Blame It on the Fruitcake
by Pat Henshaw
Fruitcake is the laughingstock of the holiday season. But is it really an aphrodisiac instead?<br><br>Motorcycle mechanic Sam McGuire is surprised to find a gaily wrapped box on his doorstep with a piece of fruitcake inside. The note on the present is an invitation to a holiday party.<br><br>Intrigued, Sam attends the party -- mostly to get more of the fruitcake he falls in love with -- and meets his new neighbor, Jay Merriweather. The lure of Jay’s big family and its holiday tradition of enjoyi…
Promise Me We'll Be Okay
by Nell Iris
What do you do when your past comes knocking?<br><br>Six hundred and ninety-five days. That’s how long it’s been since Jude’s fiancé broke off their engagement. With the help of his brother and his all-encompassing love for music, Jude glued the broken pieces of his heart back together, but when his ex shows up on his doorstep late one evening, Jude fears it will fall apart again.<br><br>Two years ago, Vincent made a terrible mistake. He left the love of his life for stupid, ill-advised reasons.…
It Takes an Archaeologist
by Edward Kendrick
Gideon Monahan is a man dedicated to what he does -- recovering stolen art -- to the exclusion of anything else, including a personal life. There's a reason for that, something that happened in his past that he can't forget.<br><br>Cole Newell is an archaeologist with a problem. He needs to find out who looted a dig he worked the previous summer, after one of the artifacts shows up at his gallery. Cole calls on Gideon to lend his expertise, which, much against his better judgment, Gideon does.<b…
Renegades from the Time War
by Gordon Phillips
Carl Obermeier, a cadet at the Time Corps Academy, discovers he has been admitted to his second year on Conditional status. This is due to his high “emotional liability.” He is advised to mediate and study the precepts and disciplines of the Corps. But on his first day back, his class is shown an example of Temporal Crime committed by the Time Pirates, enemy of the Ordered Society, and he is smitten by the pirate Armand’s beauty. Troubled, Carl remains true to the Corps when he is kidnapped by t…
So Far Away
by Nell Iris
Engaged couple Zakarias and Julian are convinced nothing can separate them ... until a global pandemic hits. Zakarias catches the virus with mild symptoms and isolates in the couple’s guest house.<br><br>The few meters dividing them might as well be the moon as he watches Julian, an ICU nurse, work himself to the bone, unable to support him the way he needs. Frustration and worry build as the weeks pass.<br><br>Will Zakarias be declared healthy before Julian burns out?
Art Theft 101
by Edward Kendrick
Vampire Philip Archer and his team of successful art thieves -- black panther shifter Duff, ghost Rob, and Duff's human girlfriend Liddy -- are asked by the handsome Ian Croft, a potential client, to break with tradition and rescue a kidnapped child. When the caper turns out rather differently than expected, Philip is bitterly reminded why he has remained single for so long. Yet, surrounded as he is by loving friends, he is not desperate. This is why, when he meets the newly-made vampire Ephram,…
Snowed In: Jonah and Cooper
by Kris T. Bethke
Jonah Lyons is looking forward to spending a weekend at a cabin with his sister, Ellie. So the last thing he expects is for his ex-boyfriend to show up.<br><br>Captain Adrian Cooper was once the love of his life, but Jonah thinks he’s moved past it. Getting trapped together because of a snowstorm wasn’t on the agenda, but it means they either have to talk or murder each other.<br><br>When Cooper admits the reason he left, Jonah doesn’t know how to react. The depth of Cooper’s love has never wane…
Strangers in Paradise
by Temple Madison
Fallen angel Adam Blackstone, also known as Adamas the Black Knight, is gorgeous as hell, from which he escaped. Adapting quickly to life on Earth, he builds a new life as the owner of a popular restaurant. Despite being mortal and vulnerable to the earthly dangers, he still thrives. And he is waiting for the meeting that will change his new life.<br><br>X-Tilla, the Underworld’s best assassin, follows Adam through a vortex to Earth. He undergoes several changes while in the vortex, just like Ad…
Playing the Field: Getting Wet
by J.M. Snyder
Rory Holt is the best swimmer on the team at State U. and he knows it. Swimming is his life, and if Rory hopes to attain his dreams of Olympic gold one day, he can’t let anything distract him. Every morning finds him practicing at the campus fitness center, and every afternoon he blows his teammates away with his speed and finesse in the water.<br><br>The new semester brings with it new tryouts, including the bright, up-and-coming Chase Cohen. Chase is sexy and sure of himself, both in and out o…
The Egg Hunt
by Ofelia Gr?nd
Jason has one rule when it comes to holidays -- work his shift behind the bar and then find a willing body to distract himself with. One night is long enough to satisfy his needs and still walk away with his heart intact. It has worked out fine for most of his adult life, but this Easter, he's trying something new. He's leaving the city to visit his friend Aiden, who recently moved in with his boyfriend in the middle of nowhere, but one unfortunate incident leaves Jason without a place to sleep.…
