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Ashby Sterling-Haynes, the youngest son of a titled family, has had a lot of hook ups, but he's never found the one. When he meets Connor he realises this could be the one he's been waiting for.

Veterinarian, Connor Lawson is much happier working with animals than with people. Ashby is all kinds of dangerous. He's too hot, too rich, too titled, and way too sexy for his own good.

Both men refuse to believe in love for different reasons. Until they meet each other and a future together becomes real... if only they can both take a chance.

Word Count:	65,665
Cover Artist:	Meredith Russell
Editor:	Erika Orrick
ISBN:	978-1-78564-012-4
Genre:	Contemporary, MM Romance

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Nautical Star Books - 4/5 - "....The setting that the author creates in The Summer House is incredibly vivid.  RJ Scott is a writer who can paint a mental picture like few others can.  The breathtaking countryside, the small village, it’s inhabitants and the old buildings just come to life in this book.  You can almost see the green fields and the rough stones of the old church as you read this story.

I didn’t like Connor at first.  I thought he was judging Ash unfairly and had a chip on his shoulder.  However, as you read The Summer House you come to learn more and more of his history and finally understand WHY he hates rich playboys as much as he does.  He tries so hard to stay away from Ash but these two guys are just drawn to one another.

Let me just say that the secondary characters in The Summer House are amazing.  And the secondary characters that RJ Scott creates are so much more than just background noise in this story!  I just about cried over Mick and Bessie’s story.  Truly amazing details that the author puts into this book!

The Summer House is more about the romance than the sex.  This couple is drawn to one another and there is definite heat there but they are slow to act on it.  When they do, though, it is beautiful and romantic and steamy all rolled into one.

The Summer House by RJ Scott is truly a beautiful love store about overcoming your fears, finding love, and forging a new future.  Definitely a book I recommend for lovers of M/M romance!...."

Excerpt

From Chapter 3

“Connor?”

Rachel was looking for him?

“Over here.”

Rachel came around the corner of the manicured hedge and slumped dramatically next to him on the stone seat. “Bastard,” she said with force and feeling.

Connor felt immediately protective. They’d only been friends a year, but Rachel’s eyes were wet with tears, and tears always broke him in half. What had Landon done to her?

“What happened?”

“He offered me champagne, but you know how that gets me, so I said no, and before I could say I preferred vodka, he—” She stopped and inhaled deeply before letting the air out in a big noisy whoosh. “He asked me if I was pregnant and was he the father?”

Connor was on his feet immediately. “He said what?”

Rachel copied him and stopped him stalking away with a hand to his arm. “Don’t, he’s not worth it. I just want to go home.” She handed him her cell. “I can’t get a signal, can you…? I need a taxi… Will you find me one?”

Real tears collected and rolled down her face, and his protective instincts kicked in and he held her close, letting her cry quietly against his suit, the cell crushed between them.

“He’s not worth it,” Connor said.

“But at Christmas, he was so nice to me, then at the art show… He’s fake is all… It was just sex.” She hiccupped her way through the declarations.

“I know, sweetie.”

“I hate feeling like this. I don’t want to feel like this. Why can’t I just find a man like you?”

“But not gay.” Connor attempted to lighten the tone.

“All men are bastards,” she announced.

Some of her gumption slipped into that last statement, and Connor closed his eyes and rested his chin on her head. He only had to think about the ex from hell and he was happy to agree with everything Rachel said. “I know. I’m really sorry, Rach, we can go, use the path from here, we don’t even have to go back to the pub. We can call a cab out on the road.”

Rachel nodded her head against him and Connor resolved to stand here until his friend was calmer. When Rachel pulled away slightly, Connor grasped her hand and began to guide her to the back gate and the pathway exit to the other end of the village. They’d not gone more than a dozen steps when a voice called them back.

“Wait! Please don’t go,” the voice said from beside them, far too close for Connor’s liking. He hadn’t heard anyone coming up behind them. Then he looked at who it was and that protective thing he had going where Rachel was concerned kicked up a notch. It was the youngest son, Ashley or something, Ash for short, the one with the knowing smirk and the fuck-me eyes.

“Your brother is lucky I don’t go and put him down,” Connor snapped.

Ash sighed and held up his hands in surrender. “You don’t know how many times I have thought the same thing. The time I brought home my first boyfriend and Landon decided to have the condom talk with him, or the time Spot died and he accused the cat. Spot being a hamster you see, and the cat having eaten the hamster.”

Ash stopped abruptly and his weary laughing expression hardened, like he’d not meant to be happy smiley at all. Evidently he was here as the household representative, and his job was to get ahead of potential embarrassment to the all-powerful Sterling-Haynes family. Well, at much as Connor didn’t want to face off with Ash, he wouldn’t let Rachel be hurt.

“I just want to go,” Rachel said from next to him.

“Then we’re leaving,” Connor said.

Ash moved quickly, positioning himself between them and the gate. “Please just wait a minute.”

“Get out of our way,” Connor threatened. He even stepped forward, but Ash didn’t back down.

“Just one minute. I’ll say what I need to, then you can go.”

“I could go now,” Connor snapped. He took another step forward, and this time Ash did take a step back.

“Let him say what he wants to say,” Rachel said, soft and low.

