But what he also wants is a partner. The problem is, loving other men in 1881 means a lonely life for a man like Luke. As the son of a butcher from Boston, his desire for a loving domestic relationship seems nothing more than a dream, until one winter night, a snow storm blows a young man to his door in need of shelter. As the winter drags on, bringing with it a slow-burning love, his hopes begin to soar. Along with those hopes, his fears of the reactions of the people in the small town of De Smet grow.Sam Smith is a romantic, but he also holds a strong family loyalty. He leaves Boston to get away from his parents’ expectations for a while, always knowing he must return at some point. The sweet young man does not anticipate meeting a rugged, honest man like Luke, who is desperate for love while at the same time afraid of the repercussions. The first time Luke holds him in his arms, Sam plans on making Luke his darling man.

    At first he thinks it's all a film set, and is sure that the strikingly handsome young man leaning against a lamppost must be the leading man…What starts as a sordid transaction with a beautiful rent boy quickly turns into something much deeper, drawing him back again and again as he gets to know Jem and craves meaningful encounters with him.But Ted doesn't understand the exact conditions necessary for his trips through time—and for Jem, time may actually be running out. Now Ted has one last shot to get back to Jem and save their relationship, before it's too late…27,000 words

    Classic in style, Vincent Virga creates a world as authentic as anything penned by DuMaurier, retaining the creaking ancestral mansion and mysterious and brooding master of the manor, while replacing the traditional damsel in distress with the young and handsome Robert Whyte. Vincent Virga has been called "America's foremost picture editor." He has researched, edited, and designed picture sections for more than 150 books, including "Eyes of the Nation: A Visual History of the United States" and the full-length photo essay "The Eighties: Images of America." He is also the author of "A Comfortable Corner." He is working on a third novel, "Theatricals.

    The story Deceived has a new, longer ending. The story The Highwayman is now it's own book, and the following stories have been added to this volume: The Wager, Seconds, Runaways. This book also contains all the free ficbits posted to my website.AS ALWAYS if you bought this book previously, you need only contact me and I'll give you the new version (ebook only).*****Deceived—Rae cannot stand his job as secretary to Prince Benedict, and the feeling is entirely mutual. In the aftermath of yet another fight, Rae lights upon the idea of giving Benedict a taste of his own seduction throughout the three day masque about to take place. But a deception meant to put a rakish prince in his place reveals a man Rae never expected, and a secret he never anticipated…Scandalous—Since the death of his parents, who lived and died scandalously, Gideon has tried to make up for their mistakes by leading a strict, quiet life, and giving his little brother the stability he never had. On a journey home, he is waylaid by a storm—and distracted by a handsome man who proves to be more temptation than he can resist…From Afar—Pierce has all that anyone could want in life: a doting brother, the fame and adoration from being an accomplished fencer, and his best friend. What he wants most, however, is to know the identity of the person who leaves him ardent love letters and why his admirer will not step forward…Lessons—Bored and alone one night, Jude chances upon Crispin, who despairs of ever catching the eye of the man he loves because he's too innocent to be appealing. Jude, a notorious rake, impulsively offers to teach him all he needs to know…Seconds—Called to the be the second to a brash yong man, Alexis seeks out the appointed second of the challenger. But the man he encounters has Alexis considering things he swore off long ago, when he decided one broken heart was more than enough.The Wager—While serving as ambassador on his mother's orders, Prince Lazare spends most of his time either confused and frustrated by his peers, or struggling uselessly against his growing feelings for Maitland, appointed to be his guide and assistant throughout his stay. Neither situation is improved when he learns of a mysterious wager concerning Maitland and a dead man…Runaways—Addison hates the city, and he really hates spending all his time dancing attendance upon his brat cousin. When his cousin falls sick, Addison seizes the rare chance for solitude and flees to the park. But he is not there long before he is accosted by a stranger, who is like no one Addison has ever met, and who shows him a world he actually enjoys—a world to which he will never truly belong.

