I left my clan’s village a few days ago. I took nothing but the clothes that I wore, the wooden sword that I had carved myself, and a sharpened piece of flint. I didn’t have a cloak to sleep in until later, when I had worked enough to have a few coins buy one. In fact, I didn’t even have a name. I was an Adventurer Monk, a novice, trained by my father and grandfather, but now on my own. My name and my fortune would come as I made them for myself. And that would start in the next thirty heartbeats. My profession was to kill monsters, rescue damsels in distress, and protect the innocent...

Well, this was different. Janice seemed to think that I was her blind date. She had my dating profile from a matchmaking service I didn’t even know I was part of. I had never heard about this and she was sure I was the guy she was destined to meet. I did know the person who arranged this, and I trusted them completely, but this was a surprise. But not to Janice. Yeah... the girl and I had a mutual acquaintance. We met each other at his office. He told us to use his private study upstairs to get to know each other and that he’d talk to us in an hour to see how things were going. Things ...

My buddy, the self-described image consultant, wanted me to meet one of his clients. All he would tell me was that she was 'odd' and he thought I should meet her. We got along great. She was easy to talk to. I liked her a lot. There was an honest attraction. But after coffee, when she tried to pay me for the hour and a half we spent together, I realized that where I thought this was a date, she thought it was an appointment. She thought she had been referred to me as a relationship coach. So we started over. As friends. But my buddy was right. She was a little odd. Six-feet tall. A ...

My young friend had a problem. I’d been mentoring him some since his father died a few months earlier. His problem wasn’t his father’s death. It wasn’t the fact that his father was very wealthy and, now, so was my young friend. He was prepared for that. We sat at the coffee shop, and he worked up the courage to tell me what he needed my help with. Finally, he took a deep breath, looked me in the eye, and leaned across the table toward me. “Dude, it’s my dad’s widow. You gotta take her off my hands. You’re the only one I can trust and the only one who can help me.”

The tavern was about half full and there was no reason for this one table to have ten chairs and only one occupant. Except that she was sitting there. At her table. I say her table because she seemed to be the captain of her own little island nation, exiled and alone in an otherwise busy tavern. She didn’t look up until she heard my chair scrape the floor when I moved it so that I could sit down. I think it startled her. I know it did. It wasn’t that she wasn’t observant and didn’t see me coming, it was that I was unusually hard to see. And so was she. She wasn’t waiting for a ...

You're going to play whether you want to or not. Vervain thought she was done with the trickster god and his games. Then someone starts stealing the treasures of gods again and she knows the trickster is back. Hoping the game will end as well as it did the last time, the Godhunter deals herself in. But as it continues, the game gets more and more complicated. And more and more deadly. It becomes a question not of will they benefit from the game but will they survive it.

I'd been told it was maybe 10,000 years since the cataclysm. I was a Delver, trained to explore the ruins of civilization buried over time. I'd studied and trained hard. I felt prepared for pretty much anything. Except for what I actually found. She said she was Shakini. She was very much mostly dead when I found her. I found out that Shakini was what she was, not who she was. The old legends said that she was a demon. A vampiric being. It was closer to the truth to say she was just a really pretty girl addicted to love. She did nearly kill me while I struggled to save her that first few ...

Fun can be had anywhere, as the gay men in these sizzling flash fiction stories know all too well. In Quickie #1, River Relief, Nate explores his adventurous side with his teammate, Travis. In Quickie #2, Riding Solo, Luke enjoys the view during a biking excursion. Perhaps a little too much. In Quickie #3, Late Night Session, Kev and Dane work out more than just their muscles at the gym. In Quickie #4, Dance Party, Brad and Joe get frisky on the dance floor. In Quickie #5, Shower for Two, Jack and Ira have fun while getting clean. In Quickie #6, Beach Bums, best friends Neil and Will ...

Last thing I remembered, I was in my backyard, thoughtfully pruning a bonsai tree. The next thing I remembered was alarms and bells and flashing lights and a voice yelling that death was imminent. And now, I was staring down at a beautiful female clone, gray and featureless, about to wake her up from transport hibernation. On a space ship. In space. Thank goodness I still had my bonsai scissors. Otherwise I’d never have been able to cut open her containment bag and that imminent death thing would have killed her. The voice said that there was more of them and that I’d better hurry if I ...

Paul’s son and daughter-in-law have a plan for the holidays. A gift exchange. But only between Paul and his son’s mother-in-law. The kids expect it to be life-changing because that’s the kind of guy Paul is. They don’t know what kind of gift he’ll give, but as always, it will have no monetary value. Not because he isn’t generous. Because he is. But first, he has to teach this woman how to hug.Paul’s son and daughter-in-law have a plan for the holidays. A gift exchange. But only between Paul and his son’s mother-in-law. The kids expect it to be life-changing because that’s ...

Alexander S. Ryker dreams of becoming a hero, but dreams are hard to achieve when you’ve caused several million credits worth of property damage. Being expelled from the Mars Police Academy isn’t helping his case. Crushed, Alex encounters a girl named Gabrielle Angelise in a meeting that will change his life forever. Gabrielle is an alien! She’s also on the run. Alex wonders if this is the chance that he’s been waiting for, the chance to finally become a hero.

Amanda was 19 years old when she quit college and moved back home. She was immediately told to leave, though, informed that she had to get her own place, get a job, and learn how to live on her own since she wasn't in college anymore. Amanda understood that she needed to get a job right away. She knew she was good looking and had a great body, and that she could probably get by as a stripper, but she decided that she would try to find an office job first. She struck out after her first interview, but she was referred to a wealthy investor named Mr. Maxwell who was looking for a personal ...

At least I was out in the air again. The past few days had been underground in a prison cell. I had hardly eaten since my capture. If I won my fight, I would win my freedom. Those were the rules. I was naked and bare-handed. So was my opponent. That didn’t make it an especially fair fight. I was strong and just short of six feet tall. My opponent was at least six-nine, maybe seven feet. An Ogress. Her size and slightly mottled skin gave her away. She was naked and bare-handed, too. The story is related to The Guardian Maidens or Sturgil’s Mark. It isn’t a sequel, and it’s not ...

The Husband One last night turns into a whole hell of a lot more firsts. I’ve only ever slept with one man, my husband but when his work starts piling up to the ceiling, enough is enough. He knows he’s neglecting my needs in the bedroom but there’s not much we can do, there aren’t enough hours in the day. Divorce is imminent, so imminent that he’s moving his things across town as we speak. I can't resist him, he smells so good and tastes even better. His body turns me on. Then he makes a suggestion that will flip our life together upside down. Sleep with other men. With his ...

I was kneeling on one knee, Terminator-style, like in that scene where he first arrives in 1984. Very much like that, actually. There were no flashes of lightning or anything like that. But there had been a lot of wind the moment before. Unlike a moment before, I wasn’t alone, and I wasn’t in my hotel room overlooking the ocean. Scattered around me were the bodies of twenty men. At the front of the large stone room were four more men, very much alive, and a woman screaming. Rushing at them, I reached them just as one of the men was about to strike the woman in the face. In that instant,...