Just when he thinks debtor’s prison is inevitable, he receives a visit from Mr. Sutton, railway solicitor, with paperwork to indicate that Algernon is the long-lost heir of Wealdhant Manor. The railway needs a portion of Wealdhant lands in order to lay their locomotive tracks, and Algernon is in no position to look a gift horse in the mouth. He accepts the inheritance at once, heading off to settle the railway’s affairs. The situation he finds in distant Lincolnshire is far more complex than he was led to believe, and Algernon is soon at odds with the gruffly handsome groundskeeper whom the village folk refer to as “Lord Jasper.” As the railway’s deadline approaches, Algernon struggles to forge an alliance with Jasper Waltham, to protect the people of the village, and to make peace with the restless ghosts of Wealdhant Manor. Clean romance, no cheating, standalone novel.

    Tall and strong in build, fearsome in manner, and sharp of wit, he trains the best gladiators bound for the arenas of Rome. When Senator Servius Augendus seeks personal guards, he attends the Ludus Varus for purchase of the very best. He puts to Quintus an offer he cannot refuse, and Quintus finds himself in Neapolis, contracted as a trainer of guards instead of gladiators. Kaeso Agorix was taken from his homelands of Iberia and delivered to Rome as a slave. Bought by a senator to be trained as a guard, his fate is handed to the man who would train him. Absent free will, Kaeso knows his life is no longer his own, though he soon realises the gods have favoured him when he learns his new master has a kind heart. Quintus and Kaeso forge a bond that far exceeds the collar at Kaeso's neck, and together they discover the senator's move for promotion has an ulterior motive. Thrown into a world of politics and conspiracy, of keeping enemies close, they move against time to save Rome before traitors and the gods themselves see to their end. And in doing so, see the dawn of the nova praetorian--the new guard--rise.

    When his last lover announces his engagement to the current reigning belle, Randall decides to suppress his true nature and follow suit. He is determined, once and for all, to forget the dark sailor who slipped in and out of his life five years before. Lady Prudence Wedgewood has, for a member of the fair sex, unquestioned beauty, and shows a surprising wit, which will entertain Randall, even if her well-proportioned body does not arouse his desires. The marriage should at least be, bearable. Lieutenant David Wedgewood has always been beyond discreet with his unnatural attraction to men. An attraction, which years ago, nearly set Randall’s bed aflame for a blissful, torrid week. The Blair and Wedgewood wedding plans unfold flawlessly, until Lady Prudence’s brother returns: Randall’s long lost sailor. David returned for only one reason: to save his beloved sister from a marriage destined to bring nothing but pain. Marriage to a sod! He will kill Randall if that’s what it takes to stop the wedding. And he is willing to seduce Randall, to prove that this marriage can only end in disaster and heartbreak.

    But Greg’s daughter Jeana has decided she’s had enough, so she rents a small apartment in Vienna for him as a Father’s Day present. Jonathon agrees to go, against his better judgment.Surprisingly, Jonathon finds the change of scenery refreshing, and he even makes a young friend in Hans, his landlady’s son. Then Hans’s older brother returns home, and Jonathon begins to truly awaken. Fabian touches something inside him, especially when the younger man takes it upon himself to woo Jonathon in full Viennese style, with a waltz. But shadows of the past and expectations for the future loom over them both and will have to be banished for their lovers’ dance to stay in step.

    Even though their love is forbidden, for Edward there is no other in his life but Richard, and for Richard a life without Edward is unbearable. Has fate determined that they must lead their lives apart?As members of the British force engaged in a doomed bid to save heroic Gordon of Khartoum, besieged by the frenzied armies of the Mahdi, Edward and Richard, cruelly separated by events, and ignorant of the other’s presence, are thrown into their own desperate adventures as the conflict rages on around them… One an officer, the other a lowly cavalry trumpeter, both find Muslim allies willing to risk all to see them through… Two lovers far from each other in a hostile world of enervating heat, unforgiving sand, rocky wastes, but also burning passions—will the young men overcome the ordeal of a life apart to achieve their dream of a destiny together? 131,850 words.extended description-chapter nine at: http://pastehtml.com/view/crdmw4gnm.rtxt

    The sudden death of his parents shatters all of that, leaving Neil and his younger sister beggared and orphaned. When Neil’s estranged uncle offers him a bargain that will save him and his sister from debtor’s prison or exile, Neil eagerly agrees. Handing over the family grimoire as collateral for their debt, Neil devotes himself to working as a teacher for wayward youths at a charity school high in the clouds. But Highfell Hall is not the charity Neil imagines it to be and the young men there aren’t training for the dull lives of city clerks. Amidst the roaring engines and within the icy stone halls, machinations and curious devices are at work. And one man, the rough and enigmatic Leofa, holds the key to the desire that Neil has fled from all his life and a magic as dangerous as treason.

    And feelings he never thought to explore. A single kiss alters Watson’s world while the announcement of Holmes’ upcoming marriage sets an odd fear in his heart.Amidst the beauty of an English country party, the greatest detective the world has ever known searches for a traitor. Somewhere among the glittering nobility a sadist lurks, using blackmail to destroy lives and endanger a nation.Only Sherlock Holmes can save an innocent man and bring the traitor to justice. It’s a search that could cement the greatest friendship of all time into something far deeper and stronger...if the hunt doesn’t end Watson’s life first.

