From the Ashes by CM Valencourt
Greetings book lovers! Today I’ve got From The Ashes by CM Valencourt! Read on for the blurb, cover, excerpt, and more!
Blurb:
Hunter and Derek are at a fork in the road…
At their friend Justin’s funeral, once-best-friends Derek and Hunter meet again almost four years after their monumental falling out. Hunter kissed Derek, and Derek freaked out and chose a college on the other side of the country.
If they had a choice, both of them would walk away and never see the other again. Except Justin has given them a mission: an epic road trip to scatter his ashes all over the Midwest, complete with cryptic notes, new friends, and a whole lot of sexual tension. Can Derek and Hunter finish Justin’s road trip without ripping each other’s heads—or clothes—off?
This is a stand-alone 65,000-word novel with an HEA ending.
Buy your copy of From The Ashes at Amazon!
Excerpt:
“Why are you suddenly okay with having a gay friend now?”
“What?”
“I mean, you obviously didn’t feel comfortable being best friends with someone who was gay. So what changed?”
Derek’s heart hurt. Of course that’s what Hunter thought, that he ran away because the thought of two guys kissing made him angry or grossed him out. Derek himself had thought that was the case for a while, had even tried to convince himself of it for years. It wasn’t the truth, but Hunter had no way to know that.
No wonder he had hated him.
“I never had a problem with you being gay, Hunter. Fuck, I’m sorry it seemed like that. I’m such an idiot.”
Hunter squinted at him. “You didn’t care that I was gay?”
“I don’t think so. Not in the way you think.”
“So I could have brought a boy to prom, had him in all of our prom pictures, told you about how I sucked his dick in the bathroom, and you would have been…?”
Derek could barely breathe. He imagined wearing a black tux to prom while Hunter wore some crazy colored suit, Derek’s tie and pocket square matching his suit so everyone would know they were together. He imagined his mom and dad taking pictures of the two of them on their front staircase, his father giving Hunter a talk about keeping Derek safe. And he imagined Hunter’s hands around his waist, not caring that the whole thing was a little lame, kissing lightly under cheap party lighting.
But that wasn’t the scenario Hunter was proposing. “I would have been…I don’t know.” Hunter raised one eyebrow, and Derek was stumbling. “I just- it was so confusing. I didn’t tell you everything.”
“So tell me now.” Hunter pulled his feet away.
Derek knew he was digging himself further and further in. If he didn’t just explain to Hunter, he was going to lose him again.
“I was upset about the kiss because…” But he couldn’t say it. There was no way it was coming out after all this time.
“You can tell me anything, Dere.”
There it was, the tipping point, everything falling over the edge. “Because I think I might have liked it.”
Derek could tell that, out of everything, that wasn’t what Hunter was expecting him to say. His eyes widened. “Wait, what?”
Derek couldn’t say it again. He shrugged, a weak smile on his face.
“Okay. That’s…new information. So do you think you’re-”
“I don’t know.” Derek tried to control his breathing like he always told Hunter to do, gripped onto the bed sheets to keep himself from running out of the room.
“Have you experimented, then? You’re at an arts school; I have to imagine there’s some guy who’d be down.”
“No.” Derek blushed. “Only the once.”
Hunter’s voice was strong, but Derek noticed his fingers slightly shaking.
“Then what we have here is a hypothesis: Derek Knight might like kissing boys.”
One boy, specifically, Derek thought. His palms were sweating.
“So a hypothesis needs to be falsifiable. How do you feel about kissing girls?”
“It’s…fine.”
Hunter chuckled. “That’s what you said about the beer.”
Derek elbowed him lightly in the ribs.
“But a hypothesis also has to be repeatable,” Hunter continued. It took Derek a few moments to catch up.
“You’d really kiss me again? After all that?”
Hunter smiled. “After everything, I promised myself I wouldn’t kiss any straight boys. But I think you’re currently falling under the LGBTQ umbrella under Questioning.”
His head was buzzing. If Hunter was actually willing to kiss him again, he knew he had to try.
“Okay,” Derek said, barely a whisper.
Hunter seemed to remember the camera, still on in his hand. He turned it off and got up to put it on his bed. When he came back, he was closer, facing Derek. “But only if you want to,” Hunter told him.
In that moment, Derek wanted to be the one to lean in, wanted to crash into Hunter like the lake into the sand. But it was too hard, the chasm between them too dangerous for him to cross.
He couldn’t make himself say it, so instead he nodded. He closed his eyes, waiting for it to come.
Hunter’s lips met his, and instantly it was like they were back in that day in Hunter’s parents’ basement, the continuation of something. Hunter moved slowly at first, letting Derek get a taste of what was happening.
Buy your copy of From The Ashes at Amazon!
About the Author:
C.M. Valencourt is a new m/m romance author. They started devouring queer fiction when they still had to smuggle it into their parents’ Catholic household, and dreamed of writing books about queer people finding love ever since. They like figure skating, ghost hunting shows, and Carly Rae Jepsen. You can find out more about their books and learn about upcoming releases at cmvalencourt.com.
