New Cover: Furtive Liaison

Due out in February through Amber Allure:

Shawn couldn’t find the time for love, until Marc turned his life upside down in the best way possible. The discovery of a yellow rubber ducky shatters Shawn’s world and sends him on a downward spiral of confusion. Heartbroken, he must determine whether his relationship with Marc was real, or only an illusion of happiness.

Edited to add unedited snippet:

The last place Shawn Delaney planned to be on a Friday night was sitting in his car, parked against the curb of a quiet suburban street several hours outside Manhattan. Acid churned in his gut as he watched his lover for the past six months twirl a dark-headed little boy around and around in circles.

If he didn’t know better, he wouldn’t have suspected the man in front of him was his lover at all. The kohl eyeliner and skin-tight denim he favored were gone, replaced with loose khakis and a plain white polo shirt that hung on his slender frame. The dark locks he spiked with gel were tamed down and slicked back away from his high forehead in a preppy style Shawn never thought he’d see on his young lover. It was like looking at a polished doppelganger of the man he loved.

The child’s exuberant squeals of joy carried on the light breeze and infiltrated Shawn’s car through the closed windows, twisting the metaphorical knife in his chest a little deeper. In true masochistic fashion, he couldn’t stop gazing at the Norman Rockwell scene playing out in front of him.

Shawn didn’t know how he’d gotten there, a spurned lover sitting outside his boyfriend’s house without a clue as to what he planned to do now that he was faced with the concrete proof of his lover’s betrayal. This lovelorn, angry and needy man was not who he wanted to be.

The man he’d always prided himself on being didn’t make himself vulnerable to something as uncertain as commitment. He steered clear of attachments, because he suspected this was the kind of shit he’d end up with for all his trouble. Some people may have inspired love and fidelity, but he clearly wasn’t one of them. He should have fucked Marc and left it that. Like a fool, he’d fallen in love.

And now he was paying for it.

In an ironic twist of fate, he’d been the catalyst for his own heartache. It was him who’d dug and dug for dirt, convinced his lover was hiding something from him. His mother’s admonitions from his childhood rang in his ears, taunting him with the knowledge that he’d brought this on himself.

Be careful for what you ask for…