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

“So it is just me you do not wish to kiss.”


“No. It’s not that.” Dear God was the reason so very far from that.


“I like you just fine.” More than fine. I like you a whole lot, Mani. I just shouldn’t have you.


“Then I fail to understand. Have these last few days not been kind?”


Mani’s verbal skills still failed him at times. Alex understood, though. “More than kind,” Alex said, and he meant it. The few days were fast becoming weeks, and looking back, Alex couldn’t remember one moment when he didn’t feel good around Mani. The pale man’s intelligence, kind heart, sense of fun, and strong ideas of right and wrong, made him smile, laugh, and filled him with an odd yet undeniable awareness of pride in turn. “I’ve loved every moment with you.”


Mani, who had glanced away, now looked back with an expression that turned Alex cold. Those beautiful eyes opened wide, though Mani’s brows remained furrowed, his expression looking pinched.


Chapter 17