In Which One Reading Just Wasn’t Enough – Asylum by Piper Vaughn

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself. – Oscar Wilde

Johnny Cairo knows a thing or two about temptation. He’s been attracted to his best friend’s little brother for a while now, after all, though he’s resisted the urge to do anything about it because risking a years’ long friendship on what’s at best an unsure thing, and at worst, a resounding disaster waiting to happen, isn’t a chance Johnny’s been willing to take.

Too bad Brennan didn’t get the memo about his brother’s best friend being off limits, because Bren damn sure isn’t going to let a little thing like that stand in the way of him getting what, or rather, who he wants. And once Brennan sets his sights on Johnny, well, there’s nowhere the man can try and hide but behind his own fears. But Brennan isn’t known as one of Fear Asylum’s best Infiltrators for nothing.

Asylum is Johnny’s story, the story of his family legacy—a traveling haunted house called Fear Asylum, though this isn’t your average, small-time, one man sideshow operation. No, they don’t call Johnny the Scaremaster for nothing. This is a full-on production, and it showcases the man’s reputation and talent for putting the fear of the things that go bump in the night into its patrons. It’s also, in a lovely turn of the tables, a story that shows how sometimes those nighttime bumps can put a fear like no other into the heart of a man with a reputation for being the master of fright.

Asylum is a full-on erotic and romantic—it’s sexmantic, even—short story that illustrates how a man learns very quickly that just because his head says there are no-strings-attached it doesn’t mean his heart is bound to listen, especially when he’s faced with the possibility of losing the one to whom he realizes he wants nothing more than to be tied.

I’ve read this story more than once, and really, really would love a sequel. You can use that as an indicator of how much I loved it.

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