Hi – –
Sinders and Ash and Beauty, Inc. in PRINT! If you like print books — and fairy tale tropes — you’ve come to the right place. Two of my popular Pennymaker Tales, the modern gay romance retellings of popular fairy tale themes, are now together in a single print volume.
If you’d like to buy this book you can get it at Amazon and Dreamspinner and B&N
I’m not going to give one away since i’m not set up to mail internationally and i want this for everyone.
SO, CONTEST!!! — i will give away one ecopy of Sinders and Ash and one ecopy of Beauty, Inc. ebook to 2 lucky winners. Okay? Not print but 2 ebooks! To win, please leave me a comment below.
Sinders and Ash is based on the themes of Cinderella, and as you can guess, Beauty, Inc. has a Beauty and the Beast theme. The only thing uniting the two stories is the fact that they are fairy tale romances — and a single character — and i do mean character. Mr. Pennymaker appears in all the books in the series.
Excerpts!
Sinders and Ash
Housekeeper Mark Sintorella (Sinders) works diligently at a resort hotel while designing clothes anonymously, hoping to get into fashion school. Then his carefully planned life is upended with the arrival of Ashford Armitage, son of the fifth richest man in America—and the most beautiful guy Mark has ever seen. Ash must find a wife or he’ll lose his grandfather’s inheritance, and he settles on Bitsy Fanderel. But secretly Ash is gay, and the guy who cleans the fireplaces sets his heart ablaze.
Further stirring the pot is the little elf of a man, Carstairs Pennymaker, who has Mark wearing his own designs and masquerading as a girl to impress the fashion investors in the hotel. When the clock strikes twelve, two beautiful princesses line up for the wedding—but one isn’t a woman. Will the slipper fit? Only Mr. Pennymaker knows for sure
Pennymaker turned and looked at Mark. “What are you working on?”
“Excuse me? I, uh, have to clean some fireplaces this morning. You know they keep the rooms cool just so they can use them? Makes work for me.”
“That’s not what I mean, of course.” Pennymaker turned back to the rack and pushed some jeans aside. “Aha!” His hand shot through the garments to the dress form. He made an opening in the clothes and stepped through to stand beside the red dress. “Perfect. Just beautiful. What a talent.”
“Excuse me?”
Pennymaker beamed at him. “You have exceptional design skills.”
God, it was hard to not be flattered. “Thank you, sir.” But how had Mr. P known to look for the dress? Who’d told him?
Pennymaker walked over to the chair and sat. It creaked. Hopefully the tiny man wouldn’t strain the old wood too much. “I would like to show that dress to some people.”
“Uh, who?”
“Let’s say some potential investors.”
No. He couldn’t get excited. “Really, sir? You’re in the clothing business?”
“I’m in many businesses, my boy.”
Okay, try not to be suspicious. “How did you know I was a clothing designer?”
The little man waved a hand. “That lovely T-shirt, of course.”
“No one told you?”
“Who would tell me?”
Had him there.
Pennymaker stepped back and surveyed the dress. “Now, who is your model?”
What? Mark cocked his head.
“Whom did you set the dress form to?”
“Oh, uh, myself. I, uh, don’t have anyone else. I’m pretty slim, so it works.”
“Perfect. Perfect. When do you have to be at work?”
This conversation was crazy. “In about an hour. This is my morning off. Unless they need me, of course.”
“Good. Put on the dress.”
“What? Why?”
“We’re going for a little walk through the hotel. You’ll be my… niece. Go on, go on.” He made a shooing gesture with his hands.
Mark shook his head. “Sir, I know I fit the dress to me, but that’s because I don’t have anyone else. I’m not a transvestite.”
“Never said you were, dear boy. But these people I want to have see the dress will be much more amenable to taking your designs seriously if they think of the idea themselves rather than me telling them. That’s how we all are, now isn’t it? I want them to see the clothes. We don’t have another model, and we don’t want anyone else in on our secret.”
Secret? “What if someone recognizes me?”
Pennymaker cocked his head. “That’s very unlikely. You do a good job making yourself plain and unmemorable with your cap and glasses.”
Mark felt the blush. Shoot. The man had him dead to rights.
“Besides, people see what they expect, and they certainly don’t expect to see Mark Sintorella in a dress. Now, put it on.”
