by
An unexpected chapter in a vampire’s guide to staying alive.
As the only vampire employed by the NYPD, crime scene photographer Noah Green isn’t popular. He’s worked alongside humans for decades and knows how to stay focused and avoid attachments with the bleeders around him … but hasn’t done much to avoid a certain West Village bakery owner, who has no idea Noah can’t eat the bread he buys.
Baker Danny Kaes is done hooking up, at least when it comes to fangers. He’s too busy running Nice Buns, the Filipino bakery he owns with his sister, to dwell on the dramas of dating, and if he misses the thrill of sharp teeth on his throat, he still knows he’s better off with his own kind … like the CSU hottie who stops into the bakery before sunrise.
While working a string of suspicious deaths, Noah finds Danny at a crime scene, traumatized after discovering a body. Worse, Danny’s also put himself in the killer’s crosshairs and needs a safe place to hide. Surprising even himself, Noah offers Danny his couch, knowing he’ll have to come clean about being a blood eater.
Days bleed into nights as the killer closes in, leading Noah and the cops in a mad scramble to protect Danny from dangers he can’t imagine. But Noah can’t protect himself from his feelings for Danny, or how they’ve made him question everything he thought he knew about how humans fit into his carefully ordered vampire life.
Overexposed is a 92+K paranormal mystery MM romance. It features a crime scene photographer who thinks he’s got his vampire life figured out, a bakery owner who’s definitely sworn off inter-species dating, an unfortunate number of murders, more mayhem than anyone asked for, and a hard-won, deeply satisfying HEA.
- 2 To Be Read lists
Editors:
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 4
Romantic Content: 4
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay, Pansexual
Protagonist 1 Age: Ageless/Immortal
Protagonist 2 Age: 26-35
Tropes: Hurt / Comfort, Interracial Relationship, Rescue, True Love
Word Count: 92203
Setting: United States, New York, Manhattan
Languages Available: English
“Christ, Green. I was only gone for twenty minutes. What the hell did you do to him?”
“Nothing. How about you keep your voice down?” Noah held the door open for Detective Callahan but glanced over his shoulder at Danny, who’d passed out at last.
“Why?” Callahan shoved an armful of paper bags at Noah before stalking past him. “Kaes is clearly past caring. And white as a sheet!”
“Because he’s exhausted.” Moving to the kitchen island, Noah set the bags down, then scowled when Callahan bent and set his fingers against Danny’s neck, clearly checking his pulse. “Hey, I told you already—I didn’t lay a hand on him.”
Which was not strictly true. Like any vampire, Noah could easily enthrall a bleeder if he wanted to and, once he got close enough, it’d been easy to knock Danny for a loop. Except … Noah hadn’t truly meant to stun him. He’d just wanted to be close. Once he got there, nothing else in the world had mattered.
READ MOREThe air between them had crackled as they’d sat on the couch, and Noah’s attraction for the sweet-faced baker had transformed into a hunger he hadn’t bothered hiding. That need had further scrambled Danny’s senses, which were already muddled by fatigue, leaving him dazed and loose-limbed, staring up at Noah with blown pupils and his palms turned up and open on either side of his thighs. Setting the back of his head against the couch, he’d lifted his chin and exposed the long, pale column of his throat, every inch of him begging for touch.
Thunder filled Callahan’s brow. “Do me a favor and shut up. You’re talking like we didn’t find a body emptied of blood tonight. Like you’re not capable of doing the same thing to Kaes. Maybe even thought about doing it before I rang the goddamned doorbell.”
Noah couldn’t help bristling. “I didn’t.”
That wasn’t a lie. Of course, Noah wanted to know how Danny’s blood tasted. Thirst wasn’t the only thing driving his desire, however, and the fact remained he wouldn’t act on any of it. Not with Danny terrified and strung out. He wasn’t about to explain himself to an asshole like Callahan either, who’d made up his mind about Noah and his species years before they’d ever met.
Scrubbing a hand over his head, Noah fought to keep his tone neutral. “Believe what you want, but I’m not going to hurt him. I’d also have to be monumentally stupid to even think about it given half the NYPD knows Danny is in my apartment.”
“That’s part of the problem, Green. You’re not stupid—anyone who cares to pay attention can see it.”
“Thank you?”
“It wasn’t a compliment. I’ve seen the way you fuckers can charm people and you’re smoother than most. Don’t think I didn’t notice the way you were eyeballing Kaes while I questioned him, and this was after you told me you hardly knew him.”
“I don’t know him outside of his bakery.”
“Yeah, the place you go to buy bread you can’t eat, which makes you a bigger creep than I thought, something I didn’t think possible.” Callahan sneered at him, then shifted his focus back to Danny. “You’re lucky he hasn’t already guessed what you are.”
“I know.” Noah thought about the last conversation he’d had with Cho on this topic and winced internally. Things really were going to get awkward now and he had no way around it. “Thank you for not outing me.”
“I didn’t do it for you. Fuck, Kaes needs to get himself some safer friends.”
“We’re not really friends. And he is safe with me.”
The furrow was back on Callahan’s forehead. “It’s funny—I almost believe you mean that. The problem, Green, is that you wouldn’t be able to help yourself if it came down to it. My cat watches birds through the windows with the same kind of attention you do Kaes and, like it or not, you are what you eat. Kaes could be your next meal and pretending otherwise doesn’t make it less true.”
Regret trickled through Noah. Callahan’s prejudices against vampires weren’t wholly unjustified. In most humans’ eyes, Noah’s species was a barely contained threat; even the most mild-mannered fanger could be compared to a grenade with a loose pin. While Noah hadn’t meant to stun Danny, he clearly had, and oh, how easy it would have been to go much, much further, especially with Danny’s defenses already weakened.
Yet, he hadn’t. Yes, Noah was dangerous. Lethal, in fact. But he wouldn’t take Danny simply because he could.
COLLAPSE
