Xander Finch is a top-ranked MotoGP rider, desperate to get back to the circuit after an injury. He’s going stir-crazy in his parents’ house in Ventura while he works on his recovery. Xander has tunnel vision when it comes to his sport—it’s all he’s ever wanted to do in life. When he hires a massage therapist to help speed up his recovery, he’s not expecting the guy to completely flip his universe on its head.
Ollie Baker is living in his car after a disastrous break-up, and jumps at the chance to earn some extra cash through massage. Xander Finch might be hot as hell, but Ollie’s not going there. He’s never going to let some rich guy screw him over again. Besides, Xander’s straight. Isn’t he?
When their friendship deepens into something more, Xander discovers that Ollie makes him feel a way that nobody ever has before, and maybe motorbikes aren’t his only passion after all. Navigating Xander’s newly discovered demisexuality isn’t the only challenge they’ll have to face if they’re going to be together, because Ollie’s been burned before. It’s hard for him to trust Xander, to believe that he’s really willing to make room in his life for Ollie as well as his racing—assuming he recovers enough to race at all.
Only for Ollie is the third book in the Star Crossed series, where regular guys meet famous ones, and sparks fly.
Only for Ollie
Star Crossed, Book 3
By Lisa Henry
Amazon – Kindle Unlimited
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Ollie waved off Xander’s protestations and loaded the dishwasher. Then he said, bending down with his back to him, “So you’re going back to the Netherlands?”
“That’s how it works.” His chest ached. “I race, and when I’m not racing, I go back to Assen, and I train.”
That was how it had always worked. Not with all the guys, maybe, because most of them had made space for partners and kids in the gaps in their lives between track time, but Xander had only ever filled that space with more training. He was the engineers’ darling. If they needed a rider to test drive something, he was their guy because he was always at the track, always learning, always striving to be better. There were rules in place that limited the riders’ time on their race bikes, but Allard had a dirt track where their guys could practice on different bikes, and he was there as often as he could be—it was the reason he’d moved to Assen. The dirt track reminded him of the motocross tracks he’d loved so much as a kid, except there were no jumps.
Ollie stood up and turned to face him, leaning against the kitchen counter. He took his glasses off and cleaned them with the hem of his T-shirt, the movement allowing tantalizing glimpses of the pale skin above the waistband of his jeans. He put the glasses back on. “Your dad isn’t very happy about it.”
“They don’t like that it’s dangerous,” he said. He didn’t want to talk about how his dad felt about his return to racing. He wanted to know how Ollie felt about it. He wanted to know what they were to each other, or could be. “What you said earlier, about not thinking I was gay.”
Ollie froze, staring at him like a meerkat.
“I’m not,” he said. “At least…shit, I don’t know. There’s a lot of different words, you know?”
Ollie’s startled look said that no, he very much did not know what the fuck was he talking about.
“I’m demi,” he said. “That’s what fits, I think. So I’m not attracted to random people, you know?” He scrubbed a hand over his head, his face burning. “Except I didn’t figure it out until really recently because I literally had no idea what I was missing.”
Ollie’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. “Until?”
He winced. “I don’t want to be a creep, Ollie.”
Ollie closed the distance between them and stood on the other side of the counter to Xander. He planted his hands on the granite, his fingers splayed. The index finger of his right hand almost brushed Xander’s left. “Until?”
He lifted his gaze and lost himself for a moment in those wide, dark eyes. “Until you.”
Ollie’s intake of breath cut through the air as sharply as a knife. And then, just when Xander thought he’d ruined everything, Ollie twitched his finger so that it rested against his. “You’re not a creep, Xander.”
His eyes stung and watered. He looked down to where Ollie’s finger pressed gently against his own. Ollie had beautiful hands. “You don’t have to leave. I’ll be going soon, so it doesn’t have to be uncomfortable here for you. I—”
“Xander.” Ollie’s eyes were bright. He curled his fingers around Xander’s hand and drew it upwards. Leaned in and pressed his mouth to his knuckles, and that faint, warm brush of his lips sparked electricity inside him, sharp and brilliant and burning in a million different arcs. The blood roared in his skull as Ollie smiled and kissed his knuckles again. “Shut up. You don’t make me uncomfortable. I like you, Xander.”
And then, as though he was making sure that Xander couldn’t misinterpret that, he turned his hand over in his grasp, uncurled his fingers as carefully as if he were unwrapping a fragile treasure, and pressed another warm, smiling kiss to the fleshy part of his palm.
Xander’s heart stuttered over a few beats before it remembered how to do its job.
Another moment, and this was a big one. He would remember this one for the rest of his life because this was the precise moment when he fell head over heels for Ollie.
Catch-up on the series with Book 1:
Not Until Noah
Carter Westlake is on the brink of being Hollywood gold. Cast as the lead in a highly-anticipated sci-fi trilogy filming in Australia, he’s primed to be the next A-list action hero: all-American, hot as hell, and straight. The problem is, Carter can only check off two of those boxes. But that’s okay—his bisexuality can remain a secret until these movies are behind him.
Childhood educator Noah Jones has a plan. Work as a nanny for six months, make some extra cash, and move to the UK to teach. He doesn’t expect his new boss to be a Hollywood star. And he certainly isn’t prepared to fall for the guy.
One kiss sends them tumbling into a secret relationship, even though they both agree it can be nothing more than a fling. Carter needs to stay in the closet for the sake of his career, and Noah’s leaving. But when their feelings continue to grow into something deeper, Carter has a decision to make. Knowing that exposing his sexuality could cost him his career, would he rather carry on living a lie, or risk it all to stand tall in his truth?
Not Until Noah is the first book in the Star Crossed series, where regular guys meet famous ones, and sparks fly.
Amazon – Kindle Unlimited
Goodreads
Lisa likes to tell stories, mostly with hot guys and happily ever afters.
Lisa lives in tropical North Queensland, Australia. She doesn’t know why, because she hates the heat, but she suspects she’s too lazy to move. She spends half her time slaving away as a government minion, and the other half plotting her escape.
She attended university at sixteen, not because she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix-up between international school systems early in life. She studied History and English, neither of them very thoroughly.
She shares her house with too many cats, a dog, a green tree frog that swims in the toilet, and as many possums as can break in every night. This is not how she imagined life as a grown-up.
Lisa has been published since 2012, and was a LAMBDA finalist for her quirky, awkward coming-of-age romance Adulting 101, and a Rainbow Awards finalist for 2019’s Anhaga.
To connect with Lisa on social media, you can find her here:
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She also has a Facebook group where you’ll be kept in the loop with updates on releases, have a chance to win prizes, and probably see lots of lots of pictures of her dog and cats. You can find it here: Lisa Henry’s Hangout.
