I Need a Hero

Genre

M/M Erotic Romance

Blurb

‘Behind The Mask’ by Elizabeth Coldwell

He keeps his true identity hidden, even from the man he loves…

Twenty years ago, superheroes were outlawed by the mayor of Mokum City. Christopher Chase has grown up knowing that he has all the strength and speed of Sprint, his superhero father, who died attempting to save the mayor’s niece from being kidnapped. But, unlike his father, he is unable to fulfil his destiny and become a masked crimefighter. Even Christopher’s boyfriend, bar owner Johnny Brennan, doesn’t know Christopher’s true identity.

A chance encounter with a purse snatcher in the city cemetery gives Christopher a taste of what it’s like to use his powers for good. And when Johnny becomes caught up in a hostage situation, Christopher can no longer stand by. Even if it means losing his own life, he must pull on the costume of Sprint to save the man he loves.

‘Riptide’ by Helena Maeve

Sometimes all that matters is being in the right place, at the right time.

Rami knows the storm should have killed him. Very much alive, though slightly waterlogged, he can’t shake the feeling that he didn’t survive on his own merits. He had help.

When a person of interest in the legal matter he’s been hired to untangle reveals a strong resemblance to the man who may have saved his life, venturing into uncharted waters becomes the least of Rami’s problems.

A loner living in the shadow of a once-great house, Malcolm is a hard man to pin down. His seemingly impossible feats of heroism have certainly saved lives, but the people of Envern, Maine, are only too eager to allege he had something to do with his employer’s death. Leading a secretive existence under a cloud of suspicion should scupper Malcolm’s appeal, but Rami has secrets of his own and his relationship with danger has always been complicated.

Reader Advisory: This book contains depression and suicidal ideation.

‘Saving the Day’ by Jambrea Jo Jones

Superpower—check. Worldwide fans? No thank you!

Kent Laine and his twin brother Jimmy have superpowers in a world where most people don’t believe. Sure, comic books and movies make it seem so entertaining, but for them it isn’t. The brothers were raised to keep their powers hidden. To only use them when it’s absolutely necessary.

The struggle is real for Kent. He can heal people, but at what cost to himself? He envies his brother’s ability to speak with animals. If only he’d been given a non-active gift because the urge to help everyone is always strong.

In walks Albert Ott. His sister is dying. Will Kent be able to let her die? Or will he help the man who he is coming to love.

Stay tuned…

‘Flying with the Stars’ by Sarah Masters

Not every superhero needs a cape!

Hello. My name is James and I’ve just got over a break-up with the awful Gareth, who left me for a man who has nipples the size of cigar stubs. How’s that for a bash to my self-esteem? Gareth did me a favor, though, and now it’s time to go after the man I really love, but first I need to crash out of my morose shell and go clubbing.

After I bump into my crush—ahem, neighbor—Ronnie, and find myself babbling stupid things while ogling him as he stands in his doorway wrapped in nothing but a towel, I begin to wonder whether true love will ever come my way if I keep acting so amateurish in the relationship department. But Ronnie accepts my invitation to join me at the club, and what happens afterward both amazes and freaks me the hell out. The man of my dreams is like no other, and he might well need me as his sidekick in the future if things keep going the way they are.

With a nasty thug to deal with and a robber stealing a woman’s handbag, Ronnie has to let his inner force free and right the wrongs. Can I handle this new life? And more to the point, can Ronnie? Who needs a cape and a mask when Ronnie has power at his fingertips and a brilliant ability to whisk us here, there and everywhere so we’re flying with the stars?

‘Unseen’ by Lucy Felthouse

When a scientific procedure has unexpected results, Rory tries to make the best of a bad situation and ends up becoming an accidental superhero.

Medical scientist Rory is working in his top secret underground laboratory in Central London when a procedure has unexpected results. Far from curing his patient, a monkey called Arnold, of an unpleasant disease, he manages to turn the animal invisible! In his panic, Rory accidentally gets some of the serum he injected Arnold with into his own bloodstream, rendering himself invisible, too. With disbelief and confusion filling his brain, Rory finds it impossible to think straight, much less to figure out what precisely happened, and what on earth he’s going to do about it. So, after stripping off his clothes—which remain visible and therefore would give him away—he heads out into the London night for a walk to try and clear his head. Soon, a series of events lead him into a situation where he takes heroic action to protect somebody from hurting themselves, or someone else. And, just when Rory thinks things can’t get any weirder, he’s found, completely naked, in the home of the man he helped the previous evening. How can he explain his way out of this?

