Five night stand, p.1
Five Night Stand, page 1
FIVE NIGHT STAND
H.L DAY
Copyright
MM Romance
Five Night Stand (A Snowed Inn Romance)
Copyright © 2022 H.L Day
Cover design: Meredith Russell
All cover art and logo copyright © Meredith Russell
All Rights Reserved
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer-to-peer program, for free or for a fee. Such action is illegal and in violation of Copyright Law.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Contents
‘Snowed Inn’ Winter Romance
Five Night Stand
Five Night Stand
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
‘Snowed Inn’ Winter Romance
Thanks
MM romance books by H.L Day
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Thanks
Huge thanks to my beta readers RJ, Barbara and Jill.
‘Snowed Inn’ Winter Romance
Have you read all the stories in the collection?
Each book can be read as a standalone story and in any order, but the happily ever after wintery love stories are linked by the snowy mountain inn cut off by an avalanche. Get all of the stories from Amazon & in Kindle Unlimited here:
RJ Scott - Stop the Wedding
H.L Day - Five Night Stand
V.L. Locey - Checking it Twice
LC Chase - Breakfast Included
Xenia Melzer - The Real Kaimana
Meredith Russell - Stuck With You
Eli Easton - A Changeling Christmas
Five Night Stand
The advantage of a one-night stand is being able to walk away. Except, Nathan can’t
Workaholic Nathan Nicholls hasn’t had the easiest time of late. Still reeling from his publisher’s rejection of his latest book, he seeks refuge in a remote hotel. When he’s propositioned by the sinfully sexy CJ, a man who knows exactly what he wants and isn’t afraid to go for it, why shouldn’t Nathan throw caution to the winds for once and have a bit of fun? After all, he’s leaving the next day.
When an avalanche puts paid to Nathan’s quick exit, he finds himself stuck there for Christmas. Stuck with CJ. What should be awkward, quickly becomes something else. The snow might be cold, but the time they spend together is far from it, and Nathan finds his heart warming. If only their passion and laughter didn’t have a shelf life, doomed to come to an end once the road is cleared.
Nathan Nicholls doesn’t do one-night-stands. But maybe, just maybe, if he makes a Christmas wish, this could be something more.
A sweet and steamy 43k forced proximity story which features a man who never was any good at one-night stands, a cheerful wildlife photographer who might not be as confident as he makes out, rustic log cabins, snow, Christmas cheer, and two men gaining a whole new perspective on life.
All the books in the Snowed Inn collection are standalone stories and can be read in any order.
Chapter One
Two weeks ago
With a sigh, I threw the magazine I hadn’t really been reading back on the table and checked my watch for what felt like the hundredth time. The meeting should have started twenty minutes ago. Did the publishing company think I had nothing better to do than sit around and wait? And what was with the face-to-face meeting anyway? None of my previous book contracts with them had been accompanied by the requirement to “stop by their offices.” The way they’d said it had made it sound like it was akin to popping down to the shops for a pint of milk, rather than the two-hour train journey it had taken to travel from Leeds to London. And that was before you factored in the extra hour on the tube to reach their offices in Central London.
The red-haired receptionist caught my eye. She offered a polite smile, the ring piercing in her eyebrow shifting with the movement. “Shouldn’t be much longer now.”
That was the third time she’d said that, the first time seeming an age ago, although, it was probably closer to ten minutes. I gave her a nod and did my best not to look like I was irritated. I crossed an ankle over my knee and tapped it in time with the ticking of the clock while I asked myself that same question again. Why was I here? Was it just company policy? Or maybe… a bubble of excitement rose within me as the thought arose. Did they want to negotiate a longer book deal? So far, I’d signed individual contracts for the three books I’d published with them. Perhaps they wanted to discuss a three-book deal, or maybe even five books.
The door to the right opened and Lee, the head of acquisitions, appeared in the doorway. He shook the hand of a woman in a long black coat as they said their goodbyes, and once she’d walked away, he looked my way. “Nathan, I apologize for making you wait.” He stepped to the side and gestured to the room he’d just left. “Do come in and have a seat.”
His office was noticeably bare. I didn’t know what I’d expected. Lots of books, maybe. It was a publisher’s office, after all. But the walls were mostly blank except for a large photograph of London Bridge, which seemed an odd choice when you could see the real thing if you traveled just a few streets.
I lowered myself into the blue padded chair, Lee seating himself in a matching one on the opposite side of his desk. And then there was silence. I cleared my throat. More silence.
Lee finally sat forward, as if he’d just remembered that this was his office, and he was the one who’d scheduled this meeting rather than the other way around. He smiled. “It’s so good to meet you in person after all this time.”
