Sir Tanash, the greatest knight Tasora has ever known, has one quest -- to rescue his king’s only son. Fifteen years ago, Princy Liseny was kidnapped, and in the time since, Tasora has crumbled. By bringing the prince home, Tanash hopes to return the kingdom to its former glory.<br><br>As captive in a rival land, Liseny has spent most of his life locked away from the world, brought out as the ultimate prize while his real home is slowly destroyed. Escape is a godsend. So is Tanash, but neither is as simple as Liseny hopes. He has to learn to adjust in more ways than one. Though Tanash refuses to act on their mutual attraction, he does agree to help Liseny seek out an alliance to take back to Tasora.<br><br>What he doesn’t expect is to fall for the young prince along the way ...

On the planet of Kathtor, Midnight Creek is special. It houses a geo-spatial anomaly that crosses the distance between opposite sides of the planet with a single step. A hundred years ago, the warring Kimon used the anomaly to invade the peaceful Therlerians, only to be driven away by their advanced technology.<br><br>Now, a single man guards the point of entry. Warden Arie Vedebel is the best of his kind, a soldier in the Liberated Therler Federacy, determined to defend his people to the death. When an electrical storm sets the creek on fire, he races to put it out, only to discover a man in the midst of it. His name? General Dennick Ginn of the Elds Regime, highly decorated Kimon officer. Arie’s orders are to kill on sight, but Dennick’s claims that’s he come through the anomaly to destroy it make him pause. As far as Arie knows, that’s impossible. Then again, he’d always been told his post was a precautionary one, that traveling through the anomaly was no longer viable.<br><br>Arie and Dennick form a wary alliance. While Arie strives to find the truth, the one fact he can’t dispute is that Dennick is not what he expects a Kimon to be. The two men have more in common than military training. They just might have a future, too.

Sutter is a vampire on the run. After barely escaping the hunter sent after him, he makes it all the way to Oregon before the approaching sunrise forces him to stop. He only intends to rest until dusk, but that plan falls apart when he’s found passed out on the bathroom floor.<br><br>Ex-Marine Max Rowell hasn’t had a purpose in life since coming home from the Gulf. Drifting through the days, he discovers an unconscious guy who looks like an angel but has clearly been through hell and finds new purpose.<br><br>Max isn’t letting Sutter go anywhere until he’s healed, but Sutter needs more than a warm bedside manner to get stronger. Though they strike a deal, the clock is ticking. Sooner or later, Sutter will need to run again, or risk putting Max’s life on the line when Sutter’s past catches up to him ...

For three years, Cap Kaufman has been trying to make amends to his war buddy’s orphaned daughter. Building her a safe home. Finding her the best nanny. Now, he’s kidnapped the man her doctor says is her best bet for fixing her blindness.<br><br>When Hector Gabourel wakes up on a boat in the middle of nowhere, he’s confronted by a man determined to get his own way. He has no choice but to play along and wait for his chance to escape. What he doesn’t count on is learning to respect the man who uprooted him from everything he knew, all for the love of a child.<br><br>For Hector, it’s a challenge. For Cap, it’s penance. For both of them, a chance for love. All it takes is opening their eyes to see what’s right in front of them.

For eight months, Dr. Mark Vance has been visiting Sheehan’s Nursery to buy flowers for his mother’s grave, and every week, Hal Sheehan slips an extra lily into the bunch. Mark would love nothing more than to get to know the gentle giant better, but in 1950s Baltimore, a man just doesn’t ask another man out. His fears are compounded when a visit the day before Valentine’s casts doubts on Hal’s intentions. Maybe he really was meant to live a life of secrets.<br><br>Or maybe he just needs the holiday to discover the best secret of them all.

For divorced dad Alex Tunney, the Christmas choir concert seems like the perfect time to show his son he’s ready to work on their relationship. Arriving late isn’t his fault, but the last thing he expects is for Jake to take off without a word once the concert’s over. He’s not the only abandoned father, though. Marty Osterberg waits for his daughter, and when they discover the teenagers have left together, they team up to find them.<br><br>Of course, Alex would have a much easier time if Marty didn’t look exactly like the perfect present to find under his Christmas tree ...

