Dare You To
Gone For You
Tied to You
Crossroads Series:
Crossroads
Shifting Gears
Test Drive
Jumpstart
Broken Pieces Series:
Broken Pieces
Full Circle
Losing Control
Blackcreek Series:
Collide
Stay
Pretend
Return to Blackcreek
Fever Fall series with Devon McCormack:
Fired Up
#Burn
Whiskey Throttle
#Royal
Game On
Boyfriend 101
Weight of the World & Up for the Challenge with Devon McCormack
Metropolis Series: With Devon McCormack
Faking It
Working It
Owning It
Free Fall Series with Christina Lee (writing as Nyrae Dawn)
Touch the Sky
Chase the Sun
Paint the Stars
Standalones with Christina Lee
Living Out Loud:
(A Paint the Stars and A Hundred Thousand Words spinoff)
Of Sunlight and Stardust
Science & Jockstraps
Forbidden Love series with Christina Lee
Ever After: A Gay Fairy Tale
Forever Moore: A Gay Fairy Tale
Boys in Makeup series
Pretty Perfect
Pretty Sweet
AS NYRAE DAWN:
A Hundred Thousand Words
Turn the World Upside Down
The History of Us
You Might Also Like Pretty Perfect
Book #1 in the Boys in Makeup Series
Jesse
After spending the first part of my life trapped in a small town where it wasn’t okay to be a makeup-wearing boy who liked boys, I swore I’d leave and never be anything but loud, proud, and unapologetically me. I’ve kept that promise. I’m following my dreams, have an apartment with my bestie, and get to dance my nights away at one of the hottest gay bars in Portland.
The only downfall is Dane, the sexy bartender with a perma-scowl always aimed my way. The tension between us is so strong that even the clubgoers notice, and they eat that stuff up. Our boss makes us dance on the bar together every Friday night. I might shake my booty a little more with Dane just because I love getting under his skin. It’s not my fault he doesn’t know how to have any fun…but I kind of want to teach him.
Dane
I got burned bad by my last boyfriend. Thankfully, my sister, Bree, and my niece, Hailey, make my days a whole lot brighter. I’m getting back on my feet, including a decent job as a bartender. But working in a gay club makes it harder to keep to myself. No way do I want to get reeled in by another charming, pretty face and get hurt again, and definitely not by someone like Jesse, whose audacity frustrates me to no end.
So why do I want to shove him against the wall and screw that boldness right out of him?
Only…sometimes he’s pretty sweet, especially with Hailey. As we go from enemies to angry hookups to friends, our feelings are changing and moving into uncharted territory. This can’t go anywhere. Jesse and I are like oil and water; we just don’t mix…right?
An Excerpt from Living Out Loud
A Paint the Stars and A Hundred Thousand Words Spinoff
Chapter One
Ben
The cursor blinks as I consider whether to leave well enough alone. My palms sweat as I begin typing the message, my fingers fumbling on the keys:
Hey, Xavier! This is Ben Emerson. It’s been a long time.
A long time since we were fourteen and shared a first kiss. A long time since I freaked, pushed you away, and barely spoke to you after that.
Your family moved the following year, and I never saw you again. Surprised I didn’t search for you online sooner. But life’s been rough, to say the least. And I’ve been scared for too damn long. And now I’m finally on my own.…Trying to find my way in this vibrant city. Guess it feels nice to reach out to an old friend. Don’t have too many of those anymore. Someone familiar in an overwhelming situation.
I hit the back button and delete the short message. Exit out of Facebook and walk to the fridge to pull out a cold soda, glad my roommate isn’t around to see me stress out like this over a damn social media message.
But lots of shit is new to me lately. Moving to San Fran, for example, and finally leaving my conservative family behind. I lift my ball cap and push my sweaty hair away from my eyes before readjusting it onto my head.
I have a little collection of hats now that I work outdoors for a landscaping business called Common Grounds. An assortment of thin cotton drawstring shorts and T-shirts too—the kind with the armholes cut out for extra air conditioning. They’re the most comfortable when laying down fertilizer and spreading mulch in front of the quaint Victorian homes on Steiner Street, also known as Postcard Row or the Painted Ladies, depending on who you’re speaking to in this town.
I left my Sunday best—those suffocating dress shirts, slacks, and ties—behind and became someone new. Someone who feels more like me and that’s incredibly freeing. Like I’m finally breaking away from my minister father and his flock of followers. Standing in the front pew of the makeshift tent that eventually became a brick-and-mortar church for an entire childhood while he saved people with little more than bible verses and a fuckton of arrogance…as the congregation fell to their knees in prayer and thanked the almighty stars.
My mother was no different; she’d put the Tammy Faye Bakkers of the world to shame with her floral dresses and strings of pearls as she happily waved to the bible camp bus as it sped away with me and a dozen other kids inside it, only to find out later that she hoped I’d return more devout than ever. As if I ever had a choice back then.
Helping Dad keep the church books after graduation felt just as wrong—like I was only playing a role. Going through the motions, while my feelings were at war inside me. Putting my hands in the dirt felt much better and was familiar to me—God’s green earth and all of that.
I glance at the clock and wonder what’s taking Drew so long with our takeout order from the corner pizza place. Sitting back down on the stool, I reach for my laptop. I reopen Facebook, type in Xavier’s name, and scroll through his photos again like some stalker.
First time I saw him as an adult, I nearly swallowed my tongue. Because hot damn, he’s a sexy man. I’ve never thought that about somebody with a shit-ton of piercings and tattoos, but on him they look cool. His hair is still dark and wavy, though he wears it longer now. A mix of confidence and dreaminess still exudes from his eyes. Except now they’re lined with black kohl, which makes the whiskey-brown color stand out. His skin is still a shade or two darker than mine, which he likely got from his father who is half Mexican.
There’s no status listed beneath his photo, so it’s hard to tell whether he’s taken or single, not that it matters. But he’s definitely openly gay if the rainbow flags and equality memes on his posts are any indication.