Hello everyone! Today I am pleased to welcome author Draven St. James to Joyfully Jay. Draven is here to chat more about the new release, Grey’s Hidden Fire, coming July 9th from Loose Id. Draven has also brought a copy to give away to one lucky winner, along with a great, sexy excerpt. So please join me in giving Draven a big welcome!
First, thanks to Joyfully Jay for hosting me today and allowing me to share a little bit of what went through my mind when I was working on this particular tale.
By the time the reader reaches “the end” of Grey’s Hidden Fire what do I want them to come away with, other than an increased body temperature? Simply put that love, lust and wicked musing have no boundaries. Every single delicious thought, sensual touch, complex emotion and maze of ideas thrives in a world with no restraints. The press, stroke and rub of each letter, space and word would not be the same were they not constructed from an infinite tableau. The dance of these words is meant to seduce and ignite the imagination of the reader. That is what I sought to do when telling Grey and Mica’s story.
I wanted to show what was beneath the bronzed sculpted muscles of the firefighters and lay bare the raw passion of the men who burned within. Creating two strong, sensual men was hell-a fun and they came to life beneath layers of shared moments and conquered obstacles. The fight for dominance and carnal submission flowed out of each scene and brought new dimension to the story.
I want the reader to see and understand the difficulty that came when Grey had to step outside of all he knows and open himself up to the possibility of love with the addition of bits and pieces *wink-wink* on the sexual horizon. Ultimately the goal is to see that while their love had some sacrifices, in the end what they received was more than worth it. Found below are a blurb and an excerpt. Please read on and breathe life into their story.
Blurb
Grey’s entire life is wrapped around his job as a firefighter. It is all he has ever wanted. That is until his new coworker Mica Cruz saunters through the door with his smoldering dark looks and dimpled grin. Suddenly he finds himself wanting to get to know what Mica looks like out of his gear and between the sheets.
Mica has one rule…keep his work life and his personal life separate. It was easy enough to follow until he meets Grey and finds that his rule can’t stand up to the fire that Grey ignites. There’s one big thing standing in the way of all of his lust filled musings. Grey is straight.
In a profession where being gay is often kept quiet Grey must come to terms with his growing attraction to Mica. How much is he willing to sacrifice? Can they come together before someone’s hatred threatens to destroy them both?
Excerpt
Mica walked into the dark room that contained two bunk beds. Grey’s huddled form made a silhouette against the darkness on one of the lower bunks, and Mica stretched out on the other. Grey’s shifting sent the sounds of a creaky mattress across the small space.
“Are you gay?” Grey’s words shattered the silence with their quiet intensity.
Mica felt like all the air had been sucked from the room. No one had ever out-and-out asked him if he was gay. He was fairly certain it was because he didn’t look like the stereotypical gay man. He also didn’t act like what his coworkers had always described as a gay man. He wasn’t effeminate. They were never cruel, but there was a level of mocking when they spoke about the topic. The reaction to the answer to this one question could screw his whole world up, but he didn’t feel like he could lie to Grey.
“Yes,” he responded in a low voice. He held his breath and waited for some kind of verbal or physical explosive response. There was nothing, just the soft sound of Grey’s breath.
“Was I any good?” Grey asked.
Mica sat up and stared into the darkness, his mouth hanging open. “What?” he asked in a loud whisper.
“In your fantasy, I must have been pretty good, right?” There was humor in the other man’s voice. Humor, but not ridicule.
“Yeah, you were pretty good,” Mica conceded. He lay back on his bed and laughed softly. “You were really good.”
“Is that what you are? Dominant?”
“What do you mean?”
“I…” Grey hesitated. “Are you a top?”
Mica snickered and smiled broadly at Grey for having the courage to ask that kind of question. “Yes and no.”
Grey chuckled. “How does that work?”
“I wouldn’t mind bottoming for the right guy,” Mica confessed. He had never said that to anyone. He had actually never bottomed, but if given a chance with Grey…he’d be tempted.
“Oh…” Grey murmured.
