Hi peeps, we have R.J. Scott stopping by with her new release Kyle, we have a short guest post from R.J., a great excerpt, a brilliant giveaway and my review, so check out the post and enjoy! <3 ~Pixie~
Kyle
R.J. Scott
Two men destroyed by the past learn to live—and love—again.
Kyle Braden has nowhere else to go. With no money, no prospects, and no drive to be something else, he turns to the only man who promises him help. Jack Campbell-Hayes wants to show Kyle that he can be more than he ever thought.
Kyle gets to realize just how far he’s come from being the scarred man who shut everyone out, when the first person through the doors of Legacy Ranch carries a gun and threatens to kill anyone who comes near him. Kyle wants to be the man that someone turns to for help and it scares him.
Thrown out of his house and with three years on the streets marking every inch of his body, Jason Smith is scared. His life is an evil mess of hate and despair, and even the offer of a fresh start and a clean bed isn’t enough for him to hand over his gun. He’s cheated death twice, and he’s not letting there be a third time—he might not be so lucky.
For these broken men, Legacy Ranch offers more than a place to live and work.
It offers hope.
A new story set in the world of Jack and Riley Campbell-Hayes and the Double D Ranch, Texas.
R.J. Scott!
Incorporating Jack and Riley into ‘Kyle’.
When I first announced I would be writing a trilogy of books about Kyle, Gabriel and Daniel, I had a lot of responses that mostly went, *Yay, we get to see Jack and Riley again*. Now while this was very heartening it also meant that instead of being a true standalone book, Kyle had to have special appearances from the boys in my Texas books. That would have been really difficult except for one thing.
Well two actually.
Jack created the Legacy Ranch idea and is funding it and putting his time into it. And, Riley reminds Kyle of Paul. A man who hurt him, abused him, and left him scarred and scared.
So, I didn’t even need to think about how to have Riley and Jack appearing. They, along with cameos from Hayley, Robbie and Liam, and more pointedly Darren, means that this book truly can be linked to the Texas series even though it can also be read as a standalone.
Kyle is available now at Amazon and all other third parties
Excerpt
Jason leaned on the sink as the water drained away. One of his tricks had been just a little too handsy last night and decided mid-blowjob that he wanted to add in breath play. Fucker. A ring of bruises marked Jason’s neck. He stared at them, even poked at them, pressing hard until it hurt. When he released the pressure, they disappeared in a bloom of scarlet, then reappeared as his skin settled. At least if he took a couple of days off then the bruises would fade a bit; he definitely wasn’t offering dying while sucking cock as an option.
He straightened, then used the spray on his pits and in a general sweep over his body before pushing the can into his backpack.
He scrambled out of the restroom, dropped to a crouch, rose, and walked across the park to the bank. Way too early for it to open, but he had other things he needed to do.
At all times, Jason was aware of the noises and people around him. A few early commuters were around, but most everyone else were creatures of the night like him. One coffee and a bagel later, he took up residence on the bench outside the bank and waited. The minute it opened, he went into the front of the queue. He carefully completed a blank deposit slip in his neatest handwriting and passed it over.
The cashier smiled at him, an honest-to-goodness smile. She counted out the money. A pause followed as she was likely checking it wasn’t fake. Then she ticked it off on the slip, slid the whole lot in a drawer, and printed out the receipt.
“Could I have an account statement, please?” Jason asked politely. He owed himself the Christmas gift of seeing how much he’d saved. He’d never asked for one before but it seemed almost like a gift to himself to count the money he’d saved.
“Do you have ID?” she asked.
He didn’t. Of course, he didn’t. Not real ID, not one for Jason Smith. The bank account was a leftover from his time at the group home, the only thing he had that was anything official, anyway.
“Not with me, but it’s okay,” he said. “I’ll check outside at the ATM.”
She glanced left at the security guard who hovered tactfully just out of reach. It seemed the bank didn’t mind taking the money from someone who looked like him, someone with five hundred in cash, but they damn well-needed security close while they did it.
Jason didn’t take it personally.