In the year 2184, the US is divided. Half the country has moved on with the rest of the world, while in middle America, the survivors of the terrorist biological attack that split the country struggle just to stay alive. Though a century has passed, few people brave going behind the borders meant to contain the danger. Even the privatized military is reluctant to do so.<br><br>But that doesn't stop recently discharged Sullivan Eberle. Only one thing drives him anymore -- the need to find Raphael Hamada. He doesn't know why. He only knows he must. If that means a lifetime behind the borders, then so be it.<br><br>Rafe Hamada ran away from the real world when he was still a kid. The last thing he wants is to be found, especially by a soldier who can't even tell him why it was so important to locate him in the first place. He'd like nothing more than for Sullivan to leave, but turning his back on a man alone and friendless is against everything Rafe stands for ...

As an artist in NYC, Calvin Shumacher finally has the life he's always wanted. In fact, only one thing can get him to come back to Illinois -- his father's funeral. All he wants is to bury his dad and hightail it back to New York, but a sniper at the graveyard puts those plans on indefinite hold.<br><br>So does Matthew Soto. The gorgeous gunman who speaks of monsters wearing human faces. And predicts there won't be a body for police to find.<br><br>Calvin doesn't know what to think when Matthew claims he didn't do anything wrong. All he knows is that this man's haunted eyes seem to pierce right into his soul. But as each of Matthew's assertions comes true, Calvin slowly realizes this killer could be the only thing standing between him and an unspeakable evil ...

Nothing has ever excited Tylen Merodine more than being invited by the Regent himself to celebrate the first solar eclipse in his planet’s recorded history. It’s the party of the millennium, and if he has to restrain his normal exuberant instincts to fit in, that’s what he’ll do to be a part of it. His good intentions vanish, however, the moment he’s presented to the Regent. Because there, in a gilded cage, playing music unlike anything Tylen’s ever heard, is the most beautiful alien he could imagine.<br><br>For more than twenty years, Dek has lived in captivity, performing at the whim of those who see him as an animal. The Regent is just the latest in a long line of owners, and while he’s kind, he’s still blind to Dek’s sentient nature. Only music gives Dek a voice, until Tylen breaks the rules and sneaks in to see and speak to him alone.<br><br>The time they have together is stolen and precious, the minutes ticking away until the eclipse is past and they have to go back to the way their lives were before. But when the Regent shows an unexpected interest in Tylen’s future, they begin to wonder if their worlds need to remain so separate ...<br>

When his boss’s twenty-year-old son announced he wanted to be more than friends, Tim Kammerling told him no. He wasn’t ready to have a relationship with someone more than ten years younger than him. Devin knew he couldn’t stick around Napa and honor the status quo, however. He left town, and the two became long distance friends instead.<br><br>A lot can happen in eighteen years. Letters are sent. Calls get made.<br><br>Lives are changed.

There isn’t anything Annie Pontin won’t do for her lover, the reclusive artifact collector Quin Black. As his personal assistant, she even takes care of the most valuable item in his collection, a ruby-encrusted sword that dates over two thousand years old. One day while cleaning it, she cuts herself on the blade. The next thing she knows, the sword is gone, and in its place ... a young man named Theodotus.<br><br>Theo claims to know Quin, but when she asks Quin the whole story, what unfolds is out of this world. She isn’t prepared to hear how he sold his soul in order to be with his dead lover forever, nor does she want to hear that he’s lived for centuries. The only problem is, Quin refuses to let her walk away. He wants them both. Now he and Theo just need to convince her to stay ...

It was supposed to be simple.<br><br>All struggling actor Carlo Baresi had to do was pick a man up, drive him to the location he specified, then report where he’d taken him. The only problem is, the man isn’t who he says he is ... and they both know it.<br><br>Bookstore owner Joe Donnelly has a reputation for helping those in need, but this plan has been a bad one from the second he stepped in. Discovering someone has switched out the driver is one more complication he doesn’t want, especially since Carlo is the kind of distraction that can get a man in serious trouble if he’s not careful.<br><br>But they have something in common. They’re both loose ends, struggling to find out what is really going on.<br><br>And murder is always complicated, even when you’re on the same side.

