Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 67966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67966 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
A gay romance soap opera of love, resilience, and redemption.
Atropa Belladonna—known as deadly nightshade—is the poison that ended Romeo and Juliet’s story of love and loss.
Thorn Maxwell knows heartbreak. It’s why he built Belladonna—a lavish, by-invitation-only oceanfront sanctuary—where men scarred by love’s cruelty, learn to safely risk their hearts again.
Within the walls of Thorn’s mansion, his gentlemen help restore hope, rekindle trust, and show men the kind of love that heals instead of destroys.Step inside Belladonna—where hearts bleed and heal, secrets smolder, passions ignite, and every episode unveils an unexpected twist.
This is NOT your average romance novel!
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Pilot: Season 1, Episode 1
Breathing But Not Living
Downtown Norfolk, Virginia
Forty-Second Floor of the Bank of Tidewater
Lucas’s Office
Lucas’s phone ringing was shrill enough to jolt him from his daydreaming. He lifted the receiver, knowing it couldn’t be good news.
It never was at this hour.
“Lucas, I knew I’d find you in your office. Where else would you be? Your bitch of a lawyer really screwed me good, didn’t she? Did you know about the settlement offer?”
The voice of the man on the other end sounded like satin over sandpaper scraping at his heart—something he wished didn’t beat anymore.
Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose at the immediate pulse of tension blooming behind his eyes.
The leather of his chair creaked as he spun toward the window, seeking solace in the sprawling view of the city’s lights glittering on the black expanse of water.
Why did I even pick up the phone? Who else is going to call my office this late?
“How could you allow her to walk into that courtroom and leave me with nothing? Like I never mattered. Like I never meant anything to you.”
Lucas clenched his fists in his lap as the soft sniffles slid through the receiver, tugging at a hollowed-out place in his heart—a place where his spouse, where love, had once been.
“You don’t even care about how much I’m struggling, do you? I’ve had to start working as an event planner again.”
Lucas was silent, not trusting his voice not to crack.
He gazed absently at a lonely catamaran coasting along the Elizabeth River, drifting with the tide as if it had nowhere to be.
It was almost two in the morning, yet one boat floated alone in the middle of the dark body of water as if it had no dock of its own.
“Say something, dammit! Why are you doing this to me?” Adam screeched.
Lucas didn’t want to speak. He hadn’t heard his husband’s—ex-husband’s—voice in three months. Not since his divorce lawyer had filed a no-contact order to put a stop to Adam’s theatrics.
His ex would storm into his office mid-meeting, call at odd hours, throwing tantrums over money.
Yet here he was violating the order again, reciting the same argument as if the papers hadn’t been signed today, as if they weren’t officially over.
Lucas sighed as his stomach sank. It had always been about money. Lucas had been foolish to think a man as gorgeous as Adam would’ve wanted him for anything but.
Loosening his tie did nothing for the tightness in his throat. It wasn’t fabric choking him—it was humiliation, his obliterated pride.
However, he managed to croak out, “Adam. Why are you— You know you’re not supposed to be calling me.”
“I’ve always loved how you say my name. So strong and serious,” Adam purred.
Lucas hated that some stubborn part of him still heard it as sweet seduction.
“Don’t,” he demanded.
He may have been sad and lonely, but his mind could no longer be fucked with and manipulated by a sexy man.
“Let me come home. This has gone on long enough.”
“The papers were signed today, Adam. Our marriage is—” He bit down on the rest of that realization, pressing his fist to his lips.
“Why can’t you forgive me?” Adam yelled, making Lucas remove the receiver from his ear.
“It was one time! Once! All the times I forgave you for never showing up to my events, for standing me up on our anniversary night, for never taking me out on Valentine’s Day, or any day for that matter.”
“That’s not justification for what you did.”
“It is!” Adam snapped. “I even made us a date night, and you couldn’t even honor that.” He sniffled some more. “I was always sympathetic to your work, Lucas. I always understood that your business came first. Sometimes, I’d even bring you dinner when you worked late, remember?”
As if you cooked. You bought me overpriced gourmet takeout.
The back-and-forth was an old, toxic rhythm, yet the scars in his chest still felt raw, new.
He’d once loved Adam’s energy, his laugh, the way he lit up a room.
And Adam had loved being lit up in return—by gifts, by luxury, all the shine Lucas’s money could buy.