by Zane Menzy
CRASHING HEARTS
The Complete Series
By Zane Menzy
Cover design by Angela Haddon Book Cover Design
Copyright © Zane Menzy 2017
All Rights Reserved
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental
Acknowledgements
A humungous thank you to Merel for being the most awesome beta reader in the world. You have such a gift with understanding what makes a tale come alive and how characters grow and develop. I am incredibly grateful for your help and advice.
Mike, my (somewhat) patient flatmate. You’re a legend for letting me use you as a sounding board for the crazy ideas I have running around in my head. Sticking with tradition, if this sells more than ten copies then I will shout you a dozen beer as payment for making your ears bleed.
Also, a special mention to my online pals; David, Tanya and Vanessa. This writing business can be a lonely gig but your posts, emails and kindness help me feel part of a bigger story. Cheers.
OTHER BOOKS BY ZANE
Let Me Catch You A romance under the pen name Kent Deron
Game Night COMING SOON!
If you would like to be kept up to date with future releases from Zane, then please sign up to his mailing list and be the first to find out what is on the way.
CONTENTS
DUBIOUS DESIRE
I KISSED HIM THERE
SUBMISSIVE SECRETS
THE BOOKS
DUBIOUS DESIRE
A perfect storm of circumstances
Laid back Keegan Andrews loves his family and his friends but he hates conflict. So when his Mum and best mate, Liam, plan a big event for his eighteenth birthday against his wishes, he doesn’t argue. Keegan warms to the idea when he discovers his girlfriend Tess is gifting him the best present ever. Sex! Finally, he will be able to “join the club” and leave his virgin status behind. Keegan secretly hopes this will cure him of a recently discovered side to himself. A side that wants nothing more than to see what the sexy jock Liam looks like underneath his clothes.
The night goes well ‘till his father’s best friend Damon arrives. The handsome womanizer ruins everything by robbing Keegan of his present. As if that isn’t bad enough, Keegan finds out the next day he is going on a mini-getaway with Damon—alone. Biting his tongue and confused with feelings, the resentful teen begins to wonder how he can get even without it becoming a family dispute. A perfect storm of circumstances leads Keegan to the realization that maybe there is a way to get even… and join the club at the same time.
CONTENT WARNING
Dubious Desires is the opening chapter of a steamy romantic adventure. It contains coarse language and sex scenes that deal with themes of reluctance and objectification. The characters do not always make the wisest decisions.
I KISSED HIM THERE
On the edge of adulthood, two boys struggle to define the lines between sex and friendship.
Damon Harris is young, attractive and rich. He should be content. But Damon never is. He is growing increasingly frustrated with his girlfriend Zoe who is limiting their sex life to cuddles and sweetness. He craves more, wanting to push some boundaries. Meanwhile, his cold and emotionless family are being targeted by a mystery vandal intent on disrupting their pretentious lives.
Piss-poor and known as the town weirdo, Matt Andrews is far from happy. His mum has vanished, running off with her lesbian lover. Not to mention, Matt’s only friend, the flamboyant Jason, has dropped out of school, leaving Matt an utter loner. With his mother gone, Matt is forced to get an afterschool cleaning job, working for the wealthy Harris family. It sucks, but maybe it will give him access to Lexi Prebble; Matt’s school crush and a close friend of his snooty employer’s son.
Things don’t start well when Matt is caught in an indecent position by Damon and his best mate Todd. The two boys decide to teach Matt a vindictive lesson. When Mrs Harris finds out and forces her son to apologise, Matt is presented with an opportunity to become friends with the popular Damon. But in a town riddled with secrets, friendship with Damon comes at a cost.
SUBMISSIVE SECRETS
Sex taught him how to destroy others. Love will teach him how to heal himself.
Keegan Andrews and his father's best mate should never have gone away together for his eighteenth birthday. The birthday Keegan lost his virginity after tricking the handsome womanizer into being his first-time. Still, Keegan can't deny he enjoyed it; that he got a sadistic kick out of having his way with the arrogant Damon Harris. Now that his eyes have been opened to the sexual power he has to turn dark fantasies into a reality, Keegan intends to use it.
Damon is nervous about visiting Keegan and his mother for Christmas. It will be the first time he has seen the seductive lad since that night in the cabin. A night where lines were crossed that never should have been. However, Damon is adamant he won't succumb again to the young guy's twisted desires. But after a tender moment between them, Damon crumbles and finds himself committing more submissive secrets.
Matt Andrews feels empty and lonely. It has been six months since his wife left him and moved back to London. The shy accountant worries if he will ever experience love again. His heartache is momentarily distracted when his estranged son, Keegan, turns up at his door and asks to stay. Matt relishes the opportunity to reconnect. But why has Keegan turned up unexpectedly, and why has Matt's best mate suddenly stopped visiting? Matt doesn't know it, but Keegan and Damon have unleashed a chain of events that will ignite long-forgotten feelings and send hearts crashing.
