What You Need

WHAT YOU NEED AN OPPOSITES ATTRACT, HURT/COMFORT GAY ROMANCE AVRIL ASHTON Copyright © 2023 by Avril Ashton All rights reserved. Mailing List What You Need ©2023 Avril Ashton Proofreader: Jennifer @ Marked and Read Cover Image: stock.adobe.com Cover Design: German Creative This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution. All product/brand names mentioned herein are registered trademarks of their respective holders/companies. CONTENTS Playing Catch Up? Please Read About What You Need Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Author Note Books by Av Payhip Audio Patreon About the Author PLAYING CATCH UP? New to Avril Ashton’s dark, dirty, and diverse m/m universe? *The Brooklyn Sinners is where it all starts. Avril’s very first m/m series is full of “drama, action, mystery, suspense, and romance.” Jonesing for a cop/mafia/gangland m/m romance? Run This Town series features BDSM, friends to lovers, age gap, second chance and so much more. **Prefer MCs who straddle that gray line between hero and villain? Loose Ends series brings you “stories of angst. Of second chances. And of love.” ***In search of the ultimate Enemies to Lovers? The Staniel Duet is the dark, angst-ridden read you’ve been waiting for. It delivers the ultimate “how is this even gonna work?” Spoiler alert…it does. *This is where we first meet Jack **Ashe is mentioned here ***Daniel Nieto’s story PLEASE READ TRIGGERS WARNINGS Ashe Tannen-Novak is a Black trans man. I utilized a sensitivity reader but please keep in mind; Black men aren’t a monolith. Trans folx aren’t monolithic. One person’s experience is just that; one person’s experience. My goal, in my little slice of writing world, is to offer you diverse characters. Always. In no way can I, as a cis Black woman, claim to know what it means to be a man or a trans man, at that. Please know that should there be any inaccuracies or inconsistencies, it comes from a place of ignorance and never from malice. I am open to listening and learning. As we all should be. What You Need contains the following triggers: Past Domestic Abuse, as recounted by one of the MCs. Past Suicide Attempt Brief reference to racial bias Speech and acts that can be considered harmful to the LGBTQ+ community Mental Abuse by parents Mention of the death of a family member (grandparent) PTSD ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED One man hiding from his mistakes. Another running toward safety. They’ll find all they need in each other. Jack Wellington has shut himself off from the world. Nursing a broken heart, the DEA agent is existing on fumes and hiding from the many mistakes he’s made in the name of love. Solitude is all he wants… until he answers a knock on the door one stormy night and comes face to face with a past he barely recognizes. Ashe Tannen-Novak is running from parents trying to control him, a husband hell-bent on keeping him, and the darkness threatening to consume him. It’s been a decade since the agent with the blue eyes saved him, but Ashe has never forgotten Jack. He’s the only safety Ashe can think of, but reality hits hard when he finds his savior just as bruised and emotionally battered. Neither man is the person the other once knew, but their past binds them just as their present traps them. Lost and in need of anchor, Jack and Ashe find more than connection; they find acceptance, comfort, and passion. Now all they have to do is hold on to it. One of the MCs in What You Need was first introduced in The Brooklyn Sinners, but WYN can be read as a standalone. This m/m romance features a trans My thanks to Ashley Jane for beta reading. * * * Dedicated to Drew Déry. Your help has been invaluable. I appreciate you. THANK YOU ♡ 1 He still felt the sensation of the soil covering his face. Not wet, but soft enough that it stayed where it landed. On his face. His eyes. His nose and mouth. The scent of it gag-inducing. Back then he’d been too busy trying not to scream with his mouth open. Doing all he could, thrashing in that grave, head flipping from side to side to dislodge the clumped earth that fell on him faster and faster. By the shovel. They said he spent an hour buried. Said he’d broken off his fingernails while attempting to claw his way out. Said he was lucky to be alive. Curled up as Ashe was now inside his linen closet, he didn’t feel so lucky. The darkness scared him after what he’d been through, but what scared him more than that was the smell. And the sensation of soil, cold and soft enough to mold all around him, ripped him to ribbons. That scent, though; it haunted him in his dreams and out. The linen closet smelled like freshly washed clothes. The powdery detergent scent kept him grounded, at least enough to close his eyes. It came in waves, the haunting, but he