E. M. Lindsey

Derek Osbourne's life is mostly quiet. A routine that keeps him functioning, a job as a tattoo artist that keeps his rent paid and food in his belly, and if he's alone through it well, there are worse things to be. With his complicated past, Derek is sure no one would ever want to deal with the struggle that comes along with loving someone who has severe PTSD. Especially since the man who spent years abusing him is now in hospice, and Derek has taken over his end-of-life care. Derek's resigned himself to living and dying alone, and maybe that's okay. Then one night, during a raging storm, Derek finds himself stuck in an ATM vestibule with a quiet stranger, and it's in that moment his world begins to change. Basil Shevach is new to Fairfield, taking over his dead aunt's florist shop. He's also Deaf in a small town, where he and his sister are the only ones not hearing. It's not to say he hates it there, but he's not sure Fairfield is the place for him. At least, not until one night, when a storm leaves him trapped inside the bank with a man quietly panicking against the glass door. He's immediately intrigued by this unbelievably attractive stranger with bright tattoos covering his arms and haunted eyes, but he's also bitter because he's dated a hearing man before and it ended as badly as it could go for him. He had resolved years ago to never make that mistake again, but somehow, the frightened man trapped with him in that little room, crawls under his skin and no matter what he tries, he can't seem to shake him.Will the two of them be able to find their way together, or will their pasts prevent them from being able to find happiness and contentment when they need it most?Free Hand is the first book in the Irons and Works series. Each book contains an individual storyline with no cheating and HEA.

Free Hand

Like Water Catching Fire

"I see them...In you, I see them." Estranged from his family and locked in a demanding job which monopolizes all of his time, Head Chef, Mario Garcia, doesn't exactly have holiday spirit. He spends all season creating magic for others, and for himself, he's resigned to another lonely winter. There's a reason he's known as the Devil in Fairfield Resort's high-end kitchen, and he has no plans to change that. What most people don't realize, however, is that Chef Garcia has a soft spot for one man--a half-blind, Russian dishwasher who is the first person in years to make Mario feel. Viktor Popov's life is full of secrets and lies. He showed up in Fairfield with a handful of suspicious papers, no past, and secured a job in the bowels of a resort kitchen. He spends his waking hours washing dishes and trying his best to manage his failing eyesight without anyone taking notice. Once upon a time, he was a man of wealth and reputation, and now he's living day-to-day, hoping no one will ever take notice. It's been forever since Vitya believed in anything, and these long years of loneliness only proved to him that miracles didn't exist. At least, until the night when warm hands pulled him out of the cold, and a soft voice whispered in his ear that he mattered. Life isn't easy, and both men have never expected any different. But maybe, by the soft light of the menorah, both men will finally be able to see that for each other, they're exactly what they need. To Touch the Light is a 43,000 word holiday novel set in the Irons and Works Universe. This book contains no cheating and an HEA.

An Irons and Works Holiday Novel

To Touch the Light

Colton Davidson knew what his life was supposed to be like. Sports after school, Church on Sundays, meet a nice girl someday, get married, have children. He knew that his attraction to the other boys was nothing more than God testing him. He knew that if he just kept to his faith, he'd overcome the temptation of sin. If only he were stronger... After being sent to a camp to fix boys like him, Colton knew his only chance for survival was to run. He didn't know where the streets would take him, and he certainly didn't think he'd end up at a place like Ted House, where boys like him were nurtured and cared for. Colton never thought he would amount to much, but Sage and Derek Osbourne never let him believe otherwise. And it was with a place he could call home that Colton let himself believe he had a future. If only that future involved the ridiculously attractive, much older man who just breezed into Fairfield. At nineteen, Colton knows he's young, and he knows his life isn't easy, but he also knows what he wants. If only Marcel would trust him to make those decisions. He's ready to be with someone, to lose his virginity, to fall in love. He just needs that someone to trust him. Marcel Tremblay's life has been a strange juxtaposition of privilege and struggle. His wealthy parents in their nomadic lifestyle ensured that Marcel and his twin brother would want for nothing. But being born legally blind also meant that Marcel was under pressure from both his parents and society to perform far above average to prove his worth. Marcel has never wanted anything more than average. A husband, a simple job, a house with a picket fence, and maybe a dog. All of that seems so far out of his reach, though, when in spite of how hard he works, he's rarely given a chance to be just like everyone else. Marcel resigned himself to his part-time job as a yoga instructor, and his inattentive boyfriend in their relationship which has a very clear expiration date. But when Brad suggests relocating a thousand miles away in Fairfield, Colorado, Marcel sees it as a chance for something new. What he doesn't expect is for his entire life to blow up in a matter of weeks. Marcel goes out for a drink to forget, and walks away with an attachment to a younger man who has no business wanting to be with someone as messy as Marcel. Colton insists he knows what he's getting into, but Marcel likes him far too much to subject him to all the ways Marcel's life will hurt him--whether he wants it to or not. Will the two men find a way to come together, or will Marcel let his assumptions of what will be eclipse the joy and bliss of what could?Temptation is the second book in the Breaking the Rules series, an Irons and Works spin-off. This book contains no cheating with an HEA.

