
After a broken engagement, Amelia Reid is starting over after ten years. Moving halfway across the state, she crashes on her lifelong best friend’s couch as she gets back on her feet–the same best friend who hired her as a bartender at the bar where she works as a manager. Amelia has never tended a bar in her life.
Despite not wanting to get involved with anyone too soon, she finds herself drawn to Josh, one of her coworkers. He’s sweet, thoughtful, and willing to tutor her in making drinks. Agreeing to take things slow, between his busy schedule and her timidness to get back into dating, they enjoy their time together when they can manage it. Though they plan to take their time, their connection is undeniable.
The first night Amelia meets Dane, her co-bartender on the weekends, she’s taken aback by how he speaks to her. Establishing a strange friendship based on lewd comments and innuendos, she tries to separate the way they talk to one another from the attraction she feels to him.
When Josh has to return home for a family emergency, Dane comforts Amelia. He’s doubly there when Josh calls and tells her they should stop seeing each other because he doesn’t know when he’ll return. After seeking comfort in him, she and Dane decide to be strictly friends with benefits.
Something about Dane seems off, but she can’t quite figure it out. It doesn’t help that she’s always exhausted due to–due to his unbelievable stamina and the nightmares she has when she finally goes to sleep. When Josh returns and she can be with him again, will Dane be so willing to let Amelia go? Will she have a choice in the matter?
Tropes: starting over, falling fast, fighting to slow down, friends with benefits, it’s like she’s under his spell, one wants her heart but the other wants her soul, aphrodisiacal touch, size difference, monsterfucking
Available: Kindle – Kindle Unlimited – Paperback
Content Warnings
Bastardization of Christian Lore: Demon Lore, Exorcism Rites
Abusive Partner Behavior: Controlling, Possessive, Manipulation/Guilt tripping
Sexual Harassment: Friendship based on lewd and inappropriate comments
Assault: Grabbed by an actor in a haunted house, in dream claws lacerate skin, punches thrown
Discussion of Rohypnol and Scopolamine and being drugged: in relation to the protagonist’s trance-like state
Sexual Assault: clothing torn off and groped during dreams, lover turns into a demon during the act and continues until she wakes up screaming
Use of degrading names: slut shaming, humiliation, and degradation (both in an agreed and unagreed-upon practice)
Earthquake/ Apocalyptic Events: Gore, Destruction, Chaos
Bad Sex Manners: Undiscussed use of degradation and humiliation, Lack of aftercare and checking in
Threats of Bodily Harm and Sexual Assault: The antagonist is trapped and making threats
Touching without vocal consent
Binge drinking is followed by the antagonist taking advantage of the protagonist’s drunken state to touch them inappropriately
Toxic relationship with mother (off page)
Parent involved car accident and related health problems (off-page, in conversation, severe)
Dream manipulation/altered view of reality