We’re continuing the countdown toward release day! I’m so excited, #PictaBook is one of my favourite stories.

The snippet I planned to share today is rather long. Jules and Nix are having coffee, but Nix did something that has Jules ready to bolt. He does that a lot – both of them LOL. Nix says things he shouldn’t, and Jules hides from everything and everyone.

Anyway, Jules had told Nix he spent the night with a book and a glass of red, and to prevent Jules from scurrying off, Nix asks what he read.

Excerpt:

Nix sensed Jules withdrawing and muttered a mental curse. He’d promised himself he wouldn’t do anything. Everything with Jules would have to be at a glacial pace or he’d figure out Nix’s plan and bolt.

“Come, have a seat.” He gestured at the same chair Jules had occupied when they’d had tea—though Jules hadn’t taken more than a sip or two of his before running home to Booksy. He poured coffee into their cups and placed the bear claws on a plate in the middle of the table.

“Thanks.” Jules was avoiding eye contact, and Nix cursed himself all over again. Why had he gone and kissed him? Jules was nothing like the guys he hooked up with in the night clubs or bars. He wasn’t like Kyle who had a phone book filled with booty-call contacts.

“What did you read last night?”

“Huh?” Jules’ eyes were wide and panicky.

“You had a glass of wine and read.”

“Oh, yes, this book about a wizard detective who accidentally calls a werewolf ghost to him.”

Nix blinked. “There are books with werewolf ghosts?”

“You can find anything you want.” Jules grinned, some of the panic ebbing away. “Which is why I keep asking you what you want to read.”

“I’m still reading the lumberjacks. I’m at the one with the Easter egg now.” It was the story Jules had dubbed boner worthy in the hashtags, and Nix had finally gotten through the two books in the series leading up to it.

“Oh.” Jules’ grin had a wicked edge to it, and heat shot through Nix, making his cock harden despite him trying to halt it. “So is lingerie a fetish you like?”

“Fetish?” Nix’s heart sped up. It was a fetish book? Jules read fetish books?

The chuckle had tingles dancing on Nix’s skin. “As far as kinks go, it’s innocent. But I read this medical fetish—”

“No!” Nix shuddered, which had Jules laughing.

“No? I’m not into it either, but the book was… interesting.”

Oh, God… Nix swallowed and reached for his coffee. “Do you read many… of those kinds of books?”

Jules’ grin was pure evil, and Nix didn’t know what to do. He was used to him being shy and uncertain, but books didn’t make him shy or uncertain. He knew books.

“Nah…” He chuckled. “I have phases. Right now, I’m reading a lot of werewolf books, don’t ask me why. Big growly men with an urge to mate apparently do it for me.”

Nix couldn’t breathe. He was a big, growly man, and he had an urge to tackle Jules to the floor and have his way with him… though it probably wasn’t what Jules envisioned.

“Werewolves, huh?”

“Yes.” Jules curled his fingers around his cup. “I have phases of vampires, aliens, and whatever else you can think of too. I feel an alien coming on. The last few days I’ve been scrolling sci-fi books.”

“I thought sci-fi was… boring space stuff.”

Jules wasn’t laughing, and yet Nix suspected he was laughing at him, not in a way to make him feel inferior, but he was having a laugh.

“Babe, I can get you anything you want.” Jules wiggled his eyebrows, and Nix burst out laughing. God, how he wanted to kiss him again.

“Is that so?”

“Mhm.” Jules nodded, a grin tugging at his mouth.

“Anything?”

“Name it, and I’ll find you a book.”

He wished he could. “I don’t know what I like.”

Jules cracked his knuckles. “Oh, the possibilities. I get to deprave you through books. It’s a dream come true.”

“Pervert.”

Jules laughed, a normal laugh with no wickedness. “Seriously, though. I’ll do my best to find anything you want. Do you want to try some sci-fi after you’ve read the lingerie kink?”

Lingerie kink? He was reading lingerie kink? His fingers itched to reach for his phone. He’d only bought the book and set it up, hadn’t listened to more than the first page. The main character had been into town and bought chocolate pralines for his boyfriend, but was eating them because he was nervous about something. Ah… now Nix understood why he was nervous.

“I read a story a while back with a human having a restaurant in space, and there he met a cat alien.”

“A cat alien?”

“The options are limitless, Nix.”

“I’m beginning to see that.”

Jules grabbed his phone, tapped on the screen a few times, and handed it over to Nix. The picture of his review showed a cat alien: a humanoid, muscled guy with a tail and whiskers. Under the picture, Nix read: #MMRomance #SciFi #AlienLove #OppositesAttract #DualPOV #ShortAndSweet #PurrForMeBabe #Soulmate

“Not boner worthy?” Nix glanced up from the phone.

“It’s pretty hot, some sexual tension, but they never hook up.”

“They don’t? They’re soulmates, but don’t get it on?”

Jules shrugged. “There are some bad guys getting in the way. They kiss.”

Nix frowned. “But no lovemaking.”

“No, but there’s ice cream.”

He smiled and shook his head. “You can’t compare ice cream to sex.”

“No?” Jules gave him a confused look. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m more of a chocolate guy myself, but you can’t fault a man for wanting his ice cream.”

Nix smiled and shook his head as he brought the cup to his lips again. Books—it wasn’t news, but he had to remember it: whenever he did something to make Jules want to run away, he’d ask about books.

#PictaBook in the JMS shop (20% off)

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Jules Rose leads a quiet life working as a librarian. He’s happy to spend his spare time reading books and talking to his homicidal cat. What more could he wish for? But when his cozy Friday night is shattered by a friend request on his book community app, politeness gives him little choice but to accept. Jules doesn’t want to talk to anyone, but he can’t be rude. Besides, if he had to talk about something, books is the topic he’d pick.

Phoenix Ford is dyslexic and avoids everything that has to do with the written word, but when the colleague he’s trying to impress calls him stupid, he decides to convince the other man, he’s mistaken. All he needs is the right book to make him look smart, a perfect balance between intelligent and short. And who better to ask for help than a guy who loves books so much, he labeled one boner-worthy on a book app?

When Jules finds out Phoenix never has read a book from start to finish, he’s on a mission. He will find the right book, the book that will make Phoenix fall in love — with reading. Phoenix’s plan might have been to listen to the book Jules picked for him to impress his colleague, but that was before he got to know him. Talking about books is a sure way to Jules’ heart, but is it enough for him to agree to go on a date?