He’s in love with Justin, a mortician who is very much alive and very much in love with someone else, his best friend Darren. Torn between desiring Justin for himself or wanting Justin’s happiness, Eric never expected his death to be harder than his life. When darkness threatens Justin’s soul, is Eric strong enough to enlist Darren’s help, or will Justin be lost to both of them forever?

    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.

    When he awakes, his scrambled synapses have given him a talent; he can tell truth from lies simply by their flavour. This, plus the new client who is far too attractive for Perry’s peace of mind, the client’s contentious family and the dilapidated old mansion Perry has to restore for him – not to mention anonymous threats which escalate to attempted murder – all ensure that Perry’s life will never be the same again!

    His only company, the cold man who promised to keep him safe from harm, Lance. But when Lance dies, Nicky’s assurance of safety disintegrates and his world suddenly becomes a lot more real and a lot more dangerous. Scared to leave the house, Nicky longs for daylight. He employs a gardener to clear the over-grown bushes and vines that have nearly swallowed Thorn Hall whole.The last thing Nicky expects a little light to do is show him something to fight for.Eighteen months in a young offenders’ institute has taught Cai two things: he occupies the playful puppy end of the How Dangerous Are You? spectrum, and he has an unfortunate knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.Desperate for a job, he takes the first offer he gets. Even though Thorn Hall creeps the hell out of him and he barely knows one end of a pair of garden shears from the other.Things start to fall apart when Cai is drawn into Nicky’s strange world of sticky notes and secrets. Cai finds he is now a target, blamed for a crime he didn’t commit. Desperate not to go back to prison, he digs deep and risks all the good things in life to help Nicky run. But now Nicky has someone he wants to protect, he knows he can’t run any more.

    Very sweet.This story also available in print in the anthology Ever After: The Collected Short Works of Marie Sexton.

    Little did they know that sometimes it better to deal with the Devil himself than his Advocate. The World quickly learned that the only currency the Advocate wallowed in was red – the color of vengeance. In the end it was true, the ‘Devil’ was dead. An innocent man wore the face of someone who wandered the darker underbelly of life and made the shadows cringe. Trevor was a good Catholic boy who shared groceries with his elderly neighbors; walked their pets; worked an honest job and tried to write the next great novel as he made his way in the world. The problem now was that dark world found out that Trevor was still alive. Would the Devil’s Advocate be enough to protect the innocent or would Erik use this chance to revive the Devil of his dreams?Pb is 263 pages

    One week. One chance at love. Wealthy businessman Finn Walker is out of his element when his baby nephew is dumped on his doorstep. After single-handedly raising his kid sister, handsome alpha biker Slade knows a thing or two about babies. What he needs is a foot in the door on a big construction deal – one Finn can provide. Finn suggests an exchange: Slade gets a fair shot at a lucrative bid, and Finn takes Slade on as his baby coach. An intense week of baby boot camp begins… but with the two hot men in such close contact, the undeniable chemistry threatens to take over. Will they amend their original week-long exchange to include a very sexy clause? And what happens after their seven days are up? The Biker’s Baby is a fun and sexy new 50,000-word gay mpreg romance tale from Austin Bates that will leave you breathless.

    Dreamspinner will be republishing the story in spring 2017.Jerricho never expected to fall in love with Rex, the sexy, construction foreman, but he did. Too bad tradition forbids Jerry from marrying for love. Prince of the clandestine Anzuni demon clan, a Baelso (bearer of children), and a virgin at twenty-four, tradition dictates that Jerry marry a man chosen for him. Despite his soul-deep love for Rex, Jerry has no choice but to follow through with his obligation as prince and marry someone he doesn’t love.But Jerry isn’t prepared for his dominant, aggressive fiancé who is interested in marrying him only for the future title of king. Facing the reality that he will lose his virginity to the cold man, Jerry flees to Rex for one night of passion. When Jerry finds himself pregnant with Rex’s baby, however, the actions of his enraged fiancé release Jerry from his marriage obligation.But just when Jerry believes he will marry for love, he and Rex are ripped away from life as they know it. Betrayals, kidnappings, cruel experiments, pregnant men, and the reappearance of the Anzuni’s greatest enemy force Jerry and Rex to fight for their lives, their love, and their unborn child...

    Unfortunately, putting the men in the same room could be nearly as dangerous as the reactor: Derek's out and proud, gruff, and occasionally obnoxious; Sambit is closeted, quiet, and reserved. Faced with isolation, ungodly living conditions, and the very real possibility of acute radiation sickness, they race against time to stabilize the reactor. But the attraction growing between them may be beyond their control. On the surface, Derek and Sambit have nothing in common. They live in separate cities, come from disparate cultures, and have trouble just getting along, never mind navigating a relationship. All they have to hold them together is a few isolated weeks of trying to save the world, or at least the environment. Sambit is convinced the end of the assignment will be the end for them as well-and despite their many differences, he's beginning to wonder how he'll survive the fallout once Derek leaves him behind.