At forty-three, Jay McGhee doesn't know how much longer he'll be able to withstand the physical rigors necessary for active duty in the Roseville, Indiana Fire Department, but that doesn't mean he's willing to be put out to pasture just yet. For most of his adult life, he's had to place his needs on the back burner, including the fact that he's a gay man in a small rural community. His career is not going to take the same route.<br><br>When twenty-seven-year-old Frank Kaplan breezes into town, Jay ignores his immediate attraction to the younger man. After all, he's an old pro at pretending. The long-haired, tattooed drifter shouldn't even be his type, but the friendship they strike up satisfies a space in Jay's life he never realized was empty.<br><br>Two men. Two lives in flux.<br><br>No regrets.

Life hasn’t turned out like Connor McClure hoped. His relationship is over, he lost his friends in the break-up, and nothing makes him happy anymore. All he wants is to hide from the world, but the only place available to him is his parents’ home in the rural Michigan community he abandoned thirteen years ago. Since they’re in Florida for the winter, he’ll have the whole house to himself.<br><br>Except he doesn’t. In their absence, the McClures asked a young neighbor to look after the property. Jerry is young, energetic, and oh yeah, gay. From everything he’s learned about Connor, he might be harboring a little crush, but Connor is in no place for dating. Right now, he needs a friend, someone to help him remember that second chances are always possible ...

When werewolf hunter Flanna McRae allows a single wolf to escape from her monthly hunt, the last thing she expects is for him to come after her. But fellow hunter Jason Randolph is convinced otherwise. His months-long hunt of the Romm pack has led him straight to the doorstep of her quiet English home. He doesn’t care that his quick-witted charm seems to get under Flanna’s skin. All he wants is to finally get his kill.<br><br>Until Flanna manages to get under his skin as well.<br><br>Their explosive affair is inevitable, but with the full moon less than three weeks away, Flanna’s convinced they are living on borrowed time. Romm is deadly and relentless, and it’s going to take more than the passion Jason inspires to stop the werewolf from destroying everything she cares about. Or is it finally enough?

For his twenty-fifth birthday, Alec Savage gets the gift of a lifetime -- the chance to meet his father for the very first time. What he finds upon his arrival in Washington, DC, however, is not what he expects. A smashed window. An empty house. A scrawled note with his name and a phone number on it. Panicked, he dials the number and talks to an uncle he never knew he had, one who insists Alec is in danger if he stays in the house. That’s when everything starts to get weird.<br><br>Within minutes, he’s teleported all the way to nowhere Montana, in the company of the most gorgeous guy he’s ever seen, hearing about how he’s the latest mage in the Savage line. Alec doesn’t want to believe Rowan Bouchard, but it’s hard to argue with the reality of his new snowbound location or the confirmation from the uncle who greets him. He even thinks staying on the estate while they hunt for his dad won’t be so bad if he’s got Rowan as eye candy.<br><br>Except Rowan is more than that. He’s a shifter, the most beautiful black panther Alec could imagine. And according to his Uncle Martin, he’s now Alec’s familiar too ...

In 1934, life in Brookburn, Indiana, is quiet, simple, and peaceful, but young dreamer Levi Beckerman yearns for more. When the carnival shows up for the Fourth of July, he’s entranced by its many temptations. None is more seductive than the charismatic barker, Sebastian Gustineau. Seb’s been a part of the carnival for almost a decade. Once, it provided him the escape he needed from a life he thought he didn’t want, but now, he craves things it can never offer. Flitting from dusty town to dusty town, he loses himself in pretty dalliances. Levi seems like the perfect distraction, until a single conversation convinces him that preserving Levi’s innocence and way of life is more important than his momentary satisfaction. However, his plan to discourage Levi goes horribly wrong. When Levi’s family is threatened, Levi fights to protect them, doing what he can to hide the secrets he’s sheltered his entire life. The only person he trusts is Seb. He just isn’t sure if the growing bond between them is enough to save them all.