Mark stepped behind the rack of clothing. He stripped to his boxer briefs and stopped. What the hell was he doing? He could jeopardize his job for this crazyassed little guy with his hairbrained scheme.
The voice came from the other side of the clothes. “Do you have it on?”
“Sir, I don’t mean to be rude, but are you sure about this? I really need the money I get from working here.”
“Tut-tut, my boy. Hurry. I want to make one tour around the lobby and public rooms before you start your shift. Time’s a wastin’.”
Mark pulled the dress over his head and let it fall into place. The skirt was just full enough to swing when he walked, so no one would notice his cock under it. “Uh, I don’t have any boobs.”
“Let me see.”
“See what? What I haven’t got?”
He stepped out. Pennymaker looked at him studiously. “Gorgeous. You don’t have breasts, but then neither do some women to speak of. I’m more concerned about the hairy legs. Go shave, quickly.”
“What? Sir, I don’t think so….”
“This won’t be your only modeling assignment, I suspect, so think of it as a long-term investment. Consider that brilliant young model who used to walk the catwalks in both male and female shows. You’re at least her equal in beauty.”
“But—”
“No buts. This is your future. Now go!”
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Beauty, Inc.
Is beauty only skin deep?
Chemist Dr. Robert “Belle” Belleterre loves flowers, green trees, his best friend Judy, and “his baby:” the new face cream he developed to help put his father’s small cosmetics company on the map. Sadly he gets no help from his alcoholic, gambling-addicted father, who loses Belle in a poker game to Magnus Strong, the CEO of Beauty, Inc., the largest American cosmetics company—a man infamous for his scarred ugliness.
Belle finds himself uprooted from his home, living in a wildly crazy apartment in New York owned by Mr. Pennymaker, and completely unprepared for his mad attraction to the charismatic Strong. Feeling like a traitor, Belle fights his passion only to see more and more of the goodness and humility hidden by Strong’s ugly face. But when Belle’s family starts manipulating his life again, the odds turn against happiness for beautiful Belle and his beloved beast.
“Looking for someone?”
“Yes. Judy. My friend. I thought she was coming here.”
“Oh yes. She has her apartment on the ground floor. Mr. Strong thought it would be best if she didn’t have to climb too many stairs while she’s being treated.”
Belle just stared. He felt the tears welling in his eyes but couldn’t stop them. Limb by limb, he collapsed to the floor like an old plastic bag. His own father hadn’t even paid attention, and Magnus Strong put Judy on the ground floor to keep her from having to climb stairs.
Mr. P closed the door and flopped down beside him. “So, my dear, what seems to be the trouble?”
Belle shook his head and snuffled.
“Try again.”
“I did a really bad thing.”
“What might that have been, my dear?”
He sniffed. “I humped my boss.”
“Hmm. Humped. I’m failing to get a mental image.”
Belle sighed. “It’s probably just as well. I got overzealous and threw myself on Magnus Strong. That might have been okay, but then I—” He dropped his face in his hand. “Oh God.”
“I’m starting to get an image. Continue.”
He popped his head up. “I kissed him, okay? And then, as if that wasn’t the stupidest thing ever done since W said “mission accomplished,” I managed to get my penis in contact with his and—humped. Now do you get the picture?”
Mr. P clapped his hands. “Perfect.”
“Oh, so far from perfect.” He fell back against the large Asian throw rug. “Why did I do it? Why?”
“Excellent question. Why did you do it?”
“He turns me on.”
“What?”
Belle sat up, in his best Frankenstein’s monster imitation. “He turns me on like a large neon light.”
“Because he helped your friend?”
“Way before he helped Judy. Before he helped me, in fact.”
Mr. P smiled. “So you acknowledge that he’s helped you?”
“Oh hell, Mr. P, I’m so confused. I mean, getting won in a poker game doesn’t exactly kick a relationship off on a sterling foot. Plus, that was after he seemed to be stalking me. I assumed he was trying to get me here to—you know—screw me instead of my father.”
“Ah, I see. And now you’ve thrown at him the very thing you assumed he wanted—and he refused it.”
“In a word—yes. I don’t know what to think.”
“There’s only one answer, my dear. Outside the box.”
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Remember. If you want to win one of the 2 ebooks, leave me a comment below! Thank you for visiting. : )