Mutual attraction and small-town ties hold them together, yet they’re haunted by a shared tragedy that still hangs between them.Their tenuous, on-again off-again relationship takes a hard right cross with the arrival of Tom Delaney, a teen on the run from his punch-happy father. In no time, the kid shows himself to be a boxing prodigy.But Tom’s politically influential father isn’t yet down for the count. When his mother shows up at Eddie’s diner with a shiner and a haunted look in her eyes, Tom is hopeful for her future. But when that hope is snuffed out, Tom’s rage has him ready to turn his new fighting skills to a deadly purpose. Revenge, or die trying.Unless his surrogate big brothers can put their painful past behind them to keep history from rising up for another round.This book has been previously published.Warning: Tough guys with a long history beating the crap out of each other to avoid saying “I love you”. Heaps of sexual tension. More angst and emotion than deemed safe by the Surgeon General. Proceed with caution!

    Along with his traveling partner, Andy Baxter, he's riding hard on the circuit, working around the country with all of the other bull riders and bull fighters, living the good life. The only thing he wishes he had is Bax, but he's afraid to take the step that would make them more than friends, worried that it will ruin everything. When a terrible accident leaves Jason unable to see, his whole life goes south. Jason decides to chuck it all, determined to go home and hide at his momma's ranch. Bax has other ideas. He wants to make sure his best friend doesn't give up, and he hatches a plan that stuns Jason and makes their friends and family think he's crazy. With the help of the other bull riders and a very persistent bull fighter named Coke, Bax convinces Jason to give life one more try. With Jason cautiously learning to hope, and his relationship with Bax going to the next level, life gets pretty complicated. Everyone gets in on the project, from Jason's strong-willed mother to an entire ranch full of children, all of them working to help Jason do what he loves. Will Bax be able to convince Jason that he can still ride, even if he's blind to everything the world has to offer?

    Will accepts with one caveat: Mike must promise not to renew his army contract.Mike agrees, until the army invokes the stop-loss military policy to involuntarily extend his commission and send him back overseas, rendering him powerless and threatening everything he and Will have built. Will, left alone to cope with a new café, must rely on the support of old friends who may no longer be trustworthy.A horrific terrorist attack on Mike’s outpost changes everything, leaving them both at a loss.Mike awakens in a hospital with a devastating injury and no recollection of the attack. As the only survivor, his memory may be the key to national security. Mike struggles to cope with his injury and Will struggles with his new role in Mike’s life.For Mike and Will, “No Flag” meant “come home alive.” Will has Mike back rather than a folded flag, but in the aftermath of war, can they rebuild the life they had before?

    What's the point of a twenty-five-year-old gay virgin having designs on a twenty-two-year-old straight player who just broke up with his girlfriend? But... assumptions often prove erroneous. Faron Weaver's girlfriend was actually a boyfriend, and he's every bit as screwed up about being a promiscuous gay Amish man as Greg is about being a celibate gay ex-monk. A bond forms between them, as bizarre as it is fitting, when Greg's current housemate moves out and Faron moves in. Although mutual attraction charges the air, their friendship remains chaste. Other men disappoint and even hurt them, making real love seem like an impossible dream. Estrangement from faith and family fills them with guilt. They confide and commiserate and consider solutions, but nothing seems to be enough. Greg and Faron have a longing to belong that could send them back to the places they came from... unless they accept the blessing that's right under their noses.

    After a romantic relationship went up in flames, I returned to my hometown in rural Kansas. Then my mother passed away. I’m really busy with my job as fire marshal—and now with my mother’s advice column, which I reluctantly took over. There’s a sexy newcomer down the street, a guy with a young daughter and an unfortunate disregard for fire safety. He seems to want to be friends, but that creates problems that may be too hot for me to handle. The last things I need right now are flammable holiday decorations and too much holiday food. How am I supposed to give good advice to others when I can’t seem to get my own life straight?—Bah Humbug in Bailey Springs

    For six weeks every year, he was my best friend, my partner-in-crime, and eventually my first kiss, my first everything. And then one year, what should have been our last summer before university, he wasn’t there. He didn’t come back. I waited all summer. Now, ten years later, on a different beach, in a different town, another country, we run into each other and all those old feelings come rushing back.Photo Description: The black-and-white photo shows two handsome, well-built, bare-chested young men, kissing passionately as they lie in the shallow waves on a beach. Still wearing their jeans, they look like they have tumbled into the water, so caught up in the moment and their love for each other they are oblivious to the world around them.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is an Open Road" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story. This story may contain sexually explicit content and is intended for adult readers. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

    Something about the town called to him, and he set about doing what he could to fit in. If that meant keeping some parts of himself separate, tucked away from prying eyes, then that was what he'd do.Tomas moved to El Jardin to escape the memories of a vicious attack that left him a shattered, broken man. The physical wounds would heal, but the emotional ones seemed insurmountable. Unable to leave his home for more than a brief walk to the mailbox, Caden's isolation was just one more torment that ate away at his hopes of ever recovering.Two men, each with their own personal demons, living only yards across from one another. Each is fascinated by the other, but unable to find a way to breach the problems that keep them apart. The solution comes in the form of one yappy little poodle, Loopy. His frequent escapes from Caden's yard gives Jesse a reason to approach his neighbor, and form a tenuous bond that will heal their wounds and maybe, just maybe, end their lonely nights.Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Male/male sexual practices.

