Felipe rolled his eyes and then narrowed them as Trask continued toward him until he had come around the front of the table and paused by Felipe’s chair. He glanced around the room, then looked back at Trask. “Okay, what gives?”
“I had a couple things I wanted to say now that we have our little house, even if we’re living in the middle of a mess as we fix it up. There’s no one else I want to live in the middle of a mess with than you.” Trask thought he might never be entirely comfortable with talking about his feelings, but Felipe made it easier than most. “Back when you set your sights on me, you gave me a glimpse of a future that I didn’t know I wanted, and then it became something I needed.”
“Trask Briscoe, you are messing with my head.” Felipe fisted his hands over his heart, and the look in his eyes just filled Trask up with the light that Felipe gave him. “Don’t joke with me.”
Trask smiled at him and reached into his pocket, closing his fingers around the little box. “That future showed me waking up next to you. It showed me the imp in your smile and your attention to detail whether you’re making a costume or a home. It showed me you chattering at me nonstop.”
“Wow, that’s serious love,” Morris said, making the room chuckle.
Felipe flipped him off without ever taking his eyes off Trask as he went down on one knee and held out the little box. “I want you to be my partner, my best friend, my other half.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Felipe whispered, tears welling in his eyes. “Stop screwing around.”
Trask grabbed his hands and folded them to his heart. He’d never seen Felipe so off-balance. If this was what grand public gestures did to his imp, Trask would have to make the effort to do it every once in a while. “Felipe, you know me. You know I don’t mess around when I’m serious.” He smiled faintly. “I have a rule, you know.”
Felipe nodded, his throat working before he finally managed, “Yeah, I know your rules.”
“Will you marry me, Felipe Suero?” To Trask’s everlasting panic, the tears spilled from Felipe’s eyes. “Don’t cry. For the love of God, don’t cry. I’ll take it back if it’ll make you feel better.”
“You can’t take it back. I’ll brain you.” Felipe grinned through his tears and flung his arms around Trask’s neck. “I can’t believe you made a public spectacle of yourself for me. I love you more than puppies.”
Trask laughed and got up, pulling Felipe into his arms. “Is that a yes?”
Felipe opened the little box and slipped the ring on his finger. “That’s a fuck yes, Tin Man.”
More from Marguerite Labbe
Geek Life: Book One
When opposite worlds collide, it’s anyone’s game.
Proud geek and comic book artist Morris Proctor wants nothing more than to live in semiseclusion with his devil cat and gamer friends. Despite what his well-meaning family thinks, he’s perfectly content with his status quo. The last thing he needs is to date another nongeek hell-bent on changing him.
Then he meets his adorkable new neighbor, Theo Boarman, who doesn’t know Star Trek from Star Wars, but who tempts him like no other.
Theo has spent the last year recovering from the loss of his parents and trying to play both roles for his teenage brother, while working to keep the family restaurant afloat. Dating is the last thing on the menu, especially with a man who thinks the height of dining is shoving a packaged meal into the microwave.
But if Morris gives him one more shy smile or flaunts that kilt he wears so well, Theo will be forced to convince him that a hot summer fling is just the recipe to let off a little steam.
When that fling gets serious fast, Morris has to decide if he’s willing to give his heart to Theo on the chance that they’re a perfect mix.
It only takes one night with Ash Gallagher to make Eli Hollister think he’s finally met the right man at the right time. Good thing he doesn’t bet on it, because Ash turns out to be a student in Eli’s class at the local college. Eli can’t deny he’s attracted, but now it’s complicated. He’s already in enough trouble with the department head, a man who would like to see Eli denied his tenure and fired.
Ash is looking forward to taking his life in a new direction. After serving one active-duty stint in the Marine Corps and another in the Reserves, he’s ready to put his military life behind him. The last new experience he’d planned for this semester was to fall in lust with his English professor, but the more Eli resists, the more Ash is determined to have him. Then he discovers Eli’s playing for keeps, and Ash is only interested in a fling… or is he? Between these two, when it comes to life and love, all bets are off.
Andrei Cuza and Dean Marshall celebrated their tenth anniversary only to have their happiness shattered by a random, insane event: On his way home from closing a business deal, Dean stops on the parkway to help a young mother with her flat tire, and her ex arrives, murders them, and takes off with his two kids.
