Silver and Gold

By Devon Rhodes

Geoff Radcliffe is having a mid-life crisis just in time for the holidays. He goes into a tailspin after hearing from his first love, picks up a stranger who locks him out of the house in nothing but his pants, and then he gets up the courage to go get rid of his grey, and the colorist refuses to 'do' Geoff's hair! But Abe Golden, thrilled that the hunky silver-tipped guy has admitted he's gay, does 'do' him, taking him home for the hottest night of Geoff's life. After three heavenly days of smoking hot sex, Abe has done the unimaginable: he's fallen in love. And when he finds out that Geoff has been using him to practice for another man, Abe is at first heartbroken... and then he plots how to show Geoff the value of combining silver and gold.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781615813384

Devon Rhodes

Devon started reading and writing at an early age and never looked back. At 39 and holding, Devon finally figured out the best way to channel her midlife crisis was to morph from mild-mannered stay-at-home mom to erotic romance writer. She lives in Oregon with her family, who are (mostly) understanding of all the time she spends on her laptop, aka the black hole.

Book preview

Chapter One

Geoffrey Radcliffe stared intently into the mirror, grimacing at the reflection, then wincing as the grimace accentuated his laugh lines. Laugh lines, c’mon, just call them wrinkles. He ran his fingers through his straight, dark hair and froze. Oh shit. He peered closer at his hairline, holding his hair back with his hand and angling his head so that his temples were just inches from the mirror. A healthy dose of grey splashed on each pulse-point, while more isolated strands were beginning to snake through his conservative hairstyle. When had that happened?

Far from narcissistic, he was embarrassed by his sudden interest in his appearance, and even more embarrassed by what had prompted it. God, he felt like he was a kid back in school again, mooning around over the Big Man On Campus. Jesse Sullivan. His one and only boyfriend as a young man; his first blissful, and eventually heartbreaking, relationship that thrust him firmly into the more socially accepted side of his bi wiring. Geoff sighed at his image one last time before giving himself a mental shake and retreating to his desk, staring blankly at his laptop’s screensaver, then reaching out with a finger and nudging the touchpad, bringing Jesse’s e-mail back into glaring focus.

Dear Geoff, it began. Such a polite and generic opening to something that rocked the foundations of everything he had made himself believe for the past two decades.

Dear Geoff,

I can’t believe it’s been so long, over 20 years. I never thought at the time that we’d fall so completely out of touch when we went our separate ways.

Separate ways? Geoff snorted, rereading the missive for the umpteenth time. That was putting it mildly. Nothing like a little revisionist history.

I’ve wanted to get in touch with you for a long time. But what finally did it for me was hearing my mom talk about your divorce. Ironically enough, mine just went through as well.

She also said that your parents mentioned you’re coming back for a week over the holidays, and I’ll be at home then as well. I’d really like to get together. Since there’s going to be the usual houseful back home, I’ve volunteered to stay at a hotel.

Geoff felt a disconcerting shock of lust burn through him at the thought of Jesse and a hotel room. He fought to breathe normally, reminding himself he was at work, and surreptitiously adjusted his half-hard cock in his suit pants.

We have a lot to catch up on, and I’m hoping that you want to see me as well. Give me a call, my numbers are listed below, and let’s set something up. I’ve missed you, G-man. Hope to hear from you soon.   Jess

 Jesse was going to be home for the holidays, at a hotel, and they were adults now…. Merry Christmas to me. Geoff scrubbed viciously at his face. He needed to get a grip. There was nothing in the note to hint that this would be anything other than a reunion of two old friends. For all he knew, the whole incident in their youth was just Jesse having a one-time fling, a bi-curious growth experience. Yeah, it had burned hot at the time, but Geoff was obviously not what Jess had wanted long-term. Jesse made that abundantly clear on the night he got engaged, the night he revealed to Geoff that he was going to be a father before the year was out.

Geoff felt that old, familiar pain twinge deep inside at the memory, the casual manner in which Jesse had related the life-altering secret he’d been keeping from Geoff for months. His girlfriend. Oh, he’d been so innocent, blinded by the charisma and the intensity of Jesse’s focus on him, a late-bloomer who had never attracted attention from anyone before. Eager for any time with Jess, he’d accepted his frequent, vague explanations for being busy.

It was only in the aftermath, in the flurry of small-town gossip that flew when the pregnancy and shotgun wedding was made public, that he put the whole story together. Jesse had been dating Jennifer for months. It was love at first sight, wasn’t the first time that two crazy kids got carried away and did things out of order, at least he was doing the right thing. That was the prevailing opinion in town, anyway.

So Geoff had sat woodenly on the pew at the church, his face carefully blank but his heart crying inside, as the boy he thought he loved gazed into someone else’s eyes and made his pledge to her. Geoff had fooled everyone with his act, even Jesse apparently, because afterward he had given Geoff a hug in the receiving line with no guilt in his eyes, clapping him casually on the back and saying that he’d call him when they got back from their honeymoon.

Geoff began making his escape plans the day after Jesse’s news, and headed off to his university town a month early, claiming he wanted to settle in before term began. He left before Jesse got back and asked his mom not to give out his number to anyone, wanting to make a clean break. There was a hint of sympathy in his mom’s eyes, as if she had known, but they never discussed it and she had respected his wishes. Jesse’s wedding day was the last time he