    Staying to look into the situation adds more to his life than he ever dreamed possible, leaving him championing seven boys whose lives had been as ravaged as his. Suddenly his life has purpose, meaning.The other unexpected development is Dillon. Resigned to a life spent alone, it's hard for him to wrap his mind around the fact that Dillon returns his feelings. Every minute spent counseling and protecting the boys makes Soldier’s life richer, but it makes it hard to spend time with Dillon. Can he find a way to take his new life and make it everything he wants it to be?

    Facing a harrowing winter campaign, Elliott must rally disheartened men through sickness, battle and starvation.But when he is assigned the additional task of spying on a fellow officer, the inscrutable Cornet Ilyas Kovakin, he finds himself disconcerted and fascinated by both the work and the man.The half-Russian officer reports to none in his division. Rumors of demonic power and black magic surround him, but the truth turns out to be worse than the suspicions.For Ilyas, his return to the Crimea is marred by the terrible mistake that cursed him with a horrifying power nearly beyond his control. His grip on his humanity is slipping away daily. Torn between a master he cannot trust and the family he must not return to, his only hope for salvation lies hidden in the long-forgotten symbols of centuries-old relics. But their meanings remain a mystery until the cheerful Captain Parrish offers assistance.Although Ilyas fears trusting the young captain, Elliott’s company is almost irresistible.Surrounded by deprivation, cruelty and war, both men know the closer they are drawn together, the greater the stakes. But with the balance of European power on the line, retreat is not an option.

    There wasn't even a reason for it: sometimes love just fades, as quickly and mysteriously as it appears in the first place. Enter Damien. Damien's the guy with a different man on his arm for every event, he's smooth and arrogant and always impeccably turned out. Christo hates him. But God, he's gorgeous. Damien could be exactly what Christo needs to get him over John.It's only going to be a fling. Nothing serious, nothing that will affect their working relationship or the rest of their lives. So why are they fighting through the night rather than letting go and walking away? Why does Damien's secretive nature bug Christo so much? And why does he even care that the other man might not be as tough as he pretends to be?

    As a historian, it’s a dream come true, offering the chance to find answers to all the great mysteries of the past. But it’s not without risks, to himself and to the world as he knows it.After a few short, supervised visits into the past, Russ still hasn’t made up his mind about his newfound abilities. Then, on his first extended trip, he meets Quentus Maximus, second in command to the Legate of Nemausus. While learning more than he’d dreamed about the realities of life in Roman Gaul, Russ is shocked by his reaction to Quentus’s dominant nature. He has only a week to spend with Quentus before his vacation is up, and he’s faced with a decision he never expected to make: stay in the past with a man he’s only known for eight days or return home to the only life he’s ever known.

    But Tommy's dreams, and talent, fly higher, up in the rigging with the trapeze. When rising star Mario Santelli offers him flying lessons, it looks like the start of wonderful new life, and to Tommy's surprise, his relationship with Mario deepens even as his skill soars in the rigging. But life in the 1940s forces them to keep their love a secret, and the stress pushes both Tommy and Mario to a precipice. And as Mario flies higher and higher, Tommy begins to wonder if it will always be his role to catch Mario as he falls.A tremendously moving tale, a rich family saga, a wise and compassionate portrait of a special love in a cruel world.

    In this coming-of-age novel set in the second century AD, Antinous of Bithynia, a Greek youth from Asia Minor, recounts his seven-year affair with Hadrian, fourteenth emperor of Rome. In a partnership more intimate than Hadrian's sanctioned political marriage to Sabina, Antinous captivates the most powerful ruler on earth both in life and after death. This version of the affair between the emperor and his beloved ephebe vindicates the youth scorned by early Christian church fathers as a "shameless and scandalous boy" and "sordid and loathsome instrument of his master's lust." EROMENOS envisions the personal history of the young man who achieved apotheosis as a pagan god of antiquity, whose cult of worship lasted for hundreds of years far longer than the cult of the emperor Hadrian.In EROMENOS, the young man Antinous, whose beautiful image still may be found in works of art in museums around the world, finds a voice of his own at last.

