Baby Steps

By: Kian Rhodes, Karyn Rose

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 4 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

*Step Dads is not stepfather/son kink. It is MM Romance where single fathers find their other half.

“You’re not fucking damaged, Josh, and I don’t love you in spite of your scars. I love you because of the man you are, the kind of human who risks his own life to save others.” -Clay

A single father trapped at the scene of a freak car crash and a reluctant hero who insists he was simply in the right place at the right time shouldn't have had much in common, but when Columbo learns of the series of strange accidents that have plagued Clay, Columbo can't just walk away. Could Clay really be the one to see past Columbo's damaged flesh to the man beneath?

The nightmare never changed.
Even in the early morning hours, the heat in Kabul was stifling. The air so clogged with dust kicked up by the convoy of military transports that even the scarves wrapped around the soldiers’ faces couldn’t keep the taste of it off their tongues. It would be much, much later that Second Lieutenant Joshua Columbo realized that it was that dust that interfered with his senses, dulling the telltale metallic taste of danger until there was barely enough time to scream out a warning.
“Bomb!” Columbo shouted over the din of bullshitting soldiers, jumping to his feet in the back row of the crowded truck. “Stop!”
“Sit your ass down, Columbo,” his captain hollered back from the front. “There’s been no activity reported out here for weeks.”
The taste bloomed in Josh’s mouth, nearly gagging him as he looked frantically for an escape. Grabbing the arm of the man next to him, he jerked. “Sterling, we got to go!”
Army Ranger Chance Sterling never hesitated. Shoving the canvas cover aside, he dove from the truck with Columbo on his heels, tucking and rolling with a grunt when he hit the sand. Columbo wasn’t so lucky. He was still in midair when the sand exploded around him, the dusty air filling with shrapnel that flayed his skin open. The screams of the men still in the truck were muffled by a second explosion that deafened him and ripped the truck to pieces, shooting flames into the sky.

But nightmares aren't only for the sleeping and the next time Josh Columbo found himself in the vicinity of a pending car explosion, he was running toward it, determined to save the man pinned beneath the broken plastic and mangled steel...

Pieces of plastic and metal broke off the body as the car hurtled through the field, the yellowing corn stalks snapping and bouncing off the windshield. Clay jammed both feet against the brake pedal, but the Porsche didn’t respond. The front wheels struck something and the car flipped over, rolling repeatedly until it finally slid to a stop upside down, surrounded by the gently waving stalks of corn as high as an elephant’s eye. Smoke began to seep out from under the wreckage but there was nothing he could do. Pinned under the car and fading in and out of consciousness, Clay lost all concept of time. His last thought was of an avenging angel with a badly scarred face and haunted eyes crawling toward him as his own eyes drifted closed.

Becomes Covid Story

Covid invades the story with annoying and pointless precautions. I read/listen to books for relaxation and enjoyment. I do not need an undisclosed ( and disproven) COVID PSA shoved at me. Also the plot is juvenile and boring.