SLOW PLAY

By Carol Lynne

BUY YOUR COPY TODAY

Charter Captain Bobby Quinn loves life on the water. What he hates is working for his brother. After years spent restoring an aging wooden yacht, his brother bought it out from under him. In Bobby’s mind, if family will screw you at the drop of a hat so will everyone else so. Except for his bi-weekly poker game, he sticks to the solitude of the boat he loves.

Dr. Jules Peters knows all about solitude. When not working endless hours as Head of Emergency Medicine, he’s tinkering in his garage. A collector of vintage cars in need of TLC, Jules has an impressive collection of cars but few friends.

Jules meets Bobby when he’s given a cruise around the San Francisco Bay as a gift. Although their mutual attraction is explosive, neither man is ready to move out of his comfort zone. It might take a meddling med student and an off-season football coach to get these two loners to see there’s more to life than caring for inanimate objects.

EXCERPT
By the time Bobby arrived for Saturday night poker, he was starving, as usual. He lifted a small grocery sack out of the back of his Jeep and ran up the steps. It had been a brutal couple of days, and he was ready for a bit of fun.
Turning the door handle, Bobby walked into Zac’s house as he always had and stopped short. “Oops.”
Zac quickly pulled his hand out of the front of Eric’s pants. “Don’t you know how to knock?”
Bobby shrugged. “Sorry, I forgot you actually had a social life now. It won’t happen again.”
Grocery sack in hand, Bobby retreated to the kitchen to give the two love birds some privacy. He heard Zac chuckle at something Eric must’ve said, seconds before Eric’s cute face peered around the corner.
“I’ve got to head in to the hospital. Don’t take all his money,” Eric informed Bobby.
Bobby paused in opening the cookies to laugh. “Easier said than done. Zac sucks at poker.”
“I do not,” Zac protested, wrapping his arms around Eric.
Eric rolled his eyes and turned his head to give Zac another kiss. “You kinda do, babe, but I love you anyway.”
The remark earned Eric a nipple twist. “Ouch.”
“I’ll kiss it better later. What time will you be home?” Zac asked.
“Not ’til morning. I’m covering for someone. I’ll make sure and wake you when I get in.”
“You’d better.” Zac gave Eric one last kiss before the smaller man left.
Turning to Bobby, Zac put his hands on his hips. “So why are you here so early?”
Bobby opened the package of chocolate chip cookies and stuffed one into his mouth. “I’m not that early.”
Zac seemed to study him for several moments. “Something going on?”
God, where did he start? “No.”
Not only had he spent the last two days thinking of Jules and the feel of the man’s cock in his hand, but he was due to have lunch at his parents’ house the following day. When his mom had phoned, Bobby readily agreed. It wasn’t until after he’d told her he’d be there that she informed him Brad and his family would also be in attendance. Sitting across the table from Brad would be pure torture, as usual.
"Have you talked to Jules since we fixed his car?”
Bobby popped another cookie into his mouth in lieu of answering.
“Bobby? What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Man, what’s with the twenty questions?” Bobby tossed the sleeve of cookies on the counter and walked towards the living room.
He was saved from further probing when Marco burst into the house, filthy as usual.
“Hey,” Marco greeted. He held up a change of clothes and gestured to the bathroom. “You mind?”
Zac rolled his eyes. “You know the rules.”
“Yeah, yeah, clean the bathtub when I’m finished.” Marco strode into the bathroom and closed the door.
“Why do you let him do that?” Bobby asked.
“Same reason I let you come over and get crumbs all over my floor. You’re family.”
“Aahhh.” Bobby walked over and gave Zac a kiss on the cheek. “You’re so sweet. Of course that doesn’t mean I’m going easy on ya. I’ll still take your money.”
“You wouldn’t be my Bobby if you didn’t.”
Bobby took off his shoes and stretched out on the couch. He heard the shower turn on as he reached for the remote. Marco hadn’t been around much in recent months. Besides their semi-monthly poker games, Bobby hadn’t even heard from him.
“Kent still have Marco working down south?” he asked.
Zac paused in the act of putting the leaf in the table. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him in awhile.”
“Me neither. You think he’s got another sugar daddy he’s been spending time with?”
Zac finished with the table and walked into the living room. “Your guess is as good as mine. But between you and me, I hope not. Things between him and Kent are tense enough as it is. You know how he gets when Marco is seeing someone.”
“Yeah, well the problem is Marco never brings any of them here. Maybe if he didn’t sneak around so much, it wouldn’t bother Kent to the extent that it does.”
“I doubt it. Kent wouldn’t be happy regardless.”
“He loves Marco,” Bobby reminded Zac.
“Of course he does. The problem is he also can’t stand him.”
“Who can’t stand who?” Marco asked, walking out of the bathroom, his hair still dripping water on his bare chest.
“No one,” Bobby quickly covered.
Trying to think fast, he came up with a plausible excuse for what Marco had overheard. “We were talking about Brad.”
Marco made a face. “Sorry, man, but your brother’s a pretentious asshole.”
“Don’t I know it. And lucky me gets to have lunch with him and his perfect little family at my parents’ in less than eighteen hours.”
“Ooh, you have my sympathies.” Marco wandered back into the bathroom and closed the door.
Zac’s eyebrow rose. “Good save.”
“Yeah, luckily my life is fucked up enough I can always come up with shit like that.” Bobby closed his eyes and clasped his hands together, letting them rest on his chest. He wasn’t tired, he just couldn’t take Zac’s piercing gaze any longer.
“You like him, don’t you?” Zac asked after several moments.
“Who?” Bobby asked without opening his eyes.
“You know who I’m talking about.”
“His house reminds me of Brad’s.”
“So?”
Bobby shrugged. “I don’t fit into that world.”
“Bullshit, you grew up in a house twice the size of Brad’s.”
“And I was booted out the day I graduated from high school.”
Bobby opened his eyes. “In my experience, people with money are only interested in two things. How to earn more of it, and their public image. I don’t exactly fit into either category.”
“You are so full of shit. You and I both know you have the face and body of a fucking Adonis, it’s your mouth that gets you in trouble.”


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