While I’ve been pounding away at the keyboard, Timmy brings you Part II of Raidean’s story, “Because It Started This Way.” If you haven’t read Part I yet, you can find it here. Thank you for writing this wonderful, heartfelt story and for helping to educate us, Timmy. I hope authorship always remains a part of your life. Well done!

I look to the head of the line thinking this will take at least a couple of hours. Logically, I know that can’t be right, but damn it’s a long line. I just want to get checked in and get my key. I want to find my dorm room and unpack. I’m ready to make my new home feel as if it is part mine. After doing a budget with my father, I figured out exactly how much money I would have to spend on food, clothes, and any extras I would need. With a full scholarship, I have it made. I have enough to be more than comfortable. I won’t need to work at all through these four years, so all I need to do is go to class, study, and try to keep myself occupied. I have some ideas about the occupied. This is going to be my time to learn more than just my future profession.

As I finally make it to the table, a girl that can’t be much older than me asks my name and student number. She hands me a keycard and points me toward the dorms. I’m so excited. I will meet new people. I will try to make new friends. I know Taylor is attending this college too, but I won’t need to see him. I can be the new me. No one needs to know anything about me and, because the suites have in-room bathrooms, I can keep my privacy and my secret. I have thought a lot about this. I still wanted to see Taylor, but I decided it would be best to make a clean break. I wonder though, how many times I’m going to need to start over. I hope I get it right this time, because starting over is just as painful as the reason I need to start over.

I text my dad to let him know which room I’m in so he can move the car closer to the right building. I meet him at the curb where they allow half hour parking for unloading and grab two of my bags. My dad grabs the big box, and Mom gets the last bag. I lead the way to my new home. My new sanctuary. I open the door to my dorm with a burst of energy and rush in, big smile on my face. That is until I see my new roommate sitting at his desk. Shit! Are you kidding me? How in hell did this happen? Continue reading here.

Raidean’s Story ©2015 Timmy Ashton. All Rights Reserved.

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Available in ebook and print from:
Dreamspinner/Harmony Ink Press   Amazon  GooglePlay     Barnes & Noble  OmniLit/ARe     Beam-eBooks in Europe

Follow the burgeoning love of two teens during the worst year of their lives. Irish-born Declan David de Quirke II is the son of two ambassadors, one Irish and one American. He is ‘out’ to his parents but to no one else. French-born Jean Isidore de Sauveterre is also the son of two ambassadors, one Catalan and one Parisian. His four half brothers have been told to cure him of his homosexuality. Both teens have lost a parent in a London car bombing.

Declan and Isidore meet at the beginning of their senior year at a private academy in the United States. Declan is immediately smitten with Isidore and becomes his knight in shining armor. Isidore wants to keep what is left of his sanity and needs Declan’s love to do it. One is beaten, one is drugged, one is nearly raped, one has been raped. They are harassed by professors and police, and have fights at school, but none of it compares to running for their lives. When the headmaster’s popular son attempts suicide and someone tries to assassinate Declan’s mother, they are thrown headlong into chaos, betrayal, conspiracy, allegations of sexual coercion, even murder. And one of them carries a secret that may get them killed. Read Chapter One of Slaying Isidore’s Dragons

Available from: Harmony Ink Press
Amazon ARe/OmniLit Barnes & Noble

Ómorphi. Greek. Meaning pretty
Pretty. adj. /pritē/ Pleasing by delicacy or grace

High school senior Michael Sattler leads a charmed life. He’s a star athlete, has great friends, and parents who love him just the way he is. What’s missing from his life is a boyfriend. That’s a problem because he’s out only to his parents and best friend. When Michael accidentally bumps into Christy Castle at school, his life changes in ways he never imagined. Christy is Michael’s dream guy: smart, pretty, and sexy. But nothing could have prepared Michael for what being Christy’s boyfriend would entail.

Christy needs to heal after years of abuse and knows he needs help to do it. After the death of his notorious father, he leaves his native Greece and settles in upstate New York. Alone, afraid, and left without a voice, Christy hides the myriad scars of his abuse. He desperately wants to be loved and when he meets Michael, he dares to hope that day has arrived. When one of Michael’s team-mates becomes an enemy and an abuser from Christy’s past seeks to return him to a life of slavery, only Michael and Christy’s combined strength and unwavering determination can save them from the violence that threatens to destroy their future together. Read an excerpt of Omorphi

Title: Safe Available from: Harmony Ink Press
Amazon ARe/OmniLit Barnes & Noble

Caleb had one mission in life.
To keep his boyfriend safe.

They met at ten, kissed at twelve, and were madly in love by eighteen. Caleb Deering is the captain of the swim team and the hottest senior in school. He comes from a loving home with a kind father and a caring, but strict, mother who is battling breast cancer. Nico Caro is small and beautiful, and has a father who rules with an iron fist—literally. One morning Caleb forgets himself, and he pecks Nico on the lips at school. A teacher sees them and tattles to the Headmaster. The accidental outing at school might be the least of their problems, because the ball set in motion by the school’s calls to their parents could get Nico killed. In the face of that very real danger, Caleb knows he has only one mission in life: to keep Nico safe. Read an excerpt of Safe.