Novellas

Connor is a netrunner: a hacker who ventures into cyberspace to steal data from corporate computers. As he hides out in the slums of Seattle, he’s attacked by a street gang and, incredibly, rescued by one of the members. His rescuer is a man named Luis, who has decided Connor needs his protection.

But instead of providing safety, Luis’s presence wreaks havoc with Connor’s online identity, and they find themselves hunted by a lethal security force. While they attempt to escape the city, Connor finds himself struggling to survive with the most lethal killer ever pitted against the corporations that control the FreeCorp—and he risks losing his heart to the same man.

Read more...

A Love Means... Story

Seven months ago, Len Parker lost his partner of more than twenty years, and he isn’t sure how to feel about his blossoming attraction to Chris, one of his farmhands. Hesitant and still hurt, Len remains aloof and distant until he’s goaded into teaching Chris to ride.

Fresh out of a thirty-year career with the Marines, Chris can explore his sexuality openly for the first time in his life, but what he needs more than anything is peace. He’s convinced Len doesn’t like him until he digs a little deeper, and then, armed with hope, Chris sets out to prove that love can provide the healing he and Len so desperately need.

Read more...

Jesse Clayton loves painting, his cowboy grandfather, and his life as an artist with a wild abandon that leaves scorch marks on everything he touches. Budding Navajo cartoonist Lorenzo Maryboy is a hard-working former Marine: staunch, brave, and honorable. Chance brings them together on the road to Marathon, Texas, and passion flares.

Just as always, Jesse puts his art ahead of everything. He betrays their growing trust, and that Lorenzo can’t forgive. But Jesse’s found something he loves more than his art, and what he does to win Lorenzo’s forgiveness is far more dangerous than either man understands.

Read more...

College professor James Richards is in a rut and feeling his age. He moved to northern California to escape heartbreak and humiliation, but so far the only good thing to happen to him has been his Boston terrier, Marlowe.

Then James’s toughest student sets him up with her best friend. Rafael Ochoa is worlds apart from James—chronologically, culturally, and philosophically—but he’s also beautiful, kind, and a shot of adrenaline to James’s not-quite-middle-aged heart. Together, the two of them forge a bridge between James’s East Coast sensibilities and Rafael’s West Coast casualness, but can their meeting of the hearts survive James’s lack of faith in happy-ever-after?

Read more...

On his way home from the market, beautiful and shy Alen is accosted by local ruffians who try to take advantage of his innocence. When Alen attempts to defend his virtue, the situation takes a turn for the worse and he accidentally slays one of the men. Now he faces the mockery that is the town’s justice. The penalty for murder: a slow, painful death upon the altar of the mighty god of fire. Alen’s sentence is gleefully announced by the village priest, a loathsome man who promises deliverance if only the lovely boy will submit to depraved pleasures.

But Alen has a secret, one to which he desperately clings even though it may cost him his life. For many years, Alen has watched the flames dance in his mother’s hearth, the mystery that dwells in the bright glow alleviating his loneliness and offering endless fascination.  When the time comes to face his destiny upon the pyre, Alen hopes that the fire’s magical embrace might hold the key to his salvation. But will the flames herald his destruction even as all of his prayers are answered?

A Bittersweet Dreams title:

It's an unfortunate truth: love doesn't always conquer all. Regardless of its strength, sometimes fate intervenes, tragedy strikes, or forces conspire against it. These stories of romance do not offer a traditional happy ending, but the strong and enduring love will still touch your heart and maybe move you to tears.

Read more...

Sequel to Talker’s Redemption
Book Three of the Talker series

When you get past the basics of survival, what next? Brian Cooper recovered from the attack that almost killed him, and Tate Walker faced down his own demons. Now all that’s left is... each other. Growing up together and growing into their love is everything but easy.

Talker’s eternal optimism and Brian’s quiet faith just might be able to conquer the obstacles, big and small, in their way—as well as overcome the complications of having all their dreams come true.

Read more...

