Laurinda Brown's characters explore every aspect of black lesbian life - whether it's first times, illicit trysts, cheating hearts or longtime love.

    City of Love, my ass. Now I’m sitting here in this café near the Eiffel Tower, sipping the cheapest coffee they had on the menu, heartbroken and unsure of my next steps.Without a place to live, no job, not much money left in the bank, and speaking only a little French, I guess it’s time to put my tail between my legs and head back home to Bumfuck, Idaho.Unless…Photo Description: The Eiffel Tower looms in the background as two men kiss in the foreground of the black and white image.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.

    A garden with an air of the supernatural. Jerry's there for love, Doug's there for sex, and Tony? Well, Tony is practically dragged along against his will. A comedy of errors ensues as the three men cling stubbornly to their self-destructive ways; can a cook named Anna Magnani, a roller-skating drag queen, and the magic of the garden tame the tempest and prevent love's labors from being lost?

    Both of them would rather be anywhere else. Gabe needs a sober ride home without his douchey ex bringing him down. Lincoln needs to put the mistakes that brought him to Hollow Forge behind him for good. A simple lift back to campus turns into one night together that leaves them both wanting more. One night becomes two, but soon their pasts are knocking at the door and the clock is running out on their weekend. 15,000 word gay romance novella

    So it’s probably only fitting that Emmitt’s small Vermont town seems desperate to make him the next LeClair. After all, Emmitt is about to lead his high school hockey team to the state championship, he has a near-perfect GPA, and he’s liked by almost everyone.But even golden boys have problems, and Emmitt has more than his share. His father’s back in town to breathe down his neck. He’s happily dating his coach’s nephew, Dusty, but almost nobody knows he’s gay—and that secret is getting harder and harder to keep.When Emmitt discovers Dusty is keeping secrets of his own, he’s forced to decide exactly what kind of golden boy he wants to be.

    They satisfied those annoying primal urges which left the rest of their free time to be used as they saw fit. More than happy with such a solution they never even thought a bit of rough and spice could change everything - until it did.Original Prompt:Dear brave author and concomitant Muse,Because I think some Love can get extreme and there are all kinds of closets... :) I'd like you to consider this odd moment from a sweet, raunchy story, a wacky meet-cute between two fellas who have known each other for years yet not known each other at all...Yowza. :) My sense is that this is a random hookup that sparks an unexpected connection between casual fuckbuddies as they discover that they are both much less vanilla than they've pretended to be in the past and more connected than they'd ever realized. Could be coworkers or neighbors or simply acquaintances with benefits.Either or both of these guys may start out closeted about being gay, but this story is really about coming out of the extreme buttsex/fetish?/BDSM? closet and ultimately the ready for real commitment closet.Here's the twist: this should be ultimately a sweet story, not just raunchy porno hookup with numbers exchanged for subsequent boning. Expectations should be reversed on both sides over the course of time (a night?) together as these guys get past bland hokey-pokey, past spit-on-me and stuff-furniture-into-that-ass, to something tender and hopeful and fragile that stuns them into happily ever after closure. Raunch is great, but it's the meaningful connection that they're after. Surprise them and us! :)Can you dig it?Photo Description: A husky red-headed man in work boots, a shoulder harness and not much else, contorts himself against his partner, face straining between tension and pleasure. He hauls one leg up to jam fingers in his own ass. His darker-skinned partner in latex gloves stares down intently as he squeezes a cock ring over the redhead's rampant erection.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Hot Summer Days" 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.Read the story here or find it in Don't Read in the Closet, Volume 3.__________Genre: contemporaryTags: gay m/m, friends to lovers, bdsm, dirty talk, bondage, sex games, blue collarWarnings: sex with furniture is possibleWord Count: 9,419

    He approaches Edward Marsden, Viscount Routhsley, a known playboy and philanthropist, about sponsorship for his charity. To his surprise, Edward isn’t the shallow pleasure-seeker everyone assumes, and he and Edward share many interests. Little by little, they are drawn together in spite of the different worlds they come from.But for two men in the public eye, happiness won’t be so easily achieved. Edward fears coming out as gay will shift attention from his charity work, and Jack worries his relationship with the aristocrat will undermine the integrity of his foundation. They come under intense scrutiny, leading to an inevitable clash between Jack and the press who won’t stop harassing them. As what they’ve built comes crashing down, Jack and Edward must make a choice: continue presenting the facade the public expects, or expose the private truths in their hearts so they can be together.

