Whoever said space was cold, never found love from the stars ... Some people never learn. This is the tune playing once again in Alex Beaumont’s head when he sees a vision in white attracting odd glances in the quiet little seaside resort of Padstow. He came to get away from it all, to bury himself in work, to forget every man he ever falls for eventually needs to get away ... from him. Adrift in the universe, Mani searches for a place to call home. The planet he finds is cold and inhospitable, not at all what he was expecting. He feels lost and alone, until a stranger’s smile warms him. And with that smile comes another kind of heat, one he’s never before experienced. Love is not what Alex ever imagined it to be. They say space is infinite, but the distance between what Alex wants and what he has experienced romantically seems to be growing ... until now. Like a shooting star, he’s about to fall long and hard. Will he crash and burn, or find the love he’s always dreamed of when looking at the night sky?

Space, Man

Alex fell back gasping, wondering whether he’d gone mad, and decided whatever happened next, the sooner he got Mani out of his life the better. As Mani was finally talking, Alex would give him a week, but a week only, and then he had to be gone. He just hadto be for the sake of Alex’s sanity.


“Please, don’t do this. Please, don’t throw me out. Please. I like you. I like it here.”


Mani’s panic was evident as he chased after Alex through the cottage into the kitchen. Alex paused only once, to stoop to pick up a couple of garments he had dropped on the way. The few things he’d bought or given to the other man lay bundled in his arms.


“I don’t care. You can keep the clothes. I’ll give you some money. I just want you gone.”


Chapter 12