“Rachel, you don’t have to do this.”

“It’s okay,” she added.

Connor stepped forward, putting himself between Rachel and Ash. “You have anything to say, you go through me.”

Ash’s eyes widened and the mask of seriousness slipped a little. Connor would have laughed at the look of surprise if this wasn’t such a knife-edge situation.

“I don’t want any trouble,” Ash said.

“If your fucking arsehole of a brother makes one move on Rachel—”

“Shit, look,” Ash interrupted. “I need to be serious for a minute. Landon is a complete idiot when it comes to this.” Ash waved a hand between Connor and himself, obviously including Rachel in this group. “He’s not so hot with the girls, and—”

Rachel gasped. “He was fine when he had my skirts around my waist.”

“Rachel!” Connor warned.

“Jesus!” Ash said at the same time. “I need to bleach my eyes.”

“Well he did,” Rachel defended. “It’s okay to fuck me in a cupboard but talking to me after is what? Unnecessary?”

“Rachel?” Ash moved sideways a little, Connor guessed so he could see Rachel. Connor didn’t move, although if Ash tried anything…

“Landon was in New York,” he stopped Rachel speaking by hurrying on, “and I know there is email and texts and—look, he just has no idea what to say, and he’s been talking about you all morning, and he got so desperate for help to sort this out that he even asked me for my advice.” Ash said that with incredulous shock. He crossed his arms over his chest, then released the hold and dug his hands in his pockets. Connor thought he looked like a big kid playing dress-up in the fancy duds. His spiky dark hair and the stubble on his face made him appear like he’d been forced to wear a suit and hadn’t really wanted to try. Good-looking yes, in that cute smirky rich-kid kind of way, but still, he was the enemy in this situation.

“She doesn’t care,” Connor said. Rachel still hadn’t come fully out from behind him, and he read that as her needing him to tell Ash to get lost.

“Landon does. He cares, I mean. Rachel, he says he fell for you at Christmas, and that he didn’t want to hurt you.” Ash frowned. “And other stuff about sex in a cupboard that a brother shouldn’t know about.”

Rachel stepped out from behind him straightening her shoulders and putting on her game face. She rummaged in her bag, pulled out a small pack of tissues and wiped her eyes, glancing down and shaking her head at the smear of black mascara on them. For someone who had been crushed against his chest crying for a few minutes, Connor thought she looked adorably cute and confused, if a little panda-eyed.

Ash took a step closer. “Landon’s devastated that he upset you. Can you maybe talk to him and see past the stupidity?”

“What does he want from Rachel?” Connor asked when Rachel didn’t answer.

“Honestly, he just wants to… talk.” Ash shrugged. “He’s pacing a few hedge lines down. Will you just talk to him?”

“So he can ask more questions about Rachel being pregnant?” Connor asked.

Ash shook his head. “Are you, Rachel? Pregnant that is? Because if you are—”

Connor walked the few steps right up into Ash’s space. “And what if she was, huh?” Ash’s eyes widened, then his lips parted on a sigh.

“I didn’t mean anything by it—”

“I’m not.” Rachel hit Connor on the arm with her purse, and his anger subsided. Rachel didn’t need him stirring this up out of all proportion. “I’ll talk to Landon. I’m okay to talk to him.”

“I’ll come with you,” Connor said.

“No, I’ll be okay.”

“What if he hurts you?”

Ash interjected, “What are you implying?”

“Just that your brother has already fucked my friend over once and if he touches her—”

“Connor, it will be okay.” Rachel hugged him briefly, then pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“It won't be, he’ll try and talk you around.”

“I’ll let him talk,” she said. “And if I don’t like what he has to say…” she shrugged.

Connor knew it wasn’t that easy. What if Landon was the type who could talk himself out of everything? “I’ll come with you.”

Rachel placed a hand to his chest. “I’ll be okay.” Then shoulders back, she walked around the hedge and disappeared.

Connor was left with Ash, and unexpectedly he didn’t know what to say. Rachel had gone, and even though he wanted to follow her, she had absolved him from being her protector, and now what he really needed was a drink. Connor didn’t know Landon; there was no reason to think he was like the manipulative bastards that Connor had met before. I need a fucking drink. He walked past Ash to head back into The Wychwood.

“I’d love it,” Ash said from behind him.

Politeness had Connor stopping to face Ash, but irritability had him losing his will to be well-mannered when he spoke. “What?” He knew he sounded uptight and probably more than a little rude. He’d never wanted to be at this damn wedding, let alone deal with idiots like the Sterling-Hayes brothers. Even the pretty gay ones.

To his credit Ash didn’t back down. He shrugged. “If Rachel was pregnant, then I’d have another niece or nephew to spoil and I’d love it. We all would.”

The words somewhat took the wind out of Connor’s sails. That wasn’t what he’d expected to hear. He’d been part of the world Ash lived in before and he knew how to play the game.

Icy politeness was a good place to start. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Have we met before?” Ash asked, stopping Connor from leaving. Again.

“No.”

“Oh,” Ash began, “normally people hate me after they meet me, not before.” It was Ash who left, brushing past Connor and disappearing into the darkness of The Wychwood’s old interior and leaving Connor standing like an idiot.