Ghosts have haunted Andrei all his life. He bears the guilt for his sister being stuck in limbo, because ghosts are frozen at the moment they died, unable to adapt to the changes in their living loved ones. When Dean returns to Andrei as a ghost, the double punch of losing him and having to watch him founder if he doesn’t move on is almost more than Andrei can bear.
Despite dangers in limbo—Jackal Wraiths that devour souls are hunting him—Dean isn’t going anywhere until he helps Andrei track down the missing children. Andrei is in danger as well when he pays dearly to feel Dean’s touch one last time. Time is slowly running out as Dean and Andrei try to say good-bye while they track a killer who’s more than happy to kill again.
After a grueling battle in ancient Greece, lovers Dexios and Lykon committed their lives to each other in the name of Goddess Cythera. After the war, fearing the strength of his love for Dexios, Lykon abandoned his vow and returned home. Heartbroken, Dexios called on Cythera, who changed him into four unfinished statues. In that form he would wait for his fickle lover to return, break the curse, and make him whole.
Thousands of years have passed when Galen Kanellis finds the disassembled pieces in the storeroom of a Seattle museum and makes them the focus of his new exhibit. Needing information, he contacts his ex-lover Nick Charisteas. Nick has a lifelong dream of finding the Dexios Collection, and the last thing he expected was for it to wind up in the hands of the man who broke his heart. As both men search for answers about the statues, worries of abandonment and fear of loss test their renewed relationship, threatening to separate them again—this time permanently.
Caleb Hudson and Hal Zimmer became best friends the day they stood up against the schoolyard bully together. Life’s complicated enough with their friendship crossing racial lines in 1960s Charleston, South Carolina, but as time passes, they realize it’s more than their friendship that sets them apart from other kids. At first, Caleb denies his feelings for Hal could be more than companionship. He supports his friend when Hal admits he’s gay, but Caleb isn’t ready to face his own truth.
Hal becomes a staunch antiwar protester, and the divide between them widens after Caleb is drafted. But when Caleb returns from Vietnam, the time for denial is over. His homecoming sets off a series of events that force Caleb and Hal to confront their desires and what lines they’re willing to cross to get what they truly want out of life.
Readers love A Little Side of Geek by Marguerite Labbe
“I adored this book. I’m talking read it twice, and probably going to read it a third. All I can say is, if you haven’t read it yet, why not?”
—The Novel Approach
“The author did a great job with all the characters, and I can hardly wait for the next book.”
—OptimuMM
“A Little Side of Geek is at its heart a sweet love story about two men from very different worlds who find love unexpectedly.”
—Divine Magazine
“This book has it all. It’s definitely also going on my Best of 2018 list.”
—Scattered Thoughts a
nd Rogue Words
MARGUERITE LABBE has often been called both Trouble and Sunshine by those who know her. She’s not sure how she manages to make both those nicknames work together, but apparently she does. She’s a New Hampshire gal who married an Alabama guy, an Air Force brat who has somehow managed to settle herself firmly in Southern Maryland, with one overgrown son and two crazy cats.
Marguerite loves to spin tales that cross genre lines, where stubborn men build lifelong ties of loyalty, friendship, and family no matter the odds thrown against them, and where love is found in unexpected places. She has won the Rainbow Award for Historical Romance with Fae Sutherland, as well as the Rainbow Award for Paranormal and the Rainbow Romance Award for Excellence, also in Paranormal.
When she’s not working hard on writing new stories, she spends her time reading novels of all genres, enjoying role-playing and tabletop games with her friends, and helping out her husband with Apocrypha Comics Studio.
Website: www.margueritelabbe.com
Twitter: @MargueriteLabbe
Facebook: www.facebook.com/marguerite.labbe.3
Email: [email protected]
By Marguerite Labbe
All Bets Are Off
Ghosts in the Wind
Make Me Whole
Other Side of the Line
Playing Ball Anthology
GEEK LIFE
A Little Side of Geek
A Whole Latte Sass
TRIQUETRA TRILOGY
My Heart is Within You
Haunted by Your Soul
Our Sacred Balance
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
A Whole Latte Sass
© 2019 Marguerite Labbe.
Cover Art
© 2019 Kanaxa.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64405-008-8
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-64405-009-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956389
Digital published January 2019
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
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