Genre: Alternative (MM) Contemporary Romance Heat Level: 3 Word Count: 43, 220 ISBN: 978-1-77233-886-7 Editor: Karyn White Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

Mercenary Trust by Frey Ortega

Heat Level 3
$4.99
SKU 978-1-77233-886-7
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Unit Alpha, 1

Two years ago, Daniel Walsh’s life went to shit. He found out his boyfriend of six years was actually cheating on him and got laid off from his job. So Daniel, no longer having anything tying him down to the city, decided to travel the world… 

But then reality rears its ugly head. Now twenty-six, with no work and no money, Daniel has moved back to the city where a visit to his mother brings him face-to-face with a certain Nicolas Castillo. 

Nick is a thirty-year-old ex-Marine just trying to live a civilian life after military service … or so he says. The truth is that he’s a member of an elite, black ops mercenary team called Unit Alpha. 

When a mission brings Nick closer to people in Daniel’s past, he can’t believe the good-natured man has such close ties to some nasty people. But it also unleashes a protective instinct inside Nick unlike any he’s ever felt before. 

With so many suspicious happenings in Daniel’s past, how can he earn the mercenary’s trust?

Be Warned: m/m sex, sex toys

 

Excerpt:

Well, that was bullshit.

Daniel Walsh could almost hear the sound of the bouquet of flowers he was holding falling down to the floor with a loud thud.

Thwack. Petals. Petals everywhere on the carpet. That was going to be a bitch to clean up.

Thank God he wasn’t going to be anywhere near here in five minutes.

Life just had a crappy way of springing things on you, didn’t it?

He didn’t need to stay more than five seconds to figure out what had seared into his memory. No matter how many times he was going to wish he wanted it erased from his mind, Daniel was going to keep repeating the same five seconds over, and over, and over until he vomited from how horrible it made him feel.

In fact, his insides lurched already. “Oh God,” Daniel cursed to himself. Please, please, please let this all just be a dream.

A slam of the door and a quick stride to the elevator. He kept pressing the down button, hoping the damn thing would open in time and things wouldn’t get too awkward. It’s not like he was equipped to run all the way down the twenty flights of stairs to the lobby. No, he just wanted to get the fuck out of here, and fast.

Never mind that he had just left his home, where he had been living for three years with his boyfriend, Thad.

Thad, who had ensnared his heart as soon as they’d met in college, six years ago.

Thad, who had pursued him for so long and made Daniel feel like he was attractive, and whom Daniel had poured all of his love into for all those six years.

Thad, whom he’d just caught, naked, with another person in their bed.

Memories flooded into Daniel’s head. His lips quivered as he fought back the tears. No, no, this isn’t happening. This is just a dream. You’re going to wake up from it, and things are going to be fine.

No, it isn’t, a contrarian voice piped up from somewhere inside him. Things are going to shit. It’s probably your fault. You’re the one who forgot that yesterday was your anniversary. But you were working! At his father’s company. Forgetting shouldn’t have been that big of a problem!

Even with his eyes closed, he could still see the image of his boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—balls deep inside a person Daniel didn’t even know. On their bed.

Maybe he shouldn’t have entered the bedroom when he’d already heard was what happening inside.

The squeaking of the bedsprings, the guttural moans, that high-pitched whimpering from a woman who seemed like she was clearly faking it—not that Daniel knew when a woman was faking it, he’d never done anything remotely sexual except kiss that one kind of cute girl in band camp when he was ten—with a combination of sounds like that, Daniel already knew what he was going to be seeing.

Unfortunately, that didn’t stop him from peering inside and then slamming the door when he confirmed what he needed to know.

Yup, that’s Thad. Yup, he’s cheating on me. Yup, he was on the cusp of orgasm. Who knew he still had it in him?

The fact that the person Thad was currently hilted into was a woman didn’t even register in his mind. Cheating was cheating, and the mere sight of skin-on-skin contact was enough to make Daniel dry heave in a bad, bad way.

“Daniel!” He heard someone exclaim behind him, trying to call his attention. No, no, anyone but you, Daniel said to himself, frantically pressing the button to the elevator. “Daniel, wait, baby, I can explain—“

“Oh, no no no no.” Daniel shook his head. Every instinct inside him was clawing at him, telling him to let loose and punch Thad in the face. “We’re not going to do that little dance here. We’re not going to go into that whole cliché conversation. How are you going to explain your dick inside that woman, Thad? How are you going to lie to me, to my face, about how you weren’t just fucking another person in our bed, where we used to sleep together? Where we were building a life together?”

Nope. This was definitely not going well. Not for Daniel’s self-control, anyway. He was a hair’s breadth away from slamming his fist into Thad’s stupid, Adonis-like, chiseled fucking face.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t quite control himself.

“M… M…” Anger was rolling through him. Bubbling. Seething. It felt like he was about to explode. He couldn’t even finish what he was about to say.

Thad tilted his head. He raised his eyebrow. “Look, baby, I—”

“M … mail, motherfucker!” His fist flung outward and straight up into Thad’s gorgeous, yet dishonest face. There was a satisfying crunch as knuckles came into contact with nose, before the elevator bell dinged and the doors flung open.