Declan Jericho is a vampire with a purpose. His best hope for success rests on the shoulders of a brilliant young cancer specialist, but saving the undead isn’t exactly the career path Dr. Maya Sheldon has in mind. When Dec kidnaps Maya from work, the last thing she wants to do is help him. Then she discovers what he wants her for -- to develop a cure for the mysterious illness killing the young vampires in his care. Vampires or not, she’s unable to abandon them. Her interest in Dec quickly shifts from professional to something more intimate, but as their attraction grows, darker secrets threaten their newfound relationship. Dec has his own reasons for wanting the young vampires cured, and he’s not telling ...

Four years ago, Mathias Larsen broke siring laws to save a lover’s life. Four months ago, that lover turned on him, leaving him for dead. Now Mathias has followed her path of death to Las Vegas, straight to the last vampire who wants to see him: his sire. The man he left for a woman who stabbed him in the back. Edmund has found love again with a nightclub owner, the very human Darby Bell. He doesn’t want to believe Mathias’s warnings, but a murder that hits too close to home gives him no choice. While he struggles to keep Mathias and Darby safe, emotions run high as old love collides with new. But the clock is ticking. The vampire Assembly is coming to town, the local police are alerted to Mathias’s nocturnal activities, and passions are flaring high. Time is running out. By the time death strikes again, all bets are off.

Onstage, AJ Mobley is smart, clever, and commands attention. Offstage, he's shy and lost to everything but his music. The reason for the difference? Tyrone Dahl. For the past two years, AJ and Tyrone have been the star attraction at the Reno bar, Heat Wave. Their dueling pianos act is fast and funny, but their camaraderie isn't just under the spotlight. They're best friends away from the show, too. An opportunity to take their act to Las Vegas seems like the perfect next step in their careers. There's only one problem -- AJ's been in love with Tyrone almost from the moment they met. He's hidden it well; after all, Tyrone might be bisexual, but he's also never lacked for company. AJ would rather be his friend than another notch on his bedpost. But Vegas beckons. And Tyrone wants to take the leap. The last thing AJ can ever do is deny his best friend ...

After spending high school in the closet, the last thing Jett Walker wants is to go to his thirty year class reunion. Then the one person he was never able to resist decides to attend -- punk rocker Trev Chambers. Trev was the epitome of everything Jett wanted to be, and now he’s reuniting the band he made famous for a final blowout concert. Though nobody back home knows he’s gay, Jett decides to go. He needs closure. One weekend of pretending he’s straight is more than worth it. When he discovers Trev lives less than two hours away, Jett seeks him out on a whim. The punk rocker has grown up, but as far as Jett’s concerned, Trev is more appealing than ever. He’s also available. One brief conversation turns into a date, which raises the question ... are they just living in nostalgia, or can they find a way to build a real future together?

Detective Brady Lindstrom deals in death, and not just because he's a homicide cop with the slaughter of a century to solve. Ten years ago, vampires murdered his lover. Ever since, he's looked over his shoulder, ready for vampires to strike again. Or maybe just the one he loved. Exhausted and angry about the needless deaths he has to investigate, Brady worries the killers he's looking for aren't even human. Those fears are compounded by an unexpected visitor, the battered and nearly broken Cole Singer, the lover he'd long ago given up for dead. When Cole offers to trade information on the killers in exchange for sanctuary, Brady realizes he doesn't have a choice. It isn't about justice. He simply can't turn his back on the face of the only man he's ever loved. Even if he's a vampire.

For over half a century, lovers Seth and Simon have been trapped in service to one of the most dangerous vampires on the West Coast. When they discover there’s a way to break the spell that binds them, getting free becomes their only desire. Until they meet Claire, the granddaughter of the mage who enslaved them. Suddenly, seducing her seems like a much more pleasurable alternative. If they can convince her to use the magic she inherited, everybody wins. All they have to do is survive long enough to make it happen.

