Thirteen by Tia Fielding - Blog Tour with Excerpt

Thirteen

By Tia Fielding

Book 3 of Love By Numbers

Release date: 2/13/2020

Buy link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084BXVK9H

Release format: Amazon Kindle

Categories: LGBT Romance, Gay Romance, Gay Fiction

Length: 219 pages

Blurb:

After working as a beat cop in big cities, deputy Mark Forrest has finally found a home away from his abusive parents in the tiny town of Acker, Wisconsin. His life is mostly quiet and peaceful, but also a little bit lonely from staying in his self-imposed closet. Raised in a toxic household, Mark grew up hating himself and doesn't know any other way. After upsetting half of Acker and the LGBTQ community living there, Mark has felt even worse. He’s not that hateful, prejudiced guy, but how would anyone believe him, when he’s hiding who he is?

Nurse Francis Archer loves his job at a maternity clinic. He’s been through a lot, having grown up gay among the AIDS crisis. When he rejects the advances from a colleague and the man accuses him of sexual misconduct, Francis decides to cut his losses and run away to his old friends in Wisconsin. On the way there, he hooks up with an intriguing younger man who ends up being everything Francis thought he was, and so much more.

Meeting Mark again in Acker comes as a shock, but the two men can’t deny the chemistry between them. Mark craves being able to let go, and Francis loves to take him out of his head, but things aren’t quite that simple. Mark’s internalized homophobia and inability to stand up to his family make things rough, and Francis’s job as a live-in nurse for an elderly couple won’t last forever, given his patients’ declining health.

With the friends and found family they have in Acker and some welcome visitors from New Jersey, they might just have the help they need with figuring out what’s truly important.

Trigger Warning: Abusive language, homophobia, vague descriptions of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Excerpt: 

“So, tell me more about the man you’ve met? You said something about needing my lifestyle expertise?”

“Ah, well, I was going to visit Padraig, this was… mid-November. So I stopped in Green Bay and couldn’t sleep, so I went to a straight-friendly bar,” Francis started, then ate for a bit. “I met him there. This younger guy. Blond, really fit. Had that sort of dangerous closeted look about him.”

Joel nodded while he chewed. Once he’d taken a drink, he stated, “That one where they’re scared and anxious and angry at the same time?”

“Oh yeah,” Francis drawled slowly. Every gay man had seen the look on someone’s face—sometimes their own—at some point in their life. “So of course I went and sat right next to him.”

Joel laughed with clear delight. “Of course you did. How did he react?”

Francis filled him in up to the point where Mark had gone for the restroom. “I guess something in me snapped then. He was responding to me in an odd way. While I recognized the danger, I also had this… this power trip going on?”

Joel chuckled. “You were feeling Dommy.”

“I guess so. But I really hadn’t before. Sure there’s the odd vanilla type of power play, you know. But nothing like this. Not like….” Francis licked his lips, tasting the buttery herb sauce, then drank some water as he tried to figure out how to put it.

“Something clicked,” Joel guessed. Francis nodded, because he couldn’t explain it better than that. “You know me as a submissive, which is what and who I am. But did you know I’ve actually switched a few times?”

Francis frowned. He hadn’t known that. To him, Joel was the quintessential submissive. “How did that happen?”

“It’s always been at a club or a play party. You know Master and I are monogamous for the most part. But it’s always been with a certain kind of sub. Usually a young guy, someone just starting. Someone who looks scared of the Doms and just… I don’t know. I feel like this protectiveness and I ask Master and he says go for it. I’m good at it, too.” Joel smiled.

“I can understand that. You’re very caring. It makes sense that would be the good starter Dom without being a Dom,” Francis murmured thoughtfully.

“Yes, but here’s the thing. It takes very specific kind of chemistry. So far, in the last fifteen years, I’ve only met three subs who have made me feel like that. And trust me, I’ve seen hundreds of new boys enter the scene and be intimidated.”

“So you’re saying it’s him specifically that makes me feel like this?”

“Possibly. I mean, if I’m completely honest, you have always had this Dommy side in you.”

Francis, who had just finished his meal and was setting his utensils down on the plate, dropped them with a clank. “What?”

“You’ve a dominant in you, Francis. It’s been obvious to me since we met.”

“And you never said anything?”

Joel rolled his eyes as he pushed his own plate away. “When you’re kinky, it’s pretty fucking hard to go to someone vanilla and tell them ‘hey I think you might have a kinky side in you’ without sounding sleazy. At least in my opinion.”

“I’m gonna tell your Master you cussed,” Francis said, grinning.

Joel grinned back at him. “And how will you know I didn’t do it on purpose, knowing you’d tell Master so I’ll get a spanking tonight?”

About Tia Fielding

Tia Fielding is a Finnish author who loves witty people, words, peppermint, sarcasm, autumn, and the tiny beautiful things in life.

Tia identifies as genderqueer but isn’t strict about pronouns. Why? Because luckily, in her native language there aren’t gender-specific pronouns.

These days, preferring to live in the middle of nowhere with her fur babies is as big of a part of her psyche as writing. Tia likes to recharge in nature and tends to watch where she’s going through her cell phone’s camera.

In 2013 Tia’s novel Falling Into Place was recognized by the industry’s Rainbow Awards in the Best LGBT Erotic Romance (Bobby Michaels Award) category.

In 2019, her novel Four (Love by Numbers #2) won a Rainbow Award in the Best Transgender Contemporary category.