Bodies of Work
by Etienne
George Martin and Mike Foster have been best friends since childhood, but recent events have brought them even closer together: Mike has moved into George’s house now that George’s unfaithful boyfriend has been kicked out. It puts Mike in a pinch, because he’s always loved George -- maybe more than a best friend should.<br><br>George doesn’t suspect Mike’s feelings, being wrapped up in his job as the youngest lieutenant in the Jacksonville sheriff’s office and investigating a series of murders. …
Strange Fortune
by Jessie Pinkham
Jake Nelson isn’t worried when he’s kidnapped for ransom. He’s a strong alpha and former military, so he’s able to rescue himself and his fellow prisoner, omega David Beecham. There’s only one problem: during their captivity, David bonded with him. Now Jake has to decide if he’s ready to make a lifelong commitment to a man he just met.<br><br>David was holding out for a progressive alpha, not that it matters anymore. Bonding with Jake means he’ll never respond to any other alpha. He isn’t sure w…
Second Star to the Right
by A.F. Henley
Be it unrequited fascination with his straight best friend or impossible fantasies of rekindled interest with his heartbreaking ex, Mason has no clue why the perfect connection seems to keep slipping through his fingers. When another lonely holiday seems like too much weight to shoulder, Mason gives up on romance and seeks out the next best thing -- rented company. Jack is everything a person could want in an escort: willing, hot, and built like an angel.<br><br>Mason can't resist. After all, wh…
Evan's Fantasy
by Sarah Hadley Brook
Evan is crazy about his roommate’s best friend, Nick, but has kept it secret for months. When Nick catches him in a compromising position, moaning his name, the cat’s out of the bag.<br><br>Surprisingly, it turns out Nick feels the same way about Evan, and he wants to play. With the house to themselves for the evening, will Evan’s fantasy become reality?
Harvested
by Alex Morgan
In the 22nd century, Earth has been harvested by a race of aliens known as the Xini. In the aftermath, all the planet’s resources have been stripped. Dakota sets out from Dallas in search of his lover, Grayson, who vanished on his way to St. Louis after the invading fleet departed.<br><br>Dakota faces unknown dangers in the devastated plains of northern Texas and southern Oklahoma as scavengers -- human beings reduced to shells after the Harvesting -- roam the earth attacking anything that moves…
Gingerbread and Good Tidings
by Kris T. Bethke
Cody Schaefer loves the Christmas season and a benefit to working from home means that he gets to be surrounded by his decoration collections all the time. And as a bonus, he starts getting deliveries from a local café containing holiday treats flavored with gingerbread. The notes aren’t signed, but they clearly come from someone who knows him.<br><br>Out of all of Cody’s friends, Jason van Buren is the only one level-headed about the mysterious treats, and Cody begins talking to him daily. Cody…
Not According to Plan
by J.M. Snyder
Jonathan Banks and Peter Giles have worked together for five years, business partners in a planning firm that bears both their names. From the moment Jonathan was hired, the attraction between the two men was instantaneous and mutual, but he was dating someone else at the time and turned down Peter’s advances.<br><br>Now Jonathan’s boyfriend is out of the picture, and he’d love nothing more than for Peter to ask him out again, but he knows his partner all too well. Peter doesn’t take rejection e…
His Secret Admirer
by Edward Kendrick
When the first note shows up at the restaurant where he works -- when he isn't designing costumes for a local theater -- Jim Foster laughs it off. When the notes keep coming, he doesn't find the fact that he might have a secret admirer quite so amusing.<br><br>Alan North, a lonely, bookish customer at the restaurant, is too shy to even think of talking to Jim -- as much as he wants to.<br><br>Then the killings begin. Two of Jim's friends are murdered in what appear to be muggings. However, the …
Walking in Two Worlds
by Terry O'Reilly
Lee Masters, a handsome young cowboy, is fired from his cattle drive when his sexual orientation is discovered. Frustrated and angry, he rides to a mountain lake where he meets a Dakota native named Tatanka, who is also exiled from his tribe for refusing to adhere to tribal custom for braves who prefer men to women. They strike up a friendship, which readily turns to love. Their family is completed when a young Indian, Sleeps With Dogs, insists they take him with them on their search for a home.…
Cinis
by Pelaam
When Valentine’s sire is forced to take a mate by his Clan leader, Valentine is reduced to stoking the castle’s furnaces as nothing more than a cindered servant to the new matriarch. With his sire Libertine incarcerated and Valentine forced to wear a cursed collar, there seems no way to escape Belladonna’s hold on them.<br><br>When a stranger appears, Valentine is surprised by how quickly he trusts the other vampire. He accepts the request to go to the castle of his Clan Lord, the ancient and po…