Monday, April 26, 2021

Monday's Montage Mantelpiece: Taking A Chance: Charity Anthology

Title: Taking A Chance: Charity Anthology
Authors: D.G. Carothers, Toshi Drake, C.W. Gray
K.L. Hiers, Gianni Holmes, G.R. Lyons, KC Luck
Claire Marta & Abrianna Denae, Amanda Meuwissen
Shane K. Morton, Faith Ryan, Bretton Sans, JP Sayle
Lynn Van Dorn, Shannon West, Toby Wise
Genre: LGBT, Contemporary, Sci-Fi, MPreg, Action Adventure, Paranormal
Release Date: April 23, 2021(limited run - comes off sale July 22, 2021)
Cover Design: Samantha Santana, Amai Designs

Summary:

Come take a chance with us and help support the AIDs Healthcare Foundation in the process.

Seventeen authors were challenged to take a chance to write something new and outside their normal box to help celebrate International Take A Chance Day. These authors went above and beyond by writing sixteen stories that span the gender and sexuality spectrum. They’ll make you laugh, cry, shout with joy as they take you on a journey through their contemporary, paranormal, science fiction, and adventurous stories.

Desert Knight by D.G. Carothers
Taking A Leap by Toshi Drake
When Clyde Met Hay by C.W.Gray
Playing for Keeps by K.L. Hiers
Alien Attraction by Gianni Holmes
In the Twilight Hours by KC Luck
Evan’s Awakening by G.R. Lyons
Always and Only You by Claire Marta and Abrianna Denae
Silhouette by Amanda Meuwissen
A Dark Half by Shane K. Morton
Fated by Faith Ryan
The Sweetest Ache by Bretton Sans
Love’s Heart Print by JP Sayle
Catch Me If You Can by Lynn Van Dorn
Take a Chance on Me by Shannon West
Taking the Leap by Toby Wise

All proceeds will be donated to the AIDs Healthcare Foundation. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a global non-profit organization providing cutting-edge medicine and advocacy to over 1,000,000 people in 43 countries. They are currently the largest provider of HIV/AIDS medical care in the U.S.

This anthology will only be available for a limited time.




DG Carothers
D. G. Carothers is actually a dragon very cleverly disguised as a human. They are a non-binary author of LGBTQIA Romance and Urban Fantasy, who enjoys writing original and entertaining stories. They are very excited to share the worlds they've created with you.

D.G. currently lives in Tennessee with their platonic life partner, who is not a dragon. They yearn to live back in Europe and will some day. In their spare time they are addicted to losing themselves in the lovely worlds created by other authors

D.G. is committed to writing the stories they see in their head without restrictions. Love is blind and doesn't see gender, race, or sexuality.


Toshi Drake
Toshi Drake is a Canadian author who doesn't mind snow that much.

Venturing out into the wild world of book land, Toshi plans on exploring everything that grabs their attention.

Slow burns, friends to lovers, sweet heat and fun characters. Expect the unexpected, especially the Spanish Inquisition.

A die-hard geek, there will always be some sort of pop culture moments as quotes and jokes make the world go 'round. Disney, anime, sci-fi, fantasy are all fair game. I dare you to find all the Easter eggs. 


CW Gray
I have been self-publishing since October 2018. My books are extremely light and fluffy m/m romance with mpreg, and while they span a few subgenres of romance, they have similar themes of found family and love at first sight. Besides writing, I enjoy reading everything I can get my hands on, especially m/m romance. My personal favorites are mpreg, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal.


KL Hiers
K.L. “Kat” Hiers is an embalmer, restorative artist, and queer writer. Licensed in both funeral directing and funeral service, she’s been working in the death industry for nearly a decade. Her first love was always telling stories, and she has been writing for over twenty years, penning her very first book at just eight years old. Publishers generally do not accept manuscripts in Hello Kitty notebooks, however, but she never gave up.

Following the success of her first novel, Cold Hard Cash, she now enjoys writing professionally, focusing on spinning tales of sultry passion, exotic worlds, and emotional journeys. She loves attending horror movie conventions and indulging in cosplay of her favorite characters. She lives in Zebulon, NC, with her husband and their six children, three of whom have paws and one who sometimes thinks he does.


