A Shot of J&B

By Lou Sylvre

When Brian Harrison first met Jackie Vasquez at a Hawaiian wedding, Jackie was sixteen and troubled. Six years later they meet again; Brian’s career at Scotland Yard is budding with promise, while Jackie’s student days at the University of Nebraska are rolling toward a strong finish. Magnetic mutual attraction pulls them insistently toward one another, but the ocean separating their lives makes for a simmering romance.

When the waiting ends and they get together for a weekend in Denver, Dom Brian and sub Jackie both know they’ve tapped into something scalding hot, and much deeper than sharing an artful session. Shibari, lust, and love are all on the agenda -- but for Brian, so is his police career, and a strange series of crimes seems poised to threaten their romance -- and maybe their lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Oct 26, 2019

Lou Sylvre

LOU SYLVRE hails from southern California but now lives and writes on the rainy side of Washington State. Her personal assistant is Boudreau, a large cat who never outgrew his kitten meow. She loves her family, her friends, the felines Boudreau, Nibbles and The Lady George, a little dog named Joe, and (in random order) coffee, chocolate, sunshine, and wild roses, among other things.

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Prologue

Brian Harrison

Six years ago, Hawaii

From the moment Brian saw Luki’s nephew standing under the Hawaiian sun amongst the small crowd that had just witnessed Luki and Sonny’s wedding, he couldn’t bring himself to look away. He tried -- glanced side to side to see who was watching, saw the look Sonny James gave him -- a warning? The thing was, Jackie was a beautiful young man, no denying that. But how young? Brian thought he looked like no more than a teenager; he laughed like a very young person and seemed shy and sweet. But then, when Jackie turned and met Brian’s eyes, Brian would have sworn those eyes had seen centuries of pain, and with a sober expression on his face, Jackie looked years older.

Not able to stop himself, Brian walked across the ancient, eroded lava that formed the ground on which Sonny and Luki had just said their vows, and held out his hand to the young man who had confused his emotions as well as his thinking. He felt drawn, but it wasn’t exactly the sexual pull he’d often felt when he spotted a likely partner. He didn’t understand the attraction, couldn’t put his mental finger on what it meant, but he couldn’t deny it either.

Jackie’s unusual beauty was hard not to look at -- Brian admitted that was what had first caught his eye. His long hair, earth-brown in its depths, had a strong red cast, and his face was sprinkled with surprising dark freckles. His wide, almond-shaped gray eyes shone like polished silver.

I’m Brian, he said simply when he’d reached his destination directly in front of the young man.

You work with my uncle Luki, the young man said as he took the hand Brian offered and shook it briefly. I’m Jackie Vasquez. His manner seemed smooth, adult -- until he giggled.

Brian saw Luki eyeing him from across the open space. That look was easy to figure: icy-cold and calculating. Taking that as a heads-up, and the giggle as a clue, Brian realized his first impression had been the right one -- Jackie was young, jailbait if Brian’s intentions had been sexual. They weren’t -- at least he didn’t think so -- but it wouldn’t be wise to assume Luki knew that. And probably it wouldn’t be wise to test himself, either.

Brian casually stepped back a pace, widening the distance between them. I’m glad to meet you, he said, and then his search for a safe topic landed on the weather, as it so often does. It’s a beautiful day, a beautiful place -- and it was a beautiful wedding, wasn’t it?

Which is perfect, Jackie said, smiling. ‘Cause Luki and Sonny are beautiful together.

Brian smiled back and made small talk for a couple of minutes, making certain he didn’t touch the young man again -- that handshake had been electric, though in an odd way. Brian never put much stock in things like destiny, so he didn’t like admitting the touch felt like fate, as if they had always been meant to connect. Still, as young as Jackie was, even thinking about him sexually was strictly against Brian’s personal code. It would be best to avoid any wayward cues that might mislead Jackie. Also definitely healthiest to make sure Luki didn’t get the wrong idea. As soon as he politely could, he took his leave, and for the rest of the time until the newlyweds drove away and the gathering disbursed, he fought Jackie’s constant -- undoubtedly innocent and unintentional -- magnetism.

Probably, he thought, I’ll never get that boy and his gorgeous eyes out of my mind.

* * *

Professor Brechtje Broewer

November, London

On the telephone, Doctor Pappas, sounded mealy-mouthed -- not unusual. I know you’re here as faculty, Brechtje, not a diagnostician. But this young man is a troubling case. I interviewed him briefly, and felt the oddest prickle at the back of my neck. It may not be professional, but I want to call him ‘creepy.’ Some bad things have happened around him. Maybe he’s done them, or perhaps not, no proof in any case.

Is he dangerous? She was about to suggest the police would be a better number to call than hers. She was busy enough with teaching -- her actual duty. And honestly, Pappas always struck her as a bit of a worm.

That’s exactly the pressing question. With your affinity for, er, I should say, expertise in the psychology of fear, it struck me you’d have some insight. Can you see him?

Professor Broewer agreed -- Pappas was, after all, her department head, and concessions must be made. But she let him hear her sigh of reluctance before she took down the boy’s email.

A day later, she sat across from Hector King in her tiny London Metropolitan University faculty office, allowing first impressions to queue up. With the gray light coming through the tall window highlighting his profile, he looked like a perfect specimen of British youth.

He wasn’t. He seemed hesitant to talk, yet tales of his deeds kept coming haltingly forth: a pet pink-toe tarantula filched from one student and placed in the backpack of a known arachnophobe, a blow-up doll dressed up and staged to fake a suicide hanging in another student’s private room. Small, secret things that were a bit cruel. She saw immediately that his athletic frame, honey-tinted skin, and admittedly gorgeous tousle of ash-blond curls concealed an unlovely social awkwardness and a broken mind.

