An Unlikely Romance - Ben & Mason: An Unlikely Romance, #1

By Candi Kay

The last thing Ben and Mason want is a relationship. Both in their forties, they're content hooking up with random guys in between the demands of their jobs and family. When they meet in a bar, there's an instant attraction. It doesn't take long before they're coming up with the perfect arrangement - no names, no details, no strings. The sex is good and neither man has to worry about silly emotions getting involved.

What starts out simple becomes anything but when one of their dates ends abruptly and they forget to schedule their next meeting or even exchange info. Suddenly Ben and Mason are finding themselves wanting a lot more than anonymous sex in a cheap motel room.

Convinced they'll never see each other again, fate finds a way in the form of crazy work schedules, an upcoming wedding, and adult children who have been trying to hook up their dads for months.

An Unlikely Romance – Ben and Mason is a story about two men in their forties who find everything they want but didn't even know they were looking for. Part of the An Unlikely Romance series, it's a complete standalone with no details linking it to other books in the series. The only commonality is that all couples come together under unusual circumstances.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Candi Kay
• Release date: Aug 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393689232

Candi Kay

Candi Kay spends her days being a good girl and her nights lost in her kinky imagination. After writing for years and doing nothing with it, she finally took the plunge and put her words out there.  You can find Candi on Facebook, Goodreads, Amazon, Twitter, her blog, or email her at [e-mail]. She loves hearing from readers!

Book preview

An Unlikely Romance -

Ben & Mason

by Candi Kay

An Unlikely Romance - Ben & Mason

by Candi Kay

Copyright © 2019 Candi Kay

All Rights Reserved

Book Cover Design by Candi Kay

Cover Art by © Can Stock Photo Inc./miketea

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events, and locations are fictitious or are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual persons or events, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

This file is licensed for private individual entertainment only. The book contained herein constitutes a copyrighted work and may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into an information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electrical, mechanical, photographic, audio recording, or otherwise) for any reason (excepting the uses permitted to the licensee by copyright law under terms of fair use) without the specific written permission of the author.

This book is for adults only and not suitable for those under the age of eighteen.

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The use of any real company and/or product names or titles in this and other books by Candi Kay is for literary effect only. All trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.

Dedication

To my amazing readers.

About the ‘An Unlikely Romance’ Series

The ‘An Unlikely Romance’ series is about characters who meet and come together under unusual circumstances. Each book is a complete standalone with no details linking it to others in the series.

The books can be read in any order.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Ben

Chapter 2 – Mason

Chapter 3- Ben

Chapter 4 – Mason

Chapter 5 – Ben

Chapter 6 – Mason

Chapter 7 – Ben

Chapter 8 – Mason

Chapter 9 – Ben

Chapter 10 – Mason

Chapter 11 – Ben

Chapter 12 – Mason

Chapter 13 - Ben

Epilogue – Mason

Also by Candi Kay

About the Author

BEN

CHAPTER 1

I’m on my second beer when I see him walking over. I’ve been killing time in a dark corner of the crowded bar for the past half hour glaring at anybody who tries to talk or sit at the small table with me. It’s Friday night so the place is full of people grinding against each other while drinking watered-down drinks and swaying to bad music. Any other night I might be out there with them. If I thought it could be completely anonymous, I’d be working the crowd for a willing guy and hoping for a little men’s room action. Unfortunately, the last time I did that I got stupid and ended up taking the man home with me. Even now, I don’t know if he’s gone or if I’ll be going back to the drama when I leave here.

I’ve waved off at least a dozen men and women before a man around my age, early forties maybe, walks over with a beer in his hand. He appears to be as frustrated with the world as I do. I raise a brow when he motions to a chair next to me. I’m about to run him off like I have the others, but he holds a hand up to stop me.

I just want to sit. I don’t want to pick you up, force you to make conversation, or blow you. I just left the most boring date in the history of the universe so I want to have a couple of beers and ignore everything for a while. You’re in my usual hiding place. I know I can’t ask you to leave, so I’ll ask if we can share the space just long enough for me to accomplish what I came to do.

I chuckle and kick the chair with my foot so he can sit down.

And what is that?

Try to forget the past few hours happened, he answers as he plops down.

