Brief Encounters

Title: Hauling Ashes
Author: J.J. Massa
Length:  6,200 words (35 pdf pages)
Publisher: Torquere Press
Genre: m/m contemporary BDSM-lite
Rating: C+

Blurb: 

It’s been too long since Langley has had his ashes hauled – - so long that even his snarky old supervisor looks good to him.

Garret keeps a tight rein on his passions… his burning desires. For two years, the fire for his assistant has smoldered. After two years of Langley Johnson stumbling into work looking debauched and delectable, that fire is blazing out of control.

What will it take to bank the fire? Or is it too late for anything but ashes?]

Review:

For those who aren’t familiar with the phrase, and I had never heard it before this book, getting your ashes hauled basically means getting laid. Not sure where this book is set, but it was a new one for me.  Anyway, Langley has issues getting to work on time, and his snarly older boss rides him hard. He’s getting more and more tense and decides he’s going out to the bar to get laid. Unfortunately, or fortunately, boss Garrett overhears this and while he’s been quietly lusting after Langley, he decides he’s going to do the same.

Only it seems Garrett is not as old as he comes across. In order to secure a high-level job, he dressed and presented himself as older and more conservative, however when he goes out to the bars, he looks more his age. Both men end up at the same bar unintentionally, and when Garrett sees Langley, he decides to take a chance and go for it even though being the man’s boss puts things in dangerous territory. However given that Langley is drunk (?) and Garrett is dressed very differently, Langley thinks it’s just a guy who kind of looks like his boss. They end up back at Garrett’s where some restraints and D/s sex send Langley to his happy place.

The sex is hot in that “I’m a dominant” kind of way. My biggest issue was that Langley still hasn’t figured out that it’s his boss. How drunk was he? Sure the guy was not wearing glasses and had on tight jeans/t-shirt vs a suit, but really? I ended up sitting there thinking about the guys I work with and even if they didn’t wear their glasses, changed their hairstyle (as much as most men can who have a conservative haircut), given their mannerisms and voice, I’m pretty damn sure I’d recognize them, even if I was drunk. So I had a bit of trouble believing that he really didn’t know the guy was his boss, which threw me off. I think he finally figured it out at the end, but if he hadn’t and continued to deny it, he was sillier than I thought.

The story is told from both POVs, so that was interesting. I found Garrett more appealing as Langley comes off as a bit young and not very interesting to me, but if you are in the mood for some very sexy D/s action it’s worth a read, I just found the premise of not recognizing a guy he spends 8-9 hours a day with kind of odd, even if he took off his glasses, however it may work for some people on a bit of a fantasy/fiction level.