Because it was expected of her, she asked a leading question. Can you describe your feelings as you watched her reaction?

His face moved through a number of expressions, most of which bore an edge of defiance. Finally he spoke, a breathy, excited whisper. Strong. Glad. I wanted to laugh.

She suspected he liked to play with fear the same way some people liked to play with fire -- getting a thrill from creating it, and a pleasure almost sexual from watching its effect on his victims. It was a twist of the psyche she’d seen before; sick, but a person like that had potential.

A long ten years ago, she’d set out to conduct a study going beyond the ethics line set by academia, her own ethics hinging on the value of understanding human behavior. All had gone swimmingly until a subject -- a volunteer -- wanted out at a critical stage. Brechtje had crafted a solution -- moving the subject to a secret location -- but at that juncture a student had a case of cold feet, and reported his qualms to the Department Head. Brechtje had survived the ethics committee’s attack on her career by lying -- playing a game of she said, he said, with the odds stacked in her favor. She did, after all, have tenure and a great deal more power, both personal and professional.

She’d let her research go, and in any case salvaged out of it a reputation as a leading authority on the subject of human fear. But that didn’t quite satisfy. She hadn’t stopped wanting to finish the knowledge she’d set out to find, the status she had intended to achieve, and more than anything else, the intensity of her days and nights when she’d been running the research. She’d never felt more alive.

She began to formulate a new model for her research. A plan to use Hector. Send him out to do what he loved to do, cause fear and watch it happen, and then study and tabulate the results. The more she thought about it, the more the idea thrilled her. At long last, a way forward for her project. She’d thumb her nose at the University, not even give them the chance to sanction her research. When it was done and she published, they’d clutch at her coattails.

She took a long drink of tea, tamping down her excitement. Careful guidance would be necessary. Perhaps… hypnosis.

Yes. That will do.

Chapter One

Brian Harrison had been living in London, England for the last five years, but in all that time he hadn’t forgotten Jackie Vasquez. Now, back in the Pacific Northwest for a winter holiday, he did his best to let Seattle’s wind-driven rain and I-5 traffic banish the mental image of the red-haired, gray-eyed, startlingly beautiful young man. He’d made it a point to not think about him in months. The last time he’d let himself wonder about where life had taken Jackie was when Google calendar prompted him to send a birthday card. If perhaps he’d dreamed about him since then, he wasn’t going to admit it. But now…

Go away, Jackie, he muttered to his persistent imagination, glancing at the ash gray water of Portage Bay as he crossed the Ship Canal Bridge southbound. The Edmonds Ferry wasn’t operating due to some mishap, and that was even more unfortunate than usual on December 26th; it would be a long wait at the Seattle dock for a place on a boat.

He sighed, exasperated. I might as well be back in London. The weather was the same -- a soggy wind carrying the kind of cold that crept deep into the bone marrow. And the traffic was just as bad too. All the lanes on the freeway were crowded and crawling. If this kept up, he wouldn’t get where he was going in time for dinner, much less the breakfast feast he’d been promised.

The biggest difference between this and being stuck in London traffic in a Metropolitan Police vehicle on his way to a crime scene? On this drive he wanted to get where he was going. This visit with Luki Vasquez and his husband, Sonny James, was a surprise addition to his trip’s itinerary. But the surprise was a happy one, and now Brian was itching to get there and have some time to spend with the couple before he had to head to SeaTac to catch his flight home.

He sighed again as he braked to avoid getting clipped by a semi changing lanes for no apparent reason. Then… Brainstorm! Take the scenic route.

If he drove north up the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas, he could take in the old-growth forests and cove beaches and rest his brain. Of course he had to get there first, which meant driving south to Tacoma and across the Hood Canal Bridge, but once he cleared Seattle, the traffic should at least be moving faster. So despite the longer distance, he’d probably get there earlier.

He shook his head in dismay as another realization, unrelated to traffic and time schedules, hit him hard. You idiot, Brian. That’s why you all of a sudden can’t get Jackie out of your head – because of Luki! The clues were obvious, and he couldn’t figure out what had kept him from following them sooner. He smiled as he scolded himself further. And you hope to call yourself a detective.

Luki Vasquez was Brian’s former boss at Vasquez Security as well as a friend and mentor, but Brian hadn’t seen him since shortly after he’d worked with Luki to find Jackie and rescue him. Thinking about that, about pulling Jackie out of -- essentially -- a private prison compound while a fire raged and gunshots blazed…

Now there’s a memory lane I don’t really want to walk down. Maybe seeing Luki now isn’t such a good idea after all.

Scratch that. I have a single day left on this continent before I go back to England. I want to spend it with real friends.

The smile that painted itself on Brian’s face underscored how much he truly looked forward to seeing Luki -- and Sonny James too. Not so many years ago, Luki had been his hero in so many ways. A teacher, an example showing him how to be the kind of man that stood between innocence and ill intent. Brian still looked up to him -- knew he always would. And Sonny, well… Sonny had strength of a whole different type, and he knew a bit about the world. Knew how to love, for sure. The two of them together, Luki and Sonny, formed the only marital unit Brian had ever envied.

The visit wasn’t part of his plans for his trip to the States. He’d done his family’s big Christmas Eve tradition in Portland, then come north for Christmas Day and a night with Kim -- his partner and trainer from his days at Vasquez Security -- and her family. Ramona, the