Snow Globe

By Alex Winters

Leo Chambers wakes up on the first day of winter break, hungover, sweaty and half-naked on a strange couch. His college roommate Brock has left him stranded at his parents' house. Only he's not alone. Staring at him from across the living room, the sexiest man Leo's ever seen is reminding him to pull up his shorts ... or else!
 
Grant Thorne can't believe his stepbrother Brock has dumped his roommate on the living room couch, literally. While Leo insists he'll take a bus back to college, Grant takes pity on him and invites him to stick around for the holidays. After all, Grant's got nothing better to do and who knows? This Christmas, a little company might be just the thing to turn two handsome strangers into lovers ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Jul 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9781685507527

Alex Winters

Alex Winters is the pseudonym of a busy restaurant manager whose curious young staff would love nothing more than to follow him around the dining room reading his steamiest, most romantic passages aloud! When not writing romantic holiday stories of various heat levels, he enjoys long walks with his wife, scary movies and smooth jazz. Visit him at www.awintersromance.com to see what stories are brewing up next!

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Snow Globe

By Alex Winters

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2024 Alex Winters

ISBN 9781685507527

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Cover Design: Written Ink Designs | written-ink.com

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author's imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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Snow Globe

By Alex Winters

Chapter 1

Leo

Brock?

Leo Chambers heard a high-end blender churning through cubed ice and God knows what else, every turn of the sleek, silver blades piercing his pounding head like a searing hot poker.

He blinked his eyes open. A vaulted ceiling he'd never seen before blurred in and out of focus as the waves of a mid-morning hangover washed over his battered nervous system like shards of cracked, jagged glass. The whirring intensified, as did Leo's irritation--to say nothing of his confusion--as he wriggled higher atop some kind of couch.

Not his own couch, mind you. And, taking in crushed beer cans and fancy lamps, far from his own house. He inched higher on the buttery leather couch, far too luxurious to be his own, and winced. He'd slept wrong--passed out wrong, was probably more like it--and now he had a crick in his stupid neck.

A velvety chuckle oozed slightly out of range. Leo's widening eyes took in something--or someone--just out of frame: broad shoulders and a lean, narrow waist beneath a clingy grey T-shirt, black running shorts, and long, almost endless legs. The vision was so unexpected and appealing, Leo eased himself higher up and ran his gaze back up the flawless torso until a face, handsome and tan, came more clearly into focus.

Finally, shit. The voice was playful, deep, and barely above a snarl. Playful, deep, toying, teasing, but a growl all the same. I've been tiptoeing around this house all damn morning.

I'm...sorry? In comparison, Leo's voice was croaky, sore, and raspy, the appropriate tone for someone who'd consumed half his body weight in alcohol and woke up in a strange house.

He sat higher up, the dreamy vision from a sunlit kitchen inching closer into view, every new detail a heart-fluttering new adventure, and not merely because he was still probably half-soused: tan skin, tattoos aplenty running down sinewy arms, and a crooked smile brighter than the mid-morning sun that wreathed him in a silvery halo.

You should be, the vision croaked, hoisting a breakfast smoothie so green and chunky and odious, Leo's stomach did a cautious doubletake. Keeping me up half the night with that stupid party of yours.

Party? Leo vaguely recalled his college roommate's friends beginning to show up, one after the other, shortly after they'd arrived in Sunset Shores, South Carolina for their much-needed winter break from Southeast State. That...was Brock's idea.

The vision leaning against the kitchen counter rolled his eyes, body language shifting noticeably. Naturally, he said, no longer sounding quite as chipper. Either way, he wasn't the one snoring on the couch all night.

I...I don't snore.

Sure, kid. The Vision came closer into view, slurping the noxious green smoothie as he walked with long, pantherlike steps. He nodded at the beer cans strewn all around the coffee table and beyond, littering every available surface in the room. Bet you think you don't drink, either, huh?

Leo shook his head gently, if not quite gently enough. The headache throbbed, temporarily blinding him as he insisted, Not usually, no.

Smoothie Guy snorted and said, "Fine, so you don't snore, even though you obviously do, you don't drink, even though you clearly did, and I guess you don't sleep in the buff either, huh kid?"

Leo glanced down, only to find himself utterly, completely in the altogether. Well, save for the pair of boxer shorts he'd worn for the spontaneous road trip the day before, currently dangling precariously off one ankle.

No, Jesus, of course I don't! Leo grunted out in protest, leaning over to yank the boxers over the other leg and, with mind shattering effort and stomach-churning suddenness, dragging them just far enough up his scrawny legs to cover his pounding, throbbing, raging wake-up boner.

Smoothie Guy stood at the foot of the couch by now, snickering playfully as he watched Leo's every move with curious, vaguely-interested eyes. He drained his smoothie glass, already half empty, with a lurid wink.

Sure, kid, right. Anyway, listen, despite you keeping me up half the night with your freshman antics, then the rest of the night with your snoring, I'm late for my morning run, so... He waved the