Stepping Aside

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Christian
Waking up to an unexpected delicious grinding against his butt then abrupt departure of the gorgeous Ryan marks the beginning of a rocky relationship between the two men. With his ex-wife threatening to take his son away, he makes a decision that starts the hurtful loop of ups and down between the two lovers.

Ryan
Helping his sister with a candy fundraiser he meets a man who turns his head. Never been part of any kind of couple, everything is new for Ryan. Thing are going well between then until outside forces and decisions made, tear them apart. How much pain can either of them take before either one finally decides stay away ? After second hand discoveries, misunderstandings and cousins who pop up at the wrong time and place, Can Christian fix his mistakes to keep the man who helped him keep his son? Will Ryan be able to get past the hurt he endured by the man he loves? 

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Chance pulled his truck to a stop in front of the modest one-story brick building and raised a brow before swiping his thumb over the screen of his cell phone to double check the address.  There had to be a mistake. Nope. 17432 Cherry Road SW. He was in the right place. 

Well. He was at the right address, anyway. He wasn't quite sure that a neighborhood church hosting a kid's event could be the right place for a forty-something, agnostic, gay man wearing - he looked down at his attire with a snort - an open leather vest over his bare chest. Matching leather pants. Well-worn leather motorcycle boots. All carefully chosen for what he had thought was going to be a quickie spank-and-screw with the latest twink to hit him up online. 

Hell. 

He looked back at the open double doors next to the colorful sign that read Sunshine Scouts Candy Sale Award Ceremony! and groaned. 

He swiped the message open and started to compose a message to his playmate – after all, he was not dressed for a family event. Even for one that wasn't in the community room of a church, which this one seemed to be – but before he could cancel, the icon lit up with a new contact notification. 

Daddy? It's almost my turn. Aren't you coming? 

Chance frowned. When he'd received the unexpected last-minute hookup invitation in his message box, Chance hadn't exactly jumped at the opportunity. Shaking his head, he decided he was already there so he might as well man up. One-offs in a freaking church might not be what he'd really been looking for, but it would be pretty chicken shit of him to bail just because he hadn't asked enough questions before agreeing to meet. 

Just parking, he thumbed back. Be right in.

 Fishing around under the front seat, he found a t-shirt that he vaguely remembered having crammed under there after another less-than-exciting hook-up a few months before. Shaking it out, he shrugged. It was wrinkled, but the royal blue knit managed to hide any dirt it had picked up. Tossing his vest to the passenger seat, he tugged it over his head, barely registering that it clung to his chest and biceps more than he remembered, stuffed his phone into the pocket of his leather pants, and headed for the doors. 

"Daddy!" 

Chance froze as a young girl launched herself into his arms. She was small but wiry, with fire-engine red hair fighting to escape a haphazard braid and brilliant green eyes. 

His arms flexed reflexively, catching her as she impacted his chest and wrapped her arms around his neck, nearly cutting off his oxygen. 

"You came!" 

Completely astonished, he couldn't help but chuckle as she choked him. Kid was stronger than she looked. 

"Do I know you?" Chance murmured quietly, entirely too aware that everyone in the room had turned to stare. 

"Yes!" the little firebrand pouted. "I'm Kelly! You said you'd be my Daddy now." 

Uh oh. 

"I see." Chance tried to look casual as he studied the room, waiting for someone to react to their kid jumping up on a stranger. Surprisingly, no one did. "You don't have a dad?" 

"Of course I do," she huffed like it was the silliest question that she'd ever heard. "But only one and he won't go camping." Her eyes clouded a bit. "My other dad left and if I don't have a camping dad, I won't win my candy sales prize." Her lower lip trembled slightly. "I worked really, really hard for it, so that's why I picked you." 

Right. 

Camping was listed at the top of his interests on his dating profile. Two or three items above Dom Top. 

Oh, jeez. 

The situation was clearing up, but Chance was still at a loss. Somehow this little girl had found her way to the Looking 4 Daddy website and, dear God, the twink he'd expected to meet for a little slap and tickle was an actual child who wanted a dad to take her camping? 

He couldn't quite picture a more ridiculous scenario and, given his last relationship, that was saying something..... 

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“You’re not fucking damaged, Josh, and I don’t love you in spite of your scars. I love you because of the man you are, the kind of human who risks his own life to save others.”  -Clay

A single father trapped at the scene of a freak car crash and a reluctant hero who insists he was simply in the right place at the right time shouldn't have had much in common, but when Columbo learns of the series of strange accidents that have plagued Clay, Columbo can't just walk away. Could Clay really be the one to see past Columbo's damaged flesh to the man beneath?

The nightmare never changed.
Even in the early morning hours, the heat in Kabul was stifling. The air so clogged with dust kicked up by the convoy of military transports that even the scarves wrapped around the soldiers’ faces couldn’t keep the taste of it off their tongues. It would be much, much later that Second Lieutenant Joshua Columbo realized that it was that dust that interfered with his senses, dulling the telltale metallic taste of danger until there was barely enough time to scream out a warning.
“Bomb!” Columbo shouted over the din of bullshitting soldiers, jumping to his feet in the back row of the crowded truck. “Stop!”
“Sit your ass down, Columbo,” his captain hollered back from the front. “There’s been no activity reported out here for weeks.”
The taste bloomed in Josh’s mouth, nearly gagging him as he looked frantically for an escape. Grabbing the arm of the man next to him, he jerked. “Sterling, we got to go!”
Army Ranger Chance Sterling never hesitated. Shoving the canvas cover aside, he dove from the truck with Columbo on his heels, tucking and rolling with a grunt when he hit the sand. Columbo wasn’t so lucky. He was still in midair when the sand exploded around him, the dusty air filling with shrapnel that flayed his skin open. The screams of the men still in the truck were muffled by a second explosion that deafened him and ripped the truck to pieces, shooting flames into the sky.

But nightmares aren't only for the sleeping and the next time Josh Columbo found himself in the vicinity of a pending car explosion, he was running toward it, determined to save the man pinned beneath the broken plastic and mangled steel...

Pieces of plastic and metal broke off the body as the car hurtled through the field, the yellowing corn stalks snapping and bouncing off the windshield. Clay jammed both feet against the brake pedal, but the Porsche didn’t respond. The front wheels struck something and the car flipped over, rolling repeatedly until it finally slid to a stop upside down, surrounded by the gently waving stalks of corn as high as an elephant’s eye. Smoke began to seep out from under the wreckage but there was nothing he could do. Pinned under the car and fading in and out of consciousness, Clay lost all concept of time. His last thought was of an avenging angel with a badly scarred face and haunted eyes crawling toward him as his own eyes drifted closed.