Temptation

Reeling from his divorce, Rhys Anderson is trying to find his footing again. Having just returned from a long trip, he finds the lives of the people he cares about most in total disarray. In the midst of trying to help his brother's ex deal with a blackmailer, a man enters his office for a consultation and divulges a secret of his own-he, too, is being targeted by the blackmailer. When Rhys suggests that Trevor Greene go public, Trevor reveals a secret which would prevent him from coming forward, and he quickly leaves. Not sure Rhys will ever see Trevor again, the mysterious man stays on his mind until one night he runs into him and sees just how badly the blackmail has devastated Trevor's life. Rhys immediately steps in and insists he be allowed to help. He expects to get to the bottom of things. What he doesn't expect is to find a reason to love again. If only things weren't so complicated. Will Rhys and Trevor be able to find their way together, or will the danger Trevor's in keep them apart? Each book will contain an HEA with no cliffhangers.

Fringe Contender

Noah Avidan has not led a charmed life. His first serious relationship crashed and burned with his boyfriend in the bed of their dog-walker. After achieving his dream job working as a Classics Professor at the University, his life is derailed by a car accident, leaving him blind in one eye and battling to lecture through a stammer. Whatever his luck, though, Noah is bound and determined to pick up the pieces and find his own way to happiness.The day Noah walks into Baum's Boxing is the day everything changes. Adrian Flores, an ex-Marine boxer with his own story to tell and his own struggles to overcome, is immediately taken with the timid man taking his first kickboxing class. It seems like a fairy tale waiting to happen, until the day it doesn't. A miscommunication between both men leaves them vulnerable for one cruel, obsessed man to take matters into his own hands. Will their relationship survive blackmail, violent attacks, and a promise to destroy their livelihoods? Or will the two be forced to part ways and accept that fate is just not on their side? Below the Belt is the first in the series, Baum's Boxing. Each book will contain an HEA with no cliffhangers.

Below the Belt

Two men, shaped by the demons of their past, find their lives inexplicably intertwined. Nicolas Michaud, the prodigy composer and pianist, grew up apart from the world. A mother who neglected him, and a father who never met him. But when he's suddenly orphaned, Nicolas is taken from his comfortable home and thrown into a life where no one understands him. Consumed by his desire to find the perfect musician for his Magnum Opus, he turns away from human relationships, and it turns him cold. Taking a job at the University in the United States, Nicolas is met with disappointment and regret. Until he meets Cedric Blum, a young chemical engineering student with a secret talent for music like Nicolas has never seen. But Cedric has his own past to overcome. With the help of an old friend, and new relationships, the pair begin their journey toward love, life, and the Magnum Opus. In the end, will Cedric's happy nature thaw Nicolas' icy exterior, or will Nicolas find himself consumed by his fear of love?

