Treading Water
by Alex Winters
Cover Artist: Reece Notley
Release Date: October 03, 2023
Genres: Contemporary M/M Sports Romance, Gay Romance, Gay Fiction
Tropes: Hollywood A-Lister Versus Small Town Stud, Actor Versus Athlete, Coming Out, Forced Proximity
Themes: (Almost) first time gay, summer love, Hollywood scandal, coach falling for his student, student falling for his coach, deserted summer camp
Heat Rating: 4 flames
Length: 310 pages
Treading Water is a standalone book and does not end on a cliffhanger.
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What happens when love is sink or swim?
Blurb
Actor Tucker Crawford is having the worst summer ever. Thanks to a viral video of him trying to swim, he’s the laughingstock of Hollywood and his role in a hit TV series is in jeopardy. The only bright spot is Tucker’s sexy new swim coach, Reed Oliver, but even that has its problems—because Tucker is deep in the closet and has never been with a guy.
Reed Oliver is having the best summer ever. He’s just scored a high-paying freelance gig teaching a Hollywood actor how to swim. The two of them have the run of a deserted summer camp, complete with an Olympic-size swimming pool. But when cocky playboy Reed meets shy, virgin Tucker, sparks fly and Reed’s walk-in-the-park coaching job becomes a minefield of temptation. Once they kiss for the first time, there’s no way to overcome their mutual passion and no looking back. But after two weeks of secluded intimacy, can they keep their romance alive in the real world?
Excerpt
Tuck made a tongue-clucking sound and then sipped the last of his beer. “My strategy at this point is just get through the day without another scandal, you know?”
Reed gave him a stern, fatherly glance. “You’ve got to let that go, Tuck. You can’t let it control your life.”
“Easy for you to say, Reed.”
“I know it, but that’s what we’re here for, right?”
Tucker sat up, and little ripples fluttered across his concave belly. Reed inched up as well and reached to open the cooler top so one of them could slip their hand inside. Tuck obviously had the same idea, and their fingers glanced across one another’s as they reached for the lid.
“Sorry!” they blurted at the same time, descending into mirthful little beer-buzzed giggles until Reed noticed they were still lingering in each other’s grip.
“I’ll grab the beer.” Reed reluctantly pulled his hand away.
“Okay, but it’s gotta be my last.”
Reed glanced at the two or three bottles left inside the shimmering ice. “Oh yeah?”
“Big day tomorrow, right?”
Reed sighed. For some reason, the last thing he wanted to do with Tucker at the moment was work. Coach. Admonish. Correct. Teach. “I mean, it’s not like we have to set our alarms, though, right?”
Tucker gave him a wry grin. “This how you are with your swimmers back home?”
“Hell no,” he barked, very much the same way he might at them. Then he softened. “But this is different.”
They were still sitting up. The sun caressed Tucker’s smooth, unlined face like an unseen hand, and they were mere inches away from each other now—so close Reed could smell the chlorine in Tucker’s hair and feel the heat coming off his half-naked body in tempting, shimmering waves that Reed felt deep inside his clenched gut. “Oh yeah? How so?”
Their eyes met in the afternoon sun. Reed’s answer was revealing in more ways than one. “I’m miles away from home, kid.”
About the Author
Alex Winters is the pseudonym of a busy restaurant manager whose curious young staff would love nothing more than to follow him around the dining room reading his steamiest, most romantic passages aloud! When not writing romantic holiday stories of various heat levels, he enjoys long walks with his wife, scary movies and smooth jazz. Visit him at www.awintersromance.com to see what stories are brewing up next!
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