. .
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?
Title: Treading Water
Authors: Alex Winters
Length: 310 pages
Series: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary
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Reed squirmed where he stood, tan lines aglow atop the slipping-down waistband of his baggies. His skin was smooth and radiant, almost hairless. No, Tucker realized, he was hairless—smooth and slick as a baby’s butt. Tucker let his eyes covet Reed’s body from afar, admiring the place where his happy trail should be and finding none. The realization made him wonder if Reed was smooth everywhere else as well. All the way down, for instance. Hollywood, Tucker knew, was full of dudes who manscaped to various degrees. He hadn’t taken Reed for a pretty-boy spa-day salon type, but maybe he preferred the feel of nothing, nowhere, anywhere. Tucker couldn’t help but wonder what that might look like—smooth and clean and hairless. He scrubbed the thought away as quickly as it had come. The last thing he needed to be doing at that moment was picturing Reed’s smooth, slick junk.
Or at least, he tried to stop.
“I’m getting mixed messages here, Tuck.”
Tucker chuckled, glad for the return to normal, civilized above-the-waist conversation that didn’t necessarily involve manscaping and literal navel gazing.
He glanced up from Reed’s bare waistline and grinned. “Yeah, I guess I’m all messed up. Hate the Hollywood game but am kind of addicted now. Maybe this hiatus will actually be good for me, you know?”
Reed nodded as he sank down slowly beneath the surface of the crystal-blue water until only his head poked out. His big brown eyes, soulful and searching, made it clear he wanted Tucker to join him.
He licked his lips, torso still broiling in the late August sun, bare shoulders already reddening from an early burn. He sighed and sank down to join Reed. The water claimed his sweaty bare skin and forced a sudden involuntary smile from his lips.
His feet were still firmly on the shallow-end concrete, knees slightly bent, chest buoyant as he clung to the pool deck with one hand, just in case. He realized, in that moment, he had gone deeper than he’d intended to go and far quicker.
Reed gave him a satisfied grin and nodded at his bobbing form. “Look at you, half-submerged and everything. And on your very first day, no less.” His tone, as always, was part nurturing, part smartass. The sound was quickly becoming music to Tucker’s ears.
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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Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/author/awintersromance
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/23210941.Alex_Winters