Gianni Holmes
Gianni Holmes is a book nerd who pretends her obsession with Thor is completely healthy. She enjoys computer games, word games, and anything that will make her LOL. She loves bingeing on funny 'old but goodie' sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, The Golden Girls, and The Andy Griffith Show. She writes her characters with sass at the bottom, substance in the middle, and snark on top.

Sign up for her newsletter today and get instant access to several freebie short stories.


GR Lyons
G.R. Lyons stumbled into writing as a form of trauma recovery when traditional therapy wasn’t working.

Then the story ideas just kept on coming.

Pulling from a vivid imagination as well as real-life experience as a trans man, a sexual assault survivor, and a person living with mental illness, Lyons has written multiple, interconnected series set within his fictional world of the Shifting Isles.

When not writing, Lyons can be found belly dancing around the house, studying anarcho-capitalist philosophy, buried in his never-ending TBR pile, or working out at the local CrossFit gym.


KC Luck
Bestselling author KC Luck writes women loving women action-adventure, contemporary romance, and fiction. Writing is her passion, and nothing energizes her more than creating new characters facing trials and tribulations in a complex plot. Whether it is apocalypse, contemporary, or a little naughty, with every story, KC tries to add her own unique twist. She has written nine books (which include The Darkness Trilogy and The Lesbian Billionaires Club series) and multiple short stories across many genres. KC is active in the LGBT community and is a member of the GCLS Board of Directors.


Claire Marta
International Bestselling Author Claire Marta. A native Brit, I live in Italy with my husband and daughter. When I am not writing and drinking copious amounts of tea, I enjoys taking photos of my adoptive country, trying to stay fit with running, reading amazing books and being a stay at home mother.


Abrianna Denae
Abrianna Denae is a twenty-three-year-old author living in Northern California. An English major, she has always had a passion for writing.

Deciding to sit down and write one of the many stories that had plagued her mind for years was the easy part—finding the time to do it was a different story.

Caffeine is her best friend, sleep is her worst enemy.

A lover of books that make the reader feel something, she tries to incorporate as much of her real world views and feelings into her stories as she can.


Amanda Meuwissen
Amanda Meuwissen is a bisexual and happily married geek. Primarily an M/M romance author with a focus on urban fantasy, she has a Bachelor of Arts in a personally designed Creative Writing major from St. Olaf College and is an avid consumer of fiction through film, prose, and video games. Amanda lives in Minneapolis, MN, with her husband, John, and their cat, Helga.


Shane K Morton
Shane K Morton lives in Studio City, CA with his husband Jody and their fur baby Slayer. His first novel, The Trouble With Off-Campus Housing was published in 2016. When not writing, Shane can be found at a film festival or performing cabaret somewhere in a dark dive bar in LA.


Faith Ryan
Faith Ryan is a mother to three, yes three, teenagers. She lives in a small town in Ohio and is a weirdo to the max. She is in love with love of all kinds, especially the dark, dirty, and forbidden. She enjoys torturing her characters, sometimes figuratively and other times literally. Faith’s writing leans to the weird, dark, and unconventional. Most of her stories include an element of the LGBT+, typically in the form of MM romance. If you like your stories a bit dark and taboo, you’re looking in the right place. But don’t worry, Faith also has a sweet side she lets out on occasion.


JP Sayle
Where does one start with about what I do? 

I’m a writer, but I’m sure you guessed that by now if you’re reading this, hey? What you might not know is I’m a little quirky, live in my pj’s most of the time and have cake Saturdays with my sisters every week.  I dedicate a little of my time to taking care of my grandbabies and on the dedicated writing days, I like to write an eclectic mix of romance, suspense and paranormal fantasy. In the main, I’ve written gay romance but I’m branching out under another the pen name in the future, so watch this space.

I’ve got a passion for books like you would not believe and it led me down this path and now I’ve over 29 books released and heading towards releasing a whole lot more. The way my head is I never know where I’ll be headed next. I hope you’ll find a little joy in my words and follow me to see where the journey takes me and you.

