Hendrix What’s the only thing more annoying than my years-too-young neighbor? The way I want him more than air. There are plenty of things I don’t like about my new home in California, and my neighbor, Miles, is at the top of the list. He’s smug and arrogant, he speaks out of turn. And even though I should have learned my lesson about fast-talking, younger, dominant men when I broke up with my ex, I want him. For better or worse, Miles and I are on the same page and that’s why we decide there’s no harm in taking things between us someplace a little more private. Good thing it’s only a physical connection between us because I could never be with a man like him for the long term… Miles Can I tease my well-dressed and thick-thighed older neighbor into bed? I’m not sure, but there’s no harm in trying. There’s never been a man who twists me up inside the way Hendrix does, and from the very first time he tells me yes, I know I’m going to demand a thousand more agreements out of his gorgeous mouth before I’m anywhere close to being done with him. He says he only wants me for my body, but it’s not long before things between us feel anything but casual. Hendrix thinks I can’t tell he’s being cautious with me, that I don’t know his worries about the past repeating itself are a constant threat in his head. Joke’s on him, though. Hendrix makes me want to be a better man and I’m not going to stop until I prove that I’m worthy of a partner like him, even if I stumble more than once along the way. What’s the only thing scarier than falling in love with the older man who’s determined not to trust me? Giving him the space to discover he can. —- Necessary Space is a 76,000 word age gap romance where coffee is a love language, annoying neighbors become lovers, kneeling is so much more than an act of submission, and love can be found all in good time.

If there’s a lesson to be found in this whole disaster of a life, it’s that sometimes things just take time, whether we like it or not. Wesley After a night of drinking with my lifelong best friend ended with an unexpected kiss, my entire life flipped upside down. I ran away from home—and him—without so much as a goodbye. Moving to California was a rash decision, sure, but not even the palm trees and the ocean are enough to make the pain of losing my best friend manageable. It wasn’t his fault the kiss brought up all kinds of feelings I wasn’t ready for, just like it’s not my brother’s fault when he introduces me to his stupid hot co-worker, Colin. Bringing up more feelings…that I'm still not ready for. Colin It’s been eight years since I first kissed a man. Eight years and more that I’ve been living in the closet, too scared of coming out and dashing my mom’s hopes for a daughter-in-law and grandkids of her own. I know it’s dangerous to indulge, but Hendrix’s younger brother, Wesley, and the feelings he stirs up inside of me, remind me of my past. Worse than that, they promise me a future that’s always felt out of reach. There’s too much at stake between us. Neither of us have really been with another man before, Hendrix would kill me if he discovered I was making out with his barely legal brother, and my parents would be crushed by the news. But if being with Wesley has taught me anything, it’s that all things will come together in good time.