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...

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 ...

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.

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 ...

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 ...

I am burning to have a one-night stand. But I don't have the nerve. I am the "good girl" who checks off all the boxes. Wholesome. Check. Monogamous in relationships. Check. Celibate when single. Check. I am a traditionalist who never makes the first move on a hot guy. Are you kidding? So, when my hot as sin neighbor moves in next door and finally decides to flirt with me after three months, what do I do? Nada. I run like the coward I am. When my best friend invites me to a costume party with an overwhelming number of hot guys available to a small margin of horny, willing, and anxious women,...

Mark, Sandra, and Emily are officially a harem relationship. They've gone out, and per Bird and Stone matchmaking service recommendations, it's time for the next step: moving in together. Mark is excited, he's nervous, and he's ready for his life to be different. And if different means sharing a bed with two beautiful women, so much the better. But harem life is complicated, and not just because there's more than two people. Everyone has a past, and that past comes knocking on the door in the form of Amy, a petite and curvy blonde who used to date Sandra and Emily. Will this new arrival ...

This is the story of the last known fairy: Zèlde, Lifebringer of the tribe of Xarthiv. Blending magic and realism in a genre I call "science fantasy," we watch as Zèlde assesses the damage humanity has wrought upon our planet, and works to reverse it. She travels eighteen centuries and two dimensions in the hope of restoring peace and simplicity to the biosphere.

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 ...

Despite Aqua Marine’s super lineage, this wannabe superhero can only control a cup of water at a time. Not very effective as far as superpowers go. Never mind being able to stop the new nefarious villain, The Overlord of the Dance from taking over part of the city. That is until she discovers there is a cup of water in the human heart when she accidentally blows his out.

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 ...

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 ...

Planet Earth burns in nuclear flame. But The System was kind and wise enough to transfer all its little humans into a new world. Everyone has been granted a new name, a starting bonus, and a rousing kick up the backside. Some got a sword, some a crown, and me . . . A potato?! How am I supposed to take over the world with this thing? System, are you sure you're so kind and wise after all?

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,...

Grad student Arely Torres is fed up with planning her sister’s wedding, especially when she finds herself touring the venue — a winery in Spain — alone while the bridezilla communicates via text. And when a man from her past and her sister’s ex both show up with their own agendas, Arely just wants out of the drama. Too bad the weather has other ideas. About the Sweet But Twisted multi-author series Seven authors come together to bring you a spicy twist on a classic holiday trope. Our heroines are snowed in with more than one hot guy, and they’re going to take full advantage — in...