    Technically he's a lawyer, but really he's a problemsolver. He just never expected the problem to be Caleb Sinclair, the passionate but introverted artisan carpenter who lives next to the proposed quarry site."Know your enemy." That's Caleb's philosophy. And trying to turn fertile farmland into a gravel pit earns Peter the title of "enemy." Caleb loves that land, and if he has to make peace with his homophobic neighbors to make war on Peter, so be it. Except knowing his enemy doesn't turn out anything like he expected. Peter's not the fairy-tale monster-he just might be the first step to happy ever after.

    After losing everything he held dear one fateful night, he decides to leave New York and his past behind, and joins the French Foreign Legion. But even in Algiers, Chance can't seem to shake his old ways, and he ends up being transferred to a unit made up of misfits and rabble-rousers like him-a unit he finds just in time to be captured and thrown into a cell with his new commandant, Jacky Valentine. A highly respected commandant with a soft spot for hard luck cases, Jacky is the kind of guy who would go to war for you, and the three equally troubled youths from his unit he's more or less adopted feel the same way about him. Suddenly Chance starts to think that his life doesn't have to be as desolate and barren as the wastelands around him.But even after their escape, with the promise of a future with Jacky to buoy his spirits, or maybe because of it, Chance can't stop making mistakes. He disobeys orders, lashes out at the boys in Jacky's care, and blazes a trail of self-destruction across the desert-until someone makes him realize he's hurting more than just himself.A Timeless Dreams title: While reaction to same-sex relationships throughout time and across cultures has not always been positive, these stories celebrate M/M love in a manner that may address, minimize, or ignore historical stigma.

    After the tragic death of the friend he secretly loved, he’s ruthlessly suppressed any desire for another man.So when handsome ex-Pinkerton Griffin Flaherty approaches him to translate a mysterious book, Whyborne wants to finish the job and get rid of the detective as quickly as possible. Griffin left the Pinkertons following the death of his partner, hoping to start a new life. But the powerful cult which murdered Glenn has taken root in Widdershins, and only the spells in the book can stop them. Spells the intellectual Whyborne doesn’t believe are real.As the investigation draws the two men closer, Griffin’s rakish charm threatens to shatter Whyborne’s iron control. When the cult resurrects an evil sorcerer who commands terrifying monsters, can Whyborne overcome his fear and learn to trust? Will Griffin let go of his past and risk falling in love? Or will Griffin’s secrets cost Whyborne both his heart and his life?

    There he befriends the young, bright Andrew, a conscientious objector serving as an orderly. As they find solace and companionship together in the idyllic surroundings of the hospital, their friendship blooms into a discreet, chaste romance. Then one day, Ralph Lanyon, a mentor from Laurie’s schoolboy days, suddenly reappears in Laurie’s life, and draws him into a tight-knit social circle of world-weary gay men. Laurie is forced to choose between the sweet ideals of innocence and the distinct pleasures of experience. Originally published in the United States in 1959, The Charioteer is a bold, unapologetic portrayal of male homosexuality during World War II that stands with Gore Vidal’s The City and the Pillar and Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories as a monumental work in gay literature.

    Roosevelt said, “No man and no force can abolish memory.” John Oakes and Kurt Fournier are living proof of the truth behind those words. Since the horrors of the Second World War, John and Kurt have been trudging through existence, bleeding from wounds that have never healed. Now they’re at the crossroads of the 1950s: the war may be over, but the battle to find lasting peace has just begun.John, a PhD student at UC Berkeley and a battle-hardened veteran, floats through his postwar life until he catches the mysterious Kurt secretly playing a university piano. John thinks he may find comfort in Kurt’s company but doesn’t know how to connect with a man who lives a life of such careful solitude. Guilt and regret threaten to cripple their hopes for a normal life. No man is an island, so John and Kurt must risk their hearts to find happiness. Unfortunately, memories and enduring fears can paralyze even the strongest man.