Mirrigold: Mutterings & Musings

M.M. Scrooge | Lee Colgin

Monsters & Mayhem #11

Release Date: November 4th, 2022

Cover Artist: Natasha Snow

Heat Rating: 5 flames

Length: 47,000 words / 200 pages

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Goodreads Series Link: Monster & Mayhem

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Blurb

A spicy hot retelling of A Christmas Carol

Marley Jacobs is dead, and Max Masters Scrooge has no time for the grieving son’s sob story. Even if Jacobs Jr. is kinda cute—for a nerd.

Daniel Jacobs is anxious, drifting, and lonely. His gut tells him he’s overdue for a dose of self care, but the thought of setting foot in a gym gives him hives. Though he craves gentle guidance, what he gets is the heavy hand of the gym’s head trainer and sleaziest playboy, Max Masters.

Accustomed to topping the leader board, among other things, Max sells Daniel on his gold package. After things get steamy in the locker room showers, Max is ready to make like a ghost and vanish, as usual. But this time, he won’t get away with his selfish antics, not if a vengeful past hookup with a powerful uncle has anything to say about it.

MM Scrooge is a spicy hot horror retelling of A Christmas Carol, as part of the collaboration Monsters & Mayhem: An MM Horror Collection, adapting some of your favorite classic horror stories with an MM romance twist.

Content Warnings:

This book’s list of potential warnings is longer than my grocery list. Buckle in. Readers, feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions. In no particular order: Dub-con that some readers may interpret as non-con. Consent issues. Poorly negotiated BDSM elements. Sexual violence/spanking. Sex as punishment. Death of a parent/grief. Medical kink. Sexually explicit scenes.

That said, this book doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that list might make it look darker than it really is. Better to err of the side of caution.

Excerpt

Just when I think my first workout is done, Max directs me back to the turf. “Now that you’ve got the hang of it, we’ll repeat each station for four rounds. Squats, rotations, rows. Ten reps each. Thirty seconds between stations. Ready?”

I widen my eyes. “I’m sorry. I could have sworn you said four rounds. I must have misheard. What?”

Max grins. “You’ve got this. Round one, Daniel. Knock it out.”

So I do what the man says and squat.

By the time I’m actually done, sweat beads on my forehead and drips down into crevices that are decidedly not meant to be wet in public. Will I be able to walk tomorrow? Time will tell. My arms are made of pudding.

Max’s warm hand lands on my damp back and squeezes my shoulder. “Nice work. You’ve got grit.”

He can’t possibly mean that, but I thank him anyway. I glance up to meet his eyes. His are hazel, ringed brown in the center and green at the edges.

“How do you feel?”

I blink. My heart pounds, and I’m gulping for air like a fish out of water, but…I feel good. Like maybe I could keep going, or I don’t know, jog somewhere or something. Not a feeling I’m accustomed to. “Great, actually.”

He leans in. He’s a head taller, but he stands close enough his breath ruffles my hair. “It’s the endorphins. They’re a rush, huh?”

“Yeah, a rush.” So this is why people work out.

His gaze lingers on mine. “You want to hit the showers?”

“Oh, I don’t need to wash up.” I didn’t come prepared for that. I don’t even have a change of clothes in my bag. “I’m going home after this. I’ll shower there.”

Max arches his dark brows and darts his tongue out, wetting his upper lip. “I didn’t ask if you needed to. I asked if you wanted to.” His eyes trail down my body like a caress and land on my groin. He looks hungry.

And now that I think about it…tasty.

“Oh.” What an offer. It’s not like me to put out on the first date, and this isn’t even date adjacent.

Orgasms fall under the umbrella of self-care, right? Opportunities like this just don’t land in my lap every day. But will sex make future training sessions awkward? I don’t want things to get weird, though rejecting him would do that too, so…

I peer up at him through my lashes, not completely lacking wiles of my own. “Now that you mention it, I am rather dirty.”

Max’s glinting smile could cut diamonds. “Right this way.”

About the Author

Lee Colgin has loved vampires since she read Dracula on a hot, sunny beach at 13 years old. She lives in North Carolina with lots of dogs and her husband.

No, he’s not a vampire, but she loves him anyway. Lee likes to workout so she can eat the maximum amount of cookies with her pizza. Ask her how much she can bench press.

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