‘The Angel on the Northern Line’ by Catherine Curzon

When your average, run-of-the-mill retired superhero Latin teacher meets an angel on the underground, it’s not only runaway trains that spark.

Christian Winter used to save the world. In World War II, when good and bad was a simple matter of whose side you were on, life had seemed so much simpler. Back then it was easy for a superman to see the troops safely home. Back then it was easy to be Mithras.

Long since retired to teach Latin in a London school, the man who used to be Mithras wants nothing more than a cup of tea and a quiet life. All that changes thanks to a runaway train and a red-headed Scottish angel on the Northern Line whose eyes are bluer than a summer sky, and who just happens to have a thing for chaps in tweed.

Swept along by Freddy Rose’s passion and enthusiasm, Christian’s efforts to resist the Scottish angel’s attractions aren’t exactly heartfelt, but can the passionate angel and an encounter with a very important lady tempt Mithras back to a life of adventure?

Excerpt

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Rory carefully placed the empty syringe into a kidney bowl on a wheeled metal table at his side then snapped off his latex gloves and put them next to the bowl. When he turned back to his workstation, though, the monkey he’d just injected had disappeared.

He blinked, as though his eyes were not functioning correctly and that closing and opening them again would do a hard reset. Like doing a restart on his PC when it acted up. Unfortunately, in the case of his eyes, it didn’t help. He tried again, just to be sure. No such luck. The monkey was still not there.

Shaking his head, he looked around the laboratory. It wasn’t very big, and there was nowhere to hide. Not for a creature the size of Arnold, anyway. Even an escaped mouse would be pretty easy to locate. Rory wondered if perhaps he was asleep and dreaming—vivid and bonkers dreams were a constant in his life. A swift pinch of his arm answered that question. Muttering, he rubbed the afflicted area, the cotton of his lab coat soft beneath his fingers.

He frowned, then frowned some more as a thought occurred to him. A thought so unbelievable, so ludicrous that he couldn’t understand why it had even popped into his brain.

Because it’s the only possible explanation.

He shook his head. No, it wasn’t. There was a perfectly rational explanation for Arnold’s sudden disappearance. He wasn’t where he’d left him, but although he was smart, there was no way in hell he could have escaped the lab. It was impossible. Rory reached into his pocket and clasped the hard plastic of his security pass between his fingers and heaved a sigh of relief. The very idea of a monkey—albeit a tame, friendly one—wandering around the City of London didn’t bear thinking about. And neither did the consequences.

Determined to disprove his silly idea, Rory began searching in earnest for Arnold. It took all of five seconds—he wasn’t underneath the workstation, or behind the large storage unit at one end of the long room. All of the cupboards were closed and locked, and the keys still hung securely on a lanyard around Rory’s neck. There was nowhere else the animal could have gone.

Rory scratched his head, the scientist in him still desperate not to resort to believing the thought that was now flashing on and off in his mind in strobe lighting, unwilling to be ignored any longer.

Invisible. You’ve turned Arnold invisible.

No. No way. He was trying to cure a lethal disease, not create some Harry Potter-esque potion for invisibility. But it was a cloak that made them invisible in Harry Potter, wasn’t it, not a potion? He tutted and sighed, then shook his head. I’m losing the fucking plot, here. I need to go home and get some rest. Maybe I’m overdoing it.

There was one small problem, though. Before he could leave, he had to find the damn monkey. Arnold had been injected with some potent drugs, and although Rory wasn’t expecting him to experience any further side effects, he certainly wasn’t going to risk having the creature anywhere near the general public. He was trying to save lives, not put them at risk. Plus, Arnold himself would be in danger out there—he could get hit by a bus or a car. Which would be highly likely, given the drivers of said buses and cars wouldn’t be able to see him.

Oh fuck, this is really happening, isn’t it?

[/spoiler]

Available from:

eBook:
Pride Publishing
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Amazon AU
Amazon CA
Barnes & Noble
Google Books
Kobo

Print:
Pride Publishing
Amazon UK
Amazon US

Reviews:

“Each story has a seriously unique take on the superhero theme and most of them grabbed me, refusing to let go until I finished the very last page. Overall, this is a fantastic anthology that I would highly recommend to m/m romance readers who likes action with their sexy bits.” 4 out of 5, The TBR Pile