Note from the author
Please note that the Crashing Hearts series is a steamy romantic adventure, but Book One (Dubious Desire) focuses mostly on the steam. The series explores themes of objectification and control, and Book One is very descriptive of this nature. However, the series develops its romantic heart more and more with each book. I strive to write authentic characters who may not always make the wisest decisions but they do have their good points and work hard for their HEA… I promise.
DUBIOUS DESIRE
Crashing Hearts — Book One
CHAPTER ONE:
I Should Have Known Better
“I just want this to be a birthday you’ll remember,” Keegan’s mother cooed as she darted about in the kitchen making a coffee. “Eighteen is a special number, after all.” She said that every year—just with his new looming age dropped into her preening.
“Honestly, I’d be happy with just something low key.” Keegan tapped his feet and stared at his mother, willing her to believe him.
She tilted her head, narrowing her deep, brown eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, Mum. Absolutely. I don’t want you going to so much trouble just for one night.”
His mum swatted the air as if shooing away his concern before tugging at her long blonde hair. “I enjoy doing it though.”
Keegan cracked a grin. She sure did, but he really didn’t want a big song and dance about his birthday this year. “I know you do but please, I just want to have a few mates around. Tess, Liam, Tony and Skippy. Have pizza and drink some beers.”
His mother did her best to paint her disappointment with a smile. “Well, if you’re sure…”
“I’m sure.” Keegan fought back pangs of guilt for robbing her of her fun in planning him a big night.
His mother’s eyes twinkled cheekily. “You know, Keegan, it is okay to have fun and be stupid now and then.”
“What are you saying?”
&nbs
p; “Well, you’re young, you are supposed to have big nights, want rowdy parties and do stupid things.” His mum smiled at him. She picked up the kettle and poured the steamy, hot water into her mug.
“Are you saying I am boring?”
“No… I wouldn’t say that,” She grinned and turned her face away, hiding her smirk. “I’m just saying you don’t take after me.”
Keegan rolled his eyes. “Shouldn’t you be glad I like quiet nights in and not going out taking drugs? Waking up in a gutter covered in my own piss and vomit?”
“Of course, darling,” she said. “Just so you know, I never woke up in a gutter covered in piss or vomit.” Her face grimaced at the thought.
“Dad and Damon have said otherwise,” Keegan replied.
His mother laughed. “Keegan Andrews, you should know better than to believe anything that comes out of those two men’s mouths,” she said in a mocking tone. “They would have been too drunk themselves to remember any incriminating stories.” She took a sip of her black coffee, then returned a hopeful gaze. “So are you 100% sure you don’t want a party?”
“Absolutely, 100%, no doubt about it, positively sure!” He gave a stern look.
“Okay, Mr. Grumpy. Your lack of a wish is my command.”
She walked through the dining room onto their back porch, leaving him in front of the television that he wasn’t really watching. Keegan hoped this would be the end of the matter because if she did go ahead and plan a party, he would just back down—like he always did. Keegan did his best to avoid disagreements with family, friends and well… just about anybody. The most he would do is walk a fine line of passive aggressive and bail at the last second before it turned into some sort of conflict.
Part of the reason his mum liked to go to so much effort was that he was the only man in her life and had been for some years now. The life of a solo mum had made her fuss over him something chronic to the point it was embarrassing for both of them. If he were being objective and he hated to admit it, but she was hot for a mum—Keegan’s mates never failed to remind him of this—and interested men were never in short supply. Still, aside from the odd guy who she strung along for casual dates and trips to the movies, she had never settled down.
Keegan’s parents had split up when he was less than a year old. His mother would always tell him the story whenever she had one too many wines, and he was stupid enough to hang around and listen.
“I was 24 when I met your father and gosh I was something, but he was only 19,” is how it always started before she would drunkenly shake her wobbly head and say, “I should have known better!”
Apparently his mother had decided to go back to university in an attempt to try and finish her arts degree. She had always wanted to be an art history or classical studies teacher. The lounge walls were testimony to this dream. Abstract art clung to the white painted walls, creating a somewhat hideous mosaic, Keegan thought. According to his Mum’s well-told story she arrived in Auckland and took a room in a cheap, scummy flat that was close to campus. Her flatmates were two young guys looking for a female roommate to help share the costs and in his Mum’s words, “Someone stupid enough to clean up after them.”
There was Matt—Keegan’s father—a dark-haired introvert who was majoring in business, and his best mate, Damon, a handsome, laid back womanizer who shared Keegan’s mother’s interest in the arts even if he didn’t attend his lectures. Both guys took a liking to her. It was clear why, even now she was slim with long blond hair that framed her pretty face.
Being away from home is what his mother blamed for being so lonely and to begin dating his father. If you were lucky enough to hear the story begin after she had started on a second bottle of wine, then you’d discover she actually preferred the magnetic Damon. Privately, Keegan would agree with her, not that his father was a bad-looking guy, but in comparison to Damon he was decidedly average.
