Rented Heart

When businessman Liam Mallaney hires sex worker Zac Payne for a night of no-strings-attached passion, both men unexpectedly fall deeply in love in this tender contemporary erotic romance. Liam is lonely in Norfolk, England, a year after the death of his husband. Zac is running away from London and his junkie past—but he can’t run far, because his best friend and roommate, Jamie, still does drugs. As Liam and Zac meet periodically for sex, more sex, and even more sex, they start developing real feelings for each other. Liam longs for Zac’s company and Zac appreciates that Liam treats him “like I matter,” but both seem afraid to express their true feelings. Their relationship is, of course, complicated by a misunderstanding involving a syringe, and there’s a climactic emotional scene in a hospital, but Leigh (What Remains) credibly makes the lovers’ troubles more sexy than sudsy. This slim novel could have used a few more scenes of Liam and Zac bonding, as when they take a trip to Sheffield. Instead there is a thin subplot involving Liam’s father, who has Alzheimer’s. Nevertheless, this is one of Leigh’s better romances, and readers will want Zac and Liam to end up together. (Sept.)