Neriah, the crown prince of Tazier, escapes his father’s deadly wrath with the help of a Jinn named Tamir. Knowing that the other Jinn would find and punish him for falling in love with a human, Tamir takes Neriah’s memories of their brief time together and leaves him with only a jade pendant as a token of his love. Tamir is then stripped of his powers and imprisoned for his crime.

Ten years later, Neriah is still on the run from the King’s assassins, but each night he dreams of a lover whose face he cannot see and whose name he does not know, but who fills his heart with peace. Tamir, freed at last from his prison cell, poses as a pleasure slave and offers to serve the prince. Although Neriah does not recognize Tamir, he falls in love with the powerless Jinn. But just when Tamir has earned Neriah’s trust, he is forced to betray it. There may be no hope of mending their broken relationship, but Tamir is determined to see Neriah on his rightful throne—even if it costs the Jinn his life.

Read more...

Benny Oshiro is having the time of his life at a private gig for his band, One Wish, until he’s assaulted and kidnapped by their former manager. When his rescue—or more accurately his rescuer—gets a little hairy, Benny knows he should reconsider their sparking attraction, but no one has ever looked at Benny with the naked want that Curtis does—want Benny can’t help but return.

Curtis Salinas knows at first sight that Benny is the only one for him. But now is not the time to test Curtis’s newly developed control. Outside forces are at work, threatening to expose his family’s secret, and when Benny is kidnapped a second time, Curtis realizes the enemy he’s searching for is only half the problem. To ensure a secure and happy future, he must also face down his doubts and claim Benny for his own.

Read more...

Newly released from a mental institution, Simple’s first job is caring for Emmett, a crusty drunkard dying of cancer on a ranch in Utah. Simple’s first fragile friendship is with Emmett’s grandson Jude, a gay youth in Gothic drag who gets nothing but grief from his grandfather. In an attempt to help both men, Simple, a Shoshone Indian, decides to perform a ceremony that will save Emmett by transferring his spirit into the body of a falcon.

Working to capture a falcon will bring Emmett and Jude closer as Jude and Simple’s growing love for each other blossoms, but all is not well. When the ranch, Jude’s future, and Simple’s happiness are threatened, more than Emmett’s spirit faces a bleak future.

Read more...

The Male Room: Book Three

Nick’s writing partner and best friend is tired of watching his buddy screw his life away to overcome the heartbreak of his first great love affair, and he also thinks that a romantic comedy playwright should actually write what he knows!  Before Nick can wriggle out of it, he finds himself begged, nagged, and cajoled into a coffee date with one of the men who liked his profile at The Male Room, an online dating service for gay men.

No one is more surprised than Nick that the date is a success, and he’s interested in getting to know full-time news reporter and part-time theater critic Mark better. But better means closer, and the closer Nick gets to Mark, the more he remembers why he doesn't go for long-term relationships. Long term affairs just lead to heartbreak, right? Nick’s imagination runs overtime, and he’ll have to trust in his heart if he wants this love story to have a happy ending.

Read more...

When backpacker Jarold Lake runs out of money in Australia, an acquaintance gives him an address where he can find an under-the-table job without needing a work visa. He’s greeted by Russ Bridger, who none too subtly lets him know that the “job” involves being filmed having sex... with a man. Jarold is open to new experiences, but when he decided to take a trip Down Under, he never expected this!

Before long, Jarold is tangled up in the underworld dealings of Russ's boss, Jason Leith. Leith runs an empire on betting, pornography, and prostitution, and he is devoid of sympathy, among other human feelings. When Leith shows too much interest in Jarold, Russ decides it’s time to get out of the low life, something much easier said than done. But for Jarold, Russ will take the risk.

Read more...

For psychic mediums Quinn McConnell and Hunter Janz, dead folks pay the bills… barely. To make it into the financial comfort zone, they need an edge over their competition, and, as far as Quinn is concerned, some resolution to the sexual tension and unrequited love wreaking havoc with his psychic reception. Salvation comes in the form of dapper Dustin DeWind, a zombie who can obviously see and converse with the departed. In return for Quinn’s and Hunter’s help in finding the man who made him, he promises to steer them toward the elusive spirits that are their stock in trade. But once they forge an uneasy alliance, it almost seems Dustin is also nudging them toward each other….

