Hmmm, rope. “Then what?”
“I started giggling. Good grief. What was next, a flogger?”
Damn, I missed that. “So Mike froze you out after you cut him down during sex. You don’t see a connection?”
“Didn’t you hear what he did?” Zach looked at me like I was crazy. I tried not to look horny.
“Oh, Zach. Where do you think he learned all of that?”
Then Zach turned bright red. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope.”
He sighed. “Why am I talking to his ex-boyfriend about this?”
“Because this is what you signed up for when you met Mike, I guess. You can roll with it or you can let him go, because I’ll always be involved in his life. Apparently.” No matter how hard I try not to be. “I’m not going to be your go-to guy whenever you have a problem, and you’ll come to know him better than I do, but right now? I’m your map.”
I felt bad for Zach, I truly did. This aspect of his boyfriend must’ve come as a complete shock to him.
“It’s….”
“He’s really toppy and very, very dominant. He also likes to tie people up, among other things. Do a little reading, maybe see if that’s something you can’t learn to enjoy. I’m not saying you have to like it as rough as I do, but it’s something he realized he needed when we were together. Give him a chance, and he’ll fuck you like a raging god.”
Zach’s eyes had grown progressively wider as I’d spoken. “I have to go.”
And this, I thought, was why the aliens won’t visit us.
Epilogue
I LOVED fall in Boston. I loved the Head of the Charles.
I loved the fact that this year, it was free of last year’s drama. This year, the most vexing problem I faced was that I could only row in two races and there were three I wanted to participate in. I wanted to reprise last year’s quad in the Directors’ Cup Challenge. I’d had way too much fun last year to take a pass this year. Besides, I loved those guys, even if I owed Brad St. Charles an oar handle in the kidneys. But I could only race in a single—provided it was an open event—or race in the eights with CalPac’s varsity crew.
“I vote for the eights,” Lodestone said. “The biggest objection at the selection camp was your ability to blend in with crews. Take every chance you can to work on that. We both know what you can do in the single.”
Pendergast nodded. “It only makes sense, Remy. You’ve got plenty of time to rock the single, but only three years to row in a varsity eight. Besides, you know I’ll enter you in what sculling events I can. The rule about one event only here at the Charles is pretty rare.”
They were right, and I opted for the eight. For that matter, once I graduated from CalPac, I could enter as a sculler for as long as the Charles would have me. As a collegiate rower? Pendergast had a point. Three years including this one, assuming I graduated on time.
I also loved the chance to socialize at the Charles, at least now that I’d been here before and knew more people beyond my own teammates. Thanks to the Crew Classic, to my time at the selection camp, and to my visit to Brown, I knew people from all over the country, and we all converged on Boston during that one weekend in late October. Between these people, plus friends from the Cap City masters and my CalPac teammates, I had a great time.
The best part of the regatta? When Randy shyly took my hand and I just as shyly let him. Michael saw it and gave me a thumbs-up where Randy couldn’t see it. I was glad for Michael’s approval, but I’d already realized that I would continue to see Randy with or without it, as I suspected Michael would date—and nail—Zach whether I liked Zach or not. As it happened, I thought Zach was perfect for my ex. Assuming he stopped snickering when Michael tried to tie him up.
We’d all figure it out, I knew that much.
More from Christopher Koehler
A CalPac Crew Novel
Nick Bedford, closeted coach of California Pacific College’s men’s rowing team, is struggling with professional ethics. He denies his attraction to Morgan Estrada, a rower on the crew, though the heated glances between them drive Nick wild. Then Morgan makes a move... and though Nick panics, Morgan gets what he wants: Nick.
Safely assured that he’s not preying on a younger man, Nick gives in to his feelings for Morgan. They take pleasure in sharing their daily routine, and the sex sets the sheets afire. Everything seems perfect until an anonymous complaint is filed against Nick right before the biggest race of the year. It’s exactly what Nick has feared most—and it may be enough to capsize the fledgling relationship.
A CalPac Crew Novel
Between his job as a Realtor and his home renovation business, Drew St. Charles is in over his head. What he really needs is a licensed contractor to oversee his projects, and Drew knows just the man for the job: Brad Sundstrom. The Sundstrom family has been in construction for years, so Brad knows his way around a toolbox, and he desperately wants out from under his sneering father’s thumb.
The close contact and the excitement of a career-making renovation fan the sparks between Brad and Drew into an inferno. Before long, the phrase “working hard together” takes on a new meaning. It looks as if Drew’s dreams are coming true, although Brad is far from out and proud. But then Drew is savagely attacked in a hate crime, and Brad panics.
Suddenly everything is in jeopardy. When arson strikes Drew’s dream project, Brad faces a crucial test: he’ll need to overcome his fears, save their work, and take his place at Drew’s side or retreat to the stifling familiarity of the closet.
