Isn't It Bromantic (Bromance Book Club #4) by Lyssa Kay Adams

            He gulped. “What?”

            “Tell me about the Cheese Man.”

            Vlad went cold, and he dropped his fork. “Where did you hear that name?”

            “What is it? Is it a store?”

            Vlad shook his head. “No. It’s nothing. Forget you ever heard that name.”

            “What name? Cheese Man?”

            Colton set down his fork. “Come on, man. What’s the harm?”

            “You know the harm, Colton! It is a dark path. I cannot drag her down it. I will not.”

            “I’m sorry,” Elena said, looking back and forth between them. “What dark path?”

            Vlad and Colton locked gazes again for a moment before turning to look at her. “The path to the best cheese you’ll ever eat in your life,” Colton breathed.

            “No. To an addiction you will never break,” Vlad warned. “The price is too high.”

            Elena waved her hands in front of her chest. “Wait. I don’t understand. What are we talking about? Who exactly is the Cheese Man?”

            “No one really knows,” Colton said. “He appeared last year. People started whispering about him. Have you tried the Cheese Man yet? Have you heard about the Cheese Man? We have a lot of connections, you know, and so I started asking around, and someone finally hooked us up.”

            Elena crossed her arms. “Does he have store, or something?”

            “God, no,” Colton said. “He basically runs a speakeasy. Like, like a speak cheesy.”

            Laughter barked from her chest. Elena pressed a hand to her mouth to smother the sound, but it was no use. She sucked in a breath and bent over as if she hadn’t laughed in a year. The sound was so pure, so beautiful, that Vlad got lost in it for a moment. But only a moment, because the reality was ugly. “Cheese Man is no laughing matter, Elena. Once you start, you can’t stop. He will own you for life.”

            Elena wiped her eyes and stood up. “Sorry. I just . . . this is absurd.”

            “To get in, you have to show this,” Colton said, digging his membership coin from his wallet.

            “This is a joke, yes?”

            Vlad glowered at Colton. “Put that away. And no, Cheese Man is not a joke, Elena.”

            “But will he have tvorog?”

            “He has everything,” Colton said. “And if he doesn’t have it, he’ll know how to get it.”

            Elena nodded. “Great. When can we go?”

            “No,” Vlad said, shaking his head. “Absolutely not.”

            “Tomorrow?” Colton said.

            Elena nodded. “Tomorrow.”

            Vlad swore in Russian again.

            Colton grinned. “Prepare to be amazed.”





CHAPTER TEN





Elena was not amazed.

            This couldn’t actually be the place. The building where Vlad had directed her the next afternoon looked like the aftermath of a rabies outbreak. This was the cheese shop?

            “Elena.” Vlad’s hand shot across the center console and grabbed hers. “There’s still time to back out.”

            “I really need that cheese, Vlad.”

            He closed his eyes. “God forgive me.”

            He let go of her hand and opened his door. Elena ran around and helped him with his crutches. “Stay behind me,” he ordered her.

            “You can’t be serious,” she said.

            “Just do what I say, Elena. Please.”

            She slid behind him and immediately felt invisible. His massive shoulders dwarfed hers, hiding her from whatever bogeyman he feared as they approached the decrepit black door.