Only Yours

by J.R. Patrick

A Nap-size Dream

When Dre asks his boyfriend Nate to move in, Nate leaves in the night without a word. Dre thinks he pushed too hard too fast, but the truth is a little more complicated. Nate is afraid Dre would dump him if Dre knew about his job in adult entertainment. Six months later, Dre is still beating himself up over scaring Nate away when they meet again… at a club where Nate works

Genres: M M Romance, Romance, Gay

56 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

J.R. Patrick has had a love affair with reading from the very first story she devoured as a child. With her teenage years came romances, and they opened the door to a whole new world, one in which she’s still happily immersed. On the other side of the coin, J.R. and writing didn’t always get along. To say she is a woman of few words is an understatement, and her career as a scientist—where being concise is the order of the day—certainly doesn’t help. Thankfully, her characters believe in perseverance, and they whisper, scream, mutter, plead... whatever it takes to get their story told. Even if it’s one word at a time.

You might not have gotten past the scientist bit, possibly wondering what science and romance have to do with each other. To that J.R. answers: it’s all about chemistry.

Visit J.R. at http://www.jrpatrick.com and http://twitter.com/jr_patrick. You can contact her at jr.patrick@rocketmail.com.

Reviews

[Mandy*reads obsessively* · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoilerish review

There is a lot to like about this story, at least for me, I always appreciate things that are just a bit outside the norm, and in this story Nate's job is a bit outside the norm, and not only that, he is happy with it, no childhood trauma or whatever had him choose this path, he just wanted to. Which is totally fine, what isn't totally fine is how he treated Dre.
He and Dre have been dating a while, but because Nate's job takes him out of town a lot, Dre asks him to move in with him, at least when he is in town.
Nate's answer, leave in the middle of the night, no note, no call..no nothing. Classy, Nate, very classy.
Since it's a short story, I don't know if Nate lied to Dre about is job or what, can't imagine it didn't come up, but to say Dre was shocked to see Nate again, and to see him in his professional capacity after 6 months, is putting it mildly.
To me Nate was just too much of a taker, he was of the opinion, if you love me you have to live with what I do and accept me, of course only now that Dre found out on his own, being honest because he was afraid of being rejected, wasn't his thing, obviously.
I just thought he was so unapologetic about his job, which again, is totally fine, but give your partner, your lover the chance to decide if he wants to live with that or not, anyway, Dre takes him back...and still they don't talk??
Nate assumes everyone sees things his way..until Dre doesn't anymore.
It all works out, but for me Nate just never really got it, he never took Dre's feelings and wants into consideration or even asked, it was all about Nate.
When he finally did get it , with some help from his friend, it wasn't all that believable to me.
All on all it was a nice story, but since I had such issues with Nate's egocentric and selfish behavior, it was hard for me to really love it.
I would have needed a lot of groveling for me to believe in this relationship.

[Shell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only Yours is an enthralling read that left me eager to hear more from this new author. After Dre asks Nate to move in with him, he awakens the next morning in bed, alone and quickly realizes that Nate has skipped out on him without so much as a good-bye. What he doesn’t know though, is why Nate really left. That is, until his best friend takes him to a club where he discovers what it is Nate really does for a living. Coming to terms with the fact that Nate works in adult entertainment may just might be more than Dre can accept, but he loves Nate and the six months between when Nate left him and when he went to the club did nothing to dim that love. Leaving Dre asking himself the questions; is love really enough and can he accept Nate as is, knowing what he does and still respect himself.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

J.R. Patrick is a member of one of the groups where I hang out -- I do have a life away from the computer, it just doesn't seem like it -- and when her first book, Only Yours , was released, well of course I was going to buy it! Especially since she had given us one doozy of an excerpt; HOT? I needed refrigeration to cope? Yowza

My heart went out to Dre; he had no idea why Nate had left and it nearly destroyed him.
Discovering the truth about why just about finished the job.
Nate: I tried to hate him for what he did to Dre, but there is just something about him. All I'm going to say is that he has good friends.

This is a story about love, but it's much more than that. It's a lesson in the importance of honesty in a relationship; if you can't tell your partner the truth about something then you're doing a disservice to not only the one you love, but to yourself and the bond you share. And then there's being honest with yourself. Too often it's much easier to pretend that something is, or isn't, what it appears. No one wins in that situation.

Only Yours is also a story about growth, personal and relationship. Both men had something to learn, Nate probably more so than Dre, so that they could build a solid life together. There needs to be equality and honesty, and J.R. Patrick shows us just why it is so important. And she does it in a powerful and affirmative way. This is an author who's just begun and all I can say is... bring it on!


Merged review:

J.R. Patrick is a member of one of the groups where I hang out -- I do have a life away from the computer, it just doesn't seem like it -- and when her first book, Only Yours , was released, well of course I was going to buy it! Especially since she had given us one doozy of an excerpt; HOT? I needed refrigeration to cope? Yowza

My heart went out to Dre; he had no idea why Nate had left and it nearly destroyed him.
Discovering the truth about why just about finished the job.
Nate: I tried to hate him for what he did to Dre, but there is just something about him. All I'm going to say is that he has good friends.

This is a story about love, but it's much more than that. It's a lesson in the importance of honesty in a relationship; if you can't tell your partner the truth about something then you're doing a disservice to not only the one you love, but to yourself and the bond you share. And then there's being honest with yourself. Too often it's much easier to pretend that something is, or isn't, what it appears. No one wins in that situation.

Only Yours is also a story about growth, personal and relationship. Both men had something to learn, Nate probably more so than Dre, so that they could build a solid life together. There needs to be equality and honesty, and J.R. Patrick shows us just why it is so important. And she does it in a powerful and affirmative way. This is an author who's just begun and all I can say is... bring it on!

[Ami · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read that touches the difficulty of dating someone in adult entertainment industry. I enjoy the internal struggle that Dre has when he finds out what Nate does for a living. I like both characters and really love the way the Ms. Patrick handles the outcome of the unusual relationship

[Janna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written short story that packs quite some emotions and action in the limited amount of pages. I really enjoyed reading this!
3.5 stars

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Ok short m/m romance about a guy who asks his boyfriend to move in with him... and when he wakes up in the morning, his boyfriend is gone.