What do you do when you're a popular porn star and the love of your life is deeply religious and totally closeted? Why, you keep your true identity from him, create an alternate reality, and hope he doesn't find out, of course. Because, if he ever does, that would be the deal breaker. That was Jordan Hearst's reasoning, anyway. However, despite Jordan's best efforts at keeping his charade a secret, Spenser Hudson does find out. Having a liar and a porn star as a boyfriend is a deal breaker as far as the devastated Spenser is concerned. Fearing the loss of both his job and his family, Spenser abruptly disappears from Jordan's life, castigating himself for ever letting his carnal desires override his faith, thus allowing him to fall in love with the handsome, charming Jordan. With all attempts at reconciliation rebuffed, Jordan tries to move on, but the love he feels for Spenser won't go away, making it impossible for him to return to his job of having meaningless sex in front of the cameras. Spenser is given a different perspective on his and Jordan's situation from an unlikely source. Can the love he still feels for Jordan be the key to rekindling what they once shared? Is it enough to make Spenser see there's more than one way to look at the deal life has given him? Can a new deal to be struck?

The Deal Breaker

Spenser laughed. “No, not completely. Enough of it can be salvaged…but why don’t you let me finish. I don’t want you to burn down the apartment.”


Jordan faked a pout. “Well, okay, but I really wanted to make dinner for us to celebrate.”


“You can help. Finish peeling the onions, chop them—and the celery, and open the cans of tomatoes. I’ll do the rest.”


The two went to work finishing making dinner. Jordan was glad in a way that the hamburger had burned. It had interrupted him from continuing to wade deeper into the fantasy he’d created about his being fired, and it gave him some time to come up with a plausible plan for what he would do for a job, given he had no degree and no real skills—facts he felt had to still be kept secret from his lover.


The diversion didn’t succeed. During dinner, Spenser pressed for more details and also what Jordan’s plans were for finding work.


Chapter 12