Product Description

Brian Russell watched his best friend find love and happiness with a hot young man, and now he wants some of that happiness for himself. While on a job, he meets Rush Weston, the cowboy of his wet dreams in a dark Houston alley. They begin a relationship, having hot phone sex during the week and even hotter dates on Friday nights.

Rush has never had a relationship with a man, never gone on dates, never given his heart to anyone, just had anonymous encounters and a string of one-night stands.

Brian's relationships have always been safe and conventional, if not a little boring, and his heart's been broken too many times to count. But with Rush, Brian is doing things he never thought he'd do--like getting carried away in the front seat of a truck in broad daylight. Rush's fears and clumsiness with Brian threaten to ruin everything, but Brian sees something worth fighting for in the big cowboy.

Both men have found "the one," but Rush won't leave his ranch. Not even for Brian. Brian's only choice is to give up on Rush, or give Rush time and hope he'll be brave enough to admit to everyone that he's gay so they can be together because Brian refuses to go back in the closet. Not even for Rush.

So, what are a hunky P.I and a sexy as hell cowboy to do?

If they're going to have a life together, something's gotta give.

Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual practices, menage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #435772 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Customer Reviews

Better than the first volume in the series
Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 7/10

PROS:
- Good depiction of the mental anguish involved with being out of the closet yourself and falling for someone who isn't out yet--and who seems unlikely ever to come out.
- Fairly routine, vanilla sex scenes, but I still enjoyed them. I read this right after having read the first volume in the Common Powers series, and the sex scenes in this book are much more frequent, detailed, and passionate. All of the initial encounters are phone sex, so when the characters finally get together, their joining involves more emotion than a round of sex between two people who are simply physically attracted to each other.
- Characters from Soul Bonds make an appearance in this volume and are almost more endearing and interesting than they were in their own book. I'm not sure how much time passed between the writing of the first and second volumes, but Lorenz improved quite a bit with this second one. The story here has a whole lot more depth than that of the first book.

CONS:
- There's a frustrating back-and-forth movement throughout the book in which one character screws up over and over again in every imaginable way and the other struggles with a) forgiving him because of their mutual attraction or b) letting him go because he's so far beyond saving. It's true to life, I suppose, but my goodness. After a while, I thought, "Surely at some point he'll start to learn from these mistakes he's making." And he does, but not until after I'd grown weary of it all.
- The book's final sex scene was disappointing to me. It's well enough written, but the angle Lorenz takes in order to deliver the erotic punch I'm sure she was going for felt contrived and unnecessary to me. Plain vanilla sex works for some couples, and unless you've hinted throughout the book that they're up for something more, bringing "something more" into it at the end doesn't always work.

Overall comments: I enjoyed this volume more than the first, Soul Bonds, because it examines the characters' emotions and motivations in more depth. It doesn't have a hair-raising plot, but the sex scenes are decently written and pretty regular.

Rush in the Dark (Common Powers 2) by Lynn Lorenz
The Common Powers series is a "strange" paranormal series; as the name says, it's about common men who have some "special" powers, but not so much to make them extraordinary men. In the first installment, Sammi, a young hustler, has the power to hear the thoughts of the people around him, and when he finds his true love, he shares with him a mind bond. Their friend was Brian, a private investigator who has premonitions. In the second installment Brian meets his man, Rush, a true blood cowboy. The special power of Rush is the night vision, but unlike the powers of the other men, this particular power is not something that has a special role in the story, it's only like another body characteristic of Rush, like the color of his eyes...

There are two plots in the story: the main one is the developing relationship between Brian and Rush, with their struggle to overcome Rush's insecurities; Rush lives in a small town USA and he fears to come out, the only time he did with his father, he was beaten like an animal and forced to stay hidden or leave. Even if now Rush is alone, he still has not found the courage to come out again with his friends and neighboors. The second plot is Brian's research for Sammi's real identity.

Both Brian and Rush are interesting characters. Brian is an old fashioned man, he believes in Mr Right, and even if he isn't a virgin maid waiting for his knight in shining armor, he still believes in wooing and in having a relationship with his lover and not only mindless and no strings attached sex. He wants to be respected, he likes sex, but he needs something else and more with it.

Rush is a troubled man. He spent all his life in hiding, and when he has some urges, he goes far from home, in the big city where he is a stranger. But when he meets Brian he knows that, if he doesn't change his attitude, he will loose the man. Rush makes a lot of error in this relationship, a less constant man than Brian would give up to him with the first mistake. Instead, since Brian as I said believe in true love, he exercises a lot of patience and tames his skittish cowboy with praise and sugar.

The story is sexy, there are a lot of sex scenes, but all in all it's more romantic than erotic. I should say that I like this aspect of the book, and for this reason, I felt almost as not necessary the last erotic encounter... but well, better too much than not much!

More of a Flight in the Dark
When Brian meets Rush he is not at the top of his game, if ducking behind a trashcan for hours and then dumpster diving in front of a gorgeous man but luckily for Brian, Rush doesn't seem to mind all that much.

Rush in the Dark is the second installment of Common Powers, Brian is best friends with Mitchell and Sammy from the 1st Common Powers these men have powers, Brian's being gut instincts that lead him to have visions of upcoming events and Rush as in the title can see in the dark we also found out from book one that Brian had also been secretly in love with Mitchell's deceased lover. Here though he finds himself falling in love with Rush who he knows is the one. Rush on the other hand finds himself in trouble lusting and loving Brian but afraid to be outed in his small town. While Brian lives in Houston working as a PI and is more or less accepted and out Rush has to hide his feelings for men in his closed minded town. While Brian has had few relationships with men Rush has had countless one nightstands with men and has never been in a relationship with a man.

Their relationship begins through phone sex, and I mean a lot of phone sex that it got to the point where my head was pounding through so much phone sex [In Soul Bonds: Common powers 1 we saw Mitchell and Sammy also have phone sex] I wanted the talking to stop and let them express their crazed lust and love physically. When they did finally get together Rush runs away and Brian is left heart broken only to have Rush come begging for forgiveness and a second chance, this time though Brian sets up rules for Rush if they are to continue their relationship. I never expected Rush to be so flighty he is dead set to never leave his ranch and is haunted by fear of people finding out he's gay because when he did come out in the past he was punished for it by his own father and he does not want to face the same rejection or violence. Brian on the other hand wants his second half and though he is willing to wait for Rush, Rush's flightiness makes him feel cheap and rejected.

In this book Brian while not dealing with Rush's constant back and forth he is also looking for Sammy's family who gave him up for adoption. Sammy plays a part in pushing Brian towards Rush knowing how much both men are in love with the other.

Rush in the Dark has a lot of back and forth between the main characters on one hand you believe they are going to get together and there are no worries on the next suddenly Rush is running away and Brian is left feeling like a one night stand, and then there are apologies and promises then heartbreak and then more apologies and more heartbreak. In the end though Rush in order to keep Brian makes a decision of a lifetime in front of a crowd of townspeople. I had higher hopes for this book, Rush was character I could have seen myself loving more but his flightiness sort of took a lot from the romance, Brian was a trooper though keeping up with it and I loved his backbone whenever Rush did break his heart he didn't easily give in though his weakness for love was understandable. Rush in the Dark might cause you to rip your hair out or grit your teeth in frustration but once said in done Rush and Brian do get their happy ending.

LS