    What he doesn’t have is a partner to share it with—a fact that’s never bothered him much. But the romantic in him isn’t entirely dead. When a moment of weakness finds him with a contact to a high-class escort specializing in fulfilling fantasies, Micah asks for only one thing: Show me what it’s like to feel loved.

    Losing his home, his job, and having to reinvent himself, Kellie went back to school for his certificate in massage therapy and is hired by an elite spa in West Hollywood. Though Kellie had experienced 'happy endings' in the past while getting massages from older men, he was going to abide by the rules and not get sexual with his clients.Montgomery 'Monty' Gresham, ex Navy SEAL plans to open up a SEAL training boot camp for civilians, and decides getting referrals from a celebrity club in LA would be a perfect idea. While Monty recruits members to his military training center, he meets the handsome massage therapist, Kellie Hamilton.The contact between Kellie and Monty while Monty is on the massage table instantly sends both men into a state of pure sexual arousal. In this heightened state, where two opposites certainly are attracted, Kellie needs to decide if the tough thirty-eight year old ex-military man will be his Happy Ending, or if living happily ever after is just a fairy tale.

    Whether it's a May/December romance, a second chance at love, or finding a soul mate later in life, these stories prove that it's never too late for love.Stories Included are:Nachos on Saturday by J. Leigh BaileyQueening Out by Mari DonneGranddad's Cup of Tea by Amy Rae DurresonThe Way to a Fisherman's Heart by Tray EllisNo Place Like Home by Kim FieldingIvory Black, Flecked with White by Laylah HunterLoving Again by John InmanFull Circle by Rhidian Brenig JonesStraight Shooting by Maggie LeeHero Worship by Sam C. LeonhardCurtain Calls by Pinkie Rae ParkerThe Bodyguard's Dilemma by Chris ScullyPicture This by Dottie Stratton & Linda JamesHunting Season by AC ValentineWaiting for the Light by Layla M. Wier

    That's how he meets Tate. This is their story.

    They’ve been somewhere between best friends and lovers in peacetime and wartime both, but as the clock ticks toward Mac’s and Gunny’s retirements, the guys have much more to worry about than coming out.Whether their relationship will survive outside of the closet they’ve had to shove it into for over two decades is a big question mark. After all, Gunny questions why a hot military man like Mac--who could get any guy he wanted, including a younger, sexier one--would want him. But as Gunny and Mac navigate emotional waters as choppy as any they saw on duty, they just might learn Semper Fi applies to more than their careers.This edition is the expanded novel of the short story Beyond Duty which has been included in this novel. However it has been edited and changed to 3rd person POV.

    But that doesn’t mean he has the confidence to make a move on the gorgeous young blond who just breezed in to the Blue Dragon Bar. Fate will play its hand, anyway. Finding the same young blond beaten to the edge of death, terrified of a hospital, Sebastian has to choose - walk away, or try to save a life.This one chance encounter will lead Sebastian into a web of danger. Who is the enemy and who is a friend? Who will he trust when everyone has a reason to lie? How far will he go, and what will it cost, to do the right thing?Original Prompt:Dear Author,I'm so out of my league with this one I have no idea what the hell I'm doing. I watched him walk into that bathroom. How could I not notice him? Just look at him. He's fucking beautiful. I didn't see him come back out, but I was trying to play it cool, ya know? I thought maybe he'd left when after 30 minutes I didn't see him in the bar anywhere. Shrugging it off, figuring he's probably a good 10 years too young for me anyway, I went to the bathroom and saw him again. Only this time he was a broken, bloody heap on the floor in the last stall. Shit! I rushed over to him, felt for a pulse and tried to assess the damage. I'm just a retired Navy medic, not a doctor but when I roused him, he started screaming and pleading with me not to take him to the hospital. Said they'd kill him if they found him and they'd be sure and look there first. So I picked him up, carried him out and brought him home. He's so badly beaten. I think they kicked him half to death. I have to examine him, but he's so scared. I'm not sure if he's been raped or not but how do I get him to trust me enough to even check? Please help me put this beautiful, battered boy back together again.Photo Description: A bleached-blond young man with a sculpted body is sitting half-naked and curled over his own knees. His eyes are closed, and his head is down. He looks tired and scared.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love is Always Write" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.Download the story, read it online or find it in Love Is Always Write: Volume 11 - Bonus Volume.__________Genre: contemporary, thriller. Tags: medical personnel; military men; first time; hurt/comfort; slow burn; unresolved sexual tensionWarnings: descriptions of post-violent-attack first aid and medical care; non-graphic discussions of off-screen sexual assault; gun violence (non-sexual). Word count: 70,085

    Robert Lansing is at the top of his game in the competitive arena of mixed martial arts. He has a loving and supportive family, but no one to call his own. Justin Floyd has no family and a number of 'friends'. When they cross paths their engines rev and sparks fly. Love and lust unite these two men searching for that which completes them. Has the search ended or will it all backfire?

    But Sonny is desperate, and although Ace isn't going to take him up on his offer of "anything," that doesn't mean he isn't tempted. Instead, Ace takes Sonny under his wing, protecting him when they're in the service and making plans with him when they get out. Together, they're going to own a garage and build race cars and make their fortune hurtling faster than light across the desert. Together, they're going to rewrite the past, make Sonny Daye a whole and happy person, and put the ghosts in Ace's heart to rest. But not even Sonny can build a car fast enough to escape the ghosts of the past. When Sonny's ghosts drive them down and run their plans off the road, Ace finds out exactly what he's made of. Maybe Sonny was the one to promise Ace anything, but there is nothing under the sun Ace won't do to keep Sonny safe from harm.