Six years ago, Jarrett Kessel helped his best friend’s little brother deal with his family’s rejection when he came out. He saw potential in the tempestuous teenager. Talent. Then, they both moved on with their lives. Now, the FBI needs Jarrett’s help. Sketch artist Eli Locke is their only lead in finding a killer, but he’s nowhere to be found. Though the Feds are convinced Jarrett is the best way to lure him out, he’s not so sure. Until they show him the web comic Eli has created, with a superhero who bears a striking resemblance to Jarrett. When Eli gets an email out of the blue from the man who changed his life, he doesn’t even consider saying no to a meeting. Jarrett is even more amazing than he remembers, and the fact that he’s all right being the role model for the one thing that means the most to Eli is just icing on the cake. But the truth about the murder comes out, and even though he had nothing to do with it, Eli wants to run. It’s up to Jarrett to keep him from ruining his life for good, before the killer finds them both and does it first ...

Insomniac Sean Diaz spends his nights riding the subway around Manhattan, ignoring the people he might encounter, getting lost in the rhythms of the train so he’s exhausted enough to sleep once he gets home. A hallucination about his dead high school boyfriend turns it into an obsession, but when Sean sees him a second time, he nearly falls apart. That’s how Judah Morey finds him. Concern prompts conversation, which in turn sparks friendship. When Judah invites Sean back to his place, Sean decides to take a chance for the first time in nearly a decade. Dating is new territory for him, but he thinks he’s ready for it. He just needs to figure out how to let go of the past so he can take that step into his future.

Gunshots waken Ian Tunbridge, an assistant curator of classical antiquities at the British Museum, on his first day on a dig in California. The only way to save his life is to run for it, but luck is not on his side. At least, not until he meets Lucas Arpini, the brash American photographer who seems to have some sort of clue what’s going on. Together, they’re supposed to be the tools in finding an artifact nobody believes is real -- nobody, that is, except Lucas and the man kidnaps them both. Ian doesn’t know what to believe. His colleagues are dead, he’s injured, and he has no choice but to put his faith in a gorgeous stranger. Their escape should lead them straight to the police, but when Lucas shows him pieces of the puzzle they were meant to solve, Ian is too intrigued to walk away. He wants to solve the riddle as badly as Lucas does. Unfortunately, they aren’t the only ones ...

Some call him the Angel of Death, but Caleb knows better. He doesn’t kill. He erases life. Centuries ago, the Higher Powers created him to walk the terrestrial plane, eradicating those from existence who have either earned punishment or asked for dissolution. No attachments, no commitments, no problems. His latest assignment should have been as easy as the rest. But the second he gets invited into Leandro Warnell’s remote Alaskan cabin, Caleb knows something is different. It’s more than the overpowering physical attraction between them. It’s more than the inconsistencies that have plagued this assignment from the start. It’s the mark Leandro wears over his heart, the symbol unique to Caleb’s body. Because the only way he could’ve got the tattoo is if Caleb had given it to him…and the man who’s collected memories for the last thousand years has no recollection ever meeting Leandro before ...

Thomas Durling escaped his small-town upbringing for over ten years, until a single phone call drew him back. Told his mother has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, he returns to the small northern Michigan town he once called home to find a mute stranger taking care of her in his stead. On the surface, Andre seems harmless enough, but Thomas has enough problems trying to deal with his mother’s illness. He doesn’t need a gorgeous young man to distract him, especially in a town that drove him away once already with its homophobia. But Andre has nowhere else to go. A wolf without a pack, he’s been on the run since witnessing his father’s murder, always looking over his shoulder, never looking ahead. Taking care of Thomas’s mother has given him a welcome sanctuary, as well as a place he can call home for a couple months. He wants to stay, but more importantly, he wants to help, even if Thomas isn’t ready to accept that they could actually be friends ...

Fashion is Jared Harvey’s life. Once a top model, now an aspiring designer, he never expects to be attracted to a man who wouldn’t know his Versace from his Valentino. But Rick Paulson makes him rethink everything he’s ever assumed he wanted in a man. Rick’s generous, built like a brick house, and best of all, hungry to let Jared take control. Together, they ignite passions in each other neither wants to extinguish. So what if Rick doesn’t care about Jared’s Cavalli? Life’s more than a runway, especially with a man like Rick around ...

