Rowe Prince is a lying liar who windmills into my life in full color, claiming to be Sterling Chase, a quirky, eccentric billionaire… and founder of the company I created.

Two can play at the lying game, though, and I’m not about to let some burrito-delivering, floppy-haired virgin from Indiana best me at a game I was born to play.

So I do him one better and pretend to be Sterling Chase’s new assistant. I’ll teach him a lesson that will hopefully wind us both up in bed… with nothing but the truth between us.

But it turns out his shameless lies are enchanting… unintentionally hilarious… and make it all too easy to forget the truth…

Until I learn that this cutie’s intent is to defraud the company I’ve spent years building. I have to choose: risk the company or say goodbye to the man I’m falling for. A guy who just might be…

The Prince of Lies

The kiss is different every night.

When the curtain goes up, the silent war between Jem and Dawson ends just long enough for their characters to wow the audience with a passionate embrace. As soon as they take their bows, the two Broadway actors go their separate ways. But one night, everything changes.

The audience catches wind of the chemistry between them and the crowds go wild. Show management books them into a media blitz where the two of them have to present a united front and spend even more long hours together. When they have time to talk, the reasons for their war begin to unravel and the chemistry between them sparks hot enough to leap off the stage and into their real lives.

Please note Stealing the Show was first available as part of a group offering called Your Book Boyfriend’s Boyfriend. No changes have been made to the story. This is a novella of 24k words.

Hudson:

Don’t ever accidentally propose to your girlfriend. In front of her family. Especially if her dad is your boss. Because when you make it clear you’ve made a mistake, he’s likely to send you out of the country to get you as far away from his broken-hearted daughter as possible. It happened to me. Now I’m stuck in Ireland trying to redeem myself so I can get promoted and have the life I’ve planned for: successful career, loving wife and kids, a comfortable, financially-secure home life in Texas.

But all of that seems to evaporate the moment I walk into the historic pub and see the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Only, he’s not a woman.

Charlie Murray is most definitely a man—the kind of man who causes me to take a second look for the first time in my life. And a third look, and fourth. I can’t help but want to get to know him better… to get close to him, touch him, maybe even kiss him. But I’m straight. Or so I’ve always thought. Even if I’m not, how in the world could a feisty Irishman ever fit into the safe, predictable life I’ve always planned for?

Charlie:

Don’t ever accidentally fall for the straight guy. Especially when he’s trying to pry your family’s business right out from under you. I should know. Because when Hudson Wilde walks into my family’s pub and begins babbling so adorably, I can’t help but fall just a little bit in love. But I’m looking for Forever Man, and the sexy American is certainly not him. He’s so confused about what he wants, even choosing something from the dinner menu throws him into a fuddle. But those eyes… how can I resist?

So maybe I’ll give in. One steamy night before he heads home and I go back to life at the pub. We’ll never see each other again.

Until, of course, his business deal sends me to Hobie, Texas, right into the middle of Hudson’s steady life, more gay Wildes than can fit on a dance floor, and an ex-girlfriend who may or may not be content remaining an ex. But the more time I spend with Hudson, the more I think he might be my Forever Man after all. And I may be his. Is it possible we could both be so lucky?

I’m a lucky man and I know it.

Kids from backwoods Georgia don’t land scholarships to Yale, but I did, and striking it rich–like, billions of dollars rich–with my best friends after graduation should have used up my luck for a lifetime.

But luck struck again when I followed my passion into music. My career exploded, and now I get to travel the world, performing for thousands of raving fans every night.

When you get this lucky, you don’t get to want more, and you definitely don’t get to complain about the little things. My family, my crew, and my label are counting on me and I refuse to let them down. I pretend I’m fine, totally fine, Mr. freaking Fine… even when someone starts targeting me with a strange series of threats.

The only one who sees beneath the pretense is my gorgeous, strictly-professional bodyguard. Ryan keeps me safe and calm. He holds me when I’m terrified.

But even Ryan doesn’t see everything. He doesn’t know I want him. That I crave him. The man who keeps me together has no idea how much I want him to take me apart.

And I’ll never tell. Because there’s no way someone as strong and confident as Ryan could have feelings for someone as chaotic as me.

Nobody’s that lucky… not even Mr. Fine.

I was a man without a family… or so I thought.

I came to tiny Majestic, Wyoming, to escape misfortune: the loss of my brother; my parents' blame for it; the billion-dollar secret that caused it all.

