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...

Shannon hates Christmas. Mostly because Christmas hates him. It sure seems like it, anyway: every crummy thing that's happened to him since high school has befallen him at the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. Every humiliating break-up, every high-rise hotel fire -- heck, a few years back, one guy he had the hots for up and died.Which goes a long way toward explaining why he's a whimpering mess when he meets Ben the barista one Christmas morning at his neighborhood coffee house. It...

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 ...

'Tis the night before Christmas when Derrick Halvorson's flight to Minneapolis is diverted to a tiny municipal airport out in the sticks. Grounded by a blizzard, he lucks into the last hotel room in town, which he offers to share with Lee, a tall, tempting twink from his flight with nowhere else to go. The sex is awesome, but when Derrick catches Lee stealing what little cash he has in his wallet, he tosses the guy out.When Lee resurfaces in the morning, Derrick resolves to stay ma...

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...

With no job and no boyfriend, Justin sees no reason to make a big deal out of Christmas this year, so he plunks down his severance pay on a cottage in the Caribbean and jets away for some Me Time. Not that he'd mind a little Us Time, you understand, but the handsome young islanders of his acquaintance are all friendly, fun, and straight as they come. He sure didn't leave San Diego looking for any middle-aged American gym jock, but when one washes up at his favorite local watering hole, Jus...

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...

Grover "Shep" Shepherd is the only thing Felix Medrano loves more than being the current darling of Hollywood. He throws a star-studded surprise engagement party to declare their love to the world, and it's a smash, save for one detail: Shep is a no-show. Felix knows Shep missed his flight home from New Orleans, but that was hours ago. What's the hold up?Shep's still at the airport is what, watching flight after flight wing westward without him. Each time he sends Felix a progress ...

When Richard is invited to join Colin for Christmas in Cancun, he's on the next flight out of Winnipeg faster than you can say Feliz Navidad. He'll take sun and sand over shoveling snow any day, but more importantly, he believes the invitation as an obvious sign Colin has at last chosen him over his rival Joaquin. Now they can get on with the business of being a couple.But life with Colin is full of surprises. Not only has he also invited Joaquin to Cancun, but he's hatche...

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...