"From the moment he finds The Naked Remedy, Noah Booker is enthralled. Not only because the blog owner is gorgeous or that the nude photos are hot, but because Fisher uses his platform to face his fears about a crippling accident, as well as the aftermath of putting his life back together. Noah isn’t brave. He copes with his shyness by staying in his comfort zone. At twenty-six, he still hasn't come out or left his conservative hometown. Finding the blog offers a beacon, but when he summons the nerve to comment, he never expects Fisher to respond. The two men strike a friendship. Sparks fly, but dating isn't easy. Noah lives in California, and Fisher's in Florida. But making it work takes more than coordinating schedules. It means taking risks. For Fisher, though, Noah will try. Because if he's learned anything, it's that change only happens one step at a time."

"When they graduated from high school in 1962, best friends and secret lovers Jim McCutcheon and Ronnie Mayer had high expectations for the rest of their lives. Six years later, both are back in the small Nebraska town they called home, and worse, no longer together. Once the golden boy, Jim now works on his grandfather's farm, away from the town's disappointment he didn't end up at NASA. Ronnie lives in his parents' basement, recovering from the blast that sent him home from Vietnam. Neither is where they want to be, but it takes a special request from Ronnie's mom for Jim to swallow his pride and visit. Though it doesn't go well, it opens the door for the two young men to start communicating. One question haunts them, though. Have they changed too much to find their way back to each other again?"

"For three years, playwright Spencer Szabo has been sitting on the best work of his career -- a show about the life and death of C-list fifties actor, Kip Palmer. His actress neighbor deems it wonderful. His agent calls it unmarketable. Then hotshot director Mick Darby rolls into New York and practically begs Spencer to let him put Dead Man’s Curve onstage where it belongs. Mick’s passion is contagious, but Spencer quickly discovers they share more than professional respect. They get along as if they’ve known each other for years, while underneath their easy friendship simmers a physical attraction more intense than he’s ever experienced. It takes the threat of their lead’s flirting to shatter Mick’s policy never to get involved with someone he’s working with, but is their budding relationship really so innocent? Or is Mick holding back on what truly inspired him to seek Spencer out?"

"Throughout his career, actor John Paravati has stuck with what he told the gossip rags -- he's been in like, in lust, even in respect once or twice, but never love. All he's ever cared about is performing. If he's stuck now doing commercials for cruise lines, at least it's better than shilling adult diapers. But Hollywood pretends, and John is a master. Because once upon a time, he loved two things more than anything -- his best friend Frank and the movie palace he used as sanctuary. Over fifty years ago, John ran away from his hometown. Now, someone has restored the theater he left behind, and they want John at its relaunch. The memories still sting, but he agrees to attend, even though it means dealing with heartache. At seventy-seven, he's too old to hold onto the hurt. The question is, however, is he too old to start over once it's gone?"

"On a scale of one to ten, DJ Joe Salinas considers himself a four, five on a good day. Actor/part-time stripper Fess Kedley is definitely a nine, however, and Joe's pretty sure that slides into a ten as soon as the clothes come off. So when the outgoing Fess recognizes a shy Joe from his midnight radio show at a bachelorette party and proceeds to ask him out, Joe turns Fess down, convinced the man's either crazy or stupid. The only problem is, Fess takes rejection as reason to keep on trying. The two become unexpected friends, so when the thought of trying a date comes up again, Joe decides to take a chance. Though he doesn't understand what someone like Fess can see in someone like him, it's hard to say no when everything else feels so right."

"Though Bret has been in love with Andreas since they were in college, he swore nobody would ever find out. Andreas doesn't do relationships, and the last thing Bret wanted was to make things awkward within their group of friends. Now, two of their quartet are getting married. On what is supposed to be a final nostalgic fling, Bret and Andreas come face to face without the others. Will they walk away, or will Bret finally have the nerve to tell Andreas how he truly feels? Note: This short story was originally published in the charity collection, Love Is Proud."