If you’re interested at some point in 2021 I’ll be writing under the name JP Paton which will be F/M crime and Fantasy two of my favourite things. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled.


Lynn Van Dorn
Lynn Van Dorn was born in Ohio and left it for the wilds of Chicago in her reckless youth. She wanted to become a fairy princess when she grew up, but since there are few openings for that position, she makes do with being a writer.

In her spare time, she drinks entirely too much tea, snugs her cats, loves her husband and son, reads voraciously, and avoids housework. She loves to watch anime, travel, knit, bake cookies, and conjure up happy every afters for handsome men who have trouble getting there on their own.


Shannon West
Shannon makes her home in Georgia and North Carolina with her husband and family. She believes that love is love, no matter the gender. Shannon mostly spends her days at the keyboard trying to elude housework, which stalks her relentlessly.


Toby Wise
Toby Wise is a stay at home parent who hails from a small town in Wisconsin. They grew up loving to write but fell away from their passion once they became an adult. Thankfully, the world of fanfiction drew them back, forcing them to write about a pair of idiots falling in love (and sometimes engaging in acts of debauchery). As they started up their journey of writing once more, they realized there were a plethora of characters in their head that needed their story told, birthing 'A Collection of Strays'.

When Toby isn't writing fanfiction or original books, they're likely chugging coffee and shaking their head at their kiddo.



DG Carothers
EMAIL: Info@DGCarothers.com

Toshi Drake
EMAIL: Toshidrake@gmail.com

CW Gray
EMAIL: cwgrayauthor@gmail.com

KL Hiers
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Gianni Holmes

GR Lyons
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KC Luck
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Claire Marta
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Abrianna Denae
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Amanda Meuwissen
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Shane K Morton
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Faith Ryan
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Bretton Sans

JP Sayle
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Lynn Van Dorn
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Shannon West
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Toby Wise






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Sunday, April 25, 2021

Week at a Glance: 4/19/21 - 4/25/21






















Sunday's Short Stack: A Heart Divided by JM Snyder



Summary:

Confederate Lieutenant Anderson Blanks has grown weary of the War Between the States. He is all too aware of the tenuous thread that ties him to this earth -- as he writes a letter home to his sister, he realizes he may be among the dead by the time she receives the missive. His melancholy mood is shared by other soldiers in the campsite; in the cool Virginia night, the pickets claim to hear ghosts in the woods, and their own talk spooks them.

Andy knows the "ghost" is nothing more than a wounded soldier left on the battlefield, dying in the darkness. With compassion, Andy takes the picket's lantern and canteen in the hopes of easing the soldier's pain. After a tense confrontation with the soldier, Andy is shocked to discover none other than Samuel Talley, a young man Andy's father had chased from their plantation when the romantic relationship between the two boys came to light. The last time the two had seen each other, Sam had been heading west to seek his fortune, and had promised to send for Andy when he could.

Then the war broke out, and Andy had enlisted in the Confederate Army to help ease the financial burden at home. Apparently Sam had similar ideas -- he now wears the blue coat of a Union solider.

Sam is severely wounded and infection has begun to set in. Andy can't sneak him into his own camp for treatment because all Union soldiers are taken prisoner. But Andy's Confederate uniform prevents him from seeking help from the nearby Union camp, as well. It's up to Andy to tend his lover's wound and get Sam the help he needs before it's too late ... and before Andy's compatriots discover Sam's presence.


"I brought you water," Andy offered. Despite the stranger's harsh words, he felt a sudden kinship with this man, unseen beyond the circle of light cast by his lamp. They were just two soldiers, without rank, two souls somehow alive on a battlefield littered with dead.

"Water?" the soldier asked, as if he had never heard the word before. The surprise turned to suspicion. "Why?"

"I thought you were dying." Even though the stranger couldn't see him, Andy shrugged. "I don't know. My men heard you singing and thought you were a ghost out here, come to steal their souls for the devil." The stranger laughed again, and Andy smiled at the sound. "I came because if it were me, I'd want you to come. I'd want someone to find me and sit with me a bit, 'til I go."

