Drafting the Heat
A Writers in Love Novel
by Jace Wilder
📖 Free with Kindle Unlimited
Pairing: MM
Heat: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ Inferno
Tropes: Friends to Lovers, Bi Awakening, Roommates, Praise Kink, Size Difference
He’s a romance novelist who can’t write desire. His best friend offers to teach him. What starts as research becomes the love story neither of them expected.
Julian Vane has a problem. His latest manuscript reads like a “WikiHow article with kissing,” according to his editor. Four years of writing romance, and he still can’t capture real desire on the page—probably because he’s never actually felt it. Repressed, neurotic, and convinced he’s fundamentally broken, Jules has spent his entire adult life behind emotional walls so high he can’t remember why he built them.
Jackson Miller has a secret. He’s been in love with his roommate since junior year of college—seven years of watching Jules date women who don’t deserve him, seven years of being the supportive best friend, seven years of wanting something he thought he could never have.
When Jules’s career hits rock bottom, he makes an outrageous request: teach me about desire. Show me what I’m missing. Help me understand what makes people burn for each other.
Jax knows he should say no. Knows that “lessons” with the man he loves is a terrible idea. But he’s spent seven years waiting, and this might be his only chance to show Jules what’s been right in front of him all along.
What starts as research becomes something neither of them expected—late nights that blur the line between teaching and wanting, touches that mean more than either will admit, and a connection so intense it rewrites everything Jules thought he knew about himself.
Drafting the Heat is a 45,000-word MM romance featuring friends-to-lovers, bi awakening, a neurotic writer who needs to get out of his head, a patient best friend who’s been in love for seven years, and an HEA worth waiting for. First in the Writers in Love series.
✍️ Tropes You’ll Love ✍️
💕 Friends to Lovers
Seven years of pining. One desperate proposition. Everything changes.
🏠 Roommates
Sharing space, sharing secrets, sharing a lot more.
🌈 Bi Awakening
When “research” makes you question everything you thought you knew.
😤 Grumpy/Sunshine
Neurotic writer meets golden retriever energy.
💜 Praise Kink
“Good boy” unlocks things Jules didn’t know he needed.
📏 Size Difference
Personal trainer Jax towers over his favorite writer.
Content Notes
This book contains explicit MM sexual content including praise kink, light D/s dynamics, and emotional intimacy that will wreck you. Additional content includes: bi awakening/coming out journey, discussions of emotional repression, anxiety representation, career pressure, and one grand romantic gesture involving a blizzard. Reader discretion advised. 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
Read Chapter One Free
Chapter One: The Email
The email arrived at 4:47 PM on a Thursday, which was fitting because Thursday was already Jules’s least favorite day of the week—close enough to the weekend to taste freedom, far enough away that you couldn’t reasonably start drinking yet.
He was sitting in his usual spot at The Oar House, a dive bar three blocks from the apartment he shared with Jax, nursing a beer he didn’t really want and pretending to work on his laptop. The “work” consisted of staring at the same paragraph he’d been staring at for the past two hours, wondering if it was possible to die of creative constipation.
The paragraph in question was supposed to be a love scene. His protagonist, a brooding architect named Marcus, was finally about to kiss his love interest, David, after 180 pages of tension. It should have been easy. Jules had written dozens of these scenes before. He had a formula. A system. Color-coded spreadsheets tracking emotional beats, physical escalation, and optimal word counts for maximum reader satisfaction.
The problem was that his formula wasn’t working anymore.
Marcus leaned in. David’s breath caught. Their lips met in a kiss that was [INSERT ADJECTIVE] and [INSERT SECOND ADJECTIVE].
“Insert adjective,” Jules muttered, dropping his head into his hands. “This is my life now. I write romance novels for a living and I can’t even describe a kiss.”
His phone buzzed. Email notification. He grabbed it like a drowning man reaching for a life preserver—anything to distract from the blinking cursor of doom—and felt his stomach drop when he saw the sender.
Patricia Chen. His editor. The woman who had plucked him from the slush pile four years ago and turned him into a moderately successful mid-list author with a devoted (if small) fanbase.
The woman who was currently three weeks past the deadline for his latest manuscript notes.
Jules opened the email with the enthusiasm of someone defusing a bomb.
Julian—
I’ve finished my read-through. We need to talk. Call me when you get this.
—P
Three sentences. No pleasantries. No “hope you’re well” or “looking forward to discussing.” Just we need to talk, which was the professional equivalent of we need to break up.
Jules stared at his phone for a long moment. Then he flagged down Midge, the bartender who’d been serving him overpriced craft beer since his graduate school days.
“I’m going to need something stronger.”
* * *
Keep reading to discover what happens when Jules makes his desperate proposition…
🔥 Exclusive Bonus Content 🔥
Want the scene that was TOO HOT for Amazon?
“The Anniversary Lesson” — Two years after the epilogue, Jax recreates their first “lesson” with a twist. Blindfolds. Edging. And a surprise that will make you ugly cry.
More from Jace Wilder
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is this book part of a series?
Drafting the Heat is the first book in the Writers in Love series but is a complete standalone with an HEA (happily ever after). No cliffhangers! Future books will feature other creative types finding love.
How spicy is this book?
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ — This is a 5/5 heat level book with explicit MM content. Features include praise kink, light D/s dynamics, detailed intimate scenes, and the kind of emotional vulnerability that hits as hard as the steam.
Is there a happily ever after?
Always! Jules and Jax get their HEA complete with a proposal at The Oar House, public declarations of love, and an epilogue that will leave you swooning.
What if I’ve never read MM romance before?
This is a great entry point! The focus is on emotional connection and character development, with the romance building naturally from friendship. If you love friends-to-lovers and slow burn with explosive payoff, you’ll love this book.