GENRE: Gay Historical Spicy Romance (MMM) Collection
LENGTH: 77,824 words
RATING:

JMS Books' Trios are themed collections of three gay romance stories by a trio of authors. Each story is available separately, but readers can get all three for a discounted bundle price.

Regency Lovers contains three historical M/M/M romances. Contains the stories:

An Unlikely Alliance by Ellie Thomas: In Regency London, private secretary Clem encounters shy gentleman Humphrey with satisfying results. From then on, it seems natural to include Abe, Clem’s regular lover, in their frolics. Apart from willing bedfellows, Clem is used to being alone and unsupported. But will the alliance between the three men prove more substantial than mere passing pleasure?

As Many Stars by K.L. Noone: Society knows Blake as an adventurer and traveler. But when Blake thinks of home, he thinks of his best friend Ashley, Oxford scholar -- the man Blake secretly, silently, loves. He’s discovered feelings for someone else too: a Scottish doctor he’s met while traveling. And when he returns to find Ash ill, Blake has a reason to send for Cam ... and together, they’ll discover a new adventure.

The Hunting Box by Alexandra Caluen: When Nicholas, an earl’s heir, invites his two dearest friends to spend three weeks at his country lodge, he hopes to set the terms for the next chapter in their lives. The time has come for Nick to marry, but he doesn’t want to lose Charlie or Stephen. Much to his relief, they want to keep him too. Can they negotiate the inevitable changes of adulthood, and move forward as even closer friends?

EXCERPT FROM "An Unlikely Alliance"
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

Humphrey had tried and failed to forget the episode in the coffee house the week before. It wasn’t as though he had the excuse of no other distractions. He barely had a free minute given the number of house guests arriving for the start of the Season. There seemed to be a constant round of relatives expecting him to conduct them in the social round.

At Drury Lane Theatre, Humphrey was entirely distracted during a performance of Hamlet, simply because one of the supporting actors bore a faint resemblance to the man from the coffee house. Only then did he admit he was a lost cause. In conversation with his cousins afterwards, he tried to hide that he couldn’t remember a single scene from the play, even though he’d studied it at school.

So after dinner one evening, when he wasn’t required for an hour or two, he audaciously decided to beard his seducer in his den, or rather the Fleet Street tavern he frequented.

Humphrey was so flustered by his uncharacteristic decisiveness that he changed his waistcoat three times. Although the blond had seemed more interested in what lay beneath Humphrey’s clothing.

He eyed his modest supply of coats with trepidation. Is the green too sober, the blue too frivolous and the buff-coloured one too plain?

In the end, he solved the problem by closing his eyes and picking a garment at random. He didn’t dare glance at the mirror in case that prompted more equivocation.

When downstairs, Humphrey hesitated by the drawing room door, lured by comfortable congeniality versus the pursuit of illicit pleasure. One minute he was about to enter the room and in the next, he was haring out of the front door and down the steps to the street.

He calmed his pace when he reached Holborn, slowed by a steady trickle of early evening foot traffic that thickened as he made his way towards Fleet Street.

I’m just going for a quiet drink, he thought. He might not even be there.

Humphrey halted at the entrance to the tavern, his resolve failing him. His vacillation was overcome by pure coincidence. A group of men required access and their impetus carried him over the threshold. Humphrey removed his crown beaver hat and looked around the unevenly shaped room.

With a combination of disappointment and relief, he concluded that his quarry wasn’t present. Then he spotted him in a corner nook. A second glance proved that he was not alone.

Humphrey shifted from foot to foot. In any given social situation he was a reliable sort of fellow, or so Aunt Cece reassured him. But etiquette couldn’t guide him in this particular situation.

It didn’t help that the man seated beside his acquaintance was equally attractive; well-built and with deep olive toned skin. He made a pleasing contrast to the other’s fair slenderness. His massive build reminded Humphrey enticingly of a bare knuckle boxer in an exhibition bout at the Lyceum.

Humphrey was dawdling indecisively when the blond looked up. Humphrey was neatly hooked by that sultry grey gaze. The man nudged his friend. He whispered a few words in his ear, from which hung a gold hoop. The other man grinned and looked Humphrey up and down in a far too knowledgeable way.

Oh good heavens, has he told him? Humphrey felt hot and cold and flustered all at once. He didn’t know whether to be flattered, alarmed, or horrified. He stood stock still, to the annoyance of another patron, halted in the course of reaching the bar.

“Scuse me, squire.”

“Beg your pardon,” Humphrey said immediately. Unfortunately, his reflex response brought him in front of the table occupied by his coffee house companion.

“Care to join us?” The dark-aspected man asked.

The invitation seemed to be loaded with meaning.