new stuff

I know the Round Robin is still going, but I'm using my blogging day for my own nefarious purposes; namely, two stories I have out at Torquere Press.

Winged is the short but sweet story of Rory and Tad and what happens to them when Rory wakes up to find he has... well, wings. Here's a wee snip:

***

On the first day of summer, Rory Donovan woke up to find wings.

“What the fuck are those?”

Rory looked up from where he’d been studying his shoulder blades in the mirror. His boyfriend, Tad Henderson, stood in the doorway of the bathroom with his mouth agape. “I don’t know,” Rory admitted, looking over his shoulder again to see his reflection. “They look like… wings.”

“Wings?” Tad said in disbelief, and crossed the threshold to stand next to Rory. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding.”

“Then what the hell do they look like to you?” Rory turned slightly to the left and right, trying to see from all angles.

Tad pushed at his shoulder and turned Rory completely around so Tad could examine the things that had suddenly sprouted from Rory’s shoulders. Tad touched one of them and Rory felt it clear down his spine. Whatever they were, they sure had a fuck of a lot of nerve endings. “They look like…” Tad stopped and considered his answer. “They look like wings.”

***

They have fun with them, never fear. You know, in the way boys do.

The second thing available from Torquere Press is also a bit on the fantasy side. Still Waters was originially published as part of Torquere's Birthstone line, and when my contract for it ended I was asked if I'd like to renew it as a Single Shot Classic instead. I'm really fond of this boy-meets-merman tale, so I said yes. Little clip of Cody and Tristan:

***

It was warmer than usual, even for August. He dove into the water and relished the feel against his skin, not finding it unusual at all that the water matched the temperature of a bathtub. He dove and dove and didn’t seem to need air, and the water was like silk against him.

A face rose out of the sea on his next dive, a face with eyes that matched the color of the water and hair the same color as the black sand beaches in Hawaii. It smiled at him with white, perfect teeth, and Cody was glad to have someone to swim with. Except when the man ducked back down under the next wave, it wasn’t human feet that stuck up out of the water. A fish’s tail, gleaming and scaly, slapped the water once and then disappeared.

He woke up with a gasp and looked wildly around his room, as if expecting the creature from his dream to somehow be there.

That was not what he’d seen in the ocean today, Cody scolded himself. He’d seen a dolphin that had separated from his pod. They did that all the time. Or even a sea lion, maybe, although it was unusual for them to get so close to humans.

But he had not seen a fucking mystical creature from a childhood picture book.

He checked the clock. Three in the goddamned morning. Cody closed his eyes again and tried to will himself back to sleep, but his mind raced and spun with pictures of dark-haired men that swam like fish.

Throwing off the covers, he sighed in disgust and reached over to the nightstand for the pair of drumsticks that were ever present. They were cool and familiar in his fingers and he beat out a staccato rhythm with them on his thighs, using the soft cadence to lull himself back to sleep.

There was nothing left of his dream in the morning.

***

Both books available now at Torquere Press. Check them out. :)

Winged
Still Waters