Verismo

Mat Harlow had his life figured out. He married his college sweetheart, and his residency at the hospital was showing a promising career ahead. Then, at the hands of a reckless driver, all of it changed. A traumatic brain injury derails his life, and Mat finds himself dumped by his wife, out of a job, and rejected by his family. He escapes into the world of tattooing, settling in Fairfield, Colorado, surrounded by the only people who had ever offered him unconditional support. But as comforting as the guys at Irons and Works are, he can't deny that he's lonely. His inability to read, aphasia, and stammer make it difficult for him to maintain any semblance of normal when it comes to relationships.Wyatt Adley has dealt with his fair share of disaster when it comes to marriage. When his husband is involved in a scandal with a student, Wyatt spends all of his energy to clear his name, then quickly escapes Canada for the US. He settles in a sleepy little town just outside of Denver, renting a small house from the local mechanic, and trying to lay low until he figures out what he wants to do with his life. But it's not that easy to start over, and his ability to keep himself isolated is strained when he meets the young tattoo artist recovering from a head injury. Wyatt falls quickly and deeply, but there's one problem-as far as he knows, Mat is straight.Except, that might not be entirely true. Mat's been holding tight to a secret, afraid to take up space in a lane that never belonged to him. But with every French pick-up line Wyatt teases him with, every second he spends in the other man's company, Mat starts to realize he can't hide that part of himself anymore. He's enamored with the other man-from Wyatt's love of old westerns and Tombstone, to the way he lives his life unapologetically. Once Mat leaps, he knows there's no going back. If only it were so easy. Wyatt is afraid that his past ruined him for any future, and Mat's afraid that his inabilities make him impossible to love, but with the support of their friends and family, they just might find their way to their happily ever after.Stick and Poke is the fifth book in the Irons and Works series. The book contains no cheating, and guaranteed HEA.

Stick and Poke

“For five million dollars, would you send a relative to jail?”
"Bud, I would pay five million dollars to send a few there."

Problem number one: Almost everything the world thinks they know about me is a lie.
Problem number two: Two people know the truth.
Problem number three: One of those two is a stalker and he's having a blast using that information against me to get his way.

The good news is, the second person who knows the truth about who I am seems pretty dedicated to taking my stalker down.

The bad news is, it’s NHL goalie Vanya Maximov, and he and I had a one night stand that I can’t stop thinking about. And while Vanya might be walking sunshine so bright he can make even my blind ass see light, we have no business being together.

I’m a mess, and while Vanya is everything I’ve ever wanted in a partner, he deserves better than me.

If only he was willing to listen to reason. If only he was less stubborn and able to give up on a lost cause.

But with his ability to give me exactly what I want—a little pain with my pleasure—and his refusal to treat me like I’m fragile, something dangerous starts happening.

I’m beginning to think that maybe—just maybe—he’s right, and I am worth everything he sees.

Punk as Puck Book 5, Legends and Fury Book 2

Hat Trick

"Would you slap a teammate for twenty-five grand?"
"Uh, yeah. There are a few I'd slap for free. Just point me in the right direction."

Problem number one: My personal life is falling apart.
Problem number two: My public life is also on thin freaking ice.
Problem number three: The ridiculously hot NHL D-man with the inability to remove his head from his ass has decided I’m his number one target.

And that last one is a bit of an issue since his idea of targeting me is to have absurdly hot hate-hookups with me in the locker room. Which I don’t necessarily mind…

Except there’s one tiny snag in his plan: I don’t like guys.

Or, well, I didn’t think I liked guys.

But when Alexio Zeki drops to his knees and, uh, gets to business, I realize my very narrow view of my own sexuality needs some adjustment.

And that’s ironic coming from a blind man.

Admitting I’m bisexual is the easy part.

Admitting I’m kind of, sort of, ridiculously into the man I claimed to hate is something else entirely. But the more he insists that I’m worth keeping, the more I start wanting to believe him.

Punk as Puck Book 4, Legends and Fury Book 1

Stick Around

Sometimes the one-night stand you meet at a bar on the outskirts of town shows up at your house a month later to reveal he’s the one man you were never supposed to touch.

My friends are all I have, so I’d rather lose my other leg than do anything to hurt them. But how was I supposed to know the bearded stranger at the bar that night was the one person who hurt my best friend beyond repair?

I never would have known who Killian was if he hadn’t turned up at my door a month after our little tryst. But here he is, on my doorstep, with nowhere to go and a sob story that wounds my already bleeding heart.

I should turn him away, but I can’t. Killian makes me feel things I’ve never felt before.

