About Games People Play: Dress to Impress
Written by Jodi Payne
61 pages / 20700 words
ISBN: 978-1-60370-298-0, 1-60370-298-9
Available file types - html, lit, pdf, prc
Matt thinks that Erik is the hottest thing he's seen in a long time. So even when the bartender at his favorite watering hole tells Matt not to bother with a heartbreaker like Erik, he can't help himself. He has to make a play for the beautiful man.
Erik would rather play games than settle into a regular relationship. He thinks his real life is pretty boring, and he's all about being someone else every time he and Matt meet. Matt's happy to play along for awhile, but when he starts to want more, Erik balks. Can Matt find a way to win at Erik's games before they both lose forever?
Review
Angelia Sparrow, co-author of Paying Forfeits, writes:
When Matt takes the cute software geek, Erik, home from his favorite bar, he is expecting nothing more than some release. Erik leaves his glasses behind, so Matt tracks him down. But Erik, it seems, is a changeable sort. From cute geek with a raging libido to subby goth boy with green-tipped hair who likes his sex in the bathroom, Erik has a taste for game playing. He changes roles by what he feels that night, and seldom sees the same man twice.
Matt catches onto the rules fast and plays along, following Erik though all the different roles, until he finds the real man under the games. Then he changes the rules, in such a way that they can both win.
”Dress to Impress” is a steamy little romp from Jodi Payne which introduces us to bored accountant Matt, and Erik, man of mystery and ever-shifting whim.
But under the very sexy games that Erik plays, and Matt realizes he thoroughly enjoys, is an underlying loneliness that infests both men's lives. Neither has much of anything except work. Watching them come together, at first as players in Erik's sexual games and then as people, real people, is a delight. Sexy and spicy, with an unexpectedly sweet finish, and a final kick that takes it out of ordinary erotic romance, “Dress to Impress” is quite impressive.
Sample
The young man had blond hair, and every so often he'd run his fingers through its unruly length, but stubborn bangs would fall right back into his eyes. He wore a pair of studious-looking glasses with metal frames that would slide slowly down his nose now and again. The way that he pushed them back up with one finger in mid-conversation seemed almost absent-minded, or automatic, as if he didn't even realize he was doing it.
"Hey. Do you know that guy?" Matt finally asked when he had the bartender's attention.
"Which one?"
"The one in the white T-shirt."
"Oh, yeah. That's just Erik. He's here a lot."
Erik. Matt made note of the name. "Is he here alone?"
"As far as I know. Are you having another?"
Matt looked down at his empty glass thinking he really ought to feel more relaxed for having polished off a gin and tonic, but he could still feel the stress of the office on his shoulders.
He nodded at the bartender. "Yeah. One more."
"You got it."
Matt had been watching Erik for a long while. Even from a distance Matt was drawn in by Erik's easy smile and the way that he moved or turned on his barstool to talk to someone, the way his fingers played over his tall, cool beer glass.
His beer was something domestic, and his bottle was almost empty.
The bartender sat Matt's gin and tonic down. "Is this really your last one?"
"Yeah, any more and I won't be able to drive home."
"You want to settle your tab?"
"Oh, sure." Matt pulled a twenty out of his pocket but paused and looked at it thoughtfully before adding another ten to it. "Tack on one of whatever Erik is drinking, please?"
The bartender rolled his eyes and shook his head indulgently. "Sure, sure. But be careful of that one, buddy," he said, slowly grinning at Matt. "He's a heartbreaker."