Showing results by author "Ryan Taylor" in All Categories

Stories with depth, strong protagonists, high tension, all told while pulling at your heartstrings, or making you smile with understanding. In this anthology, you'll find fifteen stories, including many novelettes. Go on adventures with heroes old and young, a couple of war pigs, and visit many new fantasy worlds. Watch out for the dragons! Deep Magic: Volume 3 has stories that will satisfy your hunger to escape.

I’ll never fall in love again. I had my chance, and I was the happiest man you can imagine. One day, it all came to an end. The only thing left was playing hockey, but it wasn’t enough, and I became my own worst enemy. When my old school offered me a lifeline, I took it. As a coach, I could at least be miserable in a different place.

I wasn’t a keeper. Guys just didn’t pick me, and after one too many threw me away, my heart couldn’t take it anymore. When I was traded to the Buffalo Warriors, I knew things wouldn’t be any different. Skate. Score goals. Work out. Repeat. That’s my life. I’m living the dream by playing professional hockey, and I have some amazing friends. I’m happy. Really, I am. Or at least I’m trying to be. Until the night I run into Luca.

I may not understand my attraction to Sven Holmer, but I can tell you my obsession with kissing him started in the middle of a fight. When we met again, the conversation was easy, the banter effortless. Once stolen glances gave way to secret touches, I was more confused than ever. How the hell am I supposed to handle it when everything I’ve always believed about myself no longer fits?

Todd Cleever and Drew Simon are crazy about each other. They started dating three years ago when “Cleevs” was a rookie defenseman for the Chicago Ice. Drew, the team’s captain, was a few years older than Cleevs. Both men were deep in the closet, but it didn’t take long for them to fall in love. Cleevs was traded to the Bethesda Barracudas a year later, causing a heartbreaking separation. Ever since, they’ve skated around the problem with occasional stolen nights together and brief vacations under the guise of “friends”, but two years of living apart have taken their toll.

Nick Johnson, a top prospect for a pro hockey team, has a secret: He’s gay. Tired of living in the closet for the sport he loves, he sees no way out. Jacob Meyer’s string of bad boyfriends left him cynical about love. Instead, he focuses on his studies as a third-year law student. With a new job waiting for him, he’s eager to graduate and move on. On a school-sponsored trip, Nick and Jacob meet in a most unexpected way. When Nick tells Jacob his secret, they decide to hang out, just as friends. But their attraction is too strong to ignore, and they soon begin dating.

I’ve spent years as the Warriors’ goalie, holding the line under pressure. But off the ice, my life’s a disaster. After dating too many men who only saw me as an NHL trophy, I’ve sworn off romance—until Brody skates into my life. He’s newly traded to the team, ten years younger, and carrying the weight of the world. I should keep my distance, but every stolen glance, every unguarded smile pulls me in. A playful bet pushes me to take a chance with Brody, though I’m risking more than my heart.

Hockey right winger Tyler Jensen isn’t thrilled to get the news he’s been traded to the Bethesda Barracudas. The team may be red-hot in the rankings, but there’s someone there he’d rather not have to see every day. Defenseman Kevin Moore is living the dream playing for the Barracudas - until he hears that his old high school crush Tyler is joining the team. Ty was once everything Kev wanted, but their age difference got in the way. In Bethesda, Tyler doesn’t take long to notice that Kevin has grown up into precisely the kind of man he can’t resist.

When winger Blake Conti signs with the national champion Bethesda Barracudas, he isn’t looking to get involved with anyone. Still bruised from an old relationship, his focus is on playing hockey. But when one of his new teammates turns out to be the hottest man he’s ever met, Blake wonders if he should reconsider his aversion to romance.

Best friends. Teammates. Totally straight… until a kiss changes everything. Nate (Holky) Holcomb I’ve always been straight. No confusion, no questions—just a long list of hookups with women and a reputation for being the life of the party. But when Mad Dog moves into my house for a while, things start to get weird. Not in a bad way. Just in a “why do I want to kiss him” kind of way. We’re teammates. We’re roommates. We’re definitely not boyfriends. At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

As a single guy in professional hockey, my life has been about what you’d expect: hockey and girls, emphasis on the girls. And Logan, of course. He’s my best friend, my teammate, and the person who knows me better than anyone. When a night on the road ends with us in bed, I don’t know how to explain it. I told myself it was a one-time thing, but it happened again. And again. Now I want more. If I admit I’m falling for Logan, what does that mean? Everything changes: my identity, my public image, my entire life. But pretending it’s nothing gets harder with every kiss, every touch.

Best friends Nick Johnson and Tyler Jensen seem to have the world by the tail. The 18-year-old stars of their school’s hockey team are looking forward to playing in college and hoping for careers with the pros. Nick and Tyler know a lot about each other, but there are a few important details they haven’t discussed. To start with, neither man knows the other is gay. Making things interesting, Nick has a massive crush on Tyler, something he’s kept to himself for a long time. And although he’s never said a word about it, Tyler has wanted to date Nick since they met.

The haunting true story about a boy who encountered something neither man nor ape in rural Arkansas.

One man is trying to get tenure in the job of his dreams; the other is set to graduate and begin law school. Life brought them together under random circumstances, and their path isn’t an easy one. How can they make a relationship work without sacrificing everything?

Can he ever learn to trust again? Brandon Weber’s old boyfriend almost beat him to death. Brandon survived, but still bears the emotional scars. Eighteen months later, he has withdrawn into himself, convinced he’ll never be able to trust another man. Devin Macadam, fresh out of law school, has an exciting new job. He is also on the lookout for just the right guy, someone to take care of and love. When Devin shows up for the first day of work at his new office, he meets Brandon, a legal assistant there.

Tony knew what he saw... Whose was it? Better yet, what had torn off the bloody leg? Something was very wrong, but the people of Fouke, Arkansas, refused to talk about the one question that secretly terrorized their small community: what if the mysterious creature were to develop a taste for human flesh? If they wouldn’t listen to a kid, maybe they would listen to a grown-up.

There are ways to get ahead in college hockey, but having a meltdown, trying to get rid of your coach, and stalking his boyfriend isn’t one of them. Is it really a surprise that I wound up in a hospital facing my demons instead of getting ready to play for the pros and taking care of my baby? I needed the world’s biggest redo, but the probability of a second chance was about the same as….

It's the end of the world...Or at least it was. The apocalypse has come and gone in all its horror and glory. After being released from years of torture underground, Khadim emerges and embarks upon this wasted planet unaware of his fate. He is meant for something much greater than himself. He doesn't know it yet, but he is destined to bring balance. In other words, some guy is going to kick a lot of ass and save everyone...Whether he wants to or not.

After facing the tragic death of a family member, Ryan is determined to do whatever it takes to cover the financial debt they left behind. But what if the only way to do that is to capture the very rare and violent creature that he suspects has already killed several locals? Little does he know about the multitude of unsettling surprises that lie ahead.

After Ryan makes a horrifying discovery near the Red River, he is confronted by an unexpected guest. Was he followed? Unfortunately, the horrors only escalate from there. Perhaps little Tony Peterson's claim about the existence of an "ape-man" wasn't so farfetched after all.