No
Regrets
By Nicky James
Publisher: Encompass Ink
Word Length: 91k
Genre: Contemporary MM Romance 18+
Release Date: March 15, 2017
Life makes no
promises, and sometimes, you draw the short straw.
Landon
Johnston’s life came to a grinding halt seven months ago, when he was diagnosed
with terminal cancer.
With the
encouragement of his grandmother, Landon works his way out of his slump and
tries to live life while he still can.
Deciding he
doesn’t want to drag anyone else down his morbid path, Landon gives up all
friendships and denies himself love. It’s better this way, because all he has
to offer is eventual heartache and sadness.
While traveling
the world, Landon meets Abel Matheson, a free-spirited, unedited, and
nerve-grating man who was supposed to only be a one-night-stand.
Despite Landon’s
insistence that he can’t form a relationship with his current diagnoses, Abel
is persistent and will not be ignored.
Fighting against
all his ingrained urges to run, Landon finds himself drawn down the road he
swore he’d never take.
Intimacy grows
and bonds form…
Only… Abel
doesn’t know Landon is sick.
How can anyone
love a man with no future?
Telling him
might cause him to run, but staying silent means living a lie. A lie which will
only reveal itself in time.
Note: This story
is a HFN or bitter sweet HEA read. It contains potential triggers for people
who may be affected by cancer and its effects.
The silence returned as we
continued with our drinks. Abel was the one to break first when he slid his
empty cup aside and leaned in, talking in a hushed voice. “So, Landon from
Canada, computer nerd and Spiderman wannabe. I’m gonna cut the shit and be
blunt.”
“You mean, more blunt?”
“Yeah, more blunt, so brace
yourself. You’re incredibly hot and I wanna find a room somewhere and fuck you
senseless.”
“Oh. Umm…”
Who the
hell says shit like that?
“There is a pub a block down. Let
me buy you a couple of drinks and help you relax, because you’re all stiff and
uptight. Then, what do you say we find somewhere private after that?”
I had to search for my words
because they’d fallen into a gaping chasm of disbelief. “You’re awfully
presumptuous.”
“I can be. But, you haven’t told
me to fuck off yet, so I’m guessing you’ve been considering it too.”
Yeah, I’d been considering it
since he stood in line for drinks twenty minutes ago. Is that how these things
worked? Hey, wanna fuck? Sure, let’s go.
Swallowing the dry lump from my
throat, I pinned him with a glare, doing my best to show confidence even though
I trembled on the inside. “Maybe I am. Only, I don’t drink.”
More like I couldn’t drink, at
least not with the massive array of medications I took. It was something I had
to give up long ago. What I wouldn’t have given for a beer to calm me down. He
was right, I was wound tighter than a spring.
“A twenty-six-year-old,
non-drinker. You just get more and more interesting. I’ll have to find other
ways to get you to relax then. I can be creative. Are you here with anyone?”
“No. I umm… I came alone.”
“Do you have a room nearby?”
“What about your friends? Won’t
they be looking for you?”
He chuckled. “Nah, they’ll be
drinking themselves stupid half the night and won’t even know I’m not there.”
“Oh… umm…”
“A room?”
My gaze dropped to the table once
again. My blood pressure rose with each slam of my heart against my ribcage.
Why the hell was I so nervous? It wasn’t like I was some virgin or anything. I
took a deep breath and tried to rein in the suffocating emotion before it got
out of hand.
Shifting my gaze to my notebook,
I saw my list in my head again and heard my grandmother’s words.
If I died
tomorrow, I’d have no regrets. Can you say the same thing?
I was sure this wasn’t what she
meant. Sorry, grandma.
Time to tick off another one.
“Fuck it. Yes, I have a room a
block down the road.” With another shaky breath, I pushed my half-empty mug
aside and grabbed my notebook. “What happens in China stays in China, right?”
Standing, I glanced back at him.
His grin was facetious as he
sucked the corner of his bottom lip into his teeth. “It’s not Vegas, but I
think it applies.”
Nicky James
lives in the small town of Petrolia, Ontario, Canada. She is mother to a
wonderful teenage boy and wife to a truly supportive and understanding husband
who, thankfully, doesn’t think her crazy.
Nicky has always
had two profound dreams in life; to fall back hundreds of years in time and
live in a simpler world and to write novels. Since only one of those dreams was
a possibility, she decided to make the other come alive on paper.
Nicky writes MM
romance books in a variety of styles including contemporary, medieval, fantasy,
and historical.
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