Showing results by author "Garrett Leigh" in All Categories

Life doesn’t always pan out as you expect. When it explodes in my face, literally, an old friend offers me a place to heal and a job renovating the kitchen of Burlington’s coolest wine bar. V&V is a chill fest. Living above it should be a blast. But I’m not built to be a social butterfly. Not anymore. I’m a damaged man. And I’m not its target clientele. At least, I think I’m not until I come face-to-face with the most beautiful human I’ve ever seen.

It's three in the morning, and we're in her bed. My body throbs from his mouth on me, my blood still whooshing in my ears. I want to make him feel like this, so I can drown in it. So I can drown in him. Goddamn, I want to suffocate in every fiber of Locke Halliwell with the woman I love at my side. He has me fragile already. She has me in pieces at her feet. And man alive, I wish that was all I had to worry about. But this life. It's vicious. It's deadly. And if I can't protect every soul I've ever loved from the past, the future is already in ashes at my feet.

Dominic Ramos is a Premiership football player with a secret. There are no trophies for being gay in his game. Locked into his rep as the meanest defender on the pitch, keeping his secret is soul-crushing, but love has no place in his sport, even if his soft heart craves it. Lucky Coleman is on his knees when he meets a man with more money than sense. It's a Grindr hook-up for cash, not a love match, but dreaming of his desperate, kind eyes earns a place amongst his numerous bad habits.

When unrequited love leaves Dylan Hart sleepless and nursing his wounds, instinct draws him to the one place he's found mindless respite in the past - Lovato's. It's a place for every fantasy, where a night of insane NSA sex brings relief. It should be a perfect escape, and for one magical night it seems that way, but then worlds collide, and reality bites when Dylan's hookup desperately needs a friend.

I'm not the obvious choice to run Burlington's coolest wine bar - quiet, brooding, clueless about tannin content, and always one wrong turn away from another downward spiral. But no one seems to mind that I'm a wreck. Besides me. I just focus on getting through each shift until the night a beautiful stranger appears, looking as lost and damaged as I feel.

Cash is a car mechanic with a secret. Head down, sleeves up, he hides from the past as much as his shattered heart, until a reluctant stumble into a Tottenham bar ends in the one-night stand of his dreams. Hunt saboteur Rae can't believe his luck when he wakes up the next morning. Cash is gorgeous, and the hottest hookup he's ever had. He doesn't expect to see him again, until a twist of fate lands him on Cash's doorstep a few months later.

Opposites attract. The outlaw biker and the accountant. Straightlaced vs straight to hell. Or heaven, depending on how you look at it. And you can look at it any way you like, doesn't mean it's true. Either way, falling for snarky Alexei Ivanov is the lightbulb moment I've been waiting for my whole damn life. Or at least since my head got turned by someone else. A man I call brother, but he's so much more than that.

Restaurant owner Tom Fearnes has loved his partner Cass for as long as he can remember, but their work often keeps them apart. When he meets a striking young man named Jake on the vibrant streets of Camden Town, their heady first encounter takes an unexpected turn.

Can loving someone kill you? I feel like the world is ending every time I look at them. Cam. My brother. My president. He's the love of my life. And then there's Alexei. I didn't know I could feel this way about one person, let alone two. But I think of him in every breath I breathe for Cam. Every thundering beat of my heart. Because there is no Cam without him. There is no me. My life wasn't worth living until I found something worth dying for. And I'd die for them a thousand times.

Banished gangster Benito Martell is living on the edge. An explosive hook-up in a club gifts him the relief he craves, but nothing about his life is ever so simple. Complications abound, and before long, he’s falling for the only man who can save his family from eviction. Recovering addict Mickey Larwood has worked hard to leave his past behind. He can’t look back, not even for the beautiful Benito, the last soul on Earth he expected to steal his heart - a soul who’s knee-deep in the underworld Mickey has run hundreds of miles to escape.