She smiled, tightly this time. “Have a nice Christmas, sir.”
“Thank you,” Jason murmured and left the counter.
He stopped just inside the exit door at the cash machine, aware of the security guy following him at a discreet distance, and pushed in his card and entered his PIN. The card was only a month away from needing to be renewed. It was the last thing he had from his home, from that time when he had an address. At some point in the next week, probably by New Year’s, he needed to take out all his money with his card and get the hell out of Dodge.
Balance showed as a couple of hundred dollars, with the available balance just the extra five hundred dollars.
“What?” He ejected the card and pushed it back in again. Maybe something was wrong? The same balance showed again, so he clicked on the statement option.
There, in black and white, the money had gone on a daily basis: fifty here, thirty there, some days a hundred. In the last two months, nearly every cent had been taken.
And there was only one person who knew he had money saved, and who had stood next to him at the ATM on more than a few occasions. Evo. He recalled Evo standing by his bag this morning looking for deodorant—or was he putting the card back? How long had he been doing this?
Jason’s money was all gone.
And there was no point in talking to the bank; it wasn’t an administrative error.
The world fell around him. No wonder Evo had spent the last few months dancing around and living like he had it all. He’d taken Jason’s money and injected it into his arms, or inhaled it, or given it to clothes stores.
It had to be him. And Jason had never noticed, even though he checked his card was there every day… more than once a day.
He opened the small pocket inside his backpack where he kept the card—and pulled out a loyalty card from Starbucks, the same weight and shape as his bank card. Was that what he’d been feeling? Why hadn’t he unzipped the whole thing? Why hadn’t he checked visually? With a clenched fist, he punched the wall next to the cash machine and cursed loudly.
When he turned around, he walked into an unmoving wall of blue.
“Is there a problem, sir?” The guard looked down at him with no expression on his face. The man had a wide body, a thick neck, and a gun on his hip.
Jason somehow managed to look the huge, intimidating mountain of a man in the face. “No. I’m just leaving.”
The guard nodded, and Jason slipped past, exiting into the coolness of a Dallas December.
In a daze, he walked out with as much control as he could manage, and he held his head high. He went back to the park and into the now-open bathroom where, only a few hours earlier, he had stood with a feeling that he was close to his dream of getting a bus ride away from there and starting new somewhere, somehow.
Now he was back to square one.
He locked himself in the last cubicle and rested his head back against the wood-and-plastic partition. God knows what was on those walls, the unseen deposits alongside the graffiti.
Even though Evo had taken every single cent he had, Jason didn’t cry. Evo wasn’t to blame; he was a kid who didn’t know better, and Jason had been lax. He only had himself to blame.
So.
He moved on. Found the hostel, decorated with donated tinsel and garish with bright lighting, and he got himself one of the last rooms.
His cell vibrated as he sat on the edge of the narrow bed, clutching his bag, but he ignored it. He didn’t want to talk to the only person who had the number; Evo was dead to him.
Maybe an hour after, he decided to listen to the voice mail—it could be Evo apologizing. He should at least listen.
Damn kid was going to be the end of him one day.
The message was garbled; only two words made sense: “Help me.”
Fear had Jason running from the hostel to Jeb’s place, forcing his way into Jeb’s apartment, desperately looking for Evo, pushing at the body that leaned against the bathroom door, knowing it would be his friend.
And hell, he didn’t cry when he cradled Evo in his arms; when the boy who had stolen his money and danced in the bathroom bled out around him. Whoever hired out Jeb and his boys that night had done their best to destroy all the evidence. They’d left Jeb for dead, used Evo, and cut him. The fatal wound was a slice across his throat that hadn’t been deep enough to kill him outright.
Jason didn’t remember calling 911, but he must have done so, because suddenly the cops arrived. He still couldn’t make himself cry even when he was arrested, covered in Evo’s blood.
There was no point in crying. Who would he be crying for? Evo? He was in a much better place.
And for himself? What did it matter? No one cared if he cried.
No one.
About R.J.
