Ready or Knot
Book
One
K.A.
Mitchell
Genre: Contemporary Gay Romance
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Date of Publication: September 9,
2015
ISBN: 978-1-63476-380-6 Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-63476-381-3 eBook
Number of pages: 204
Cover Artist: Reese Dante
Book Description:
Kieran Delaney-Schwartz—adoptee,
underachiever, and self-professed-slacker IT guy—lives his under-the-radar life
by the motto: Don’t try, don’t fail. His adopted siblings are all overachievers
thanks to his driven, liberal parents, but Kieran has elected to avoid
disappointing anyone by not getting their hopes up. He’s coasting through his
early twenties when he’s hit head-on by Theo. The successful decade-older
Broadway producer sweeps him off his feet for a whirlwind thirteen months that
are pretty sweet, until it all comes screeching to a halt on Valentine’s Day,
with an unexpected proposal via an NYC Times Square flash mob. Now everyone
wants in on the wedding, except the grooms….
Available at Dreamspinner
Press ARe
Chapter 1
KIERAN’S PHONE
buzzed incessantly in his pocket, and he glared at his khakis as if he could
see through to the caller. What part of ‘away from my desk’ is confusing to you
people?
It was his own
fault for violating his core principle: Success invariably leads to diminished
returns. He’d done one job well because it was interesting, and now everyone in
the building wanted the Korean IT Guy With the Hair to be the one who showed up
when they yelled for help.
He sank down
against the wall until he sat folded, head on his knees. He’d hide out in the
server room, at least until the afternoon sleepies hit around two and they all
started playing their Facebook games. In fact, as long as they could get online
to Facebook, probably no one would notice if everything else on the servers
went dark.
This room had a
consistently cool temperature, perfect humidity control, and top-of-the-line
filters. His nose and eyes never itched when he was in here. The constant rush
of the fans blotted out any outside noise.
The phone buzzed
again, a steady rhythm. He should have put it on silent.
Just audible
over the white noise of the fans, keys jangled outside, then scraped against
the door. Not a lot of people had keys to the server room, but most of the ones
who did could fire him. He rolled onto his knees and slid across the floor,
pulled out a screwdriver, and prepared to look busy.
A voice came to
him now—Shanara, the office manager. As bosses went, she wasn’t a bad one, but
Kieran still figured hiding and ignoring his phone would probably get him
reported to the head of IT, who was a total dick.
“Someone said
they saw him headed this way.”
“Thank you for
all your help, Shanara.”
Kieran dropped
the screwdriver. What the hell was Theo doing here, thirty blocks away from
where Kieran thought he was? His brain raced through multiple possibilities.
Theo had met Kieran’s family, but why would Theo have been the one to come if
something had happened to one of them?
“My pleasure,
Mr. Medina.”
“Theo, please.”
The door opened.
Kieran straightened from picking up his screwdriver and caught Theo’s wink
square in the chest.
There it was
again. That funny jolt that Kieran was sure his sister, the epidemiologist,
could explain resulted through neurotransmitters, conditioned responses, and
hormone dumps. But since Siobhan had been in Sierra Leone for the past eight
months working to contain the latest Ebola outbreak, she was a little busy for
stupid questions about why Kieran’s heart jumped when his boyfriend looked at
him like that.
As cheerful as
Theo usually was, Kieran was pretty sure Theo wouldn’t wink if something bad
had happened. It didn’t explain why he was suddenly next to Shanara in the door
to the server room.
Hi seemed like a
safer bet than What the fuck are you doing here? so he went with that.
“Hey, I wanted
to take you to lunch.” Theo’s smile didn’t affect Kieran’s nervous system like
that look could, but it was definitely an autonomous response that made Kieran
smile back. “I planned to do it tomorrow, but it’s the understudy’s first
matinee and I need to be there.”
“You’re so
lucky, Kieran.” Shanara had a smile a bit brighter than her usual professional
one. Theo had the same effect on other people. “My boyfriend probably won’t
even remember.”
Kieran was
already in the same boat with Shanara’s boyfriend. Then he saw the rose Theo
produced from behind his back, and Kieran’s brain latched on to the
significance. Valentine’s Day was this weekend.
Theo turned and
offered the rose to Shanara. “If you can spare him.”
She held the
paper-wrapped stem in the space between them. “I thought this was for Kieran.”
Theo sighed.
“He’s allergic to flowers. And romance. But I’m working on him.”
Kieran shoved
his glasses up on his nose and glared, only to get smacked with another Theo
wink, which induced a helpless shake of his head.
“It might take
some time….” Theo trailed off and glanced at Shanara.
Her smile was
broad, sharpening her cheeks. “You have personal leave banked, right, Kieran?”
Barely pausing for his agreement, she said, “I’ll write you as out for the
afternoon, let Todd know.”
Kieran nodded.
The less he had to deal with the asshole director of IT, the better. Especially
now that Kieran was in high demand.
“Thank you so
much, Shanara.” Theo handed her a business card. “Just present that at the Will
Call window any time and they’ll take care of you.”
“Thank you,
Theo. Be sure to lock up the server room, Kieran.”
Shanara shut the
door, which had an auto lock, so Kieran was puzzling over her order when Theo
put his hands behind Kieran’s neck and kissed him.
A typical Theo
kiss, warm, open, inviting Kieran to decide if it was going deeper.
Kieran put his
hands on Theo’s back, under his coat, touched the velvety fleece, and breathed
in the rich leather scent from his shoulder. The heavy wool coat Theo had been
wearing when they met vanished immediately when Kieran confessed his allergy to
it.
When Kieran drew
back, Theo released him with a leer. “Cozy in your little den, here.”
Kieran shook his
head. “The servers are sensitive to humidity. I’m pretty sure that includes jizz.”
“I’m insulted. I
never spill a drop.”
Theo said it
mockingly, but the reminder of how incredible Theo was at sucking dick stirred
a tingle in Kieran’s balls.
“Yeah.” Theo
leaned to brush his forehead against Kieran’s. “You’re thinking about it now.”
He was right.
Because Theo was damned good at reading Kieran. The first person ever who
bothered to pay enough attention to figure out—and offer—what Kieran wanted.
A nooner sounded
interesting, but they certainly weren’t doing it in the server room.
“Thought you
said we were going to lunch?”
“I did. Are you
hungry?”
Kieran shrugged.
He could eat, but he didn’t want Theo to think Kieran expected a lobster dinner
just because he was peckish. Theo liked making people happy. He wasn’t a
pushover or anything. Kieran had heard him get pissed enough to snap at people
on the phone. Once when he met Theo at the theater, Kieran had heard him go off
in a rage about a delivery of light bulbs. So scratch that. Theo was nice to
most people, but he liked trying to make Kieran happy. And that didn’t suck at
all.
The look in
Theo’s eyes did that thing to Kieran’s circulatory system again as Theo tugged
him toward the door. “Come on, then.”
About
the Author:
K.A. Mitchell discovered the
magic of writing at an early age when she learned that a carefully crayoned
note of apology sent to the kitchen in a toy truck would earn her a reprieve
from banishment to her room. Her career as a spin-control artist was cut short
when her family moved to a two-story house and her trucks would not roll safely
down the stairs. Around the same time, she decided that Chip and Ken made a
much cuter couple than Ken and Barbie and was perplexed when invitations to
play Barbie dropped off. She never stopped making stuff up, though, and was
surprised to find out that people would pay her to do it. Although the men in
her stories usually carry more emotional baggage than even LAX can lose in a
year, she guarantees they always find their sexy way to a happy ending.
K.A. loves to hear from her
readers.
She is often found talking about
her imaginary friends on Twitter
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