"I ain't going nowhere," the soldier said softly, and Andy heard the faint clatter of metal as the rifle was set aside. "Water?"

Andy unshouldered his own rifle and set it down on the ground beside the lamp to show the soldier he was unarmed, as well. Then he shook the canteen, more than half full, and the water sounded like a promise as it sloshed around inside the container. "Water," he affirmed. "I can toss it to you --"

"You can bring it," the soldier replied. "I'm ... there's a bullet in my thigh. I don't cotton the thought of dragging through the dead to find the canteen if you miss."

With slow, deliberate movements, Andy picked up the lamp again and stepped closer. In the flickering glow he saw the soldier appear like a ghost, a faint outline propped against a fallen log, taking shape and definition as he approached. He saw pants dark with blood from a ragged hole high on one leg, and he held the canteen out as an offering of peace.

When he wasn't shot as he approached, he came closer, and knelt by the man's side.

The soldier took the offered canteen with a sigh. "I'm so damn thirsty," he whispered, uncorking the container.

Andy frowned as the stranger gulped down the water. The lamplight fell short of the man's face, but Andy could see the dark coat he wore, marking him as a Union soldier. Hardly more than a boy, he corrected, taking in the smooth hands and thin wrists that held the canteen tight. "I thought you a rebel," he said as the soldier drank. "You sound Southern."

The soldier laughed. "Most men I know would kill you for that comment alone, water or not."

"Then I'm glad you're not most men." Andy sank to his knees beside the soldier, the damp ground seeping through his weathered breeches. "You say you aren't dying?"

"Who are you?" the soldier asked abruptly, ignoring his question. "I can't see your face."

"Lieutenant Anderson Blanks, of the Fifth Regiment out of Biloxi." He felt a cold hand grip his as the soldier caught his breath. "What is it? What --"

"Andy."

The word was nothing more than a sigh, barely heard over the breeze, but it rang through Andy like the peal of a church bell, echoing through his heart and his blood. My God, it can't be. It's the night and the weariness and the memories haunting me, nothing more. Sweet Lord Jesus above, don't do this to me, don't You dare ...

But his name in that voice, one he'd heard in dreams every night for the past three years, since the day he had watched the train carrying his lover disappear into the west. "Sam?" he breathed. "Sam Talley? Christ above, is it really you?"


Author Bio:
J.M. Snyder is a multi-published author of gay erotic romance who started writing fanfic (specifically, boyband slash). She has worked with several different e-publishers, including Amber Allure Press and Torquere Press, and has short stories published in anthologies by Alyson Books, Cleis Press, eXcessica, and Lethe Press. In 2010, she started JMS Books LLC to promote and publish her own work as well as that of other authors she enjoys.

For more information, please visit website.


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Saturday, April 24, 2021

Saturday's Series Spotlight: Outlawed by Sally Malcolm



Rebel #.5
Summary:
Falling in love is just the beginning...

Samuel Hutchinson has lived his whole life in Rosemont, Rhode Island. And as far as he’s concerned, his future is fixed: complete his legal training, marry a respectable woman, and settle down to raise a family.

But Sam never counted on meeting Nathaniel Tanner.

Clever, urbane, and dazzling, Nate has been banished to Rosemont by a father determined to remove him from the rising political tension in Boston. The last thing Nate expects to find in the sleepy Rhode Island town is a man who’s not only interested in Nate’s radical ideas, but who interests Nate in return.

In every conceivable way.

Over books and conversation, their friendship deepens. But when Nate dares to confess his true feelings, Sam faces a stark choice—reject his friend and continue to live a lie, or rebel against everything he’s been taught and embrace his heart’s desire…

This short story is approximately 12,000 words and comes with a HFN guaranteed. 


King's Man #1
Summary:
Two weeks on the road together. Two weeks trapped in a carriage. Two weeks to win him back, or part with him forever…

Had there been no war, Sam Hutchinson and Nate Tanner would have lived their lives together, as friends and secret lovers. But when the revolution convulsed America, it threw them down on opposite sides of history…

Five years later, Sam is a Loyalist refugee in London, penniless, bitter, and scrambling to survive amid the city’s shadowy underworld. It’s a far cry from his respectable life as a Rhode Island lawyer, and the last person he wants to witness his ruin is Nate Tanner— the man he once loved, the man who betrayed him. The man he can’t forgive.

