Today I am so pleased to welcome Lance Lansdale to Joyfully Jay. Lance has come to talk to us about his latest release, We Burn Beautiful. He has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving Lance a big welcome!
Exclusive Excerpt
“I love it here, you know? Our place. It is still ours, isn’t it?”
“Always,” I said, striding toward him, desperate to get his hands back on me.
He held his hand in front of my chest, warding me off. “Have you slept with her?”
“No. I wouldn’t. I promise. It was just hand stuff.”
“Why?”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s your girlfriend. Why wouldn’t you have sex with her?”
“Why are you bringing this up right now? Just come back here.” I motioned frantically for him. I wanted him in front of me. Right in front of me, where he belonged. “Please, come back.” I didn’t care if he touched me there again. Gray was in pain, and I could make it better. I could make him better. All he had to do was let me try.
He shook his head, and there was a level of anger in him I’d never seen before. It built up in the tightened muscles around his mouth. It seeped out from behind his bright, white teeth. “This is our spot. The one that I found just for us. How could you bring her here?”
I’d brought Kate to the lake two nights before. We swam for an hour before resting on the grass under the big oak tree. We shared our first kiss that night, and then her hand slid under my shorts and wrapped around me. I didn’t touch her. Not once. The thought of having to reciprocate had made me feel physically ill. Every touch felt wrong. Every stroke, a betrayal. And somehow, Gray knew.
“Were you following us?” I said, my body tensing. He’d been watching us. He saw everything.
“Don’t try to turn this around on me. I’m not the one who was—”
“Why do you care? Why does it matter what I did with her?”
“Why do you think?” His gaze and voice were both heavy with accusation, and even though I was nothing to him, and he was nothing to me, I felt like I was in the wrong. “Break up with her. Do it tonight.”
“Tell me why. If you want me to leave her, I want to know why.” I stared at him, my eyes pleading. “I need you to say it.”
“I just miss you.”
I shook my head. “That’s not it. I know you, Grayson. I know you better than I know anyone. Your hand was just …” I shuddered at the memory. “This is more than just missing me.” He paused, looking lost. I could find him if he let me. I’d guide him home, all he had to do was ask.
“I’m scared, Half-pint.” There was a tear falling down his cheek, and I couldn’t stand to see it there. I brushed it away, but another just took its place. “I’ve been so scared, for so long.”
Blurb
We went into this knowing we’d get burned. And God, we burned so beautifully.
Kent Fox is not okay. Thanks to a botched selfie swap, thousands of his colleagues have borne witness to a photo of his sock-covered crotch. Branded a professional pariah, he’s had to move home with his mother, and the only job the 38-year-old former executive can land is stocking shelves at a grocery store. To make matters worse, his new boss is none other than his ex-gay ex-boyfriend.
To everyone else, Gray Collins is the perfect Christian. He manages the local Pick-n-Save, attends West Clark Apostolic Church four times a week, and he’s just bought a ring for the woman who has agreed to help him hide his homosexuality. To Kent, however, Gray is the same coward he was twenty years ago. The boy with a list of seventeen reasons why he deserved Kent’s heart. The man who did nothing as his brother ripped Kent from his arms and out of his life for two decades.
Forced together, Kent and Gray will have to confront the trauma that tore them apart, and all the old feelings that never truly died. Kent may not have a list of seventeen reasons for Gray, but he has three words that are just as true as they’ve ever been.
We Burn Beautiful is a single-POV, second chance slow burn romance about two childhood boyfriends who never had the chance to shine. There’s pining, there’s passion, and there’s a group of 80-year-old Apostolic debutantes ready to help Kent Fox find his forever.
Bio
Like Kent Fox, I’m a thirty-something gay man with a flair for the dramatic and a passion for gay romance and LGBTQ+ fiction. I write stories focusing on queer joy and families found along the way.
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Giveaway
To celebrate the release of We Burn Beautiful, Lance is giving away a Signed Paperback copy and an e-copy of this beautiful debut! Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!
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- Void where prohibited by law.
