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

“I don’t need coffee.” Jason unobtrusively nudged footwear out of the way. “I do think you need sleep. What time’s your flight?”


“Is someone coming to get you?” If he wandered toward the bed, Colby followed; so he did that, and then circled around and used proximity to get Colby next to the mattress. “You’re going to the airport?”


That hadn’t been what he’d meant to ask.


He’d meant: will you be okay, at an airport? Will you feel safe, surrounded by bodies, in a small space with no easy escape? Will you have someone at your side, looking out for you, if I can’t be there?


I would be there, he thought. The thought shaped itself in his heart like a diamond; like blue topaz, like Colby’s eyes. I’d be there if you said you wanted me. Fuck filming tomorrow. Jill will understand. She wants you to be safe too.


He dropped Colby’s room key on the bedside table, standing there.


Chapter 70