Today I am so pleased to welcome Kate Hawthorne to Joyfully Jay. Kate has come to share an exclusive excerpt from her latest release, Worth the Risk (Giving Consent Book One). She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

Excerpt

It was after midnight when Gregory pulled into Landon’s driveway. He cut the ignition and stared at the looming house in front of him. Rapture must earn a ton of money if Landon could afford a place like this.

“My grandpa left it to me,” Landon shared as he stepped out of the car and pushed the door closed behind him.

“Your grandpa?” Gregory asked, shocked. Landon had a normal enough family life when they were in high school, but he couldn’t remember any real relationship with any of his grandparents.

“I know, right?” Landon scoffed, his tone biting. He shuffled up the stairs onto the porch and unlocked the door. He walked in, leaving the door open behind him and Gregory assumed that meant it was okay for him to come in.

“What about John and Diana?” Gregory asked after Landon’s parents. 

Landon looked over his shoulder at him then flopped on the couch, loosening the laces of his boots.

“They died.”

“Oh.” Gregory rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. “Sorry.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Landon toed his untied boots off and slumped back into the cushions. 

There was a soft and quiet click-clack sound that drew Gregory’s attention to the other side of the room. He found a small and slender dog prancing in from the hallway. The dog was pale gray and had a long, narrow face, and a collar made of pearls around its neck.

Landon followed Gregory’s stare out of the room and chuckled. 

“There’s our third,” he joked dully.

“Hey, Ed.” Gregory dropped into a squat and held his hand out. Ed trotted across the room to sniff him then looked at Landon and jumped on the couch. He spread out, his back legs dangling over Landon’s thigh leaving no room for Gregory to sit, so he took a seat on the loveseat instead. 

“Are you going to take your boots off?” Landon gestured to Gregory’s feet, and Gregory’s reflex response was to ask Landon to do it for him, but he bit his tongue.

“Am I staying that long?” 

Landon stroked a hand down Ed’s back while he mulled over his answer. Ed rolled over and gave Landon his stomach, which Landon continued to pet.

“You can take your boots off.”

Gregory leaned over and began the arduous process of removing laced up knee-high boots; once he had his feet free, he set his boots to the side of the chair. Landon looked at his socks and Gregory was pretty sure he smiled. 

“Did you want to talk more?” Gregory asked after a short silence.

Landon looked up at him, eyebrows raised. 

“About before.” 

Before at the pizza shop. 

Before when we were kids.

Before everything went wrong.

“Not really. Not right now.”

Gregory ran his tongue around his teeth and sucked at them briefly, debating if he truly wanted to ask the next question, but Landon just sat across the room there looking at him, half-scared, half-expectant, and Gregory didn’t know what Landon needed or wanted from him in that moment.

“Then why am I here?” 

Landon looked away as though he hoped the answer was painted on a wall across the room. Ed grew tired of the petting and jumped off the couch and exited the room as quietly as he’d shown up, leaving Landon with nothing to do with his hands besides wring them together in silence. 

“We have a lot to sort through, I think,” Landon said, still unwilling or unable to look at Gregory. “But I don’t want to do it tonight.”

The air in the room shifted, and Landon squared his shoulders. 

“Then why am I here?” Gregory repeated. His voice came out sounding husky, and he cleared his throat.

Landon looked directly at him, eyes blazing, and answered. “Because I need you to be.”

Blurb

At eighteen, Landon Miller was sure about two things–he was a submissive and he was going to be with Gregory Douglas for the rest of his life. That was until parents and school got in the way, and he found himself in New York, thousands of miles from the man who had learned how to take him in hand. Feeling abandoned by the personhe’d come to rely on, Landon has no choice but to set his sights on a new and lonely future.

Years later, behind the bar at Rapture, the BDSM club he’s built on a foundation of disillusioned dreams and broken bricks, Landon finds himself face to face with his favorite memory and greatest regret—Gregory.

Seeing his first love again is the only inspiration Gregory needs to commit himself to forging his way toward the future he always envisioned…one with Landon yielding and bending to his command. Determined to recapture the magic of their first love, Gregory works to right the wrongs of their past so they can move on together.

Battling through the resentment from their youth, Landon is unexpectedly called back to New York, and Gregory can’t help but fear the past is repeating itself. Fighting familiar feelings of helplessness, he makes the decision to give Landon what he needs, even if that means not chasing after the man he adores…again. Gregory can only hope when Landon returns, he won’t throw away the love they’ve fought and risked everything for.

Worth the Risk is the first book in the Giving Consent Series. It is 78,000 words of kinky, steamy, second-chance BDSM romance.

Bio

Kate Hawthorne lives in Los Angeles with her husband, tiny human, and four-legged child. She has tattoos, drinks coffee, and writes dirty books about men in love.

Giveaway

Kate has brought a copy of Worth the Risk to give away to one lucky reader. Just leave a comment at the end of the post to enter. The contest ends on Thursday, August 30th at 11:59 pm ET.

• By entering the giveaway, you’re confirming that you are at least 18 years old.
• Winners will be selected by random number. No purchase necessary to win.  The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning.
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• Void where prohibited by law.