What the fuck? Daniel didn’t know what came over him. His eyes widened, and a spreading sense of shame, more than he ever felt before, unfurled inside him. That’s the best you could come up with? No Hasta la Vista, baby? No? Okay.

“Ow! Motherf—” Thad brought a hand to his face, stunned and standing there with an angry scowl. “Son of a bitch! That hurt!”

“I hope you like bleeding all over your date. Enjoy the rest of the night. If you have any shred of human decency left, you’ll put my stuff in a box and I’ll pick it up from the doorman.” Daniel’s voice was curt and low, and exceedingly polite for how infinitely volatile he was feeling.

“Daniel, wait! Please! Hear me out!”

You don’t get the satisfaction, Daniel thought bitterly. But at least I got to smack the shit out of you.

Product Reviews

Score: 4 out of 5 (based on 3 ratings)
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4/5
Coffee Time Romance
Written by Lototy on 3rd Oct 2016

One heart-break, two years, and thirty pounds later Daniel Walsh is back on home turf. No job and having to live with his best friend; however, makes Daniel feel like nothing much has changed. Ex-military does not really describe Nicolas Castillo and his Marine buddies. Their tour of duty may be over, but their unit is just as active as ever. When Daniel walked out on his ex he thought he would never have anything to do with Thad again, yet his first date with Nick proves otherwise. He and Nick feel such an instant connection it is almost scary, but their night together is far from pleasurable. Being with Daniel is so comfortable Nick can see this becoming far more serious, which makes completing this mission safely absolutely imperative. Daniel’s trust has taken a beating, so when Nick swoops in and steals his breath away, Daniel is a little leery of his own feelings. Nick; however, is not about to let Daniel put himself down, and I love how they both are completely upfront with each other. No way is Daniel going to walk blindly into a new relationship, but with Nick he never has to. The exciting bit of action, friendly banter, and sizzling attraction in this story is more than enough to keep you interested and anxiously waiting for more.

4/5
Love Bytes
Written by Sarina on 21st Jul 2016

Two years after leaving the country following a bad break up and its aftermath, Daniel Walsh has finally come home but things aren’t much better than when he left. Sure he had some great experiences but now he’s stuck without a job and a bank account quickly being drained of funds. When he goes home to face the music and his mother’s chastisement for the time he spent away, he was expecting a lecture but what he got instead was an unexpected run in with his mother’s new neighbor. Daniel pushes all of Nick’s buttons and he’s more than willing to get to know the younger man but things are rarely easy in his line of work and when it turns out his new dating prospect is connected with his new job, he’s conflicted. On the one hand, he’s fairly certain Daniel is innocent of any wrongdoing but on the other, the company he used to work for is neck deep in corruption and Daniel’s ex is their top suspect… On the whole I liked this one but there were parts I enjoyed more than others. I really liked the premise of the story and I was really interested in the men that make up Unit Alpha. All of the guys seem like really interesting characters from what little you got to see but it’s a good mix of guys that I look forward to getting to know as the series continues. The story itself starts off with a bit of a bang (and a black eye!) and I was drawn into the drama surrounding Daniel’s break up with is ex. I find I totally agreed with him here: there are a lot of things I can forgive but cheating isn’t one of them. If infidelity bothers you, nothing is shown and the part is over fairly quickly; I hate cheating in my books but this didn’t bother me at all but I’m at least letting you know its here. I liked Daniel quite a bit; he has some self esteem issues and a bit of a temper but he was a sweet guy that spent the years he took for himself helping other people instead. I also liked that he wasn’t your typical twink character and that he’d ‘let himself go’ while overseas. Nick seemed like a great guy, too, and it was fairly obvious that under the hardened military man was a guy that cared deeply for others even as he tried to keep a part of himself back. While I didn’t see a complete fit between him and Daniel, I could see the two men developing a deeper relationship in later books. The story itself was decent but with the length of the book, things obviously moved a bit faster than I would’ve liked and things weren’t completely resolved at the end though the book ended on a solid note. Overall I enjoyed the story but I do wish things had been drawn out a little more or, at the very least, I could’ve seen more development with Daniel and Nick’s relationship. Still, this was a pretty good start to a new series and I’m looking forward to seeing where the author takes things from here.

5/5
GREAT FIRST IN A SERIES!!
Written by Bike Book Reviews on 11th Jul 2016

You know how sometimes in a book you have to wonder who the MC's love interest is? Well not in this book, the chemistry is so well written and present between Nick and Daniel that you know these two were meant for each other when they first meet! Frey Ortega is so good with writing chemistry in his books, this is one reason I love his writing so much! Daniel was shattered when he found his ex cheating on him he decided to go abroad for a while and get his head right. Two years later and he is visiting his mom when he meets one of her new neighbors, Nick. Daniel has to stop himself from drooling and he knows he wants to get to know Nick, but how would someone as beautiful as Nick like someone like Daniel? He may be surprised! Daniel and Nick are pulled into mystery inadvertently by Daniel's delightful but kooky best friend Cece, and it is a matter of time before Daniel learns the truth about Nick, just what he does for a living, and just who he is investigating! Will it tear these two that are so right for each other apart? I promise you will devour this book just like I did friends! Thanks Frey for a wonderful book one in what promises to be an awesome series!

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