    Vaughan, the decadent Marquis of Pennerley has desired Lucerne for years, and now, on the wild Yorkshire Moors, intends to claim him.A scandalous and passionate struggle results between the debauched aristocrat and an improper young lady. Ultimately, it will be up to Lucerne to choose the outcome — a decision that is bound to cause outrage and upset somebody’s plans.“Excessively naughty- Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters would have fainted dead away.” Goodreads Reviewer.“Intense, subtle, and heartfelt.” Author Lisabet Sarai, for ERWA.‘Forbidden passion, risqué love, & smouldering desires – A GENTLEMAN’S WAGER had it all!’ Romance Junkies

    or so he believes until the day he learns he is in fact the new Earl of Dearborne. Still recovering from a lingering illness, the sensitive young man travels to Great Britain to claim his estate and embarks upon a bewildering new life. Julien Sutcliffe, the Earl of Blackstone, is suffering from ennui. He's tired and bored with all the finery and wealth and wonders about him. Then he meets this refreshingly naive American Earl, newly arrived in England, and suddenly the world comes alive around him again. Irresistibly drawn to one another, Julien finds himself besotted, and Leander is equally smitten. But just when they think they may have finally found happiness together, Julien and Leander discover that something--or someone--is determined to separate them permanently.

    To protect him from himself—and to protect others from him—he spends his days heavily medicated and locked in his rooms, and his nights in darkness and solitude, tormented by visions, until a stranger appears.This apparition is different. Fox says he’s a thief and not an entirely good sort of man, yet he returns night after night to ease Arthur’s loneliness without asking for anything in return. Fox might be the key that sets Arthur free, or he might deliver the final blow to Arthur’s tenuous grasp on sanity. Either way, real or imaginary, Arthur needs him too much to care.Fox is only one of the many secrets and specters haunting Campden House, and Arthur will have to face them all in order to live the life of his dreams.

    The Empire claimed and culled his childhood friend, and he has never forgiven the government for its callousness. When Rhan is assigned to help Imperial soldiers find a dangerous heretic, he is hard-pressed to keep his opinions—and his invisible advantages—to himself.Surprisingly, one of the young guides in the hunt, Aerik Rodan, shares some of Rhan’s ideas. As the journey brings their minds closer, it also ignites the passion between them. But any thoughts of happiness are threatened as the hunt for one heretic soon leads them to the source of the heresy and a truth about their world that could bring chaos and war upon them all.

    Austin Smith is pushing fifty, loveless and drifting, until one day he meets Julien, a much younger, married Frenchman. In the beginning, the lovers' only impediments are the comic clashes of culture, age, and temperament. Before long, however, the past begins to catch up with them. In a desperate quest to save health and happiness, they move from Venice to Key West, from Montreal in the snow to Providence in the rain. But it is amid the bleak, baking sands of the Sahara that their love is pushed to its ultimate crisis.

    Published on the 40th anniversary of the disease's first reported cases, this story is both a tribute to a generation lost to the pandemic as well as a powerful exploration of heartbreak, recovery, and how love can defy grief. Two years after his partner, Francesco, died, twenty-eight-year-old Kevin Doyle is dusting off his one good suit jacket for yet another funeral, yet another loss in their close-knit group. They had all been young, beautiful, and living the best days of their lives, though they didn’t know it. That was before New York City began to feel like a war zone, its horrors somehow invisible, and ignored by the rest of the world.Some people might insist that Francesco is in a better place now, but Kevin definitely isn’t. He spends his days in a mind-numbing job and his evenings drunk in Francesco’s old apartment, surrounded by memories. Francesco made everything look easy, and without him, Kevin struggles to keep going. And then one night, he stops trying. When Kevin awakens in a hospital, he knows it’s time to move back home to Minnesota and figure out how to start living again—without Francesco.With the help of a surviving partners support group and old and new friends, Kevin slowly starts to do just that. But an unthinkable family betrayal, and the news that his best friend is fighting for his life in New York, will force a reckoning and a defining choice. Drawing on his experience as part of the AIDS generation, Brian Malloy brings authenticity, insight, sensitivity, and humor to a story that is distinct yet universal in its powerful exploration of heartbreak and recovery, and the ways in which love can defy grief.

    Adrift and still grieving, he tries to find meaning in an unsatisfying job. Work takes him to the remote seaside villa of an old friend, where, among an odd assortment of guests, he meets the eunuch sword-dancer Varazda. Enigmatic and beautiful but distinctly prickly, Varazda is the antithesis of the straightforward and serious Damiskos. Yet as they keep getting in each other’s way at the villa, their mutual dislike is complicated by a spark of undeniable attraction. Then the villa’s guests begin to reveal their true characters and motives—no one here is what they seem—and Damiskos finds himself at the centre of a bizarre web of espionage, theft, and assassination. Varazda may need Damiskos’s help, but not as much as Damiskos, finally awakening to a new sense of life and purpose, needs Varazda. Sword Dance is the first book in the Sword Dance trilogy, an m/nb romance set in an imaginary ancient world, with murderous philosophy students, sex acts named after fruit, and love blossoming in the midst of mayhem.

    When Loel Woodbine, Duke of Marche and heir to three fortunes, makes an offer for Miss Valeria Randwick's hand, it seems like a godsend, but the young lady has already promised her heart to another-and a commoner, at that. Desperate to avoid the marriage, Valeria concocts a wild scheme that depends upon the good graces of her monastery-raised brother, Valentine. When the prospective groom sees through the ruse, he surprises Valentine by agreeing to cooperate. But can Marche and Valentine fool London society while dealing with an accusation of murder and the distracting fascination between them?