Read more...

Ryan Andrews is on the run from past mistakes he doesn't know how to fix. Lost and alone, all he really wants is a place where he can be himself, but when he pulls up at the ranch where he's found a job and spies his gorgeous new boss, Ryan is pretty sure fate is out to get him.

Jake Evans is an ex-soldier trying to carve out a life on the ranch he inherited from his grandmother. He doesn’t even have time to realize how lonely he is until the new ranch hand shows up in his driveway. Ryan looks even more lost than Jake feels, and Jake’s locked-up heart seems to break open. Can these two men find in each other find the companionship they crave? Or will their pasts eclipse any possibility of a future?

Read more...

A Work Out Story

Determined not to end up like his seventy-year-old diabetic father, Holton knows he needs to make a change. His quest to improve his health drives him to the gym, where he meets Marcus, a trainer with the body of a demigod. For three months Holton works hard, watches what he eats, drops a few pounds—and catches Marcus's eye not only for his slimmer body but for his dedication.

Holton can barely believe it when Marcus asks him out, but he isn’t about to say no. Despite several common interests, though, Marcus and Holton have some roadblocks to overcome. A harrowing event from Holton’s past has made him gun-shy, and Marcus has insecurities of his own. If their relationship is going to work, they’ll have to get past their hang-ups and prove that what really matters is the man inside.

Read more...

The Male Room: Book Two

Attorney Sam Solomon is the most desired trick in the back room of the Music Box, his town's most notorious gay club—and very possibly the loneliest.  Sam is tired of one-night stands, and although he likes the world to think he’s too tough for such romantic notions, he secretly longs for the love his friends Jeff and Craig seem to have found. Fortunately for him, he’s just helped set his friends up in business. They run The Male Room, a local Internet dating service for gay men, and Jeff has just the guy in mind for Sam.

Chris Kelly is the last person Sam expected. From his profile, Sam knows that Chris is strong, opinionated, and dominant... in fact, he’s a lot like Sam! Sam may very well have met his match; he just needs to concede that the man he’s falling in love with needs to be his partner in every sense of the word.

Read more...

The Male Room: Book One

Craig just got fired from his dead-end job, and Jeff just got kicked out of his dead-end relationship. Frustrated with their unhappy lives, the two friends decide to let off some steam by going out to the Music Box, the town’s most notorious gay club. But after an unsatisfying night in the back room, Jeff decides there has to be something better for them out there, and he drags a reluctant Craig into starting a fledgling business called The Male Room, an online alternative for the gay dating scene in their area.

Jeff has another motive: Craig has picked up the pieces of Jeff's broken heart more times than he can count, and Jeff has loved him forever. The Male Room is Jeff’s last hope that helping others find love might lead Craig to the one perfect match right in front of him.

Read more...

A Work Out Story

Blobby Bobby and Lane the Pain. A thousand years ago, Lane spent his time in high school tormenting Robert Stephen Phillips to the point of tears. Stephen thought he’d left all of that behind, including his extra weight and his horrid nickname, when he came out to his parents. But now Stephen’s been transferred back to his hometown and will once again have to face his disapproving parents and childhood nemesis.

Imagine Stephen’s surprise when Lane turns out to have changed from school bully to persistent, attentive suitor. If Lane the Pain can hear Stephen’s most painful of intimate details and still want to pursue a relationship, is it possible that Stephen can reconnect with the family that turned on him years ago?

Read more...

Six months after the end of an abusive relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Craig finally finds someone he’s attracted to. It doesn’t bother him that Doug is a man, much less a player. What matters is that he’s a perfect candidate for a no-strings-attached night that just might help Craig prove to himself that he’s not as broken as he fears.

One night—that’s all it was supposed to be. But one night turns into yearning, turns into e-mailing, turns into communicating, turns into Doug hoping against hope that Craig might feel the same frightening attachment that he feels, pretty please? With cherries on top?

Read more...