A CalPac Crew Novel
When newly promoted fire battalion chief Owen Douglas skips out on physical therapy after an on-the-job injury, his one-time hookup, Brad Sundstrom, bullies him into joining the adaptive rowing program at the Capital City Rowing Club. There, Owen meets Adam Lennox, a veterinarian and former rower who also works as a volunteer. Adam is new in town and eager to make friends, but the chemistry between him and Owen is blistering.
Despite Owen’s commitment issues, he wants more this time. He makes a move, and the friendship he shares with Adam turns into more. But Adam hasn’t left his past as far behind as he thought. When his abusive ex-boyfriend, Jordan Sanders, returns, Adam and Owen find themselves in grave danger.
Jordan won’t let anything stop him from getting Adam back—not even a court order. Soon Adam has to choose between breaking up with Owen to save him from Jordan’s fury or risking both their lives to stay by Owen’s side.
A CalPac Crew Novel
Stuart Cochrane and Philip Sundstrom make an unlikely pair. Philip’s brother, Brad, can’t imagine his brother with another man, let alone with the coxswain he razzed throughout his college rowing career. But somehow they settle into a relationship that works as Philip helps Stuart navigate the pressures of deciding between medical school and competing for a spot on the national rowing team. In turn, Stuart helps Philip with his problems at work, where he’s faced with a rebellious board of directors.
Yet soon enough, the pressures take their toll. Stuart comes to resent the easy way Philip spends money, while Philip worries about Stuart’s time commitments. He’ll do anything to come to the rescue, including spending his money to grease the rails for Stuart, but Stuart resents the rich so much it drives a wedge between them.
Then Stuart finds himself facing the greatest crisis of his life. There’s only one person he can turn to—but Philip has his own demons to battle in the form of his board trying to frame him for their own unethical actions. Will Philip be able to aid Stuart while he extricates himself from his board’s trap, or will his divided attention cost them both everything that matters?
The first time Henry Hughes and Cameron Jameson meet, it’s an unmitigated disaster. Cameron reminds Henry of all he left behind when he stopped making adult films, and he cruelly rejects Cameron. When Cameron discovers Henry’s porno-thespian past, he assumes he’s dodged a bullet.
But circumstances continue to throw the two together. Though the physical attract
ion between them grows, they cling to first impressions, even as a slow dance reveals just how good they could be.
Henry finally realizes how wrong he was, but Cameron can’t cope with “sleeping with the enemy.” It will take a confrontation for Cameron to realize just how wrong he’s been, but unfortunately, he may have lost his chance.
Readers love the CalPac Crew Stories by Christopher Koehler
Rocking the Boat
“The plot was realistic and flowed so that I was captivated from the first paragraph until the end of the novel.”
—Dark Diva Reviews
Settling the Score
“I have been a fan of this series since the beginning and I was more than pleased with this latest addition to the CalPac catalog.”
—Love Bytes
“A mirror of life itself, Christopher Koehler's story deftly illustrates just how precarious juggling personal, professional, and family lives can be.”
—The Romance Reviews
“I highly recommend this book and the entire series. Christopher Koehler has made me fall in love with rowing and all of the men that love it too.”
—The Novel Approach
CHRISTOPHER KOEHLER learned to read late (or so his teachers thought) but never looked back. It was not, however, until he was nearly done with grad school in the history of science that he realized that he needed to spend his life writing and not on the publish-or-perish treadmill. At risk of being thought frivolous, he found that academic writing sucked all the fun out of putting pen to paper.
Christopher is also something of a hothouse flower. Inside of almost unreal conditions he thrives to set the results of his imagination free, and for most of his life he has been lucky enough to be surrounded by people who encouraged both that tendency and the writing. Chief among them is his long-suffering husband of twenty-four years and counting.
When it comes to writing, Christopher follows Anne Lamott’s advice: “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.” So while he writes fiction, at times he ruthlessly mines his past for character traits and situations. Reality is far stranger than fiction.
Christopher loves many genres of fiction and nonfiction, but he’s especially fond of romances, because it is in them that human emotions and relations, at least most of the ones fit to be discussed publicly, are laid bare.
Writing is his passion and his life, but when Christopher is not doing that, he’s an at-home dad and oarsman with a slightly disturbing interest in manners and other ways people behave badly.
Blog: christopherkoehler.net/blog
Twitter: @christopherink
By Christopher Koehler
First Impressions
CALPAC CREW
Rocking the Boat
Tipping the Balance
Burning It Down
Settling the Score
THE LIVES OF REMY AND MICHAEL
Published with Harmony Ink Press: Poz
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
© 2016 Christopher Koehler.
Cover Art
© 2016 Bree Archer.
http://www.breearcher.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
ISBN: 978-1-63476-676-0
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63476-677-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015950141
Published January 2016
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Blurb
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Chapter 01
Chapter 02
Chapter 03
Chapter 04
Chapter 05
Chapter 06
Chapter 07
Chapter 08
Chapter 09
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
More from Christopher Koehler
Readers love the CalPac Crew Stories by Christopher Koehler
About the Author
By Christopher Koehler
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All That Is Solid Melts Into Air Page 34