Tree surgeon Aidan Drummond is content with his own company. He works alone and lives alone, and it doesn’t occur to him to want anything else, until a life-changing accident lands him in hospital. Then, a glimpse of the beautiful boy in the opposite bed changes everything. Ludo Giordano is trapped on the ward with a bunch of old men. His mind plays tricks on him, keeping him awake. Then, late one night, a new face brings a welcome distraction. Their unlikely friendship is addictive and, like most things in Ludo’s life, temporary.

I met a dude in a bar once. Tall and strong, he had moon-blue eyes and tawny hair, and he moved with the grace of a lion. It didn't pan out, but that's a theme in my life, and I've spent the last five years knowing that kind stranger dodged a bullet. Divorced and miserable, I'm not exactly a catch. But the thing is, that man . . . he's not a stranger anymore. And he's as beautiful as I remember. Everything you want in a fake boyfriend, right?

Yani Nicolaou is sworn off love for good. After fleeing a bad break-up in London, the only blood, sweat, and tears he has left are for his gyro stall at the Christmas market. Rebound fling? No thanks. He’s sticking to one-night-stands. Ex-army vet Gavin Richie has even less capacity for romance. Managing a homeless shelter while recovering from injury keeps him far too busy. So what if he’s often alone? He’s content being single, or so he thinks until a chance meeting lights a spark he can’t ignore.

I'd never told anyone. Not the judge, the jury, or the legal aid barrister who'd written me off before she'd ever met me. But as I drowned in Mateo's affection, in a love I'd done nothing to deserve, the words came tumbling out. Bad words. Dark words. Darker than sin. Darker, even, than Mateo's battered soul and the secrets I didn't know about yet. I thought those words would shatter me. Shatter us. But when the devil came for us, it wasn't mine.

In 2003, journalist Connor Regan marched through London to add his voice to a million others, decrying the imminent invasion of Iraq. Eight months later, his brother, James, was killed in action in Mosul. Three years on, Connor finds himself bound for Iraq to embed with an elite SAS team. He sets his boots on the ground looking for closure and solace - anything to ease the pain of his brother's death. Instead he finds Sergeant Nathan Thompson.

Reformed gangster Luis falls hard for his boss. When friendship turns to love, it’s up to Paolo to convince him second chances are worth the pain. Luis Pope is back on the street after a six-year stretch in prison, but life on the outside seems just out of reach, especially when the whole neighborhood knows his face for all the wrong reasons. Paolo’s temper makes it hard to keep staff, and he knows Luis’ rep all too well. But his nonno believes in redemption, and Luis isn’t the tough guy Paolo remembers.

Musical prodigy Eddie Dean gets everything she wants. The best violin, the best boyfriend, and a place at the best music school in London are hers until her father goes bankrupt. Once the financial façade comes tumbling down, Eddie’s broke and her boyfriend couldn’t care less. The doorstep of Jimmy’s Café is the last place she expects to wash up, and her new life is made worse by the disdain of her boss’ sneering grandson. Sam Nowak is arrogant, rude, and gorgeous, and if Eddie never sees him again, it will be too soon. Shame she can’t stop thinking about him.

I’m a broke ex-football player with a bum leg and PTSD. Last summer, I had two choices: the streets, or find a cheap room to rent in the city. I chose the second option, which landed me with a brand-new problem, because I hadn’t banked on my roommate becoming my best friend. Or that before long, I’d find myself head over heels in love with him.

Expect: His brother's best friend. His best friend's little brother. The soft-hearted bear and the rowdy chaos gremlin. The inevitable only happens when you let it. "Riv, if you ever let me speak, you'd know exactly how I feel." I've told him that a thousand times, but River's stubborn streak is a mile wide. He doesn't want to hear it. To him, we're doomed. Cursed. Forbidden. Because he thinks I love a goddamn motorcycle club more than him.

Will Barter’s been in love with his best mate, Jack, for as long as he can remember. They’ve shared everything: love, life, laughs, even Will’s first kiss. But Jack’s straight, and Will’s long-buried infatuation means nothing until their last summer together draws to a close. Then one night, everything changes, but with Will bound for university in Leeds and Jack for his dream DJ job in Ibiza, there’s no time to explore their blurred lines.