Hopeless. Irresponsible. And more recently, thief. Jett can live with those epithets. After all, his father has insulted him since he was a kid. What he can't accept is losing this gift life has put on his bumpy path. Kaiden. The man who makes him want to try again.
In the last few years, Kaiden went from vandal to city artist. After having spent his youth in foster care, he's developed an attraction for lost causes. That’s why gorgeous, tattooed, and impossibly reckless Jett is one hot mess he can't walk away from.
As Jett begins his path to redemption with his new therapist, a self-proclaimed healer, Jett slowly opens up to Kai. Then Jett’s therapist crosses all professional boundaries, and his horrible actions threaten to push Jett into his final downward spiral.
Can Kai heal Jett’s bruised heart and protect their new and fragile love?
I found Kaiden in the living room. He was dressed in one of my sweaters which was three sizes too big for him, sitting on the couch with his legs curled under him and his eyes closed. He’d found my expensive headphones and was listening to music. Not wanting to scare him, I sat near him and gently tapped his knee.
He opened his eyes and smiled tenderly.
“What are you listening to?” I asked.
He immediately cuddled up against me, slipped the headphones off and put them over my ears. The music was kind of cheesy, and the woman was singing about how no one mourned the wicked. “What is this crap?” I handed him the headphones back.
“Excuse me?” He leaned away and stared at me with incensed eyes. “This crap, is what gets me through stuff.” He stopped the music on his phone. “This crap, is only one of the best musicals ever written --”
“No.” I laughed and shook him. “No ... don’t tell me you love all that Broadway stuff.”
“This is Wicked, Jett!”
“It’s not wicked for me to say that musicals are opera’s ugly cousin.”
“No, I mean, this is Wicked.”
“What? What is that?”
“Are you totally sure you’re gay?” He blew out a sharp breath and chuckled. “Never mind.”
We gazed at each other for a moment, and my heart picked up the pace. “So, uh, listen, I have a little surprise for you.”
He tipped his head, watching me cautiously.
“I know we don’t have a lot of loose cash --”
“What did you do?”
“Wait. Listen. It’s not a big deal.” I hesitated and then took his hand inside mine. “Look, ‘cause of you, I made that arrangement with my creditors and they unfroze my Visa now that I have those fixed payments, right? So, technically, when I get a job next week, I’ll be all good, but meanwhile we shouldn’t stop living just ‘cause money is tight, ‘cause money is coming.” I stopped. Took a breath and locked eyes with his. “I promise you that I’ll take care of us. I know I will. I was a bartender in real classy places, and I could pull half a grand in tips a night when I was clean and sober. I’ll get there again and this time, no more spending it on tattoos or new mag wheels for my car or --”
“Jett.” He touched the side of my face. “I have complete fucking confidence in you, but what the hell did you do?”
“I booked us a little cabin up north. Just for two nights.” When he didn’t say anything, I got nervous and spoke faster. “It’s not expensive and it’s remote, you know, it’ll be just you and me out there and I thought about what Carl did and how I was supposed to go to his stupid cabin and then I thought why shouldn’t you have a good Christmas, and you lost your dad and --”
“You want us to go away together?”
“Well ... yeah,” I said, unsure of myself. I caressed his hand, not looking up at him. “It’s got a fireplace, and we can watch the stars, and I thought maybe it would be good for you to be there, you know, to think and decide what you want to do.”
I looked up to find Kaiden staring at me with wide, fiery eyes.
“I fucked up again, didn’t I?” I sputtered.
He brushed a strand of my hair off my forehead. “You’re not being reasonable.” Then for the first time since last night, a genuine grin split his beautiful face. “I’ll be packed and ready to go in ten minutes.”
“Seriously?” I jumped off the couch and pulled him up. “Cool, ‘cause I have another surprise for you.”
“Oh, God, baby, have you no self-control?” He was already walking to our bedroom.
I leaned my shoulder on the doorframe. “Not when it comes to making you happy,” I whispered.
Kaiden stopped throwing clothes into his duffel bag and gave me a sweet look. “What am I going to do about you?” He laughed. “Come on, pack you stuff and let’s get in your mean car which will probably get impounded if we get pulled over just so we can drive to a cabin you reserved on a credit card that will be declined.”
I gave him a sexy look. “I sure know how to romance a guy, don’t I?”
