Excited to be able to share the cover for LOVE YOU SO MADLY, the second book in the Love You So series!
Will Ben give up a lover who drives a Ferrari for one who rides the bus?
Love You So Madly
(Love You So Series, Bk 2)
By Tara Lain
Blurb:
Ben Shane has it all… and he’d like to give some of it back. While he loves his job heading a foundation that funds worthy causes around the world, his engagement to one of America’s wealthiest men leaves him feeling more like a trophy wife than a valued partner. The first warning that his relationship might not be designed to last is his irresistible lust for Dusty Kincaid, the golden-haired, bright-eyed handyman for his company.
Though Dusty is odd for a twenty-three-year-old—no liquor, no sugar, and he can’t even drive—the more Ben gets to know Dusty, the more he admires him. But is Ben going to give up a guy who drives a Ferrari for one who takes the bus? He must be mad. Dusty knows he and Ben can never work.
After all, Ben’s perfect… and Dusty isn’t. But Ben might surprise everyone with proof that he’s only madly in love.
Available for pre-order at
Release Date:
May 29, 2018
Excerpts
In the car Dusty said, “Can we listen to that nice music again?”
He’d noticed. “Sure.” Ben flipped on the Chopin.
For a few minutes, they rode in music. Ben cleared his throat.
“Dusty, do you mind if I ask how old you are?”
“Oh sure. I’m twenty-three. How old are you?”
Ben almost laughed. As an executive in a top firm, nobody ever
asked him that. But turnabout was fair. “I’m twenty-nine.”
“Wow. You’ve done a lot in your life.”
“Thank you.” Ben glanced at Dusty.
“I haven’t been able to do so much, but I’m working at it.”
“That’s what counts. Keep moving toward your dreams.”
“I like that idea a lot.” He leaned his head back and closed his
eyes.
“So your dad doesn’t live at home?”
“No. Never has. My mom’s taken good care of me, though.”
“Has she always been a nurse?”
“No. She had to work so hard. She was only sixteen when she had me,
but she never gave me up, no matter what anyone said.” He took a deep breath
and let it out in a long exhale. “And no matter how hard it was.”
“She sounds amazing.”
“She is.” He looked out the window. “It’s hard for her to, you
know, let me do stuff, but she’s the best mom.”
“So you’re not married?” Ben chuckled.
Dusty mirrored the chuckle. “Not yet.”
“Have a girlfriend?” Oh, very
subtle, Shane.
“No.”
“Not yet, huh.”
“Not ever. I’m gay. But I don’t have a boyfriend yet. I’d like to,
though.”
Well, okay. Ben swallowed. “You would?”
“Sure, wouldn’t you?”
“I’m, uh, engaged.” Shit.
Shit. Shit. When did I decide to
become Mr. Purveyor of Truth?
The passenger seat became deeply silent.
Ben glanced over. Dusty’s eyes were closed, and he seemed to be
breathing deeply.
“You okay?”
“What?” His eyes fluttered open.
“Sorry. Just asking how you’re doing?”
“Good, thanks. Just drop me on the curb over there.” He pointed to
one of the entrances to Orange Coast College.
“How will you get back to my place?”
“Bus.” He smiled, but his glance scampered all over the place as he
opened the door. “Have a great day.”
Ben couldn’t stop. He put a hand on Dusty’s arm—his sinewy, muscled,
hot-as-fuck arm. “Dusty, what’s wrong? Come on, tell me.”
“Nothing, honest. Just
sometimes it’s hard not to wish I was somebody else.”
“What happened? When you came out, I mean?”
“Some friends dropped me. Some didn’t. I got quietly pushed
off the baseball team, even though I was a really good player.” He felt his
lips turn up. “But I didn’t care. My folks had already guessed, so little drama
there, and the boy I liked, liked me back. Oh yeah. He had a fair amount of
experience for a sixteen-year-old, and he spent the summer teaching me what all
my adolescent hormones were for. I didn’t mind at all.” He looked up at Dusty,
who gazed at him with glassy eyes. He slowly wet his lips. Ben cleared his
throat. “Uh, what about you? When did you come out?”
“Oh.” He raised his shoulders and dropped them. “Never, I
guess. I always knew, so I just told people and that was all.”
Ben mimicked Dusty’s words from earlier. “Did you have a
really tough time in high school?”
A look of pain crossed his face. “Not because I was gay,
really.” He sucked a breath. “Back to work?” He pushed away from the counter.
“All right.”
In the bedroom, Dusty grabbed the bucket and carried it out,
returning a couple of minutes later with clean water smelling like vinegar.
Ben wrinkled his nose. “You made a salad?”
“White vinegar’s great for cleaning wood floors. I found a
bottle in your pantry and added a little to the water. You shouldn’t use much
regular chemical stuff on these nice floors.”
“Anything you say.” He flashed his teeth again at Dusty,
turned the music back on, and they went to work.
A few strokes in, Dusty glanced over at Ben and sped up his
mopping. Ben got faster to match Dusty, and then added a little more speed.
Dusty started mopping like crazy, and Ben copied him, stroke
for stroke. Dusty giggled as he wrung out the mop with super speed and went
back to his mad moparama.
Ben gritted his teeth, slopped some water on the floor, and
spread it around at double time.
Dusty yelled, “No fair. You can’t splash water on this
floor!”
“Okay, okay.” Ben grabbed a cloth and dried the floor as
Dusty got ahead of him in the race to the door. Ben grabbed his mop, wrung it
out, and went into overdrive, swiping like a Mr. Clean fanatic.
Dusty laughed, and Ben laughed with him as they backed
toward the wall, angling toward the door.
Dusty yelled, “I’m winning.”
“Don’t even dream it!”
Adrenaline rushed through Ben as he cleaned his last few
feet of hardwood. His butt hit something hard and soft at the same time that
turned out to be Dusty’s perfect ass. Dusty yelped and spun, thrusting forward
his mop like a rapier. Ben met him and they began to fence with crossed mops, howling
like loons.
Aluminum handles clanked and beads of water sprayed all over
them as they danced around the room.
“Oh!” Suddenly, Dusty’s foot hit a damp patch, his arms flew
up as his feet slid out from under him, and he pinwheeled backward, arms and
mop flailing.
Ben dodged the swinging cleaning device and grabbed Dusty
just before his head hit the wall. Dusty fell forward and landed against Ben’s
chest, throwing him off balance despite the size difference, and the two of
them careened backward like the tree that fell in the forest when no one was
listening. Ben reached out an arm behind him and managed to hurl his body,
still holding Dusty, toward the bed that had been pushed against the wall.
His butt hit the mattress, legs still flailing, but he
managed to keep Dusty from landing on the floor by hauling him against his
body.
“Whoa! Holy crap, that was close.”
When Ben realized they were both okay, he started to
laugh—until his current position soaked in, and in, and in.
About the Author
Tara Lain writes the Beautiful Boys of Romance in contemporary, paranormal, and suspense gay romance novels that star her unique, charismatic heroes. Her first novel was published in January of 2011 and she’s now somewhere around book 45. Her best-selling novels have garnered awards for Best Series, Best Contemporary Romance, Best Paranormal Romance, Best Ménage, Best LGBT Romance, Best Gay Characters, Book of the Year, Gay Romance of the Year, and she has been honored as Best Author of the Year. She often does workshops on both author promotion and writing craft. Tara, her soul-mate husband, and her soul-mate dog are recent transplants to Ashland, Oregon from the southern California coast where she has set many of her books. Passionate about diversity, justice, and new experiences, Tara says on her tombstone it will say “Yes”!
