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Tasting Notes
Cate Ashwood
Series: Canyon Creek, book one
Release date: October 26, 2015
Blurb:
West, a venture capitalist, has paid for his
wealth and success with long hours at the office and no personal life to speak
of. Meetings, conference calls, and paperwork dominate his waking hours and
have kept him from honoring the promise he made to his late grandfather years
before.
After leaving the Marines, Rush returns to
his hometown and settled in as a Christmas Tree farmer. His life is quiet and
simple, and he likes it that way. When West arrives in town and buys Rush’s
parent’s vineyard on a whim, that simple life is turned upside down. The
animosity between them is palpable, but Rush shelves his preconceived notions
in order to protect his parents’ legacy. He agrees to help West learn how to
run the vineyard, and Rush soon realizes that love doesn't necessarily come in
the package he expected.
Categories: Contemporary, M/M
Romance, Fiction, Gay Fiction
64,000 words
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Cover Artist: Anna Sikorska
Excerpt:
The drive over felt the same as it always
did. Rush thought his truck probably could have found its way anywhere in town,
but the trip to Lennox Hill was one he’d made at least a few thousand times. It
was weird to think the property no longer belonged to his family. Enough of his
sweat had soaked into the soil that a part of him lived in that land.
He parked his truck in the same place as
always and opened the door, calling to Casper to jump out before closing the
door behind him. The door to the main structure was closed and locked. Rush
peered through the windows of the wine room as he walked past, but the lights
were off and the space was abandoned. Rush and Casper followed the pathway
toward the house. Casper sat down as Rush knocked, waiting patiently for an
answer. When none came, he knocked again with a little more force. West’s car
was parked in the driveway, so unless he had decided to walk somewhere, he
should be here.
A moment later, the door swung open and West
stood there, naked from the waist up, his hair disheveled and his cheeks pink.
“What the fuck?” he asked.
Rush saw red, which was a blessing because
it kept him from seeing the way West’s body looked beneath his clothes. The guy
was sleeping, and it was nearly noon. He’d owned the vineyard for less than a
week, and he was already slacking off.
“Can I come in? I want to talk to you.”
West stepped to the side to let Rush enter.
He looked around. Everything was the same as he remembered it. The house was
warm and comfortable, begging you to come in and stay a while. Rush had always
loved this house. He peered into the living room, noting the two empty wine
bottles on the coffee table.
“Is that a fucking wolf?” West demanded,
breaking Rush out of his train of thought.
“What? No. That’s Casper. My dog.”
With a subtle nod from Rush, Casper sat next
to his master, his eyes glued to West, but quiet.
West narrowed his eyes. “Why are you here?”
“I came to offer my help. You said you
needed help, and my mom told me you didn’t know a fucking thing about running
this place, so I figured I’d bail you out.”
“Why?” West looked awfully mistrustful. Rush
couldn’t blame him. He didn’t trust West either.
“Because they’re my family, and you’re the
dickhead who bought the place they poured their hearts and souls into. I’m not
going to let you run it into the ground because you have some romantic fucking
idea about being all sophisticated and worldly, owning your own vineyard. Not
going to happen.”
“Look, what is your fucking problem with
me?” West asked, crowding Rush’s space. “You’ve been nothing but a complete
bastard to me since the moment you laid eyes on me. I haven’t done shit to you,
and you’re giving me a rough time for no goddamn reason.”
Casper growled, but Rush calmed him with a
gentle pat to the head. “Sue me if I don’t like spoiled little rich kids. You
blow into town in your tricked-out sports car and think you can do whatever you
want here because you have a shit ton of money. You take what you want without
any regard for the people around you.”
“You don’t know a thing about me, but you
think you’ve got my number. Well, you can go fuck yourself. You saw my car, and
you made a snap decision about me. You didn’t bother talking to me or getting
to know me at all before you rushed to judgment. Maybe you should give me the
benefit of the doubt before you tell me who I am.”
“I don’t need to. I know exactly who you
are. I’ve met guys like you. You’re arrogant, spoiled, and selfish. You put on
a good front, pretending to be this philanthropic nice guy, but when it comes
down to it, you’ll choose your money over everything else.”
“Oh, for fuck sakes. You storm in here,
waking me up and screaming at me. In case you missed the memo, this is my home
now. You’re on my property. What gives you the right to show up and give me
shit about something you know nothing about?”
“Your name may be on the deed, but that’s as
far as it goes, asshole. Lennox Hill is in my blood, and the last thing I want
is for you to completely destroy it out of sheer ignorance.”
“Well, then there’s something we agree on.
It’s why I came to your house in the first place, in case you need reminding
about that. I don’t want this place to fail any more than you do, so how about
you get your head out of your ass, stop being such a fucking prick, and help
me?”
Rush stared at him, not saying a word. He
hadn’t anticipated the conversation taking this turn. Hell, he hadn’t
anticipated this conversation period. There was something there, behind West’s
eyes, a kind of rawness Rush hadn’t expected. He stepped forward, his eyes
locked on West’s. He felt drawn to him like a compass to north, locking onto
that flicker of something unnamable.
He was not in control of his body. He pulled
a quick intake of breath as the space between them evaporated. He was close
enough that he could feel the crackle of electricity between them, as tangible
as if West was statically charged.
“Fine, I’ll help,” Rush said, knowing West
could feel his breath as he spoke.
“But this doesn’t mean I like you,” Rush
growled.
“Understood,” West replied. “I don’t like
you either.”
“As long as we’re clear.”
You can find Tasting Notes here:
Cate Ashwood wrote her very first story in a
hot-pink binder when she was in the second grade and found her passion for
writing. Her first successful foray into romance writing came five years later
when she wrote her best friend, who was experiencing a case of unrequited love,
her own happily ever after.
Cate’s life has taken a number of different
and adventurous roads. She now lives a stone’s throw from the ocean, just
outside of Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband, her little boy, and
their two cats. Her life is filled with family and friends, travel, and, of
course, books.
Find Cate here:
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