And he’s the first man to ever look at me like I’m a whole person and not just shattered pieces from a bad accident and a broken family.

How can I give that up?

My only job should be to protect my best friend, but the heart wants what the heart wants. All I can hope is that in the end, when truths are finally revealed, I won’t have lost the only people who love me for exactly who I am.


Absolutely Pucked is a forbidden relationship, found family, MM hockey romance in the Punk as Puck series, which is best enjoyed in order. It features a para-hockey player with a love of classic horror films, a chip on his shoulder, and a determination to be better than his family ever thought he would be, an estranged man with a past full of lies, sins to confess, who never believed he was worthy of a good man, a scraggly alley cat with high end taste, secret dates, making out in store rooms, playing amateur private eyes, the merits of forgiving not only others but yourself, and a steamy-sweet happily ever after.

Punk as Puck Book 3

Absolutely Pucked

Sometimes what happens anonymously in a dingy, pay by the hour motel room shows up a month later to reveal himself as your new coach…
I have rules. Very important rules. No real names, no strings, no seeing each other again. It’s always worked out well for me, and it’s the only thing that keeps me focused as I try to climb my way into professional hockey after nearly torching my career.

I should have been king of the ice in the paraprofessional league, but instead, I let my anger and bitterness get to me. Now I’m forced to claw my way back into relevance, starting with a community team.

That would be fine if the one amazing, anonymous night I had with a total stranger didn’t end up being the Wolves’ new coach. And even that might have been tolerable if Hugo wasn’t on my father’s payroll.

But he is.

And to make matters worse, I still want him. My bad attitude and attempt to drive him away doesn’t faze him at all, and the more I push, the more he pulls me back into the last place I want to be: his orbit.

All I want is to join the PPHL and prove to myself that I’m a worthy player on my own merit.

Lust wasn’t on the table. And neither was love.

But the closer I get to Hugo, the more I realize that I’m not sure I want to do this without him…and the more I realize I’m not sure if I can.

Pucked Up is the second book in the Punk and Puck series which is best enjoyed in order. It’s an enemies with benefits, coach/player, slow burn into love romance. It features a para hockey player with a continent sized chip on his shoulder, a widower coach who never expected to fall for anyone after the loss of his husband, a bossy dynamic, a lot of praise, hockey bro banter, the merits of jumping on the bed when you're sad, found family, and a steamy, wild happily ever after.

Punk as Puck Book 2

Pucked Up

Sometimes what happens in Vegas shows up at your door two weeks later to tell you that he’s the guy you married while you were blackout drunk.

Tucker:

Waking up alone in a strange hotel room, missing my prosthetic legs, and no memory of what happened the night before is not how I wanted to spend my estranged twin’s bachelor party trip.

Yet there I was, legless and zero idea how I got there. Or who I spent the night with. Which is…not great.

Though I suppose that trauma lies somewhere between losing my legs in a car accident which killed my career in the NHL, and my brother running off with my fiancée.

So, in the grand scheme of things, not the worst weekend I’ve had.

But while I’m no longer a bitter, angry man, I’m also maybe—kind of, sort of—not the most well-adjusted person on the planet. And that shows when an adorable, dimpled, wild-haired man shows up at my door to tell me that the hazy night in Vegas had a very specific ending:

At some point, after several chocolate cake shots and trauma dumping, Amedeo and I found Elvis and got married.

The easy thing to do would be to make sure the marriage isn’t valid. But when have I ever made anything in my life easy? Especially since the incentive is getting to keep this man in my orbit.

We might have had the weirdest beginning of any married couple, but now I’m feeling strangely determined to give us both the happily ever after we deserve.


Punk as Puck Book 1

Zero Pucks

From the Pre-WWI coast of Boston, Massachusetts to the modern-day desert of Tucson, Arizona, love can be found throughout time. Follow the four love stories as they discover the trials and tribulations of life, love, and the meaning of loyalty. These romance stories span across history to remind us that wherever we are, love can be found anywhere. E.M. Lindsey combines her romance novellas, Time and Tide, Monsters and Men, Absolution, and Time To Wake Up to create a beautiful anthology for the ages.

E. M. Lindsey

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