I returned his smile, nerves making the action feel forced. We’d had numerous conversations before, but they’d all taken place over Zoom. That’s why I was finding it difficult to understand what made this one different. At home, I could have had the meeting over and done with in ten minutes, and already be sitting at my desk with a coffee.
Lee steepled his fingers together and flashed another smile. “We loved your first book here at Blue Wolf Press. As you know, it did very well. The readers loved the characters, and that twist at the end… Well, it knocked their socks off. So we were more than happy to publish books two and three. You’re aware, of course, that those didn’t do quite as well.”
I frowned. Where was this going? “That’s normal, isn’t it? With a series, I mean? Book one is still selling strongly, so that will bring more people to the series, and book four…” I stopped as Lee’s face creased into a slight grimace. “You don’t like book four?”
“Book four is…” Lee looked like he was picking his words carefully, my palms starting to sweat as the truth of why he’d felt the need to have this meeting face-to-face finally dawned on me.
“Book four is what?”
Lee’s mouth twisted. “There’s no easy way to say this, Nathan, so I’m just going to come out with it. We have decided that in its present state, we won’t be able to offer you a contract for it.”
I blinked, the words solidifying in my chest. I’d spent the last eight months writing that book. It had taken numerous caffeine-fueled nights to meet the deadline they’d set for me. I’d locked myself away and I’d barely seen anyone. I had friends who’d stopped calling me because they knew I wouldn’t make time for them. I hadn’t dated. I’d barely spoken to anyone, except for Lloyd, and that was only because he’d cut himself a key for my house and insisted on turning up to “remind me that people existed.” But I’d met the deadline. And it had all seemed worth it at the time. Except, now they didn’t want the book that I’d sweated blood and tears over. I went back over Lee’s words, picking them slowly apart. “What do you mean by in its present state?”
Another grimace. Lee didn’t seem to be enjoying this meeting very much. That made two of us. “It’s…”
I leaned forward, my fingers curling into my palms hard enough for my nails to leave dents. “Tell me. I can take it.” Actually, I wasn’t sure I could, but it seemed like the right thing to say if I wanted to get information out of him.
Lee lowered his hand to the table, his fingers tapping out an uneven rhythm, his gaze fixed on something just over my right shoulder. “I don’t want you to think this is just coming from me. I had another of our editors read your manuscript, and they agreed with me.”
There seemed to be a lot of words coming from Lee without any actual meaning attached to them. I made my question more direct. “What’s wrong with it?”
Lee pushed a single sheet of paper across the table toward me, his gaze returning to mine. I picked the paper up to find it had writing on both sides. “There’s a more detailed breakdown on there. I’ll e-mail you a copy as well. But if I was to summarize, I’d say it just lacks life when it comes to the characters. There’s a lot of action and drama, as there always is in your books, and in the first three books that rang true. But in this book, it just doesn’t seem to affect anyone. They’re the same p eople at the end of the book as they are at the start. I guess what I’m trying to say is, there’s no character growth. It’s almost like they’re cardboard cutouts.”
Cardboard cutouts. Ouch! While Lee had begun this conversation reluctant to give me bad news, he seemed to have warmed up to the point where he could toss brutal words out rather casually. I wasn’t about to sit there and take it without sticking up for myself. Not when he was being unfair. “The book takes place over five days. You’re expecting people to change in five days. That just doesn’t happen.”
Lee gave me a long stare. “You think after everything they experienced, the kidnapping, the discovery of the real mastermind who had been behind everything from the start, the unexpected death of a family member, that they would be the same people? There are far less catastrophic events that change people in a much shorter time.”
I shifted on the chair. “I don’t agree.”
Lee looked thoughtful. “Well… we’ll have to agree to disagree on that. What I saw, and what the other editor saw, were a group of people going through the motions. A group of flat and lifeless people.”
Wow! He was really twisting the knife now. It made me wonder again why we couldn’t have done this over Zoom. It would have been far less embarrassing. I guess company policy was for rejections to be face-to-face. If only I’d known that before. I might have been better prepared mentally for this meeting.
Lee smoothed an errant lock of hair back behind his ear. “How’s your home life, Nathan?”
I blinked at him. “My home life? What’s that got to do with anything?”
He propped his elbows on the desk, the expression on his face deliberately earnest. “I’ve worked with other writers, who when they have things going on at home, it reflects in their writing. Your writing just seems a little jaded, and I wondered if there were perhaps events in your life making it that way. Sometimes, it’s better to take a step back and fix the problems at home first. Clear your mind, so to speak. Refill the creative well.”
I stared at him, heat creeping slowly up my neck. When had this become a therapy session? “I had a deadline. One which I met.”
Lee nodded slowly. “True.”
