Pip Valentine craves excitement, drama, anything that'll get him away from his family, especially because the ransom is going to hit them where it hurts - right in the bank account. The gang leader who grabs him round the waist as a human shield between himself and the police, holding a gun to his head and hissing threats and promises in his ear and telling him to hold still and behave, is all part of the crazy new Hollywood gangster-film thrill.Lindsay Brown's secret life as a criminal is worlds away from his sensible day job and quiet seaside home. Things never usually go wrong, he's too careful about his plans. This kid wasn't part of any plan, but now he's here making things difficult and Lindsay can't make himself get rid of him - especially not when he realises what kind of reaction the kid has to his gun, his temper, and his issues with control. When love starts to creep up on him, it's unexpected and unwelcome and he fights it as much as he can stand, but it doesn't work. He's hooked. The alternative is domesticity, then - sharing his house with a kid fifteen years his junior who thinks it's okay to leave nailpaint bottles scattered around the bedroom and eat Haribo for a main meal. This is a thousand times harder than robbing banks.Stockholm Syndrome is an unconventional love story where opposites attract like bullets, Russian Roulette is foreplay, and a hand closed tight round your wrist is as good as an "I love you". Sometimes you find your missing jigsaw piece in the weirdest circumstances. And sometimes you've got to really force it into place through sheer stubborn will...

    One of those promises was to stay in touch and keep seeing each other. But Chad never called, and Jeff remained behind to finish high school. Chad broke Jeff’s heart, but both men suffered. Chad couldn’t forgive himself for being a coward and not standing up to his parents, and Jeff wouldn’t let anyone into his heart again to hurt him. A year after Katrina and ten years after that fateful summer, Chad and Jeff meet again, only this time it’s in the ER of a local hospital. Chad is the attending doctor and Jeff is an assault victim, on the brink of death. Chad is once again swept into the past by the only man he’s ever loved, and like before, Chad makes promises to Jeff—promises he will keep, or else. When Jeff awakes from a coma, he finds the man who broke his heart sitting in his hospital room. Angry, confused and scared, Jeff has no defense against this man. And he also has no one else to care for him, only Chad. After all these years, Jeff’s dream has finally come true, Chad is back in his life. But for how long? And is Jeff willing to open his heart to the man who broke it?

    In a sea of nameless bodies, Henry Prince is sold to Pierce to settle a score and turns out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to him. Pierce’s empire is crumbling around him and before Henry, he hadn’t cared to salvage it. Henry is full of secrets, and Pierce is desperate to learn them all, even if it means risking both their lives to protect him from the enemies closing in around them. Together, Henry and Pierce are unstoppable. Their devotion is immeasurable until two men from Pierce’s past threaten their trust in each other when it’s needed most. Drew and Griffin are a painful reminder of how much Pierce will risk protecting the man he loves. Henry's attraction to Griffin might be the key to uniting his past and his future, but Pierce’s animosity and desire for Drew threaten the delicate balance the men have forged. Good men can be bad and bad men can do good, but life isn't always black and white. Sometimes all you can do is fight to save yourself and those you love. Is there strength in numbers or will Pierce fail when it counts the most? Please visit the author's website for a list of content warnings

    He's got more money than he knows what to do with, a partnership in the hottest security software company on the planet, and a townhouse overlooking the bay. What more could a single billionaire Dominant want? Obviously someone who knows when to get down on their knees and beg. But Nate needs more than an obedient submissive, demurely bending to his every whim. He needs someone with teeth. When trouble-making (and brilliant) programmer Ewan McKinney walks into Nate's office and recognizes him from the Club, he seems like the worst possible candidate for the role. He's stubborn, unpredictable, and fiercely independent. Nate knows he should keep his distance, but he can't stand back and watch Ewan tear his own life apart. Not when it's becoming painfully clear how Nate wants to take care of him. Ewan has nothing in his life under control. If he had, he wouldn't have ended up the pet project of his new boss, who just happens to know Ewan's kinky little secret. But instead of blackmailing him, Nathaniel Scott seems determined to fix him somehow. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic Ewan is determined to prove he doesn't need Nate's pity, but the closer they get the more obvious it becomes that Ewan needs someone in his life to tell him 'no'. But does it have to be Nate? And why does this feel so much like falling in love?

    A few hours after I took this photo Danilo got the phone call that his wife had gone into labor, we had agreed that when the baby was born we would finally go our own way. A week later I left for my Peace Corps mission in Africa.That was two and a half years ago, now I’m back in the neighborhood and it’s like it’s always been. I’m still the gringo, the only white kid on the block.Everything is the same… But it isn’t. Danilo is raising his son alone, and I am not the boy I was, I am not settling for being his little secret anymore. Ten years of hiding were enough for me. I still love him though… He called me last night and asked if I wanted to meet his son, Lucas. His son who he named after me… I wanted to be strong and say no, but I said yes anyway.I never could stand to disappoint Danilo.Photo Description: Close-up photo of two men’s heads, and part of a muscled arm in front of them. One man is facing forward with only half his face showing, and the other is turned to the side. The man on the left is darkly-stubbled, and ethnic in appearance. The man on the right has one eye staring into the camera.This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "Love Has No Boundaries" 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.