The Serendipity box set by Liam Livings is now available!
Blurb:
Three stories by Liam Livings chronicling the serendipitous relationship of lovers David and Christian as they meet and fall in love. Along the way, there are bets between friends on how soon the two men take before sleeping together, and old-fashioned family attitudes pose a problem they must overcome. But there’s plenty of British humour, letter-boxing, visits to hospital, and even talk of adopting babies, as well as plenty of time for the men to express their love for one another as they learn to love and live together.
Contains the stories:
Christmas Serendipity: In a snowy small town in England just before the festive season, refugees of bad luck Christian and David find themselves thrown together at a friend’s non-family Christmas. Both men realize this may be just what they need, when they need it.
Serendipity Develops: David and Christian met a few weeks ago, and were thrown together last Christmas through a mixture of luck and fate. They felt an instant spark for one another, but now neither want to rush into bed until they’re ready. David thinks he is, but Christian’s emotions are all over the place. A stay in hospital makes David wonder if their relationship too much for him to cope with.
The Next Christmas: In a snowy small town in England, just before Christmas, garage mechanic David and office worker Christian are preparing to spend the festive period with Christian’s parents. The parents who told Christian last year he wasn’t welcome to their family festive celebrations since he told them he was gay. The parents welcome show the men to separate bedrooms. Will their love overcome prejudice?
Excerpt from Christmas Serendipity:
We talked late into the night, moving onto Cathy’s special Christmas spirits. “Only to be drunk at this time of year,” she explained. She appeared with a tray of snowballs — yellow advocaat and lemonade, foaming with a little red cherry perched on top of each one. “This’ll send us to sleep,” she advised.
We took it in turns to throw more wood onto the fire, until we ran out. Cathy announced she was going to bed. She’d made up the spare room for Christian, and she pointed to the sofa in the corner for me.
I looked at her, feeling slightly light-headed from the alcohol, and started to ask if she’d show me how to make it up. Before I could say anything more, somehow she’d managed with just one hand, to turn it into a bed and cover it with perfect duvet and pillows.
“Thanks, Cathy. Night.” I stood up, a little unsteadily.
She kissed my cheek. “Night boys.” And she made her way up the stairs.
Tony followed, waving goodnight to us both.
And then there were two. I’ll admit I did consider, for a brief moment, just following Christian to his room. But I decided he wasn’t that sort of boy, and really, neither was I. So instead, I opted for an awkward goodnight hug/kiss, standing over the remains of the Indian takeaway in the middle of the floor. The gentle glow from the fire and a few candles around the room gave the only light. He kissed my cheek and I his, before lingering for a moment too long on his neck, holding the hug as long as I could manage without seeming creepy. I felt his breath on my neck and I felt myself responding in my boxer shorts. We both pulled back and stared into each other’s eyes, his warm breath mixing with mine as I breathed in and out. He smiled. I stared into his deep blue eyes and kissed him again, this time with our tongues exploring each other’s mouths. He gently bit my bottom lip and a jolt went to my groin. I felt his hand on my bum, trying to pull me towards him, despite our legs being a few feet apart, separated by the takeaway. We fell onto the sofa, his small frame landing gently on my muscly chest. He sat astride me, leaning down and continuing to kiss me. His hands caressed my pectoral muscles under my T-shirt, tweaking my nipples, harder and harder.
Maybe he was that sort of boy, and maybe I was, too.
I pulled away from his kiss and gently held his hands, stopping them from massaging my recently trimmed chest hair — cut to just the right length to show off my muscles, only a few days before.
Christian looked me in the eyes. “No, don’t stop, I want you, I want you … in me.”
I gazed back at him. Hearing that, it was pretty difficult to resist him. “Listen, you don’t know what you want. You’re so knocked about by what’s happened, you hardly know which is up and which is down …”
“I know we’re both up at the moment, if that’s any help.” He smiled at me.