Rating: 4.5 stars
Buy Links: Amazon | All Romance
Length: Short Story
Spence has been wanting a tattoo for four years and has finally worked up the nerve to go into a tattoo shop. As he is looking around, in walks a gorgeous hunk of a guy, 6′ 4″ and full of muscles and amazing chest hair. Although Spence is just as tall, he is nowhere near as built and doesn’t expect the guy to give him a second glance. Spence isn’t particularly confident in himself or his appearance. Especially when he faints at the sight of blood while watching Vander get his tattoo. But Vander is definitely attracted to the shy Spence and is determined he is not going to let a little fainting get in the way of asking this guy out and seeing what could happen between them.
This is a really sweet and fun short story. It is not very long, but Ames packs a lot into it. We get a great sense of the personality behind both men and they are both nicely developed in a short time. I loved the beginning where we see Spence’s nervousness, both at being at the tattoo shop as well as encountering Vander. Especially because he can’t stop staring at Vander and keeps getting caught. The guys meet very cute and it is nice to see that Vander can look past all the blinking and anxiety that Spence is putting out and see the guy underneath.
I wish we had a chance for a bit more development here as the story uses an epilogue to cover a big gap in time. But I was impressed with how much of a sense of these guys and their developing relationship we get even in such a short story. Very enjoyable and quite well done.
