Wild Summer by Suki Fleet

WildSummer_postcard_front_HARMONY

Blurb

At fifteen, Christopher falls in love with a boy whose life he saves. But things go wrong and four years later, he wishes he’d acted differently. His conscience begins to haunt him and he knows he must find Summer again.

At seventeen, Summer pushes away the boy who saved him. Four years later, he is stuck in an abusive, damaging relationship. When he sees Christopher again, it’s a sign he can’t go on living like he is, but he can’t begin to see a way out.

For either boy to stand a chance at happiness, they must find each other and obliterate the wrongs of their shared past.

Excerpt

WARMED BY the sunshine, the surf washed around their ankles as they stepped onto the sandy beach of the cove. Cliffs rose up sheer and solid to hide the town beyond them from view, and it was easy to imagine they were out here alone, miles from anywhere, beneath the painfully bright blue sky.

“Hey.” Summer laid his hand on Christopher’s bare arm, the light touch making his heartbeat quicken. “Want to come swimming?” Summer asked, and proceeded to pull his T-shirt off, ball it up, and throw it onto the damp sand with his shoes.

Lithe and beautiful, his skin dark gold as the sand, Summer could not be unaware of the effect he was having. With his jeans slung low on his hips, nipple rings that glinted as they caught the sun, he was every manner of perfect in Christopher’s mind—he couldn’t have imagined a boy more so—and longing seemed to pull at his core with the force the moon exerts on the sea.

But self-consciousness made him awkward. He didn’t know where to look and forced his gaze down to stare at the paleness of his large feet in the water.

Although nearly sixteen, he had no framework for this sort of experience, for what he was supposed to do when someone he was incredibly attracted to stripped off in front of him.

When he looked up again, Summer’s hands were working at unbuttoning his jeans. Without pausing he shoved them down—he was wearing no underwear—stepped out of them, and carelessly threw them onto the beach somewhere near his T-shirt and shoes, his cock bouncing against his thigh with the movement.

All the things Christopher was certain he shouldn’t notice he noticed—Summer’s pubic hair was the same dark gold color as his skin, his cock hooded, the just-visible tip pierced, the weight and length of him perfectly proportioned, his stomach and thighs lean but nicely defined.

With no small jolt of desire, Christopher realized he wanted more than anything to swim with Summer—to tumble him into the water, to be naked with him—yet at the same time he knew he couldn’t. If he took off his clothes, Summer would see the way he had stiffened like a randy bull, it was not something he could control, and Summer obviously didn’t feel the same way.

“Come on.” Summer beckoned him with a crooked finger, a cocked eyebrow, and a smile. “Don’t be shy.”

Christopher didn’t want to think he was imagining the heat in Summer’s gaze, but flirting was not something he’d had much experience with either, so he just didn’t know.

A massive gust of wind came in from the sea, rocketing around the cove, blasting up sea spray and sand in painful gusts. Christopher covered his eyes until it whirled off. When he opened them again, Summer was meters away, submerged shoulder-deep in the water. He covered his eyes and pointed at Christopher, the gesture implying he wouldn’t look.

Fuck it, Christopher thought, depositing all his worldly belongings down on the beach and divesting himself of his clothes. Facing the cliff, he looked down at his naked, traitorous body, giving away far too much truth about how he felt. He couldn’t lose his hard-on, however much boring, ridiculous stuff he thought about, because his hormones were switched on by Summer’s presence, and he had no idea how to turn them off again. Girls had it so much easier.

Both hands covering his genitals, he turned around and waded into the cooling sea, every footstep taking him into colder, deeper waters. Despite his gesture promising to cover his eyes, Summer watched him every step of the way, an unreadable look on his elfin face.

About the author

Suki Fleet currently lives in the heart of England. Her childhood was quite unconventional and she spent some time living on a boat and travelling at sea with her family. Since she was very small she has always dreamed of writing for a living, but though she has written original fiction online for years and encouraged many new writers to keep going and follow their author dreams, it is only recently she got the courage to make her own dream a reality and actually send something off to a publisher.

By day she runs her own business selling fabric (her second love) and juggling family commitments, by night she weaves the stories that the characters in her head dictate. These stories often start with pain or longing but always end with love.