Novels by Debbie Tumminello

The story she had never told twice — and the two men finally worth telling it to.WARNING: MAY HAVE A TRIGGER FOR SOME PEOPLEWe went back to the beach house, and the drive over was quiet in the way that feels intentional rather than empty — the kind of quiet that two people create around you when they understand that you are gathering yourself for something. When we got inside, Jake took my coat without asking, and Leo disappeared into the kitchen, returning with three glasses of tea.They sat me down on the couch and settled into the chairs directly across from me — close enough that I could feel their presence, but positioned so that their full, undivided attention was anchored completely on me. Jake leaned forward, resting his hands loosely over mine, holding them the way you hold something you are not trying to contain.“Take your time,” Leo said. “All of it. There is no version of this that is too long or too slow.” He paused. “And if you need to stop, you stop. We are not going

Two men, one night, and the slow realization that this was exactly where she was supposed to be.I stood in the doorway, one hand still on the knob, blinking against the light from the hallway. Leo was there — of course Leo was there — but beside him stood someone I had never seen before, and yet somehow already recognized. Tall, broad-shouldered, with the kind of quiet, grounded presence that fills a doorway without trying.He was looking at me the way you look at something you have been searching for long enough that finding it does not feel quite real. I turned back to Leo, who had the expression of a man who had been dragged somewhere against his will and was not entirely sorry about it.“Why are you at my door at two in the morning?” I asked, and my voice came out somewhere between disbelief and laughter.Leo smiled — that easy, unhurried smile — and said, “Jake flew back early. Tonight. He landed three hours ago and has not stopped texting me since.” He glanced sideways at his p

She thought the night was over. It was only just beginning.Leo was quiet for a moment, and I could tell he was choosing not to answer quickly — that this was not hesitation but intention, the way someone takes a breath before saying something they want to get exactly right. “Your beauty is what made me look up from my drink,” he said finally, his voice unhurried and even. “I will not pretend otherwise, because you deserve honesty more than you deserve comfort.But it was your beauty that made me notice you. It is not the reason I am still sitting here.” He held my gaze without wavering. “What I see when I look at you — what Jake will see when he meets you — is not just a beautiful woman. It is a woman who holds herself together with both hands and still shows up. A woman who asked hard questions in a first conversation instead of performing feelings she did not feel. A woman who knows what she needs and is brave enough, or desperate enough, to say it out loud to a stranger.” He pause

A photo, three words, and a certainty that felt like coming home.Master LeoI sit here, nursing my drink, watching the room the way I always do — with patience, with distance. The club is alive tonight, the way it always is, bodies moving through the low light with purpose or performance, and I can tell the difference from across the room. I have been doing this long enough to know. The regulars circle the same patterns, drawn to the same familiar edges, and I find myself unmoved by all of it. Bored is not quite the right word—it implies I expected more. It is more like a quiet hunger that nothing on the menu seems to satisfy.The submissives here are willing, some of them genuinely lovely, but willing is not the same as right. I know what I am looking for, even when I cannot name it out loud. I need someone who doesn’t just accept what Jake and I offer, but someone who needs it the way lungs need air. Someone whose surrender is not a performance but a relief. Someone who would be as

Above the city lights, she stopped being careful and started being real.“Eric, could I borrow a pen?” I asked. He slid one across the bar without a word, a small knowing smile on his face. I flipped the note over, thought for a moment, and wrote back: When, and which rooftop?A few minutes passed. Then I heard a low, warm laugh from the end of the bar. I glanced up to see Leo reading my reply, his shoulders relaxed, a genuine smile spreading across his face. He stood, straightened his jacket, and walked toward me with the kind of unhurried confidence that made the room seem to part around him.“There’s a restaurant on the top floor of this building,” he said, his voice smooth and unhurried as he settled onto the barstool beside me. “It’s quiet up there. Good food, a real view of the city. A place where you can actually hear yourself think.”I studied him for a moment. He was closer now, and I could see the details I had missed from across the bar — the faint laugh lines at the corner

She came for a distraction. She found a door she never knew she wanted to walk through. A Night Out:“Destiny, I hope you are ready,” Nicole said, her voice bubbling with barely contained excitement as she smoothed the hem of her fitted red dress.“I am. Where are we going?” Destiny asked, glancing down at herself with a flicker of uncertainty. “I am not sure if I’m wearing the right outfit,” she added, tugging at the lace trim of her dress.“Please, do not worry about it. Sammie and I have been planning this for a long time,” Nicole said, waving her hand dismissively with a wide grin.“We are going to make sure you have the time of your life,” Sammie chimed in, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she looped her arm through mine.Both of them looked me over, and Nicole tilted her head with an approving smile. I was wearing a little black backless dress that fell to mid-thigh, with delicate lace along the trim. It hugged my curves in all the right places, and I had paired it with str