Wooing the Lighthouse Keeper

By Charlie Richards

Wayne needs a place to hide when an angry ex-boyfriend sends questionable pictures to several board members at the school where he teaches. Substituting as a lighthouse keeper for his buddy’s father, he finds stark beauty in how the waves crash on the rocks and solace in their sound. His buddy, Easton, drops by with pizza and wine to buoy his spirits, and together they find a naked man on the beach. Bringing the injured man inside his temporary home, Wayne learns the stranger’s name is Zarek, and he doesn’t want to be taken to the hospital. Against his better judgment, maybe because the sexy, black-haired man kissed like a God, Wayne agrees...even though he knows the man’s story is bogus. When Wayne learns the truth, can he wrap his mind around everything and accept his new reality? Or will he wipe his hands of the sexy Zarek at his earliest opportunity?

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: May 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781487407094

Book preview

Beneath the Deep: From the sea, mysterious things can arise.

Wayne needs a place to hide when an angry ex-boyfriend sends questionable pictures to several board members at the school where he teaches. Substituting as a lighthouse keeper for his buddy’s father, he finds stark beauty in how the waves crash on the rocks and solace in their sound. His buddy, Easton, drops by with pizza and wine to buoy his spirits, and together they find a naked man on the beach. Bringing the injured man inside his temporary home, Wayne learns the stranger’s name is Zarek, and he doesn’t want to be taken to the hospital. Against his better judgment, maybe because the sexy, black-haired man kissed like a God, Wayne agrees... even though he knows the man’s story is bogus. When Wayne learns the truth, can he wrap his mind around everything and accept his new reality? Or will he wipe his hands of the sexy Zarek at his earliest opportunity?

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Wooing the Lighthouse Keeper

Copyright © 2016 Charlie Richards

ISBN: 978-1-4874-0709-4

Cover art by Angela Waters

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

Smashwords Edition

Wooing the Lighthouse Keeper

Tales of the Briny Nix: Book One

By

Charlie Richards

Dedication

When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what the storm’s all about.

~Haruki Murakami

Chapter One

Wayne Thorpe leaned his hip against the railing. While the top lighthouse platform only stood seventy-five feet off the ground, when he stood on the side of the platform that faced the cliff, he felt like he was a million miles up. Peering down the side of the structure, then the edge of the jagged cliff, it was another eighty feet to the crashing waves... and that was at high tide.

Wayne loved it.

Standing at the top of the lighthouse, Wayne enjoyed the way the salty sea breeze cooled his skin. He stared out at the ocean, his arms crossed over his chest. Listening to the crash of the waves far below him, he tipped his head back and reveled in the way the sun warmed his cheeks.

At least the various sensations helped clear his head. The phone call he’d just received hadn’t been good. In fact, it’d been downright lousy.

Wayne had never thought he’d be anything but a teacher. Unfortunately, life had thrown a wrench in his plans. A wrench named Kane Sealman.

Goes to show that you always have to make good choices, even when you’re young.

Closing his eyes, Wayne thought about the day that had brought his professional career to a screeching halt. It’d been a Friday afternoon, the students had just filed out of the classroom, and in had walked Principal John Hadley. Alarm bells had gone off in Wayne’s head as soon as he’d noticed the man’s serious expression.

Hell, who likes to be called to the principal’s office?

John had told Wayne that Johanna Willits, a member of the school board, was in his office and wanted to talk to him. He’d even told Wayne to leave his paperwork. Then he’d led the way to the office.

Things had gone downhill from there.

Wayne had learned that somehow, pictures of him and his ex-boyfriend had been emailed to one of the school board members. Johanna hadn’t told him who’d received them. Nor did he learn where they’d come from.

Instead, Wayne had been told that he was being put on administrative leave—unpaid, of course—while his behavior and character were to be assessed. Evidently, they were going to judge whether or not he was a danger to the teenagers he taught.

While on the way home, Wayne had been able to come up with only one possibility. Kane had decided to get revenge. His ex-boyfriend had recently moved back into town and asked if he could sleep on his couch for a couple of weeks while he found a place to stay.

Wayne had told him no. He’d had no desire to reintroduce Kane’s kind of wild into his life. The man had no ambition. Wayne had known that if he let Kane into his house, it’d take an act of God to get him to move out again.

Wayne knew he’d made a mistake in dating Kane Sealman. He’d figured that out after less than a month with the man. The guy was sex on a stick—tall, muscular, blond, and possessing of a charming smile. Unfortunately, Kane knew it and couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.

Having always been more of the monogamous type, Wayne had stopped taking his ex’s calls. A few weeks later, he’d found out from a friend that Kane had taken pictures of him naked and nearly naked. In them, Wayne had been asleep in bed, but that hadn’t been easily determined in some of the pictures.

When Wayne’s buddy, Easton Ritton, had heard about it, his friend had sought Kane out. He’d threatened Kane. At the time, Kane had promised he’d deleted them all. Not surprisingly, he must have lied.

God, what an asshole.

Feeling his phone buzz in his pocket, Wayne opened his eyes and pulled it out. He saw Tran’s name and number on the screen, so he headed into the light room as he hit the accept button.

Hey, Tran, Wayne greeted. How’s Florida?

Wayne