Excerpt of Midwinter's Night by Michael Barnette
This story is out of print at this time, it will be rereleased through Shadowfire Press


Aerdyn is a Seelie Knight exiled for a murder he didn’t commit. Alone, his magic dying, all he has are memories of the past, memories of his lost love Ellian. Then a stranger arrives. A stranger who turns his lonely world upside down and shows him that true love never dies.

He pressed his mouth to Lian's in another tentative kiss that quickly warmed into an exploration of his new lover's mouth. The taste of Lian's lips was like violets, a flavorful perfume that flowed across his senses, fueling his desire. When his tongue slipped into Lian's mouth, it was the sweetness of honeysuckle he found there, the taste enticing him to explore the other secrets of Lian's body. He kissed along the Unseelie's jaw, finding that his lover's hair smelled of roses and lightning just as Ellian's had and that the soft skin of Lian's throat was like satin. The flesh where shoulder and neck joined was so sensitive that when he nipped it gently, the cock in his hand surged and his lover shuddered from head to toe with the pleasure. It was a pleasure he gladly gave, his teeth nipping down the arch of his lover's collar bone, sucking lightly as Lian moaned his enjoyment; his voice almost the same throaty gasp he remembered Ellian making.

From there he kissed his way down Lian's chest, savoring the faint honey sweetness of the Unseelie's skin. He paused and took a nipple pale as dawn's first blush into his mouth and sucked delicately as he slowly stroked the hard rod of flesh in his hand.

"Aerdyn...." Lian's hips lifted off the bed, his eyes closed in passion, both arms going tight around him. His cock was no longer in Lian's grip, his own attention so fully held by the flavor of his lover's passion, he hadn't noticed when it had been released.

"Aerdyn... please...please..."

Hearing his name gasped, feeling the vibration of Lian's moans through his lips, he suckled harder, tasting more sweetness as it oozed from the Unseelie.

His own eyes closed, the passion rising within his own body almost too much to control. His balls ached; his cock throbbed to the rapidly increasing beat of his own heart. It was more than enough proof of his desire for the slim Unseelie male beneath him.

Nothing mattered now. Not why Lian had come to him, not his own fears that this was an elaborate form of revenge, not that it was a feverish dream brought on by his own impending death.

He took the other nipple into his mouth and rolled his tongue over it, savoring the honeyed taste before he kissed his way lower, licking and nipping pale skin that grew increasingly sweeter as Lian became increasingly more aroused.

He reached the Unseelie's cock. Beads of crystalline fluid had dripped down over his hand, and he put out the tip of his tongue to taste it, the flavor of violets and passion, of honey, roses and the brittle flavor of lightning exploding through his senses.

And the pain of Aerdyn's past withered, changing to reveal the tiny bud of hope. Hope for a future with Lian. The traces of Ellian's essence within the male Unseelie burned away the grief he'd lived under for so long, and he started to laugh as tears streamed down his face.

Coming to Shadowfire Press