Working for a sweet little old lady author is more dangerous than one would think. Especially when Charlie Roberts finds himself falling for his dangerously attractive co-worker.

Prickly and wary, Charlie promised himself he'd never trust another man again, after his uncle sexually abused him. But then he meets Leo Cooper....

Setting: 1970s England

Angst: oh yes

Happy ending: yes

Length: approx. ~15,000 words


Excerpt:

He looked at Cooper, and a glint of understanding passed between them.

"Pub," said Cooper.

"Pub," he agreed.

They went to the local, sat and drank slowly, regarding one another with sidelong glances, each hesitantly taking the other's measure.

Charlie still couldn't tell what this was about. He didn't think it was more of Cooper's flirting, but he determined not to risk drinking too much just in case. No need to get clattered and make a decision he'd regret.

He wished he could doodle to cut the tension, but he clearly needed to pay attention. When Cooper got foam on his upper lip, he wiped it carefully off. The gesture of a man who cared about his appearance, not one who'd drop crumbs all down his front and not notice.

"So what is it, then?" asked Charlie at last, breaking the silence between them. "Something's bothering you, so out with it. She's never making you dress up as her Regency hero, is she?" He grinned at the thought of Cooper strutting around in tight trousers and high collars. He really was Lord Haverstock at this point — and gorgeous and obnoxious with it. Charlie wondered if he'd get any royalties for having his likeness and personality immortalised. Probably not.

"I'm feeling uncomfortable with this whole thing. I mean a joke's a joke. But she's really..."

"What?" Charlie put down his pint and stared. Leo shifted uncomfortably under his gaze, looking down.

"How can you take it all so calmly, then?" he asked in a hushed tone. "I mean, I just don't feel comfortable when it's you she's describing in all that — all those...scenes."

"What scenes?" asked Charlie, still as much in the dark as ever.

"Bloody hell, Roberts!" he snapped, leaning closer. "She writes S&M. What scenes do you think?"

For a moment, Charlie's brain buzzed in shock. He could only stare back. The room seemed far away and strange, tilting. "She doesn't. She writes Regency. Most that's happened is a kiss, a bloody little kiss. You're in it, I could swear, but it's not like that."

"Yeah. Cheers. Small mercies and all that." He raised his glass and drank deep, and this time forgot to wipe his mouth. His face was hard and blank, his gaze searching the opposite wall. "Well the one I'm typing up is a bit different, mate."

Charlie felt cheated, dirty, and angry. He'd had to live through it once,
being what amounted to someone's slave, doing things he didn't wish to do, being humiliated. He shouldn't have to deal with this as well. In a book — for anyone to read!

He was himself. Nobody should just stick him in a story he didn't want to be in, hadn't been asked about or paid for, and made to do things that... well Charlie wasn't into that, and if he had been he wouldn't have wanted it published in a bloody book!

"How bad?" he demanded, his voice an angry croak.

"Pretty graphic, mate."

"Right." Charlie scraped back his chair and stood. He felt wobbly, off-balance, as though he was floating instead of walking as he left the pub.

"Roberts." Cooper caught him up outside. "Wait. Please. What are you going to do? I think we ought to stick together, whatever we—"

"You." Charlie rounded on him. "You, stick together, with anybody but yourself? That's a bloody laugh. You were typing that for all these weeks and laughing at me and now I'm supposed to trust you? Well thanks a lot!"