So yes, after his mother’s stupid decision to begin dating his father, the pair wound up down the path of a whirlwind romance which after six months led to an unplanned pregnancy—Keegan. This harsh dose of reality caused both of them to drop out of university before the year had even ended. Keegan was sure his mother at first would have liked to name him dream crusher; instead, she had taken to motherhood like a meth addict to a light bulb and he had been her spoilt little man ever since.
His parents both moved back to his mum’s hometown to try and rebuild their dreams around their unexpected bundle of joy. With his dad only just penetrating his twenties he quickly grew bored of the nesting lifestyle and flew back to the city and continued with his business studies, leaving Keegan and his mother behind. After graduating, Keegan’s father moved overseas, settling in London and exploring Europe for several years before returning with an English wife and her two young sons from a previous marriage.
Even after his father had returned to New Zealand, Keegan hardly ever saw the guy. None of this bothered Keegan particularly, if anything he thought his father probably did the right thing. From what he had been told, his parents were too different to ever get along and in a way his father’s need for freedom had done them all a favor. It wasn’t like he felt deprived of anything. Keegan and his mother had a good life thanks to his generous grandparents.
The years went by and Keegan’s father sort of disintegrated into the background like a fuzzy memory. He now had a new family and Keegan would hear from him every birthday and Christmas when he would receive an obligatory phone call from his dad wishing him well. Each phone call was painfully drawn out with long pauses, neither knowing what to say. His dad would always tell him he should come up and stay sometime. Every time Keegan would spin the same response that he would definitely come up to visit. They both knew this was a lie, and it had now been nearly five years since they had seen each other. Besides, his mother and grandparents would hardly encourage him to go stay with a man they referred to derisively as coming from “basic stock.”
Keegan’s mother’s maiden name was Plummer-Butt. The type of surname that was ripe for mocking and schoolyard bullying. Before starting high school, he had pleaded all summer to adopt his father’s last name and become an Andrews so he could have a fresh start and not be ridiculed at roll calls. His mother had been fine with it but his grandparents had fought hard against his wishes and to this day Keegan suspected their feelings were severely hurt by his abandoning of their family name.
While Keegan grew up barely seeing his father, he did, however, get to know his father’s best mate, Damon. The guy may have been a party animal with loose morals as Keegan’s mum would tease but he stepped up where Keegan’s father hadn’t.
From as young as Keegan could remember, Uncle Damon—which he called him ‘till he was fourteen—would sweep into town every few months and tell Keegan all about his dad and what he was up to as if it were his duty to keep him informed of how awesome his father really was.
Damon would goof around and play the role of a hip young uncle, and for years Keegan looked up to the guy like he was a living legend. But as Keegan grew older he could see it was all smoke and mirrors. A shallow ploy by Damon to try and score his mother. Sure the guy paid interest in him, but his barely veiled flirting revealed Damon’s true interest lay between Keegan’s mother’s legs.
Every visit Keegan’s mum giggled at Damon’s flirting while Keegan would sit there, trying not to groan out load and discretely roll his eyes at the man who had a Peter Pan like philosophy to life and refused to ever grow up. Damon was a slow learner because after 18 years—as far as Keegan knew—Damon had never succeeded in bedding the mother of his best mate’s son.
The first few hours after any time Damon turned up, were usually spent downing drinks with Keegan’s mum. Once he realized he wasn’t getting what he wanted, he would give up and head to town in search of fun and a fuck. On more than one occasion when he had stayed with them, Keegan had walked into the lounge in the morning to find Damon sprawled out on the couch with some woman in his a
rms that he’d brought home from town with him
With his eighteenth birthday approaching, Keegan knew it was inevitable that Damon would rock in to town and use his birthday as an excuse to get drunk and hit on his mother again. Keegan was fine with it, he figured Damon would follow the familiar path of flirting at home with his mum, failing miserably, then fuck off to town. If Keegan had known the damage Damon was going to cause, then he would have begged his mother not to invite him.
CHAPTER TWO:
Join The Club
Keegan sat in his bedroom, in front of his computer with his pants down around his ankles. The screen was lit up with sex, a well-played porn video now on pause. The woman’s face had been frozen at the most unfortunate point in time, her mouth opened wide in unflattering fashion, right in front of a fat, veiny cock that was spurting streaks of cum like bullets.
Keegan had been beating off most of the morning. He had just taken a break after blowing his second load. He wiped his hand clean of his spunk with a tissue he’d grabbed from a box of Kleenex beside him. He screwed the soiled paper up, throwing it in a plastic bag at his feet, or as he liked to call it, “the cum dump.”
He let his mind wander to his birthday that was only a few days away. It fell on a Saturday this year so if he fancied—after having a few drinks at home with his mates— he could go to town to go clubbing, finally able to see what all the fuss was about. Being born in December, he was the youngest of his school friends and as each month passed by during the year they would come to class raving about how much fun they were having in the bars. Keegan hadn’t been overly jealous but he was curious to know what all this fun was. However, school had wrapped up for the year a few weeks ago now, he wasn’t going to have the chance to go to class and share any wacky tales of nights out in town and drunken debauchery.