RJ Scott is the bestselling gay romance author of over ninety MM romance books. She writes emotional stories of complicated characters, cowboys, millionaire, princes, and the men who get mixed up in their lives. RJ is known for writing books that always end with a happy ever after. She lives just outside London and spends every waking minute she isn’t with family either reading or writing.
RJ also writes MF romance under the name Rozenn Scott.
The last time she had a week’s break from writing she didn’t like it one little bit, and she has yet to meet a bottle of wine she couldn’t defeat.
mailto:rj@rjscott.co.uk | Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Librarything
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Review
Title: Kyle
Series: Legacy 01
Author: R.J. Scott
Genre: Contemporary, Western, Cowboys
Length: Novella (112pgs)
ISBN: 9781785640520
Publisher: Love Lane Books (31st August 2016)
Heat Level: Low
Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥♥ 4 ½ Hearts
Reviewer: Pixie
Blurb: Two men destroyed by the past learn to live—and love—again.
Kyle Braden has nowhere else to go. With no money, no prospects, and no drive to be something else, he turns to the only man who promises him help. Jack Campbell-Hayes wants to show Kyle that he can be more than he ever thought.
Kyle gets to realize just how far he’s come from being the scarred man who shut everyone out, when the first person through the doors of Legacy Ranch carries a gun and threatens to kill anyone who comes near him. Kyle wants to be the man that someone turns to for help and it scares him.
Thrown out of his house and with three years on the streets marking every inch of his body, Jason Smith is scared. His life is an evil mess of hate and despair, and even the offer of a fresh start and a clean bed isn’t enough for him to hand over his gun. He’s cheated death twice, and he’s not letting there be a third time—he might not be so lucky.
For these broken men, Legacy Ranch offers more than a place to live and work.
It offers hope.
A new story set in the world of Jack and Riley Campbell-Hayes and the Double D Ranch, Texas.
Purchase Link: https://www.lovelanebooks.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=116
Review: After failing for years to stay on his own two feet Kyle accepts the offer of help that Jack Campbell-Hayes offers, even though Kyle feels safe-ish with Jack he can’t overcome the fear that strikes him whenever Riley or Darren are about. But when the first man arrives at Legacy Ranch Kyle begins to realize he isn’t as damaged as he once thought.
Jason has had a hard life on the streets and he’s learned that the only person he can count on is himself, when he’s offered a place at Legacy Ranch he can’t help but be sceptical about just what the owners really want with a bunch of damaged young adults. Meeting Kyle has his interest being piqued, and getting past Kyle’s jagged shell is near impossible but Jason wants to know what makes the man tick.
This is a fantastic story that while it incorporates some of the characters from the Texas series it doesn’t allow them to overpower Kyle and Jason’s story.
While we remember the damaged young man Kyle from Texas Fall Jason is a brand new character who has also suffered but in a different way to Kyle, Jason has lived on the streets for years, he’s strived for a better life by saving as much money as possible but that crumbles around his ears when one of his few friends takes all his money. Jason finds himself in trouble again and he ends up at Legacy Ranch and it’s not something he ever saw himself doing.
Kyle and Jason are different people, Kyle loves horses and the quite of the ranch while Jason is wary of horses and the ranch… well it’s in the middle of nowhere. Kyle and Jason find a connection of sorts which eventually leads to them beginning a relationship; don’t be expecting hot sex though because these two young men have a lot to overcome.
This is a fantastically written story where two damaged men discover love, comfort and the beginning of recovery. Our two MC’s have been hurt and that hurt is so powerful and leaps off the pages that you just want to wrap them both up and protect them from the world. We suffer with them as they try to piece their lives back together, as they try to overcome their fears and as they fight their nightmares and PTSD. This story makes your heart bleed for Kyle and Jason, for all they’ve suffered and all they still have to face as they fight to make sense of their future… but we cheer as they discover each other and we know that whatever they now face they have each other.
I recommend this to those who adore watching damaged men find love, who love characters who have a strength of will to rebuild their lives, who adore love stories where the MC’s struggle to recognize true love and stories where they connect with the characters and suffer with them… oh and very happy endings.
