Because his pool is untended and filthy, romance author Robert Fine needs to hire a pool boy for the summertime position at his estate. So at the beginning of summer, he places an ad for a pool boy to hire. Enter Kent Tacoma, an ex-Navy stud, handsome, who lands an interview. Almost immediately Robert enjoys his company and himself, hiring Kent on the spot. As Tacoma tends the pool, Robert cannot keep his hungry eyes off the young man. All he can think about is his desire. Unfortunately, Tacoma starts to break Robert’s house rules with a local bad boy named Katz Strong, Tacoma’s opposite. Soon a jealous Robert is convinced Tacoma is under Katz’s bad influence. As Tacoma pulls away from Robert and grows closer to Katz. Robert finds his rage building. Can’t the three men just get along? As summer comes to a close, Tacoma becomes the center of everyone’s attention. Whose heart will survive the heated summer?

The Pool Boy

“That’s why they call it a gym, my boy.”


I believed him straight, relishing women over men. It was his eyebrows: they were not groomed and willy-nilly in shape and size. Something told me that he had never kissed a boy or man before, and mostly dated women of his own age. In truth, it was the bad boy look in his daring eyes that confirmed bluntly that the pool boy enjoyed the company of females: an intense brown, unyielding, so serious. I couldn’t help myself from asking him, “Do you have a girlfriend here in West End?”


“But you have had one, right?” I was being completely selfish, rude, nothing more than an old bitchy queen. How easy I found my game, and how intoxicating to pry answers out of him about his life, treating him like prey. How distasteful, but it felt sweet to me, rewarding.


He nodded. “I did have a girl back in Cali. A beautiful ginger.”


“California. It’s what some people call the state.”


Chapter 5