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“Jealousy was your word, babe. Not mine.”

Buckley Mitchell lives to put people back together again. The charming, warmhearted EMT is exactly who you want holding your hand in the ambulance after you’ve broken a bone. And he’s just the boyfriend Mateo Cano needs to help him embrace his sexuality after years of repressing his true self. But Mateo hasn’t been entirely truthful about the complicated relationship between him and his best friend from his Marine Corps days, the accomplished crew chief who saved his life during a training accident gone wrong. Why did Master Sergeant Jeff Braxton vanish from Mateo’s life right after Mateo and Buckley got together?

When Buckley and Jeff meet for the first time at Sapphire Cove, a posh oceanfront resort in Southern California, a more complicated history is revealed. But Buckley isn’t jealous. In fact, he’s something else altogether. Something excited…and hungry. He’s spent the past year bringing Mateo’s fantasies to life. Now it’s his turn to have his fantasies realized. And to do it, Mateo will partner with the handsome older Marine who taught him everything he knows in the bedroom, turning their lavish villa at Sapphire Cove into a gateway that brings secret passions to life. Will their wild weekend be little more than a fling? Or will it change all three of their lives for the better?


EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: Party of Three

Christopher Rice (writing as C. Travis Rice)

Expected Release Date: 24 June 2025

If you had to spend a weekend in a lavish hotel suite with your boyfriend and his handsome ex and they were both looking at you like they wanted to snack on you, would you guys play cards and watch movies or would you bring on the spice? A steamy new story answering this very hard hitting question—set in Christopher Rice’s (writing as C. Travis Rice) incredible Sapphire Cove universe—is out this week, and I have a little sneak peek for you.

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Excerpt

Buckley’s knees went weak from the white-hot wrongness of kissing another man for the first time in a little over a year, a full-body reaction that sent a pulse from his toes to his head. Like touching a stove that should have been hot but instead felt like soft velvet. The lips were not Mateo’s. They were rougher, the kisses more forceful. But that initial sense of having broken some vow was melted by the kneading, insistent force Mateo was applying to the back of their necks.

In the blink of an eye, with a single gesture, Mateo had closed the distance between Buckley and Jeff, and before Buckley realized what had happened, the feel of Jeff’s lips against his had seized control of him.

And then the kiss caught fire, and he found himself thrilling over the taste of Jeff’s tongue as the man’s big, gym-calloused hands caressed the side of his face. His boyfriend let out a gentle, satisfied groan even though it was Jeff’s mouth Buckley was tasting. The Marine kissed like Mateo kissed, with a steady, probing build. That and the way Buckley went up on the balls of his feet to take in more of the man’s hungry mouth gave a raw, hot truth to the lie that had been their anger a second before.

“There we go,” Mateo whispered next to them. “That’s it. That’s what you guys need.” His voice made it sound like some deep knot of tension had been released from his own body, even though he wasn’t being touched.

At this added burst of permission, Buckley leaned into Jeff’s hungry, forbidden kiss. Suddenly his hands were resting against the man’s chest, and he was feeling the hard plates of muscle there that had been off limits only a short while before.

“Wicked mouth.” It took a second for Buckley to realize it was Jeff who’d whispered this. “God, you got a wicked, beautiful mouth.”

This dazed-sounding expression of desire coming so quickly on the heels of his pompous lectures made Buckley’s head spin. Right under the surface of Jeff Braxton’s hard, commanding shell was a storm of desires preparing to sweep Buckley off his feet.

When he caught his breath, he saw the angry intensity that had filled Jeff’s eyes for most of the night had been replaced by hard focus softened by desire. A desire Mateo had unleashed with soft, encouraging words and gently guiding hands.

Buckley went to kiss his boyfriend, only to be stopped with a hand in the center of his chest. “Nope. You two clearly have something to work out first.” Mateo took a step back and slowly sank to a seat on the chaise lounge, giving them center stage.

“You sure about this, Cano?” Jeff asked, but he was studying Buckley’s face like he was planning the map of his next kiss.

“Of course I’m sure. Happy birthday to me.”

Buckley searched Mateo for any sign he was lying about his feelings, forcing himself to do something he didn’t want to so he could make one of Buckley’s fantasies come true. But his boyfriend was watching them in the same way he’d watched them dance, with a hungry half smile that had only flitted occasionally across his face when they first started seeing each other, and which had become a staple of his regular expressions ever since he’d opened up about his deepest desires.

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Sapphire Cove - Recommended Reading Order

(standalone stories with interconnected characters)

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