Finding Inspiration - Lee Brazil

Hi, Sara! Thanks for bearing with me in my snafu today! *sips more coffee*  I really appreciate you having me here! For those I haven't met yet, I'm Lee Brazil, m/m romance author.  I social media a lot.  Okay, I Face Book a lot and tweet sometimes.  Then I lurk around in other places where writers lurk.  One topic that everyone seems to bring up regularly is where does inspiration come from?

For me, it comes from different places For Loving Jacob, the inspiration came from a phone conversation with my mom.  My mom is a romance novel reader.  She was bemoaning the number of billionaire heroes in her Harlequins, and how predictable each story line was. Her complaint niggled at me for a while, so I decided to give it a shot.  I wanted to take an oft used story line, and see if my version of it was any fresher, less predictable.  Of course, I had to have a happy ending, so the parameters were the same. 

So Loving Jacob is my version of the boss/employee story.  Did I succeed? I'm not sure, cause my mom won't read it.  :D What do you think?

Loving Jacob

By Lee Brazil

from Breathless Press

A story of lust, love, betrayal

And second chances

Excerpt:

Malcolm gritted his teeth and reminded himself that an office fling with a man who had to be at least ten years his junior was out of the question. He and Penny had long since relinquished any pretense of monogamy in their marriage and reached an amicable agreement to conduct their affairs discreetly out of respect for their son and their friendship. Fucking purple-eyed twinks in the elevator at work? Not discreet.

He kept his gaze focused on the gleaming silver metal of the doors as the elevator made its excruciatingly slow way up to the third floor. His glance flicked to the reflection beside his. The younger man stood casually, shoulders propped against the wall, licking pink lips. His purple gaze in the hazy reflection was focused…fuck…on Malcolm's obvious erection beneath his dark dress pants. Discretion. Discretion. He snarled at his libido. There will be no casual hookups with people from the office, he warned his eager cock. He shifted to the side slightly, hoping to hide the evidence of his arousal from the other man. Damn it. That kid had the sexiest eyes he'd ever seen. He wanted like hell to see them glaze over as he fucked the tight ass hinted at by the khaki pants he wore. He didn't go much for the intimacy of face-to-face encounters, but for the sight of those eyes and that mouth in the throes of orgasm, he'd make an exception. His tendency toward quick casual encounters disguised his preference for male partners and kept word of his homosexuality from getting back to his parents, his partners in the firm, and out to the public.

A law office, like any other place of business, was a microcosm of the world at large. Malcolm knew from being on the receiving end of gossip from his secretary Marge that every action and interaction between employees was fodder for the gossip mill. Being the subject of water cooler gossip lacked appeal and offended his sense of dignity, as did the knowledge that he apparently couldn't control his urges around the tech guy.

He threw in the towel and gave up the fight against his attraction to the young man from the technology department. Malcolm caught that sultry purple gaze on his cock for what must have been the hundredth time. The slight young man brushed against him in an intentional teasing slide while he tried to exit the elevator on the second floor.

Impulsively, Malcolm grabbed Jacob's hand and pulled him back inside the otherwise-empty space. He kept that small, soft hand locked in his own as he allowed the heavy metal doors to slam shut and the elevator to rise to his own floor. There he slapped his palm against the button that prevented the doors from opening. He'd had all the titillation he could stand. Malcolm swept the young man into his embrace. He tilted Jacob's head upward with one hand and dropped his mouth passionately, almost brutally, to kiss the other man. His other hand tangled in the black curls that had taunted his senses over the past weeks. He forced the soft pink lips apart, then swept his tongue inside. Instantly he was absorbed in the heated, slick haven of Jacob's mouth. The honeyed sweetness drew him further in and his tongue eagerly sought the textures and flavors that had been hidden there. Fuck. He could drown in the wet heat he found behind those soft lips. It was addictive. Jacob didn't even try to escape the kiss; in fact, he seemed to be doing his best to encourage it. He brushed his tongue against Malcolm's, sweeping it gently along the roof of his mouth, seeking and finding the sweetest spots. Both men were panting heavily when they separated.