‘Port in a Storm’ is very much the novel I
needed to write when I was in my early twenties. It’s a full length M/M erotic
novel about a young, university graduate trying to work out what he wants to do
with his life. The relationship Alex has been in throughout university has
stagnated, but both his boyfriend and his mother are determined that Alex
should join them in the family law firm and ‘make something of his life’. Alex
is dragging his feet. He doesn’t know what he wants, but he knows he doesn’t
want the corporate lifestyle he sees consuming his boyfriend. He has a lot of
difficult decision ahead of him.
Alex’s predicament mirrors my own when I
was the same age. I graduated from university with the degree I wanted; not the
one my parents wanted me to get. For my parents, teaching was the answer. For
me, the only thing I had ever been certain of was that I didn’t want to be a
teacher. I studied archaeology because I was interested in it (and probably
because I had watched Indiana Jones a little too often as a child) and I read
history because I loved it. After my graduation, things between my parents and
I became strained. I took some time out, working a dead end job, just trying to
decide what I wanted to do. My parents were very unimpressed. My memories of
that time were very much the inspiration behind ‘Port in a Storm’. I’m sure I
wasn’t the only graduate ever to have finished an intensive course of study,
straight off the back of four years of exams in high school, only to find
myself wondering what on earth I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to travel,
I wanted to garner as many experiences as I could, and I wanted to turn my back
on the world of promotions and money working nine to five that so many of my
friends immediately jumped straight into. In writing ‘Port in a Storm’ I tried
to imagine how my life could have been different, and I wrote about that.
Simple really. Sadly Alex’s story could not be further from my own.
One day at work, bored and uninspired, Alex
meets someone who will change his life. With his relationship with his
boyfriend dead in the water, he begins an affair with handsome, free-spirited
traveller Jake.
Jake is everything Alex wishes he could be.
Unattached and well-travelled. He isn’t tied down by anyone, and never has
been. Jake believes in seizing life by the throat and shaking it for all it’s
worth. He has spent his whole life on the road, travelling and meeting new
people. He has been everywhere and done everything, but he is still interested
in Alex, as inexperienced and unworldly as Alex feels.
Alex can’t get enough of him. They meet
sporadically, always in the airport where Alex works, and Jake does wonderful
things to Alex’s body and interesting things to his mind. The only problem is
that Jake wants Alex to go away with him, to travel with him. He’s asking for
only a few nights abroad so he can show him a lifestyle he thinks Alex will
love, but that is more than Alex thinks he can give him. His relationship with
Jake is putting even more strain on his relationship with his family, but Jake
rapidly becomes the drug Alex can’t quit.
Finally, Alex decides he has to take a
chance on Jake. On the spur of the moment, he goes with Jake to Venice, knowing
that his life will never be the same again.
‘Port in a Storm’ is available on Amazon
and Smashwords.
The following is a short extract from the novel.
When Alex reached the staffroom door on his
second attempt at leaving for the day, he allowed himself a brief glance around
the shops and seating areas near The Coffee Stop. His traveller was nowhere to
be seen.
He was disappointed, although he tried to
tell himself that was ridiculous. A glimpse of hot body and a sexy smile and he
was acting like a love-struck teenager. He told himself to act his age and
tried mentally to make his erection subside.
In the staff room, he changed into jeans
and a tight, black jumper, tossing his work clothes into his locker. He picked
up his wallet, phone and car keys and prepared to leave, as usual, without
saying goodbye. He started flicking through his phone, checking for messages
and finding none. He was just checking the traffic reports for his journey home
when he passed through the employees’ entrance and smacked straight into a
hard, strong body.
Alex went flying, and strong hands caught
him, steadying him. Alex looked up into those big, beautiful blue eyes once
more. The man’s hands maintained their firm grip on his arms.
Alex attempted to speak, but nothing came
out. Up close, their faces almost touching, Alex was convinced he had been
right in thinking that this man was the most handsome he had ever seen. His
dick, which had been subsiding in disappointment, jumped straight to attention
under the look of pure, unadulterated sex in those blue eyes.
“Those things are dangerous, you know. They
cause loads of accidents when people aren’t watching where they’re going.”
“I’ll bear that in mind.”
“Good. Wouldn’t want any damage to come to
that perfect body of yours, or that pretty face.”
The man crowded him. Despite not being much
taller than Alex he looked stronger, and held himself more confidently. Without
his heavy bag his hands were free and he maintained his grip on Alex’s left arm
while raising his other hand to brush the hair from Alex’s eyes.
“Not unless you like a little pain; a
little damage…”
It was a question, delivered with a smirk,
and when the man pushed their crotches together and walked Alex backwards, Alex
thought he knew his answer. When he felt the wall against his back Alex was
sure of it, and he was grateful to be out of the sight of prying eyes.
He could feel the other man’s erection. He
could hardly fail to. His traveller was pressing it against him, pushing it
into his thigh. He could hear the other man’s breathing becoming shallow and
when the man cupped Alex’s face and brought it close to his own, Alex’s body
took over. It wasn’t the first time a stranger had pushed him up against a wall
and tried to kiss him, but it had never happened in a cafe in broad daylight,
with both parties sober before.
No comments:
Post a Comment