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His Horizon by Con Riley is celebrating it's second publiversary today. so I asked for an excerpt to share with all of you... and we got a good one! Set in a Cornish fishing village, His Horizon is a slow burn, swoony romance telling Jude's story of searching for, and failing to find, his lost parents only to return home to find an ex-rival chef has taken over his pub kitchen.
Let's start with the blurb and cover:
Can a second chance at love heal old wounds in a crowded Cornish kitchen?
Jude’s drowning in guilt when he can’t save his family business single-handed. The last person he expects to throw a lifeline is Rob, a rival chef who once beat him to first place in a cooking contest.
Almost a year later, two chefs working so closely together won’t be easy. Not when Rob is everything Jude isn’t—popular, extroverted, and almost one-time hook-up. What’s worse is that Rob wears his heart on his sleeve while Jude’s still in the closet.
Jude’s dilemma doesn’t end there. Rob’s rescue package comes with conditions that mean sharing everything from the profits to Jude’s sleeping quarters. Falling for Rob again will either be a disaster, or signal a much brighter future, but only if Jude can meet Rob’s final condition and love him in the open.
♥ Featuring opposites who attract, ex-rivals to lovers, and an out-for-you storyline dripping with hurt-comfort feelings, His Horizon is the first in a now complete shared-world series of standalone, super-romantic MM romance stories. ♥
Excerpt:
Rob looked Jude’s way, his brow furrowed before he threw a verbal lifeline. “Are you even listening to me, fish face?”
“No. I mean yes.” Rob’s question moored him to the present. “Of course I am… what did you say?”
“God, you’re such an airhead. I have no idea what I see in you.” Rob slipped an arm around his waist, huffing. “Apart from your face, of course. And your body.” There was only one word for his next action; he snuggled into Jude’s side as they strolled down a street lined with shops selling vacation souvenirs and postcards. “Not gonna lie, I’m finding that cock of yours quite compelling as well, which reminds me….” He darted into a mini-supermarket, out of sight until he stood from where he’d bent down to select a couple of containers. His shout to Jude in the doorway was hardly private. “Do you prefer warming lube or normal?”
Every head in the store turned Rob’s way before pivoting to see who he spoke to.
“Jesus.”
“What did you say?” Rob shouted before answering his own question. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll get both.”
That was one way to jump the queue, Jude supposed after retreating, spying through the window as customers with full shopping baskets let Rob cut in line with his two items.
A Cheshire cat’s smile would have been smaller than the one Rob wore as he rejoined him. “There. That’s tonight’s entertainment sorted.”
“For them?” Thank God they didn’t live here.
“No, for us.” Rob winked and twirled the bag he carried. “In fact, I’m tempted to skip dinner to get the party started early, only I think you’ll need to keep your strength up. Let’s eat,” he said as if he hadn’t just embarrassed Jude half to death in public. Rob started whistling a sea shanty before they’d gone far, bursting into song about pirates. Heads turned again, all eyes drawn to Rob like iron filings to a magnet.
This was what it would be like, Jude guessed, if he stopped searching for his parents.
If he spent every day with Rob instead, he’d have twelve months a year of this brand of bullshit; three-hundred and sixty-five days of him living life at full volume, and fuck who might be looking; millions upon millions of moments where Jude couldn’t wallow in fear of guilt by association.
There would be no-one left to judge him.
He stopped stock-still in the middle of a bustling street, Rob walking ahead, still swinging his bag and whistling. Jude couldn’t make himself follow, mired so very deeply between a rock and a hard place.
He wanted both options.
He wanted both so much—to be with Rob, like this, just like this, out and oh-so-happy. And he wanted his parents, alive and safe at home, however unlikely.
“Hey.” Rob backtracked, standing so close that Jude could see fine laugh lines that age would surely deepen. “What do you want, Jude?”
He wanted to see that happen, Jude knew. Wanted to watch those laugh lines deepen, to be around to have Rob annoy and embarrass him where everyone could see it. Wanted to take him back to that hotel suite and hold him, just hold him, for as long as Rob would let him. He opened his mouth to say so, but a gruff, “You know that I’ll still have to leave at the end of the summer, don’t you?” came out instead.
“I meant what did you want to eat,” Rob said quietly as tourists streamed around them. “But yes, I do know.” He nodded, those fine lines not deepening any further. “Of course, I do.” It shouldn’t be possible for eyes to soften, but Jude watched it happen, Rob’s gaze turning limpid—liquid in a way even a strong swimmer like him could drown in. “I’ve always known that about you.”
“I-I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for, next time.”
“For as long as it takes you to get an answer you can live with.”
His Horizon is currently available in e-book and audiobook and can be read as part of your Kindle Unlimited Subscription
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