    After losing love and fighting addiction, he becomes a successful substance abuse counselor and helps people regardless of their insurance or ability to pay. It isn't the dream life he had in San Francisco, but at least he has something to be proud of. Everything seems to be getting back on the right track until Angel, a heroin-addicted male prostitute, crosses his path. Erik not only sees a lot of himself in Angel, but a lot of potential as well. He quickly realizes he's willing to sacrifice a lot to get him on the right path--but is he willing to jeopardize his career?

    He’s watched over the last few months as his partner’s health got worse and worse. Logan doesn’t eat. He doesn’t sleep. And Baxter can’t begin to figure out what to do with the terror he sees in Logan’s eyes.Finally convincing Logan to go on vacation, Baxter is committed to using the time wisely. He knows Logan loves him; he’s not worried about anything like that. But something is going on and he’s determined to get to the bottom of whatever it is. He’s got to find out what secrets Logan is harboring before it does irreparable damage and Baxter loses the most important thing in his life. But when Logan begs Baxter to go to a hotel without him and Baxter refuses, he gets his wish. It isn’t anything Baxter is prepared to face, though, and when he finds his own life hanging in the balance, love is put to the ultimate test.Dear Author,I love him so much and I hate to watch as he slowly drives himself to the point of exhaustion. Being a lawyer is a stressful job, I get that, but in most cases he just forgets to eat. My cooking can easy fix the problem; after all, he is not dating a chief of 2 star restaurant for nothing. This time is different. He barely eats or sleeps, and if he manages to fall under he wakes up screaming. When asked about it, he constantly says “I’m fine, sweetheart”. But I can’t help but worry. He was always loving and supportive. When I hit a rock bottom, he helped me get through it. So now is my turn. The last straw was when he got into a full bloody panic attack right in front of me. Now every time I close my eyes, I still see his face so frightened and vulnerable. After insisting and pleading, he finally agreed to go on long overdue vacation. Maybe a change of scenery will help calm his mind and, if I am very optimistic, finally trust me enough to tell me what caused all of it.Photo Description: Two men are on a beach, one carrying the other. Both are barefoot, in shorts and T-shirts, the one face we can see is happy and smiling.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.

    Barnabi is an alpha deer shifter who loves his best friend Fowler more than anything else in this world. Fowler is an omega skunk shifter who just wants to spend the rest of his life with his best friend Barnabi, and he'll take it any way he can get it. Every year they spend the week around Christmas bundled up at home, eating soup, drinking hot cocoa and watching Christmas movies, not leaving for anything and just living the Christmas dream. Getting snowed in shouldn't make much of a difference, right? That won't change anything... Will it? This story was originally part of a charity anthology Love in Springtime released in 2020. It has since been revised to add 6K words, plenty of Christmas goodness, slick, knots and Mpreg!

    One is a lawyer with his own firm and dreams of money and power; the other is a criminal with a lengthy record and a quest for vengeance. When they meet, sparks fly. But was their meeting an accident? Or, was it planned by the billionaires who want to control their destiny? The Love of Wicked Men is an erotic journey into the underbelly of the legal profession, the corporate culture of profit-at-any-cost, and the secret world of industrial espionage. IN THIS EPISODE: Sid Rivers has been very successful at helping his smaller corporate clients silence their critics and retain their profits. His success has caught the attention of a trillion dollar industry, and now Sid thinks he is about to realize a dream he’s held since childhood –unlimited wealth and unlimited power. Jack Brown stops in and robs the local Shop-n-Go and nicks Sid with his knife. He sets into motion a plan of revenge that has been smoldering within him for years. But his plan requires he get close to the same man who has become the representative of his enemies.

    Jimmy gets in touch with a Stevie Nicks loving gypsy named Sonia, and together they summon up a demon from the pits of Hell to put Jimmy's love life in order. What could possibly go wrong?

    Get the composition right, you have the latest mind-control drug on the market. It’s the sex-traders’ dream, or worst nightmare, depending on the concentrated dose of the ink—and just who’s wearing it.For Kiyen, the ink means he’s able to strip raw the minds of the best and worst of society. He’s one of MI7’s top killers and never more driven to select and take down a target. For Falen, the ink has ensured he’s spent his early years as a willing sex slave and low-grade empath. Hiding out in a small town and trying to bury the needs running through his body, Fal’s hoping to stay under the radar of MI7 and their specialist killers. But the ink itself has a mind of its own, wanting to ignite the natural dynamics driving a Dom and sub, so when Kiyen is forced into Fal’s small world, prejudice battles a pure need to touch. Only problem is: Kiyen’s on the run, and in a world where thought can be the worst crime of all, Fal’s in for a fight for his sanity to find out just what it is that’s making a young killer run for his life.