Cover Design: Story Styling Cover Designs
Photo: Wander Aguiar Photography
Model: Liam F.
Genre: M/M Bi Awakening Romance Standalone
Tropes: Enemies to lovers, small town, city boy x wild man, grumpy x snarky, hate f*cking
Microtropes: I had no where else to go, scars reveal, bearded Cinderella moment, get out of my town
Hudson
Give me the smallest reason to make a bad decision, and I’ll jump in with both feet. Case in point: thinking that drunkenly buying an abandoned town with my brothers is a good idea.
As builders, we plan to renovate and flip the town, maybe turn it into something worth seeing, but the longer we’re here, the more things feel … off.
It’s not until a bearded mountain man breaks into my room in the middle of the night and threatens for us to get out of his town that I realize Wilde’s End isn’t as abandoned as we were told.
But there’s nothing waiting for me in the life I left behind, and in making his demands, Wilde has accidentally tapped into my competitive side.
Terrible decisions? Me?
Wilde can bring it on.
Wilde
I escaped to Wilde’s End twenty years ago, and since then I’ve dedicated my life to the town and the people who live there. Because if I focus on others, I don't have the time or energy to face everything I’ve been running from.
The Bellamy brothers coming to town is like three horsemen of the goddamn apocalypse. They leave destruction in their wake, and when the eldest, Hudson, ignores my very kind request to leave, it’s time to take things into my own hands. Protecting this town is all I know how to do.
But I’ve never faced someone like Hudson.
His stubbornness matches mine, and his attitude has an irritating way of worming under my skin. The more I push him, the harder he pushes back, until we’re locked in a game neither of us will walk away from.
With his smart mouth, bullheaded recklessness and those damn eyelashes I’m starting to question whether I can win this one.
I’m not a bad guy. I’m not even a mean one. But when it comes to this town, I’ll do anything I need to in order to keep it safe. For me and for all the people who have landed here. Wilde’s End is a safe haven from the harsh realities of the outside world, and that will never change for as long as I have the power to protect it.
It’s the same man sleeping in the downstairs bedroom as last time—Hudson, according to his ID—and I creep closer, curious if he’s still as attractive as I remember or if I’ve built him up in my head. Unfortunately, even watching him from a distance all week isn’t enough to prepare me for seeing him again.
He’s unnaturally fucking hot.
I hate him for it.
Thankfully, it won’t be a problem for much longer.
On a night out, he’s exactly the type of man I’d pick out of a crowd. Here, in my town, he’s exactly the type of man I never want to see again.
So I cross to the bedroom window and shove it open so hard the glass shudders in the frame.
The man’s jolt upright takes a few seconds too long to be useful under attack. He grunts, then mumbles something unintelligible as he sets an unsteady hand to his forehead. At first, I worry he’s going to roll right over and fall back asleep, but slowly, his eyes blink open. Once. Twice.
Then they drift to me.
He watches me for one sleepy moment before he jumps so hard his back hits the wall. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Wilde,” I forcefully admit, folding my arms across my chest to stop the way my hands keep folding into fists.
Hudson’s jaw is working madly like he’s trying to choose how to respond, and his gaze keeps darting to the door. The last thing I want is to have to deal with all three of them when I can have him pass on my message, so I get my warning in before he can call for help.
“Leave.”
“Excuse me?”
“I want you gone.”
His fists curl into the bedding as the shock melts away and a panicked sort of anger takes over. “What the fuck do you mean by that?”
“Keep your voice down,” I force out through my teeth.
He chokes on his response. “You’re not going to break in here and tell me what to do.”
“I can and I am.”
“Fuck you.”
“I said to keep your damn voice down.”
“Make me.”
“It would be too fucking easy.” The way he’s bringing my blood to boiling has me desperate for a fight. He’s supposed to be scared. Supposed to cower and promise to leave.
I underestimated him.
Hudson meets my eyes. “My brothers will get here before you have a chance to lay a hand on me.”
A bitter smile tries and fails to cross my face. “I have no interest in touching you. I’m here to talk.”
“Talk?” The way he spits the word makes it clear he doesn’t believe me. “You broke into my house to talk?”
“Yes.”
“Get out.” He isn’t bothering to keep quiet, and it’s rattling me.
“I told you to shut up.”
“And I told you to fuck off.”
I move closer to his mattress, standing at full height, and look down at him. He’s coiled for a fight and watching me like a caged animal. “Don’t test me,” I warn.
The blond man snorts, the wariness slipping from his face as a spark of defiance takes over. “You broke in here. You don’t get to make the calls.”
This conversation proves, yet again, why I hate people. All he had to do was keep his mouth closed and let me talk so I could be on my way, and instead, he threw self-preservation out the window. I could kill him out here, and no one would ever know.
He’s lucky that while I might be many things, I’m not a murderer.
But I am low on patience.
I cross to his bed in two strides, crouch down, then grab hold of his calf. The inflatable mattress makes it too easy to haul him close enough for me to get in his face.
“I’m only going to say this once,” I warn. “Get your people, and get out of my fucking town.”
Instead of looking intimidated, he leans closer. “Or what?”
“You don’t want the answer to that question.” Just thinking of Lynx has tension tugging at my muscles.
“I’m a pretty curious guy, actually.”
“There are people out here …” My grip on him tightens. “That you don’t want to test.”
His gaze, silvery in the darkness, moves from one of my eyes to the next. “You’re lying. This town is abandoned.”
“Then what the hell am I doing here?”
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Saxon James
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Saxon James unapologetically writes happy endings for LGBT+ characters.
While not writing, SM is a readaholic and Netflix addict who regularly lives on a sustainable diet of chocolate and coffee.
Member of SCBWI.
