An epic motion picture! A gay Napoleonic War love story! Ballrooms and battles at sea! Romantic happy endings on the silver screen! And a film that’ll change everything for its stars ... Jason Mirelli can’t play adrenaline-fueled action heroes forever. He’s getting older, plus the action star parts have grown a little thinner since he came out as bisexual. This role could finally let him be seen as a serious dramatic actor, and he needs it to go well -- for his career, and because he’s fallen in love with the story and the chance to tell it. The first problem? He’ll be playing a ship’s captain ... and he hasn’t exactly mentioned his fear of water. The second problem? His co-star: award-winning, overly talkative, annoyingly adorable -- and openly gay – box office idol Colby Kent. Colby’s always loved the novel this film’s based on, and he leapt at the chance to adapt it, now that he has the money and reputation to make it happen. But scars and secrets from his past make filming a love story difficult ... until Jason takes his hand and wakes up all his buried desires. Jason could be everything Colby’s ever wanted: generous and kind, a fantastic partner on set, not to mention those heroic muscles. But Colby just can’t take that chance ... or can he? As their characters fall in love and fight a war, Colby and Jason find themselves falling, too ... and facing the return of their own past demons. But together they just might win ... and write their own love story.

Seaworthy

Colby had ended up even closer than before, consciously or subconsciously. Surrounded by discussions of tap shoes and Broadway production, he was lovely and layered as a pencil-sketch, an artwork in grey lines and blue eyes; after a second he started humming under his breath, a brief curlicue of melody. A line or two or more, half-sung, only audible because he’d fit himself into the spot at Jason’s side.


Jason needed a moment to place the song. Eighties rock. English. New wave, post-punk, vaguely romantic. Lots of radio play, at one point. The Psychedelic Furs, he recalled, once he dredged the band name up from depths. Those lyrics. The radio on, and a heartbreak beat. All night long.


Chapter 66