Asylum, Piper Vaughn

A relatively short story about a man who falls in love with his best friend's brother knowing it could destroy the best friendship he's ever had.

- Review by Cindi

This story is short so I will try to make my review brief.  Some know that I am a big fan of Piper Vaughn (remember Dusty?) so I was pretty eager to jump into this one.  I was not disappointed.

Johnny Cairo works for Fear Asylum, a traveling haunted house owned by his father.  He's known as the Scaremaster because of his ability to scare the hell out of patrons who make their way through the haunted house night after night.

Brennan is the younger brother of Eddie, Johnny's closest friend in the world.  Eddie left Fear Asylum a couple of years prior when he married and started a family.  Once Johnny graduated high school, he became a part of the company and stayed in close proximity of Johnny... the man he has secretly been in love with for years. Now twenty, Johnny is tired of waiting to be noticed so he does something about it.  Boy does he do something about it!  I give the kid props.  One way to get a man's attention is to crawl into the bed of the unsuspecting man night after night and do things that will insure that Brennan is not kicked out of the bed... at least until they are finished.  

::: grin :::

Johnny goes along (for the most part) with Brennan's nighttime visits but ends each feeling guilty knowing that what he and Brennan are doing could destroy the best friendship he's ever had.  He tries to end it but something keeps pushing him in Brennan's direction and it's not just the sex (the sex that is very, very hot by the way).  Finally, he makes the move to end it once and for all only to have something dangerous happen to Brennan.  Then all bets are off.  He must decide if he is willing to watch the man he's grown to love disappear or will he fight like hell to hold onto him?

This is a very enjoyable, quick read.  I adored Brennan from the very beginning and I will admit to not liking Johnny at that point.  He grew on me after awhile.  There are a couple of things that I would have liked to have seen elaborated on and I felt that a few more pages could have answered those questions.  That did not, however, take away from my enjoyment of the story.

Another great read by Piper Vaughn.

I love the cover. :)