Sounds like my night, I tell him.

Were you forced to sit through hours of dull conversation about numbers and spreadsheets?

Can’t say that I was.

Or, and this is the best part of my lovely evening, he says with sarcasm, be forced to listen to the same guy – on the first date, mind you – go on about wanting to get married and travel? I was in those plans, by the way. Oh, and we can’t forget his foolish jealousy when I smiled at the cute server. He actually asked me, and I’m quoting here, ‘aren’t you a little old to be getting a hard-on for a twenty-something?’

He was planning a future with you on the first date?

Yep. My last blind date – ever.

Who set you up? I ask him, amused.

My former favorite son.

How many sons do you have?

Just the one. He’s an only child.

I bark out a laugh.

I’m glad you find my disownment of my kid amusing, he comes back with a quirk of his lips. What about you? Are you hiding too?

I shrug. Wasting time until I can go back home.

Book club? Baby shower? Girls night in?

More like boyfriend and the twink he was fucking in my bed, I say bluntly.

Ah, man, I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone.

He makes a move to stand up, but I shake my head to stop him, finding myself enjoying the conversation.

Don’t be. The only thing I’m sorry about is knowing I’ll likely be up half the night changing my sheets and making sure they didn’t steal anything on their way out.

You left them alone in your house? he asks, sounding shocked.

I smirk. I figured it was best before the twink recognized me and we all came to blows.

You’ve had the guy your boyfriend was fucking?

A couple of times.

He laughs so hard people around us turn to stare.

Hey, in my defense it was before I met the boyfriend. I wouldn’t exactly call him that anyway. We hooked up once, he followed me home, and basically never left.

Man, that’s cold. Him cheating in your own bed, I mean.

There was no love there. It was supposed to be just sex, but I think he always wanted more and thought I'd change my mind later. I was clear about what I wanted the night we met, so he knew exactly what he was getting into. He probably thought getting caught with another guy would make me jealous and beg him to hang around.

Let me guess, that’s not what happened, he says with a knowing smile.

Not even close. I'm glad to be rid of him, to be honest. He started getting clingy and throwing out hints about giving up his place and moving into mine a few weeks ago. I haven't had time to deal with it before now. He just made it easy for me tonight.

Young guy? Older? he asks.

Twenty-three. The same age as my daughter, if you can believe that. What about your boring blind date?

A couple of years older than my forty-three, but I swear you’d think he was eighty by the way he acted.

I signal a server and order two more beers.

Why’d you agree to go out with him? I ask when she’s gone.

My son talked me into it because he knows he can talk me into anything. It’s a man his mother knows from work. For some reason, they’re convinced I’m miserable being alone. What they don’t get is that I’m quite content not being in a relationship. He motions around the bar. I can usually find what I’m looking for in places like this without worrying about ever seeing the guy again if I don’t want to.

Unless your one-off turns into what mine did, I tell him.

He leans back in his chair and takes a long swallow of his beer, his eyes on mine. True. I only agreed to the date tonight because I was hoping to get laid when it was over. I’m starting to get bored with the scene, you know? It’s not because of my age, I don’t think. It’s just the guys I’ve been with over the past few months haven’t really done it for me. They’ve been too young, too eager. While that’s not a bad thing all the time, it is when that’s all you get night after night. And there are some things I might want to do that they aren’t always into.

I’m nodding before he finishes his thought. And most guys around our age – I’m forty-four, by the way – are wanting to settle down.

Like my date tonight, he states.

And they act like just fucking around on occasion is wrong, like once we get to a certain age we’re required by law to go exclusive with somebody and work toward marriage.

He fake shudders. Tell me about it. My son’s twenty-five and acts scandalized over me being with guys his age, but it’s the young ones who usually don’t push so much for commitment. Well, aside from your guy. I swear he thinks I’ll end up in bed with one of his friends or something. I won’t even get started on his mother.

You and his mother are close? I ask.

Very. She’s been my best friend since my family moved next door to hers when I was ten or so. Our son came to be during the time I was still trying to figure out who I was. We were together once and it was enough for him to be conceived. There was never any question with us or our families of whether we’d be keeping the baby. And nobody expected us to get married.

You were lucky.

Very much so. What about you? You said you have a daughter?