Release Blitz: Covington Acres: Riley Hart
Amazon
August 1, 2024
August 1, 2024
Colby Covington has no clue if there’s anything in the world for him beyond Briar County. His family assumes he’ll do as they do: work Covington Acres, get married, have kids. Colby doesn’t want children, and seeing as he’s never felt even an inkling of romantic love for another person, he sure as hell isn’t interested in marriage.
In his mid-forties, Vincent O’Brien is starting over in the small town of Harmony. After being cheated on, again, he’s sworn off ever falling in love. As fate would have it, Vince needs a place to stay, and Colby has a spare room.
With an immediate connection that shakes up Colby’s sheltered world, neither man expects their friendship to blossom so fast…or for a semi-public hookup to make Colby realize he’s bi. Friends with benefits is perfect. It’s easy, it’s fun, they trust each other, and neither Vince nor Colby wants anything serious.
But the more their lives intertwine, the more Colby starts to feel something he’d thought himself incapable of. Something like love, with Vince…the man who will never feel—or want—the same.
Covington Acres is a small-town, bisexual/demiromantic awakening, friends-with-benefits romance with mature characters, home-brewed beer, and secret kisses.
Keep reading for a look inside Covington Acres!
He knocked on her door, and she opened it with a huge smile on her face. Lulu was a beautiful woman, with long blonde hair and curves in all the places he loved. She was kind and funny. He enjoyed talking to her, spending time with her, fucking her. Why couldn’t he be in love with her?
“Colby! I didn’t expect you.” She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. His dick stirred a little. Physical attraction had never been a problem for him. It was all the other stuff.
“Decided to stop by on my way home,” he told her, running a hand through his hair.
She let him in, Colby closing the door behind him. She’d been hinting about marriage a lot more lately—or at least them moving in together while they worked toward marriage. He wanted Lulu to have the husband she deserved and the kids she wanted. He just wasn’t the man who could give them to her.
“You want something to drink?”
“No…I, um…need to talk to you for a moment.” He looked her in the eyes. He wasn’t a coward. If he was going to break her heart, at least he could be a man about it.
Concern creased her brow. “Is everything okay? Is it your family?”
He winced. She was the kind of person who cared about others, who would automatically be worried about Colby or his kin.
“They’re fine. Can we sit?”
She frowned, her expression saying she was starting to put the pieces together. They went to the kitchen table, Colby pulling out a chair for her to sit down before he sat beside her.
“Just say it, Colby,” she told him when he didn’t speak right away.
“I’m real sorry,” he started. “It’s not you. You’re great. I have so much fun with you. You’re everything I’m supposed to want, everything I want to want. I just think…hell. I think something’s wrong with me.”
“Are you gay? It’s okay if you are. Your family will accept you. They couldn’t be more supportive of Roe.”
“That’s the thing… Colby had wondered if he could be gay, but he’d never looked at a guy and thought he wanted to hook up with him, and he did that with women. He liked having sex with women a whole lot, and maybe he would like it with men too, but he’d never tried. He could look at a man and see if he was an attractive guy, but it had never been more. The emotional stuff was just confusing for him.
“No. I’m not gay. I’m attracted to you, Lu. I’m attracted to other women too. I just don’t want the same things. I can’t seem to want to settle down. That’s not in the cards for me, and you want marriage and babies soon. I don’t want to hold you back.”
Her eyes pooled with tears. His heart felt like it was being ripped apart. Maybe he could keep trying. Maybe if he married Lulu, he would fall in love with her and want a real relationship with her, rather than just being in relationships because that’s what was expected of him. But then, how was that fair to her? How could he ask her to spend her life with someone who might never be in love with her the way she deserved?
“Maybe we can try a little longer…” she said, crying now. “Maybe you’re just not ready for marriage yet. I can wait.”
Fuck, he hated this. Hated himself. He reached over and took her hand. “You deserve more than to wait around on a man like me, more than to stay with someone who can’t give you the kind of love and life you deserve. You’re better than that, Lulu. Better than me. I won’t put you through that.”
Lulu cried harder, and Colby pulled her into his arms, hugged her and shushed her, told her he was sorry and it would be okay. That she would meet a man who deserved her, one who could make all her dreams come true, one who wanted the same things.
He stayed with her for an hour before she told him she wanted to be alone. When he walked out, Colby had never been more disappointed in himself, and he knew this was just the beginning. Lulu taught yoga with goats at the farm. His family adored her. They wouldn’t understand why he’d broken up with her, and he didn’t know how to make them get something he was confused about himself. Something he was ashamed of.
When he drove home, he vowed never to do this again. He wasn’t going to date anyone, wasn’t going to risk breaking another heart just because he didn’t seem to work right.
Colby Covington was going to be alone.
Eventually his family would have to understand.
It was better this way.
For more information about Riley Hart and her books, visit her website:
https://www.rileyhartwrites.com
Riley Hart's love of all things romance shines brightly in everything she writes. Her primary focus is Male/Male romance but under various pen names, her prose has touched practically every part of the spectrum of love and relationships. The common theme that ties them all together is stories told from the heart.
A hopeless romantic herself, Riley is a lover of character-driven plots, many with flawed and relatable characters. She strives to create stories that readers can not only fall in love with, but also see themselves in. Real characters and real love blended together equal the ultimate Riley Hart experience.
When Riley isn't creating her next story, you can find her reading, traveling, or dreaming about reading or traveling, spending time with her two snarky kids, and swoony husband.
Riley Hart is represented by Jane Dystel at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret Literary Management. She's a 2019 Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Of Sunlight and Stardust.
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