Now an agent of the Continental Congress, Nate is in London on the trail of a traitor threatening America’s hard-won freedom. But the secret mission of his heart is very different. Nate longs to find Sam Hutchinson—the man he still loves, the man he lost in the war. The man he can’t forget.

When their lives unexpectedly collide, Sam and Nate are thrown together on a dangerous mission. Still nursing his resentment, reconciliation is the last thing on Sam’s mind, but every day he spends on the road with Nate weakens his resolve. And despite everything that divides them, old passions begin to reignite...

Can they seize this second chance at love, or is the past too painful to forgive?

This novel is approximately 76,000 words and comes with a HEA guaranteed.



Rebel #.5
Chapter 1 
November 1774—Rosemont, Rhode Island 
THE FIRST TIME Sam saw Nathaniel Tanner he was standing in the doorway to John Reed’s law office amid a pool of crisp November sunlight. It picked out copper threads in his chestnut hair, glinted on the gilt buttons of his coat, and turned his fine-boned face milky against dark eyes that regarded the office and its inhabitants with profound disinterest. 

He doesn’t want to be here, Sam realized. Thinks we aren’t good enough for him. 

Everything marked out Tanner as a gentleman, from the cut of his elegant coat to the slender hand holding his hat. He was a Harvard man, Reed had told them, and the son of an old friend. Why Tanner had taken a position at a provincial law office in Rosemont, Sam couldn’t imagine. Surely a blue-blooded gentleman like him could find work in Boston. 

“Tanner!” Reed heaved himself out from behind his desk with a beaming smile. “Come in, come in.” 

“Mr. Reed. How do you do, sir?” Tanner offered a slight bow. He moved with quick, impatient grace, as if he had better things to do. Sam felt his hackles rise; Reed was a good man, and he didn’t have to take Tanner on. He was doing the man a favor and deserved his gratitude. 

But Reed seemed oblivious to Tanner’s cool greeting. “Ah, Nate, my boy. It does my heart good to see you. Last time we met you were no more than this high!” He chuckled and bent stiffly around his girth to indicate his knees. “And now look at you, eh? Quite the gentleman, and the spit of your dear mother.” 

Tanner accepted the comment with a remote smile. “Thank you, sir. Many people say so.” 

“I don’t doubt it! A fine woman was Isabelle. A great beauty.” 

Sam imagined she must have been. There was nothing womanly about Nathaniel Tanner, despite his graceful build, yet there was something luminous in his face—beauty, Sam thought, if that wasn’t a ridiculous word to apply to a man. With his dark hair pulled back into a neat queue, and his fashionable coat cut to flatter, Tanner made a fine figure of a man. But Sam could imagine a woman with those same strong, demanding features, and that notion stirred something fluttery in the pit of his stomach. As always, he ignored the sensation before the feeling became a thought. 

“Hutchinson, my boy.” Reed beckoned him over. “Come and greet your new colleague, Mr. Tanner.” 

Sam had ink on his fingers and wiped his hand on his handkerchief before he crossed the room. Standing up, he found himself a few inches taller than Tanner. Taller and broader, he should have felt the more powerful of the two, but when Tanner’s urbane gaze fell on him Sam felt infuriatingly gauche. For a wild moment he imagined Tanner could see through his skin and into his secret heart. But that would be impossible; the man wasn’t a witch.

Deliberately, Sam didn’t bow but stuck out his hand in the common way just to see how Tanner responded. “How do you do, Mr. Tanner?” 

Tanner’s eyes dipped to Sam’s hand with an expression of mingled surprise and approval. “Very well, Mr. Hutchinson,” he said as they shook hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.” Tanner’s fingers felt warm and slender, but his grip was firm. He looked Sam right in the eye as he said, “I hope I shan’t be too troublesome as I learn my way.” 

“Not at all.” Sam was aware their handshake lingered, that his attention was very much taken by the feel of the other man’s hand in his own. “Feel free to be as troublesome as you like.” 

