First

2026 | Contemporary | LGBTQ+ | Romance

Tommy Newsome is nineteen, newly out of his small Georgia town, and already in over his head.
Athens was supposed to mean freedom—college, independence, a life that didn’t smell like hay and judgment. But standing inside his first gay bar, heart pounding and palms slick, Tommy realizes escaping home didn’t magically give him confidence. The music’s too loud. The men are too gorgeous. And he’s one wrong move away from bolting back to his truck.
Then the bartender looks up.
Mike Scott smiles like he knows exactly what Tommy’s thinking—and exactly what he wants.

Mike has poured drinks for every kind of man imaginable. As Scott Masters, he’s spent twenty years being watched, desired, and consumed. He knows confidence when he sees it… and he knows raw, shaking need when it walks up to his bar and can barely get out the words, “Uh. Coke. Please.”

Tommy doesn’t mean to stare. Or blush. Or confess, after one too many encouraging smiles, that this is his first time in a place like this. But Mike’s voice is warm, teasing without being cruel, and when he leans in close to be heard over the music, Tommy’s brain goes deliciously blank.

Mike shouldn’t flirt. The age gap is dangerous. The innocence is tempting in all the wrong ways. And Mike has sworn—repeatedly—that he’s done picking men who remind him how badly he can want something that won’t last. But when Tommy admits, cheeks burning, that he’s never been with a man… never even kissed one… Mike realizes this isn’t just another night behind the bar.
This is a moment. A choice. And maybe the kind of risk that changes everything.
Because Tommy didn’t come to Woofs looking for a hookup.
He came looking for himself.
And Mike might finally be ready to stop performing and start living.

Some temptations don’t just make you burn—they make you brave enough to reach.

* Age Gap *First Time *Innocence Meets Experience *College Setting *Coming Out

Originally published by Dreamspinner Press

K.C. Wells (Author)