It’s been out for over a week, but man I’ve been so damn busy

Light Me Up
A Deputy Joe Short
Holiday 2011 Release #40
Author    James Buchanan
ISBN#    978-1-60820-514-1 (ebook) $1.99
Release Date    December 2011
Cover Artist    Deana C. Jamroz
Ebook:    26 pages, 7000+ words

Available At:    MlrBooks (ebook)
Amazon.com (ebook)

There’s a nice review at Jessewaves. “Light Me Up is told in Kabe’s voice which is quite different from Joe’s and I was pleasantly surprised at his sense of humour and I loved his appreciation for the natural beauty around him .”

The Official Blurb: Two hot guys and one cold mountain. Just how far can mouthy, yet submissive, Kabe push his favorite deputy, Joe, before he gets what he really wants? The Christmas tree may be the goal, but it’s not the prize. Walk in Kabe’s boots for his and Joe’s first Christmas together.

Excerpt:

I got up early the Wednesday morning the week after Thanksgiving, since I’d spent the night and Joe hates it when I sleep in– like flips the mattress over on me if he thinks I’m sleeping too much, hates it. So I was standing in front of the big front window, wearing a thermal shirt and flannel lounge pants while drinking my coffee and staring out at the snow that fell during the night. First real storm hit this past weekend, but the tail end of it kept dusting powder. Thick, thick, thick.

I’d never lived anywhere where the snow came to visit me.

Joe’s truck and mine looked like bears huddled under two-inch thick white blankets. The only signs of life were the tracks of a coyote running across the drive. Everything just felt really quiet, like the wind held its breath. That muffled stillness wrapped me up in a sense of the world being kind of okay.

I kinda turned around, looked over my shoulder at Joe. He sat in the kitchen having breakfast, all decked out in his uniform: Garfield County Sheriff…yum. Uniform shirt with the two chevrons on the sleeve–and a few little threads where he’d had to take off that third stripe when he lost his rank because of fucking around with me. But black turtleneck, utility pants, and black boots just looked hot on him. Can you say winter SWAT-team woof?

Uniforms and I, well it’s not usually my fetish because it brings up two years worth of crap I’d just rather forget. Still, Joe in his, I don’t know, it just fits him. Strong, stern, and protective; the kind of guy who looked like he could comfort a little kid while still keeping his knee dug into the back of some deadbeat.

Shivering a little–fuck, even inside it’s cold–I swung my coffee cup across the expanse of the front window. “A tree would look great right here.”

That drawled out cowboy twang rolled like surf over my senses. “What do I need a tree for, Kabe?” Joe mumbled over his oatmeal as he glared at me across the room. “I ain’t got nothing to put under it.”

Holy shit, no fucking presents? I didn’t say that out loud, ’cause then he’d have gotten pissed. “Doesn’t your family exchange gifts?” Getting him pissed would just leave us both frustrated, since he had to call himself on shift in another fifteen minutes and I had to head out to hit the lifts in an hour. If you’re going to provoke your Dom, you have to do it when everyone has time to deal with the scene.

“Naw,” he snorted up a laugh, “most cain’t hardly afford to.” Then Joe shrugged like it didn’t mean anything. “They got kids and grandkids, they rightly spend the money on them.” I got one of his smiles on top of it all…like the perfect wave you weren’t expecting: big, almost embarrassed that you caught him smiling and a wilder ride than fucking hell. So goddamn sexy.

“You don’t do anything with your family?” I probably should have dropped it, but I didn’t.

“Cards.” Joe pushed back from the table and crossed his arms over that broad chest of his. “If my folks were ’round, if I weren’t working, I’d go over there on Christmas Day.”

“Go to church with them, huh?” I kinda winced as I said it, ’cause I realized as the words left my mouth that they’d remind Joe that the Mormons had kicked him to the curb. First thought in my head and all, what could I say? But, Christmas equaled the only time my Grams and I, ever, set foot in a church and most times not even then…so open mouth, insert foot.