A tick of a smile twitched the corner of Tanner’s lips, a flicker of curiosity brightening his eyes. “I shall take you at your word, sir.” When Tanner dropped his hand, Sam found himself rubbing his fingertips against his palm as if to trap the heat of that touch. 

Unaccountably, his heart raced like a hound on the hunt, his cheeks burning. God in heaven, I must look like a fool. But Tanner only smiled. A fleeting expression that Sam, in his confusion, imagined was meant for him alone. 

For the first few weeks, as fall turned into an icy Rosemont winter, Sam’s intercourse with Tanner remained strictly professional. Sam had been clerking for Reed for two years, since his parents’ death in the typhus of seventy-two. So he had much to pass on to Tanner, and Tanner proved an astute and able student. Everything about him was quick: his speech, his thought, his occasional flash of humor.  The way he walked across the square to his lodgings every evening, alone and inviting no company. 

That was the thing about Tanner: he kept himself to himself. He never talked about his family, or his life in Boston, and often, during the half hour Reed permitted them for lunch, he had his nose in a book or pamphlet. Always reading, was Nathaniel Tanner. No wonder he’d been a Harvard man. 

Sam spent his days surreptitiously watching him from across the office, admiring the way his straight, dark hair gleamed where it was pulled back into a queue. He wished his hair would do the same, but his blond curls had proven unbiddable, so he kept his hair unfashionably short and donned a wig for formal occasions. Sam didn’t have much use for fashion but looking at Tanner in his fine clothes made him want to look a little finer in his own. 

He bought two new shirts and a waistcoat that, like Tanner’s, flattered his figure. He didn’t have Tanner’s slender grace, but neither was he running to fat like Reed. The time he caught Nate admiring his new waistcoat, a thoughtful look in his eyes, made Sam smile for the rest of the day. And for some days thereafter.



King's Man #1
Chapter One 
August 13th, 1778
Rosemont, Rhode Island 
Sunlight fell in dreamy pools over the man drowsing at Nate Tanner’s side, burnishing his tangled hair with flecks of gold, and picking out freckles on the smooth skin of his back. 

Nate lay watching him in the aftermath of their lovemaking, the warmth in his heart fading fast, cooled by the gathering storm. He recoiled from the knowledge that this would be their last afternoon together, but they lived in a time of war and there was no room for sentiment left in the land. Reaching out, he smoothed his palm over his lover’s shoulder and smiled when Sam blinked open his eyes. 

“Well,” Sam said in a smiling rumble. “That was something.”

“So it was.” Curling his hand around the back of Sam’s neck, Nate pulled him close enough to kiss his lips. “Quite something.” 

With a contented sigh, Sam rolled onto his back, rearranging them both until Nate’s head came to rest against his chest and Sam’s strong arms wrapped around him. Nate snaked his own arm around Sam’s waist and, for a moment, buried his face against his skin, breathing in the scent of him. Committing him to memory. 

“Hush now,” Sam said, stroking a hand over Nate’s back. “And tell me what’s had you jumpy as a cat all afternoon.” 

As always, Sam knew Nate better than Nate knew himself. 

Amicus est tamquam alter idem: a true friend is a second self. 

Nate let his thumb run over the ring he wore — the ring Sam had given him two years ago, engraved with an abbreviation of those words: AETAI. Its twin felt warm against Nate’s back as Sam continued his steady caress. “I can’t come here anymore,” Nate said softly. A shard of sunlight lanced up from the heavy armoire by the window and Nate watched the dust motes dance, unable to meet Sam’s eyes. “It’s too dangerous — our friendship is drawing too much attention.” 

Sam stilled to his bones. Only the accelerating thump of his heart beneath Nate’s ear told him that Sam still breathed. Outside, a songbird trilled, and a distant carriage rumbled past. If he listened very carefully, Nate could hear the distant rush of the Pawtuxet River. Inside Sam’s bedchamber, the silence grew thick. Nate levered himself up onto one elbow and Sam’s arms fell away to lay slack at his side, eyes fixed on the ceiling. “How long must you stay away?”

