Trusting someone can be difficult, especially if nothing in your life has taught you how to trust in the first place. How do you go about learning how to do it? And even when you want to learn, desperately, where do you start?

This is the situation Zach faces when he realizes his latest attempt at sort-of having a relationship has failed. He is emotionally closed-off, and never spends time or effort to be with Lane, even though Lane is the only man in many years who is able to hold Zach's interest. No wonder Lane breaks of what he sees as a pseudo-relationship. It takes Zach a while to understand the issue, and his way of coming up with a solution, to try to win back Lane, is ingenious, if slightly risky. Not to mention the way he just sends him an invitation to a BDSM club may be too cryptic for Lane to understand what Zach actually means. But then again, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

Lane desperately needs and wants intimacy, a lover who will let him in, and to settle down. While he fell quickly for Zach, it took him a while to figure out the excuses he'd been making for Zach not getting closer weren't going to go away. It takes him breaking up with the stubborn detective to realize how lonely and emotionally immature Zach is. So, when Zach sends him an invitation to the opening of a BDSM club a few weeks after their breakup, he doesn't know what to think or do. Different from Zach, for whom it is a meaningful gesture to want to submit, Lane has no idea what has gotten into Zach, doesn't understand what is behind the gesture (since Zach didn't elaborate at all), and Lane almost doesn't go.

When they do get together, the interaction is explosive on multiple levels. Physically, both are far more aroused than either of them thought possible, but the real breakthrough is emotional, and that was beautiful to watch. If you like stores about taciturn, closed-off men who learn to step out of their shell and try something new, if you enjoy reading about a couple in trouble learning to build real trust (or the beginnings of it) for the first time, and if you're looking for a short, hot read with quite some emotional depth, then you will probably like this short story.



NOTE: This book was provided by Amber Allure for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
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