Showing results by author "Heidi Cullinan" in All Categories

At 40, Vincent “Vinnie” Fierro is still afraid to admit he might be gay - even to himself. Vinnie attempts some self-exploration in Chicago’s Boystown bars, far from anyone who knows him. Naturally, he runs smack into someone from the neighborhood. Trey Giles has little time for fun, let alone dating someone who swears he’s straight. Yet after one night of dancing cheek-to-cheek, Trey agrees to let Vinnie court him and see if he truly belongs on this side of the fence. It seems like a solid plan, but nothing is simple when family is involved.

Sam Keller knows he'll never find the excitement he craves in Middleton, Iowa - not while he's busting his ass in nursing school and paying rent by slaving away in a pharmacy stockroom. Then Sam meets Mitch Tedsoe, an independent long-haul trucker who makes a delivery to a shop across the alley. Innocent flirting quickly leads to a fling, and when Mitch offers to take him on a road trip west, Sam jumps at the chance for adventure.

High school graduate Jeremey Samson is looking forward to burying his head under the covers and sleeping until it's time to leave for college. Then a tornado named Emmet Washington enters his life. The young man with a double major in math and computer science is handsome, forward, wicked smart, interested in dating Jeremey - and he has autism. When Jeremey's untreated illness reaches a critical breaking point, Emmet is the white knight who rescues him and brings him to The Roosevelt.

Ed Maurer has bounced back, more or less, from the neck injury that permanently benched his semi-pro football career. He hates his soul-killing office job, but he loves volunteering at a local community center. The only fly in his ointment is the dance instructor, Laurie Parker, who can't seem to stay out of his way.

Walter Lucas doesn't believe in storybook love. Everyone is better off having as much fun as possible with as many people as possible - except his shy, sad little sack of a roommate is seriously screwing up his world view. As Walter sets out to lure Kelly out of his shell, staying just friends is harder than he anticipated. He discovers love is a crash course in determination. To make the grade, he'll have to finally show up for class - and overcome his own private fear that love was never meant to last.

Xander Fairchild can’t stand people in general and frat boys in particular, so when he’s forced to spend his summer working on his senior project with Skylar Stone, a silver-tongued Delta Sig with a trust fund who wants to make Xander over into a shiny new image, Xander is determined to resist. He came to idyllic, Japanese culture-soaked Benten college to hide and make manga, not to be transformed into a corporate clone in the eleventh hour.

Aaron Seavers is a pathetic mess, and he knows it. He lives in terror of incurring his father's wrath and disappointing his mother, and he can't stop dithering about where to go to college - with fall term only weeks away. Ditched by a friend at a miserable summer farewell party, all he can do is get drunk in the laundry room and regret he was ever born. Until a geeky-cute classmate lifts his spirits, leaving him confident of two things: his sexual orientation and where he's headed to school.

Ranch hand Roe Davis absolutely never mixes business with pleasure - until he runs into his boss, Travis Loving, at the only gay bar within 200 miles. Getting involved with the ranch owner is a bad idea, but Roe's and Travis's bedroom kinks line up against one another like a pair of custom-cut rails. As long as they're both clear this is sex on the side, no relationship, no interfering with the job, they could make it work

Crescencio "Chenco" Ortiz pulled himself up by his garter straps after his father's will yanked the financial rug from under his spank-me pumps. He doesn't need anyone, yet when Steve Vance steps into his life, the prospect of having a sexy leather daddy on tap begins to take on a certain appeal. There's a hitch when he learns Steve is friends with Mitch Tedsoe—the half-brother Chenco never knew except through his father's twisted lies. Despite his reservations, soon Chenco is living his dreams, including a performing gig in Vegas.

Dr. Hong-Wei Wu has come to Copper Point, Wisconsin, after the pressures of a high-powered residency burned him out of his career before he started. Ashamed of letting his family down after all they’ve done for him, he plans to live a quiet life as a simple surgeon in this tiny Northern town. His plans, however, don’t include his outgoing, kind, and attractive surgical nurse, Simon Lane.

Randy Jensen can't stand to just sit by and watch as a mysterious man throws money away on the roulette wheel, especially since Randy's got his own bet going as to the reason this guy is making every play like it's his last day on earth. The man's dark desperation hits Randy right in the gut. Half of him warns that getting involved is a sucker's bet, and the other half scrambles for a reason - any reason - to save the man's soul.

Entomology grad student Adam Ellery meets Denver Rogers, a muscle-bound hunk of sexy, when Denver effortlessly dispatches the drunken frat boys harassing Adam at the Tucker Springs laundromat. Thanking him turns into flirting, and then, much to Adam's delight, hot sex over the laundry table. Though Denver's job as a bouncer at a gay bar means he gets his pick of geek-sexy college twinks, he can't get Adam out of his head.

El Rozal doesn't do relationships, especially not with clueless straight boys still pining for their ex. El may make his living dealing in castoffs, but that doesn't apply to men. Still, when Paul starts clearing out his old life, pawning kitchen equipment he never wanted in the first place, El is drawn to Paul in spite of himself.

Doctor Owen and HR director Erin shock the Copper Point community when they go from enemies to lovers literally overnight. It's a distraction, but when their fake romance turns real, they'll have to put their demons to rest and learn to trust each other.

With the quiet help of his wealthy family, Sebastian "Baz" Acker has successfully kept his painful past at bay. But as the end of college draws near, his friends - his buffer zone - are preparing to move on while his own life is at a crippling standstill. With loneliness bearing down on him, Baz hooks up - then opens up - with Elijah Prince, the guy Baz took a bullet for last year. The aftershocks of their one-night stand leave giant cracks in Baz's carefully constructed armor.

Emmet Washington has never let the world define him, even though he, his boyfriend, Jeremey, and his friends aren't considered "real" adults because of their disabilities. When the State of Iowa restructures its mental health system and puts the independent living facility where they live in jeopardy, Emmet refuses to be forced into substandard, privatized corporate care. With the help of Jeremey and their friends, he starts a local grassroots organization and fights every step of the way.

Kindergarten teacher Spenser Harris has carved a quiet, stable future out of his tumultuous past, but his world turns upside down the night a homeless teen appears on his doorstep - a boy whose story mirrors the one Spenser has worked so hard to overcome. The decision to shelter Duon is easy. What's tricky is juggling the network of caregivers in Duon's life, especially TomAs Jimenez.

Baz Acker and Elijah Prince have it all. They're engaged, and their wedding is guaranteed to be a spectacle no event will ever top. So why are they hunkered down in a quiet corner of the Acker mansion, restless and edgy while they wait out the holidays?