“I don’t know.” Despite his best intentions, Nate’s voice wobbled. “Until things calm down. The British are so close. People are afraid.” 

“Is this — ?” A painful pause. “Is this because of Holden?” 

Amos Holden. The swaggering little shit had resented Sam for years. Holden’s recent elevation to chairman of Rosemont’s Committee of Safety had only made his persecution more vicious. And Sam did nothing to mollify him. Quite the opposite in fact, the obstinate fool that he was. 

Nate had to look away from Sam’s distress before he answered, staring at his chest instead, at his own hand resting there and the golden glint of his ring. “Not just Holden, the whole committee are against you now.” 

Silence. Then, “And does that include you?” 

“Of course not.” Nate spread his fingers, tried to find Sam’s heartbeat again. “But you’re not making it easy for me to explain our friendship. Not easy at all.” 

Pushing his hand away, Sam surged upright and swung his legs over the side of the bed. “Oh, so it’s my fault?” 

“Well…” He suppressed his flash of exasperation. “It’s your decision to refuse the loyalty oath.” 

“It’s my right to refuse it. I’ll think as I choose, and Holden’s mob can go to hell if they say otherwise.” 

“His committee,” Nate corrected, “are trying to keep Rosemont safe.” 

“From me?” 

“Sam…”

“No, tell me.” Angrily, he turned around. “Does he think I’m a danger to Rosemont, to the place I was born? To the place my parents were born? Where they’re laid to rest?” 

“Holden’s a bully, we both know that, and he’s using the committee to settle old scores. But the world has changed, Sam. And you must change with it.” 

“Must I? Why? Why should I change to suit Amos Holden?” 

“Because —” Nate raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “Because a storm’s coming. Hell, the storm’s already here. And in a storm, you have to trim your sails or be wrecked.” 

“Storms pass,” Sam said, stubborn as a damned rock. “And this will pass, too. Things will go back to normal, you’ll see.” 

“Normal? Sam we’re at war. Whether you like it or not, we’re at war with Great Britain.” 

“I’m not at war. With anyone.” 

“But America is! You can’t pretend — Look, you don’t have to mean it. Cross your fingers if you must, but for God’s sake take the loyalty oath.” Cautiously, he touched Sam’s bare shoulder. “Keep your head down and your mouth shut, love. Keep yourself safe.” 

But Sam shook him off, standing up. “Surrender to the mob, you mean.” He picked up his shirt from the chair where he’d flung it. “Tear up the law and let anarchy reign.”

Nate closed his eyes, searching for patience. “They’re not a mob, they represent the people of Rosemont —” 

“By whose authority? Nobody elected them. Holden made himself judge, jury and executioner. And I’ll be damned before I swear loyalty to him or any other self-appointed despot.” 

“Yes, you’ve made that clear. To the whole damn town!” Nate scrambled out of bed and began to dress, buttoning his breeches with irritable swiftness. They’d been over this a thousand times. Sam was determined to cling to the life he’d always known, even if it killed him — which it might. And Nate was determined to fight for a radical new world, even if it killed him. Which it might. They should be enemies. Yet Nate still loved him as deeply as he had these last four years. Loved him with a fierce, angry passion that he couldn’t quell. “Damn it, Sam. Why can’t you just… just bend a little?” 

“Why can’t you?” Sam fixed him with a heated look. “You didn’t have to join the committee. You didn’t have to be part of this. You could have kept your head down and your mouth shut.” 

“I don’t want to keep my head down —” 

“Neither do I!” Sam sucked in an angry breath. “For God’s sake, can’t you see what’s happening? All over the country, men like Holden are trampling the law to get what they —” 

“I’m not saying I agree with it all, but this is a crisis. We’re fighting for our liberty.”

“Liberty?” Sam’s eyes flashed angrily. “Amos Holden keeps ten enslaved people on his farm. He can talk to me about liberty once he’s freed them.” 

Nate’s jaw bunched, but he had no answer to that. “It’s not about Holden. God knows he’s a prick, but this… It’s bigger than him. Bigger than us. You must see that. It’s impossible to turn away from this fight.” 