I find peace in my horses, in my friends, in quiet nights alone… and sometimes in remembering a scorching-hot one-night-stand from two years ago.

But everything changes when Tully Bowman, the man behind that unforgettable encounter, turns up in Majestic bringing me the daughter I've inherited (along with her multi-million-dollar trust fund).

Just like that, my peace becomes chaos, my quiet nights are filled with little Lellie's cries for “Daddy,” and the heat between Tully and me becomes more than just a memory.

Because it seems Tully's planning to stick around… at least until I prove I'm a “suitable father” and not the fortune-hunter Lellie's grandparents think I am. And the longer we spend together–the more he challenges and provokes me, comforts and calms me–the harder it is to remember why I ever thought one night would be enough.

I'm a bad bet for fatherhood, but if I choose to keep Lellie and raise her as my own, it won't be for her money. It will be because this precious girl and the man who brought her to me might be the fresh start and new family my heart has been looking for.

And because the best thing that ever happened to me might just be… Inheriting Miss Fortune.

Have you heard the expression “twelve times a groomsman, never a groom”? Neither had I… until it suddenly became clear that every man I dated found their One True Love in the person they dated after me.

Now I'm writing Best Man speeches for my former boyfriends twice a month, the “After Oscar” thing has become a legend, and I have finally accepted that Oscar Overton is nobody's Happily Ever After.

Which is fine.

Between running my investment company, providing for Frank, my emotional support hedgehog, and keeping my enthusiastic family from getting in my business, my life is plenty busy. The last thing on my mind is a relationship.

Until Hugh Linzee.

One hot night with the gorgeous wedding photographer somehow turns into a text conversation I just can't quit, but I'm determined to keep my distance. Hugh has ideas… ideas about romance and fireworks and capital-L love… and I care about him too much to let him get those ideas about me.

Fate keeps throwing us together, though. After an accidental all-night phone call and a convenient wedding run-in, suddenly I find myself agreeing to be his fake boyfriend, and distance quickly becomes a thing of the past.

But how long until Hugh figures out he'll only get his HEA… After Oscar?

I've made myself into many things over the years. A Yale graduate. A brilliant corporate strategist. A city boy. And, though no one outside my inner circle knows it, a billionaire.

One thing I never expected to be? Accidentally married to a straight, small-town cowboy named Waylon, the pride and joy of… *checks notes* Majestic, Wyoming.

Sadly, what happens in Vegas does not, in fact, stay in Vegas, and before I know it, I'm trying to track my erstwhile husband down, divorce papers in hand and thrift store clothes on my back, desperately hoping the stranger I married won't realize he's suddenly entitled to a lot more than that shiny gold ring on his finger.

Unfortunately, Way has other plans.

His town is counting on him as mayor to bring the lucrative AdventureSmash wilderness race to Majestic, and he refuses to sign my papers until the deal is done… which means me and my second-hand blue jeans will be hanging around a lot longer than I'd imagined, pretending our one-night whatever-it-was was a love match for the ages.

As it turns out, Majestic is more charming than I'd expected, and Way… is not entirely without charms himself. It also turns out he's, ahem, not as straight as he thought he was.

Before I know it, dusty boots feel more comfortable than my shiny wingtips, coffee at the Love Muffin tastes better than Starbucks, and being the First Husband of Majestic starts to seem as important as any corporate merger I've ever negotiated.

But for a man with secrets to keep and a whole life waiting for him back in Manhattan, the only thing worse than Marrying Mr. Majestic… would be falling in love with him for real.

The first time I got on my knees for President Ashley, it was the night of his inauguration…

And I was only doing my job… helping him remove his shoes.

I'm Lieuenant Commander Kenan Harper, the president's trusted valet. His loyal aide. His bodyman…

And the fool who's been in love with Garner Ashley since long before I took this job.

If I had my way, I'd be so much more than his employee, but to say that would be impossible would be the understatement of the century. Garner might be the first openly gay president, but the world's not ready for a gay First Gentleman, and Garner's never looked at me with anything but professional courtesy…

Until suddenly, he does.

The first touch between us sparks years of longing into a blaze so bright and wild, neither of us can deny our feelings any longer. But when a relationship is this forbidden, this career-ending, this… world-changing… both of us will have choices to make.

Will I remain in the shadows as the president's bodyman… or stand out and proud by Garner's side as the one he loves?

*This story was previously available during the Summer Nights 2024 promotion. No new material has been added.