STRANDEDDEFINITION: adjective•(of a boat, sailor, or sea creature) left aground on a shore."a stranded whale"•left without the means to move from somewhere."he offers a lift to a stranded commuter"###The boys in this collection of short stories have most definitely been left STRANDED!They’ve been shipwrecked and abandoned.Marooned and cast away.And left helpless and high and dry.But you should never underestimate the tenacity of the human heart…STORIES INCLUDED:CRAVING STAINS Alina Popescu...

If Chad is reticent to drop in on Dr. Fortescue's big annual holiday bash without a date, imagine his horror when he arrives to discover the party revolves around a city-wide scavenger hunt with a two-to-a-team policy stricter than Noah's. Worse, his efforts to pair up with his hunky doctor crush are thwarted, and he winds up being assigned the doofus with an elbow in the punch bowl as a partner.It turns out scavenger hunts are hard -- were they really supposed to dognap the doctor...

Since he first laid eyes on Michael Phelps as a teenager, young Beau has longed to be an Olympian; the better to sleep with as many other Olympians as possible. Too bad he's a flop at every sport he tries.An offhand reference by his European mother reveals a family connection to the world of competitive shooting, and a quick -- if not wholly truthful -- email nets Beau an invitation to Luxembourg to train with Marcel, a dashing rifle champion. He jumps at the chance, and, when he l...

Henry Kavalauskas spends most of his time at YVR, Vancouver's international airport. He works there, he hangs out there -- he knows the world is bigger than his fast-food job and his parents' living room, and he wishes he could find a guy to take him out into it. Someone to shepherd him through its teeming cities and sleep beside him in its fine hotels.Someone like Zack Hoffman, to be quite specific, although Henry's first encounter with the short, sexy business traveler seems dest...

Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney -- these exciting cities are standard fare in the life of flight attendant Todd Eisenbraun, and he chases a romance with sexy-but-straight Josh through them all.Closer to home, a new neighbor in his San Francisco apartment building has a huge crush on Todd. His friends -- Katie, a flight attendant-turned-small appliance repairwoman, and Marzipan Q. Thespian, a man-dangling local philanthropist -- think Todd should at least give Chris a shot. Sure, he's overwe...

Fox McHardy leads a charmed life. Puget Sound penthouse, gorgeous boyfriend, jet-setting job -- everything he's ever wanted, he's gotten, including the heck out of the small Iowa town he grew up in. Even the trip he takes to Miami to surprise his boyfriend Jeremy is something of a long-shot wish fulfilled.Until he arrives in South Florida.Once things start to unravel, they do so with alarming speed, and he finds himself riding shotgun in a rented convertible with his new sw...

Flight attendant Tanner Bradac and his occasional make-out buddy Clark Arnold find themselves on a layover in San Francisco on the day the U.S. Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage. Tanner is as happy about the ruling as any of his Facebook friends rainbowing up their profile pictures, but it doesn't affect him personally -- he doesn't even have a boyfriend. Color him surprised, then, when he and Clark get caught up in the celebratory spirit of the day and return home as lawfully wedd...

Unassuming music major Brent Callahan has the crush of a lifetime on frat boy George Cortner. When the opportunity to offer George a ride home for the holidays crops up, Brent has to dig deep for the nerve to seize it. He'd been planning on hanging around campus for Christmas, but George doesn't need to know that.They're on the road before Brent's even sure he'll be able to keep his hands to himself with George in such close quarters. Not that George has asked him to ...

Jesse Cisneros and his best buddy Tanner fly for Mile High Airlines, which is every bit as classy as it sounds. When Dr. Willis rings his call light on a flight from New York to Denver, Jesse is so taken with the good doctor's looks and charm, he forgets all about the inflight medical crisis that prompted him to call for a flight attendant in the first place. Willis is handsome. Willis is helpful. And wouldn't you know it? Willis is someone else's husband.Jesse can hardly believe h...

Suhaib isn't a big believer in barriers. Whether he's skinny-dipping on the clock at his hotel job or spilling uncensored details of his life story just to make conversation, he is who he is and he doesn't care who knows it.Elijah plays his hand a little closer to the vest, and Suhaib can't get his head around Elijah's reckless plan to drive through the worst blizzard to hit Oklahoma since statehood just to meet his sister's new baby.When the storm that brought them togethe...

Just when barbecue boss Spencer Worthington is convinced nothing in the world could be hotter than Colorado Springs this summer, along comes Ethan, sizzling ribs with his dad at a rival booth. Just looking at him makes Spencer sweat, and when Ethan's dad reveals himself to be a homophobic heckler, Spencer's temper flares. Conflict erupts, and a passerby proposes a civilized solution: a reality TV cook-off -- such as the one she happens to produce -- to settle the score. May the best meat w...

Hubert knows he brings shame on himself and on the Lord by being a queer -- his grandad and the pastor of his evangelical church tell him as much all the time. So when he dies in a freak accident, he's as delighted as he is surprised to waltz right through the Pearly Gates, no questions asked. He even gets a beautiful angel named Bartholomew as his very own guide to the Afterlife.But when the angel makes brazen overtures, Hubert realizes his soul may have taken a wrong turn. Hubert...