“I’m not turning away.” Sam bristled in angry defiance. “But I had no quarrel with the way things were. America should be at the heart of the empire. That’s where we belong. Hell, I bet we’ll be running it from Boston one day. And whatever your committee says, that doesn’t make me an enemy of America. It makes me her friend. A better friend than the likes of Amos Holden.” 

“For God’s sake, Sam. It makes you a British sympathizer.” 

“But we are British,” Sam cried in exasperation. “And we’re American. We’re both, that’s my point. And abandoning the rule of law just to score a political point —” 

“That’s not what’s happening, and you know it.” 

“Isn’t it?” Sam leveled a finger at him. “Your committee banned me from voting. They tripled my taxes, and they barred me from practicing law. All because I refuse to support this war. Because I see a different destiny for our country. Well, let them do their worst; I deny their authority over me. It stems from threats and violence and, as an American, I will not bow before it.” 

“No more than I will bow before a king who has violated all our rights as Englishmen.”

“There are better ways to defend our rights than with violence.” 

“None that the British understand!” 

Angrily, Sam bit off his response. After a pause, and with an obvious effort at calm, he said, “And here we are again, at an impasse.” 

“So it seems.” 

“Maybe there really is nothing else to say” — his voice cracked — “except goodbye.” 

Even though Nate knew it to be true, Sam’s clear grief pierced him. “This isn’t what I want.” He reached for Sam’s arm, winding his fingers into the sleeve of his shirt. “I don’t want this to end.” 

“And yet you’re ending it.” 

“Because I have no choice.” The risk of loving Sam had always been high, but in the last six months even acknowledging their friendship posed a danger. Amos Holden had eyes everywhere, and it was impossible for Nate to explain his continued friendship with an infamous Tory. “If Holden used our attachment against you…” He blew out a breath. “It’s safer this way.” 

Sam didn’t respond, just looked at Nate for a long, anguished moment, then pulled his shirt free of Nate’s grip and turned away. “It’ll take me some time to —” He cleared his throat. “To gather all the books you’ve left here. I assume you want them back.” 

That was designed to wound, and it did its job, sliding like a blade between Nate’s ribs. Oh, the hours they’d spent together reading. They’d fallen in love over those books. When Nate found his voice again, he said, “Keep them. Take care of them until we can…” 

His throat closed around the words, eyes filling with tears. Blinking them away, he finished dressing in silence. And in silence he made his way downstairs, avoiding the front door. Sam followed, and they stopped in the kitchen amid the scent of drying rosemary. How he’d leave, Nate couldn’t fathom, and for a few slow ticks of the clock they stood and gazed at each other in agonized silence. 

“There was a time,” Sam said roughly, “when you’d leave by the front door, when you weren’t ashamed of our friendship.” 

Not shame, never that. But exasperation and dread and a terrible aching regret that balled up into impossible frustration. “I just wish you could see that history is with us, Sam. Our cause is just. It’s right. And we will prevail. I wish you’d join us.” 

Sam straightened, his expression changing from sorrow to something colder, harder. It made Nate shiver. “I wish you could see that tearing down the law and raising up a mob risks every liberty you claim to defend. And I wish your committee could understand that I have a right to voice my opposition to this damned war, and that my opinion doesn’t make me a traitor.” 

Those were his parting words. Nate had no answer they hadn’t rehearsed a hundred times. They would never agree, and more arguing was futile. 

Opening the door, he stepped out into the sticky heat of the afternoon and walked through Sam’s neglected kitchen garden to the dusty road beyond. He looked back once and saw Sam standing in the shadow of the doorway watching him leave. 

Neither said goodbye.

Author Bio:

Sally Malcolm was bitten by the male/male romance bug in 2016 and hasn’t looked back.

Perfect Day was her first published male/male romance, with the follow-up (Between the Lines) out later in 2018 and a dozen other ideas bubbling away on the back burner. Her stories are emotional, sweetly angsty, and always have happy endings.

Sally also writes tie-in novels for the hit TV shows Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis. To date she’s penned nine novels and novellas, and four audio dramas.

She lives in South West London with her American husband, two lovely children, and two lazy cats.


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