The Haven

By A.J. Llewellyn

In this sequel to the best-selling novel, The Oasis, Elias and Josh are celebrating their first anniversary. When Elias’s baby mama, Carina, takes their son, Julio, to the Disney resort in Hawaii, Josh urges Elias to organize a romantic vacation in Palm Springs. He wants some place private and cozy, and he wants to invite gay porn star, Samuel Colt, since they did promise the guy an anniversary threesome.

And then... disaster. From the start, everything goes wrong. The lakeside house Elias booked turns out to be a creepy, clapped-out, wreck of a trailer. He also has bigger worries. He can’t get Carina to return his calls. What is going on with her and why is Elias’s mom hiding in Carina’s hotel room closet? Why did Carina’s new boyfriend give Julio a weird animal for a birthday gift and why has some lunatic targeted Josh and Elias when this is supposed to be a fun-filled holiday weekend? And, uh-oh. Look who just showed up. Samuel Colt, looking less than impressed with the vacation house from hell...

• Language: English
• Publisher: eXtasy Books Inc
• Release date: Dec 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781487422950

A.J. Llewellyn

A.J. Llewellyn lives in California, but dreams of living in Hawaii. Frequent trips to all the islands, bags of Kona coffee in the fridge and a healthy collection of Hawaiian records keep this writer refueled. A.J. never lacks inspiration for male/male erotic romances and on the rare occasions this happens, pursues other passions such as collecting books on Hawaiiana, surfing and spending time with friends and animal companions. A.J. Llewellyn believes that love is a song best sung out loud.

Book preview

Elias’s life with Josh is wonderful until they’re forced into a Bird’s Nest Custody arrangement with Carina, the mother of Elias’s son, Julio. With all the chaos, will Josh still think of Elias as his own personal haven?

In this sequel to the best-selling novel, The Oasis, Elias and Josh are celebrating their first anniversary. When Elias’s baby mama, Carina, takes their son, Julio, to the Disney resort in Hawaii, Josh urges Elias to organize a romantic vacation in Palm Springs. He wants some place private and cozy, and he wants to invite gay porn star, Samuel Colt, since they did promise the guy an anniversary threesome.

And then... disaster. From the start, everything goes wrong. The lakeside house Elias booked turns out to be a creepy, clapped-out, wreck of a trailer. He also has bigger worries. He can’t get Carina to return his calls. What is going on with her and why is Elias’s mom hiding in Carina’s hotel room closet? Why did Carina’s new boyfriend give Julio a weird animal for a birthday gift and why has some lunatic targeted Josh and Elias when this is supposed to be a fun-filled holiday weekend? And, uh-oh. Look who just showed up. Samuel Colt, looking less than impressed with the vacation house from hell...

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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.

The Haven

Copyright © 2018 A.J. Llewellyn

ISBN: 978-1-4874-2295-0

Cover art by Martine Jardin

Photograph of model Samuel Colt provided by John Bruno and Samuel Colt

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

Look for us online at:

www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

Smashwords Edition

The Haven

Palm Springs Diaries Book 2

By

A.J. Llewellyn

Dedication

In memory of John Bruno, my bright, wonderful, extraordinary

friend. I hope that in the Heaven I believe in, you have found peace

and that you finally know how many people love and value you.

And to Samuel Colt, the coolest dude I know.

xxx

Chapter One

Being a father isn’t easy. Being the gay father to a little boy who simply wanted his mom to bring cupcakes to school for his birthday should have been easy. But my life isn’t like that. And apparently, I’ve passed on this unfortunate gene to my sweet little boy.

On the morning of his third birthday, my son, Julio, awoke at the crack of dawn. And I mean crack. Actually, being fall, I was certain it was still the middle of the night. The sun certainly thought so, as did my lover, Josh.

When Julio stormed in and jumped on us, we fell out of our new sleigh bed.

What the hell! Josh hollered. Earthquake!

One glimpse of Julio’s frightened eyes calmed him down. This jumping on the head thing was new. Julio’s see-sawing emotions were not.

He knelt on the bed as we covered ourselves quickly, putting on trousers and tops. We slept in underpants when it was our turn for visits with Julio, but still... Being scrutinized by Child Protective Services hadn’t been that long ago. We were still nervous.

I checked the time. Nine minutes to five. Really? Didn’t my son have an ‘off’ switch? I looked at him. His chin wobbled dangerously.

Happy Birthday! I flung myself at him.

Happy Birthday! Josh echoed.

Julio laughed and laughed as Josh, and I hugged, tickled, and kissed him. His new puppy whined from the crate.

She doesn’t have an ‘off’ switch, either.

Can I let Thor out? Julio asked.

No! we shouted in unison, but it was too late. He slipped out of Josh’s arms and quickly released his partner in crime. The twelve-pound barrel of white fur hurtled out of the crate, licked Julio’s face clean, then squatted and peed.

All over my nice, new hardwood floors.

She did the big hunch for what I imagined would be a gigantic poop, but I grabbed her just in time and got her out the back door.

Thor gave me a sullen look, sniffing every blade of grass in our pocket-size yard before deciding to finish what she started. I wish she would be so choosy in our house. I actually think the dog’s emotional problems have a lot to do with the fact Julio had insisted on calling her ‘Thor,’ a masculine name.

She likes it, Daddy, he’d insisted when we found her at the mobile dog adoption on Hollywood Boulevard. A Bichon Frise, she’d been turned into Dogs Without Borders by her owner for the usual crappy reason; she had to move, and her new apartment didn’t allow pets.

Almost a year old, Thor wasn’t housebroken. She was afraid of everything but turned out to be the sweetest dog I’ve ever met.

Thor did her thing, and we went back inside.

Julio sat at the breakfast bar, his hair sticking up at odd angles. Daddy Josh is making pancakes! He looked so excited. Thor went nuts until I popped her onto the bistro chair beside Julio.

Josh glanced at me. Daddy Josh will gladly make pancakes, once he finds his utensils. Where the hell do you suppose she put the measuring cups?

She was Carina. My ex-best friend and mother to my son.

Thanks to her legal machinations, Josh and I got Julio on alternate weeks. We got him Monday, and on Sunday we’d hand him over to Carina. The catch was, she had put pressure on us to accept a little-known California law called Bird’s Nest Custody. It means that Julio lives in one house and never has to move. Each week, one parent moves in; the other moves out.

I’d been forced to split the costs on a house for Julio. He was worth every dime. It was dealing with his mother that was difficult. Carina found the three-bedroom, one-and-a-half bathroom house on Craigslist. Josh and I had gone to view it with her, and all three of us had been shocked at how cheap it was. Located on South