Mica glared hard into the darkness. He wished he could look into Grey’s eyes, see what was in Grey’s mind. It was damn difficult to judge what a man was thinking simply by the tone of his voice. Grey didn’t seem to have much of a problem with Mica’s being gay. If anything, he sounded intrigued.
“I take it you’re straight?” Mica asked.
The weight of the silence was heavy. Had Grey gone to sleep that quickly? Mica wanted to get up and turn on the light, but he didn’t think Grey would appreciate it. It would feel too much like a spotlight during an interrogation.
“Yes,” Grey admitted. Although the brief moment of hesitation was curious.
“Thank you, then, for not freaking out about earlier,” Mica said into the void. His face heated at the words. He wanted to add to that, but he didn’t know what to say.
Apologizing for using someone to get off was a new thing to him. In his early days of coming out he’d had his one-night stands with no apology. Somehow this entire situation held a higher level of intimacy. Maybe it was the sharing of secret thoughts in the dark.
Grey shuffled. “Mica?”
“Yeah?”
“What was I doing?”
Mica’s eyes widened. He couldn’t have heard that right, or he’d processed it incorrectly. “Huh?”
“I mean, what was your… What was the whole fantasy?”
Mica had to sit up to hear the whispered words. “In the shower?”
“Yeah.” Grey sighed. “I mean, I know I was…I mean…in the end…sucking…”
Mica could practically feel the heat of the other man blushing across the room.
“Are you seriously asking for the setting of my jack-off session?” Mica chuckled.
“Well, when you say it like that…” Grey’s voice filled with discomfort. “I guess it was an odd question. Never mind.”
Grey sounded mortified. Mica didn’t know what drove Grey to ask the question, but Mica wanted to share the fantasy with him. After all, Grey had asked. No one could fault him for handing over information that had been requested.
Mica lay back and closed his eyes. “You came into the locker room as I was taking off my T-shirt. You wanted to know if I needed any help cleaning up, or if I had any pain from the fire.”
He paused to see if Grey would stop him. If Grey had changed his mind about wanting to know Mica’s hot fantasy. A fantasy where Grey was the star. He heard nothing but Grey’s breathing. “Are you with me?”
“Yes.”
If Mica hadn’t been listening so closely, he wouldn’t have heard the response.
“Okay, so I told you my shoulder was really hurting from when I pushed against the door frame to make it outside. You came up behind me and ran your fingers over my shoulders, massaging. I could detect the faintest touch on my neck, where it felt like you’d kissed me. My cock twitched, and I barely managed to keep from groaning. You felt my body tense, so you pulled away and turned me around. You asked if I was okay, if I needed any other help.” His voice became hoarse with arousal.
“That’s when you looked down and saw my cock, rock hard against my briefs. You reached down to lightly stroke it through the fabric and asked if I required help taking care of any other special needs.”
Grey chuckled softly and said, “Sounds like a line from a porn video.”
“Well, it is a fantasy. Give me a break.” Mica laughed. “Anyway, of course I was shocked by your offer, but so fucking hard because your hand was stroking my dick that I nodded. You pushed my briefs down and wrapped your fingers around my cock. Your hand felt amazing. It was so warm and rough. I rocked my hips into it.” His cock leaked. The arousal was ten times what it had been in the shower. Describing the fantasy for Grey was hotter than he could have imagined.
“And?” Grey asked, his voice ragged.
Mica propped himself up on his elbow. Was it his imagination, or did Grey sound turned on?
“Then you swiped your finger over the head of my dick, getting a drop of precum. You brought it to your lips and sucked it off. You told me it tasted sweet and salty and that you wanted more.”
Grey’s breath came faster from across the room. Holy shit. Just the thought of Grey getting hot from the fantasy was enough to make Mica’s cock throb.
“Then what?” Grey whispered.
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Giveaway
Draven has brought a copy of Grey’s Hidden Fire to give away to one lucky winner. Leave a comment before the contest closes on Tuesday, July 9th at 11:59 pm EST.
There are also some other prizes being given away on Draven’s website, so be sure to stop by there as well to enter.
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