Played!
Page 22
Tristan turned in Con’s arms, his heart melting with happiness so sharp it hurt. “You… I am amazed and know not what to say.” He laughed, shaking his head ruefully. “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, how I feel about you. And I am but a patched fool if I try.”
Con smiled that adorable, lopsided smile of his. “Me too. You know that, don’t you? You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Oh, and you know what else?”
Tristan gazed mistily up at the man of his dreams. “Go on.”
Soulful brown eyes looked deep into Tristan’s, and Con stroked his cheek with a tender hand. “I always thought you were a bit of an ass.”
Tristan stared—then burst out in helpless laughter. Heads, he was dimly aware, turned. Eyes, he was fairly certain, rolled.
He couldn’t care less.
The course of true love, for him at least, finally ran smooth.
Chapter Title Quotes
A plague on both your houses — Mercutio, Romeo & Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1
Hell is empty and all the devils are here — Ferdinand, The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2
That wench is stark mad or wonderful froward — Tranio, The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 1
Call forth your actors by the scroll — Bottom, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 2
Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. — Benedick, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, Scene 2
Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care — Macbeth, The Scottish Play, Act 2, Scene 2
Love’s Labour’s Lost — Play by Wm. Shakespeare
Friendship is constant in all other things — Claudio, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 2, Scene 1
The game’s afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’ — King Henry V, King Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them? — Prince Hamlet (“the Dane”), Hamlet, Act 3, scene 1
And if thy poor devoted suppliant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever. — King Richard, Richard III, Act 1, Scene 2
Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect my eyes — Lady Anne, Richard III, Act 1, Scene 2
Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides — Cordelia, King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1
All the world’s a stage — Jacques, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 7
That glib and oily art, to speak and purpose not — Cordelia, King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1
So quick bright things come to confusion — Lysander, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1, Scene 1
How many fond fools serve mad jealousy! — Luciana, The Comedy of Errors, Act 2, Scene 1
The quality of mercy is not strained — Portia, The Merchant of Venice, Act 4, Scene 1
’Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers — 2nd servingman, Romeo & Juliet, Act 4, Scene 2
After life’s fitful fever he sleeps well. — Macbeth, The Scottish Play, Act 3, Scene 2
Oh, I am fortune’s fool! — Romeo, Romeo & Juliet, Act 3, Scene 1
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows — Trinculo, The Tempest, Act 2, Scene 2
Of charity, what kin are you to me? — Sebastian, Twelfth Night, Act 5, Scene 1
Lord, what fools these mortals be — Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3 Scene 2
Ay, a minced man: and then to be baked with no date
in the pie, for then the man’s date’s out. — Cressida, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2
And therefore is Love said to be a child,
Because in choice he is so oft beguiled. — Helena, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 1 Scene 1
Joy’s soul lies in doing — Cressida, Troilus and Cressida, Act 1, Scene 2
Love’s Labour’s Won — “lost” play by Wm. Shakespeare
Following darkness like a dream — Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1
Epilogue: All is Mended — Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 5, Scene 1
In the course of the novel, Tristan (mis)quotes many works by William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, including several of his sonnets. Other works scurrilously abused include but are not necessarily limited to:
Pygmalion, George Bernard Shaw
Withnail & I (1987, wr. & dir. Bruce Robinson)
The Discworld novels of Sir Terry Pratchett
The novels of PG Wodehouse
Blackadder the Third, Duel and Duality, Ben Elton & Richard Curtis
Mansfield Park, Jane Austen
About the Author
JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.
She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour. Her novella Muscling Through was a 2013 EPIC Award finalist, and her novel Slam! won the 2013 Rainbow Award for Best LGBT Romantic Comedy. Her novel Relief Valve is a finalist in the 2015 EPIC Awards.
JL Merrow is a member of the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet organising team.
Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com, on Twitter as @jlmerrow, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/jl.merrow
Look for these titles by J.L. Merrow
Now Available:
Pricks and Pragmatism
Camwolf
Muscling Through
Wight Mischief
Midnight in Berlin
Hard Tail
Slam!
Fall Hard
Raising the Rent
The Plumber’s Mate
Pressure Head
Relief Valve
Heat Trap
The Shamwell Tales
Caught!
Played!
Coming Soon:
The Shamwell Tales
Out!
To Love a Traitor
You can run from the past…but the past runs faster.
Shamwell Tales, Book 1
Behind Robert’s cheerfully eccentric exterior lies a young heart battered and bruised by his past. He’s taken a job teaching in a village primary school to make a fresh start, and love isn’t part of his plans. But he’s knocked for six—literally—by a chance encounter with the uncle of two of his pupils.
Sean works in pest control, rides a motorbike, and lives on a council estate. On the face of it, he shouldn’t have anything in common with Robert’s bow-tie, classic-car style and posh family background. Yet Robert is helpless to resist Sean’s roguish grin, and a rocky, excruciatingly embarrassing start doesn’t keep the sparks between them from flaring.
Despite Robert’s increasingly ludicrous attempts to keep his past where it belongs, his past hasn’t read the memo. And soon his secrets could be the very things that drive Sean away for good...
Warning: Contains the alarming misadventures of a pest control technician, a stepsister with a truly unfortunate name, and a young man who may have more bow ties than sense.
The wrong secret could flush their love down the drain.
The Plumber’s Mate, Book 3
It’s been six months since plumber Tom Paretski was hit with a shocking revelation about his family. His lover, P.I. Phil Morrison, is pushing this as an i
deal opportunity for Tom to try to develop his psychic talent for finding things. Tom would prefer to avoid the subject altogether, but just as he decides to bite the bullet, worse problems come crawling out of the woodwork.
Marianne, a young barmaid at the Devil’s Dyke pub, has an ex who won’t accept things are over between them. Grant Carey is ruthless in dealing with anyone who gets between him and Marianne, including an old friend of Tom and Phil. Their eagerness to step in and help only makes them targets of Grant’s wrath themselves.
With Tom’s uncertainty about Phil’s motives, Tom’s family doing their best to drive a wedge between them, and the revelation of an ugly incident in Phil’s past, suddenly Tom’s not sure whom he can trust.
The body in the Dyke’s cellar isn’t the only thing that stinks.
Warning: Contains British slang, a very un-British heat wave, and a plumber with a psychic gift who may not be as British as he thinks he is.
Rent-boy rule number one: Never fall in love with a customer.
Life as a rent boy is not a long-term career goal for Nathan, who’s determined to get an education. But when he turns up for his first day at college he’s horrified to find his English teacher is one of his regular customers: Stephen, the one Nathan dubbed The Voice for his educated, honeyed tones.
Stephen’s just as shocked to see Nathan sitting in his class, not to mention terrified he’s about to be exposed as having paid for sex with a student—which would mean public humiliation and maybe the loss of his job. Yet it’s clear Nathan is only interested in getting his A Levels, not in blackmail. And Stephen realizes there’s more to the nineteen-year-old than meets the eye.
Nathan still has to earn a living, though, and when a customer turns ugly, he finds himself homeless and unable to work. Stephen steps in to help, and Nathan starts to think they could have a future together—if Stephen’s guilt and lack of trust don’t end their back-to-front romance before it starts.
Warning: Contains unfashionable haircuts, unreasonably long words, and a May-December romance between a not-so-streetwise rent boy and an erudite English teacher.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Played!
Copyright © 2015 by JL Merrow
ISBN: 978-1-61922-574-9
Edited by Linda Ingmanson
Cover by Kanaxa
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: June 2015
www.samhainpublishing.com