Avid Reader (Gallant Hearts, #4) / Gallant Hearts (ePub)

Ray Campbell has a life. It's not a life he wants. It is the life he has. He works at a job which he likes well enough. It pays the bills and gets him out of the house. When he's not working, he spends his downtime reading because...what else is he going to do? He's not missing anything. He'd rather be at home indulging in the imaginary world of men's adventure novels by one of his new favorite authors.

Ben Scott has his hands full with his coffee shop. Business is good...but not great. In an effort to suppliment his income to take his shop to the next level, he spends his evenings writing. His author income eases the financial pinch but it leaves no time for a social life. He doesn't need or want one, anyway. He's happy with the main character as the stand in for a perfect man.

A last-minute meeting cancellation leaves Ray alone at a little cafe with some of the best coffee he's had. The company is nice, too, since the easy-on-the-eyes owner also happens to be the author of his favorite men's adventure series. With every electric touch, two solitary men find themselves drawn together in a web of attraction and desire, each fulfilling a secret need in the other.

Until a bozo-brain decides to pull a knife and kill the mood.

After Ray thwarts the robbery attempt, Ben's gratitude turns into a dinner invitation. Dinner turns into...a pleasant diversion. Their attraction is hot enough to break Ben's dreaded writer's block. But are either men ready for that next step or is this just two ships looking to ease their lonely nights?

This standalone 20k word instalove novella has a ex-military security supervisor and a talented coffee shop owner looking to make his mark writing books, who are determined to find their HEA.