I shook my head. “Besides, there’s nothing going on at home. Everything’s fine.”
“Well…” Lee gestured at the piece of paper in my hand, creases already appearing in it from how tightly I was gripping it. “Take that home. Read through it. And if you decide to make extensive revisions based on my comments, you are of course welcome to send us the revised manuscript and we’ll review our decision.”
I seized onto the tiny glimmer of light. “So… it’s possible you could change your mind about it?”
Lee shrugged. “It’s possible, with extensive revisions.”
He really liked that word “extensive.” I got it. They weren’t going anywhere near it unless I basically rewrote the entire thing. “Right.”
An uncomfortable silence fell between us. Eventually, Lee picked up a pen and tapped it on the table. “What are you doing for Christmas?”
Oh, we were doing small talk now, were we? Now that he’d called my book a piece of crap. “I’m flying to Denver in Colorado. My dad moved there six years ago when he remarried. And my mum died a few years back, so…”
“I’m sorry to hear that. How long are you going for?”
None of your business! I tamped down on the urge to tell him that, or to simply get up and leave so I could lick my wounds in private. I could be polite. For a few minutes anyway. Any longer than that and I might be tempted to ram that annoying pen somewhere the sun didn’t shine. “Just a few days.”
Another tap of the pen. “Maybe you should fly out earlier. Take a break somewhere. Somewhere with lots of fresh air.” He smiled. “Maybe that’ll get the creative juices flowing again.”
I didn’t return his smile. “Maybe I will.”
The next few minutes passed in somewhat of a blur. There was more small talk, but I couldn’t have said what we’d discussed. There was a handshake, and then I was finally able to leave, my steps hurried as I breezed past the receptionist without saying goodbye.
I managed to keep a lid on my emotions until I was finally out in the cold December air, the steady flow of people making their way past me on the busy London street oblivious to the man staring into the distance as he tried to decide what he was supposed to do now. Maybe making my break longer wasn’t such a bad idea.
Chapter Two
The Retreat, Colorado
December 22nd
I stared at the words on the laptop screen. They were the same words I’d been staring at for hours. Sometimes I deleted a few, but they invariably looked the same when I typed them again. How were you supposed to improve something when you couldn’t see anything wrong with it?
Closing the laptop, I pushed my chair back before going over to the window of the small cabin. It had provided the perfect compromise between the convenience of a hotel and the privacy of having my own space. When I’d booked it, I’d fully intended on taking a break. But after a day of twiddling my thumbs, the break had turned into an attempt to “fix” my book, Lee’s words still ringing in my head.
And what had I achieved after a week of work? Absolutely nothing. I leaned my head against the window and watched the snow come down. It was certainly pretty out here. I couldn’t dispute that. I’d miss the view when I left tomorrow.
A sudden sensation of the walls of the cabin closing in on me hit me. I needed to be somewhere else. Somewhere with people. I didn’t necessarily want to talk to them. It would be enough just to reassure myself that the world hadn’t blinked out of existence, leaving me as the only one left in it. Pulling my boots on and struggling into my heavy coat, I pocketed the key and let myself out of the cabin.
The cold was a sharp sting, the snow crunching under my boots as I navigated the short, well-lit route to the main building. Pushing the door open, I gave the receptionist a nod as I stamped snow off my boots and hung my coat up on the coat stand provided by the hotel for such a purpose. The lobby screamed Christmas, from its copious ceiling decorations to the huge, tastefully decorated Christmas tree in one corner. And then there was the music being piped through the speakers, a rousing rendition of “Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire” filling the air.
I made my way to my favored bar. It was a small one tucked away at the back of the hotel, most of the guests not seeming to realize it was there. Either that or, unlike me, they wanted a livelier place to drink. Well, the quiet suited me just fine. At least it wouldn’t be the quiet of a cabin that contained only me.
Raucous laughter rang out from the Cambridge Room as I passed. There was some sort of hockey award ceremony going on in there. Given that I knew absolutely nothing about hockey, I gave it a wide berth. The next event room was empty. It was still decked out for a wedding, the decorations making me grimace. News of the groom being left at the altar that morning had spread like wildfire around the hotel. Poor guy. I couldn’t think of anything more mortifying.
Apparently, he was still at the hotel, but I assumed he was keeping a low profile. I know I would in his situation. Not that I’d ever gotten anywhere near an altar, or even been engaged for that matter. My past relationships had tended to start with friendship and then end up back there. No great tragedies. No dramatic break-ups. According to Lloyd, that was weird. But then, he and his boyfriend were one of the most volatile couples I’d ever met, their relationship like something from a soap opera. There was no way I wanted that. At least I’d never had my heart broken. And for that I was grateful.
