
boyfriend here.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“I don’t know. What if we hate it? We’re
stuck here,” Sam said tightly. “This is our home now.”
Jesse hadn’t thought about it like that.
They’d been moving around since before he could remember. They’d stayed with
friends and moved in with Monica’s many, many boyfriends. But Monica’s dad,
their grandfather, had died about six months ago and he’d left them this
rundown house in the middle of nowhere. Monica had considered selling it, but
after a bad breakup with Joey, the last asshole boyfriend in Detroit, she’d
decided to move them halfway across the country to make this hole-in-the-wall
their own.
Nothing was ever set in stone, but from
the way she talked about it, they’d be here for a while.
“It’ll be fine,” Jesse said.
“But what if—”
“Dude!” Jesse shot Sam in the head as he
ducked out from behind a crumbling wall. “Are you going to play or what?”
It was a lame attempt at distraction,
but it worked. Sam kicked the frame of the bed. The top bunk shook. “I’m gonna
kill you,” he said.
Beside him, Brian stirred and moaned in
his sleep.
Jesse sighed. He brushed a hand through
Brian’s blond hair and lulled him back to dreamland as the next game loaded.
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Meet the Author
C.R. Scott is a self-taught writer with a BA in psychology. Her characters are flawed and imperfect and she loves them for it. They urge her to write their stories. She currently resides in the ever-changing climates of Ohio with her husband and two children. This is her first published book, with more to come. You can reach C.R. by sending her an eMail.Giveaway
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