Arresting Love

By Shawn Lane

Aspiring chef Taylor Gershwin needs a new place to live, and someone in his friend’s apartment building is advertising for a roommate.

It sounds perfect. He’d be close to his best friend and it isn’t too far from his job as a short order cook and the chef school he attends. Sure, the guy he’d be roommates with, Mike Hanovan, is something of a Neanderthal. A big brawny guy with a snake tattoo who also happens to be a cop ... and hot as hell. And Taylor doesn’t exactly want to tell him he’s bipolar. Lots of guys he knows don’t understand mental illness.

But maybe this time, Mike will accept Taylor for who he is, stuffed sea creatures and all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Aug 12, 2023
• ISBN: 9781685505219

Shawn Lane

Shawn Lane is a multi-published author of gay romance. She lives and works in Southern California. She has been published by Loose Id, Amber Quill Press, Evernight Publishing, MLR Press, JMS Books, and Ellora’s Cave. For more information, visit smlgr8.blogspot.com.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Taylor Gershwin dropped the heavy box at his feet, mopped the sweat from his brow with a tissue, and declared, That’s the last of it.

Mike Hanovan took a slow sip of his coffee and looked up from his newspaper. His new roommate had been flouncing in and out of the first floor apartment for hours. The first load of stuff had been armfuls of brightly colored clothes. Then came box after box. Mike had no clue what was in any of them. He’d helped Taylor bring in most of the clothes, but then had gotten a phone call from work. By the time he was through with the call, Taylor had said he had only one or two boxes left.

Taylor’s furniture, consisting of a day bed and a chest of drawers, had arrived the day before with the help of Taylor’s friend, Archie, and Archie’s new boyfriend, Sean, the fireman from the second floor of the apartment building.

What’s in those boxes anyway?

Oh, well, mostly things I’ve collected over the years. Pots, pans, dishes. My grandmother’s dishes.

Your what now?

Grandmother’s dishes. She left it to me. I can’t get married without it.

Oh. Mike nodded. I’m sorry for your loss.

Taylor tilted his head, his blond brows furrowed. My loss?

Your grandmother, he said patiently.

Well, she’s not dead, sweetie. She wanted me to have it. Taylor mopped his brow again. I’m sweating. Gawd, I hate to sweat.

It was an odd thing, the way Taylor said God. It was extended to be an extra-long word with a sort of w sound. But then Taylor was rather different than most guys Mike had ever met.

Mike had realized he was gay pretty much when he hit puberty, but up until recently he’d been attracted to guys like him.

Rather macho, rough looking, biker dudes, tattoos. He hadn’t really been into the flamboyant types.

But when Taylor’s friend, Archie, had moved in, Mike found himself reconsidering what he found attractive. Taylor had helped Archie move in and Mike had noticed both of them right away. It had been summer and both were wearing tight little shorts and skin tight T-shirts.

For a while, Mike had flirted a bit with Archie, the dark-haired one of the pair. But Archie was more interested in Sean, and really, Mike had been more attracted to Taylor anyway. When Taylor had called him about his advertisement for needing a roommate, Mike had decided he couldn’t have gotten luckier.

Taylor was simply beautiful, really. He had sea green eyes and golden blond curls framing his head, and high cheekbones with a smattering of pink. And Kewpie doll lips. And then of course there was his fuckable bubble butt.

Mike probably shouldn’t have agreed to rent to someone he wanted to have sex with. But