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    The Retreat (A Studs & Steel Novella)
    The Retreat (A Studs & Steel Novella)
    The Retreat (A Studs & Steel Novella)
    Ebook125 pages1 hour

    The Retreat (A Studs & Steel Novella)

    By Heather Mar-Gerrison

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    About this ebook

    Dylan is a wedding planner. A very good wedding planner actually and his business is doing exceedingly well. He isn't quite so successful in finding love for himself though and being somewhat of an entrepreneur, decides to expand the business into a dating agency for guys looking for serious relationships with other guys. Who knows? Maybe by using his own app, he might one day find his Prince Charming among all the frogs he's managed to meet so far in his life...
    Nathan is a builder. He's just been dumped by his wife of only five months and is feeling rather hurt and confused by the whole incident. He thought he and his wife were happy - turns out she was cheating on him the whole damned time...
    When Nathan and Dylan first meet they don't think they have anything much in common, but time spent together sees all that change and Dylan finds that Nathan might just be what he's been looking for his whole life.
    And Nathan? Well, Nathan finds that a guy who wears make-up and pink sparkly converses might just be what is missing from his life too...
    This is another standalone addition to the Studs and Steel series. It has the usual helping of adorable young gay men and a happy ever after ending.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHeather Mar-Gerrison
    Release dateMay 27, 2019
    ISBN9780463490419
    The Retreat (A Studs & Steel Novella)
    Author

    Heather Mar-Gerrison

    I love to write M/M romance and as a sucker for a HEA, you're guaranteed one in my books. #happyheatherafters

    Read more from Heather Mar Gerrison

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      Book preview

      The Retreat (A Studs & Steel Novella) - Heather Mar-Gerrison

      The Retreat...

      (A Studs & Steel Novella)

      (Studs & Steel #8.5)

      Smashwords Edition

      Heather Mar-Gerrison, Copyright 2018

      No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work.

      Prologue

      Nathan

      I stared at Sophie in disbelief as my world tilted on its axis and everything I thought I was confident about slid sideways. It almost felt like I was standing on sand that was being washed away from beneath my feet where I stood. What was that? She’d met someone else? She’d fallen in love? She wanted a divorce…? Hell fire, we’d only been married five minutes… Well, five months but still – that was what it felt like.

      But I don’t understand. I stammered, I thought we were happy? Surely, we’d been happy? We’d been together since we’d met in high school… I thought we were in love…

      Her eyes filled with tears and she nodded, We were, Nathan, she assured me before delivering the killer blow, but if I’m going to be completely honest, I had my doubts about us before we even got married…

      My stomach went tight. Shit. What sort of doubts? Doubts about me? What about? I asked stupidly. I was absolutely floored. I really hadn’t seen this coming and I was so shocked, I thought I might be sick. Why the hell hadn’t she said anything to me before about it? Why the hell had we gone along with getting married? Fuck, it had cost an absolute fortune. I wouldn’t have chance to even pay off the credit card debt before I was swamped with solicitors’ bills…

      She looked at me in exasperation, "Well, there’s your questionable relationship with your best friend for starters. She said, You and Bailey have always been far more than close."

      I frowned. Well of course we were close. We’d known each other forever, I’ve known Bailey for years. I snapped, He’s like my brother.

      She snorted, Brother? she said, "You spend more time with him than you do with me. He’s more like your lover than I am."

      My jaw dropped. Was she actually serious? I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous. I spluttered. I had never overstepped the mark of friendship with Bailey to make him think we could be anything more than friends. He was gay, granted but I most certainly was not. This was all just her trying to put the blame on me for her own infidelity. The sneaky bitch…

      She put her hand on mine and gazed at me earnestly, You had a total meltdown when he introduced you to his new boyfriend, Simon.

      I blinked. That was as maybe but it was just that I was looking out for him. He needed protecting. That foul creature, Joss, his ex-boyfriend from hell had just about broken him with his disgusting behaviour. I didn’t want some other joker coming along and finishing him off altogether – so yeah, maybe I had been a little aggressive towards his new boyfriend, Simon. It didn’t mean that I wanted Bailey for myself. I was a happily married man for goodness sake. Well, I thought I was – until she cheated on me with this guy from work, anyway…

      What’s his name. I asked, rubbing my eyes and hoping I wasn’t about to start bawling about it.

      Richard. She said, her voice going soft as she talked about him. She clearly felt a lot for him and I instantly hated the bastard. He’s a bit older than me – he’s thirty-three and divorced.

      Thirty-three? Divorced? So, she was ditching me for an old bastard who either couldn’t keep it in his pants or had already been traded in for a newer model. What sort of a prospect was he?

      I tuned back in to hear her say, He’s got two kids that live with his ex-wife. I’m really sorry Nathan but I’ve fallen in love with him – this is real.

      And what we had together was not, as far as she was concerned. Clearly, she’d never really loved me – if she had, she wouldn’t have fallen for this fucking joker.

      I nodded, stalling for time. I didn’t know what to say. What the hell was there left to say? She’d made up her mind. No matter what I said now, she wasn’t going to fall out of love with him and back in love with me.

      My blood ran cold. Shit. I was going to be divorced by the time I was twenty-five. What a fucking failure – and Mum and Dad were going to blame me for the failure of my marriage no matter what I told them. They always did. I sometimes felt sure they preferred my sister. But then, she never gave them any reason not to love her. She was a wonderful person and I loved her to the moon and back, too.

      I’ll move out. I said, my head spinning. There was no way I’d go crawling back to my parents’ house but I couldn’t stay here, knowing she was thinking about another guy all of the time.

      She shook her head, There’s no need for that, Nathan. She said, I’m going to move in with Richard. We can discuss what to do about the house later.

      Fuck. She’d got it all planned out. How long has this been going on? I asked. It was torture being told all the gory details but I had to know.

      She looked down sheepishly, A while. She said quietly

      I raised my eyebrow, How long? I persisted.

      A few months.

      Fuck me. We’d only been married a few months. So, you were seeing him before we even got married? I felt sick to the stomach at her betrayal.

      She burst into tears…

      *

      Oh, babe. Bailey looked at me with such a look of dismay at my depressing news – that my wife had been cheating on me since before we’d even got engaged – I instantly wanted to throw myself into his arms and sob.

      Simon was there though, and I hadn’t exactly made the best impression on him when we first met. I sniffed and nodded, Yeah, I said, trying my best to hold it all together, It sucks but what are you gonna do? I let out a long sigh, feeling extremely close to tears but determined not to break down in front of him.

      Simon frowned, I’m really sorry to hear that, mate. He said, You’re welcome to stay here tonight if you need Bailey to talk to. I can go over to Studs and have a drink with my brother if you want him to yourself.

      Jesus, I’d totally misjudged him. He was solid gold… Thanks man, I croaked, But if you don’t mind me staying to offload for a couple of hours, I’d rather you be here, too. It’s really nice to be around people who are genuinely happy with each other and know what they want in life.

      "Well, you knew what you wanted. Bailey said loyally, Sophie let you down, that’s all."

      I bit my lip and shook my head, I’m not all that sure I did. I said softly, "I’ve really been analysing everything since she dropped her bombshell and I think I just got comfy. In all honesty, she was right. I always preferred being with you. It just never occurred to me that my affection for you as my best friend could be misconstrued into something else – something more… I turned tortured eyes onto my best friend and told him the worst of what she said, She was suggesting that I’m gay, Bailey." Even if she was right, it

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