    But Jack is wracked with guilt when his rookie partner Kevin is shot during an undercover assignment and dies in his arms. Why didn’t he take the time to get to know the rookie a little?At the funeral, Jack takes a liking to Kevin’s brother, Devin. But Jack knows making a connection can cause more hurt, and living on opposite coasts is an added obstacle.With his brother dead, Devin feels a responsibility to Kevin's pregnant widow, Marie. He packs up and moves east, only to have Marie, outraged that he’s put his life on hold, slam the door in his face. Devin turns to the only other person he knows in town. As much as it goes against his philosophies on life, Jack takes him in without hesitation.Their tentative exploration into romance is interrupted when Devin is mistaken for his dead brother and taken captive. Just as Jack opens his heart, reality slams into him. But he can’t lose anyone else. More than the need to simply save a captive drives Jack to find Devin and bring him home.

    But thirty-five years after he said "I do," Cam finds himself nursing a beer in a gay bar, thinking about what might have been.Dave Montoya is confident, self-assured, and cautiously single. But when he meets shy, uncertain, and clearly-still-not-out Cam in a coffee shop in Austin, his reservations about getting seriously involved again disappear. Cam is everything he’s looking for in a partner . . . almost, anyway.No matter how much Dave wants him, and how good they are together, Cam can't bring himself to fully embrace the life he was meant to live. After all, when his secret finally gets out, he faces the very real possibility of losing everything that kept him going for the first fifty years of his life, just like he’s feared for so long. But with a little faith—and a lot of love—his dream of living fully, truly, as himself might finally be within reach.

    Everyone in Bingwell, Brock, and Bacon says so, and after Ethan’s first encounter with the man, he agrees. Ethan resolves to avoid James but ends up working closely with him and discovers the lawyer's hiding a secret from the world. Ethan also realizes he's falling too hard too fast. Ethan has to decide if he should help James and risk getting entangled in the mess James has gotten himself into, or move on. But walking away from love is never a simple decision to make.

    Then one day, when they were twenty-five, Adam disappeared without a word, devastating his friends-none more so than Jake, who had secretly loved Adam since they were teenagers.Now, five years later, Adam is back, and he has his mind set on Jake. But those years of anger, hurt, and confusion are a lot to overcome, and Jake doesn't find it easy to forgive. He isn't sure they'll ever fit together the way they did. Jake, Kyle, and Brendan have moved on with their lives, but Adam's high-profile career keeps him in the closet-the same place he's been for years. Still, his apologies seem sincere, and the attraction is still there. Jake desperately wants to give him a chance. But first he has to find out why Adam left and if he's really back for good.

    Touched by Caleb's story, Charlie agrees to help. When Charlie manages to track down Junior, he discovers the man has long since changed his name to James Marshall and wants absolutely nothing to do with his father. Charlie understands James's anger; Charlie spent most of his adolescence trying to convince his own incarcerated father to see him, but his father always pushed him away. Now, Charlie has nothing but regret for the past and the lost opportunities, and he wants to spare James the same fate. But Charlie's attempts to help James forgive and forget become complicated by feelings he hasn't experienced since the death of his husband. For them to have any chance at finding happiness, James will have to end his self-imposed emotional isolation, but will Charlie's efforts bring James closer or push him further away?

    Martin's first impulse is to send him back to his parents. But when he discovers that Carter has been in a mental hospital to cure his gay-ness he realizes he's stuck with the boy. Unfortunately, the two get on each other's nerves, each driving the other to distraction. Independently, however, they each arrive at the same conclusion. The other would be much less annoying if he only had... a boyfriend.

     It had been Rhett Beaumont’s life-long dream to visit Paris, the city of love. He had a strong connection with the city through his parents, who amazingly enough, conceived him there. Sadly, he was seeing the city alone, his heart still not healed from being broken. When his predilection for French pastries yielded a hot chef, passions of a different sort started to heat up. Would Luc le Monnier, the French Pastry Chef, be enough to mend Rhett’s heart? What would happen when Rhett needed to return home, to Charleston? Will it only be a summer love…or more?

    Micah wants answers. Able has his own letter to show Micah. Together they set out to find who killed Micah's mother and why. Their first clue leads them to an attorney and the police. Micah and Able fall in love while going back and forth from the ranch to the city, from one crisis to another. The characters at the ranch keep things hopping with their own lives filled with comedy, tragedy, and love. They get their answer, but it comes hard.