GENRE: Gay Fantasy Spicy Romance
LENGTH: 13,643 words
RATING:

Fionn is content enough in his life as one of the Queen's Own, adventurers who go forth to save the kingdom from evil. Johnathan is content enough being a farmer, working the land on the small farm where his family has lived for generations.

When these two meet, they feel an almost instant attraction. Yet Johnathan knows that an elite warrior like Fionn couldn't possibly want to settle down on the farm and make a life with him.

Can Fionn perform the seemingly impossible task of convincing Johnathan his fears are wrong?

EXCERPT:
Note: may contain sexually explicit scenes of a homoerotic nature.

As they walked back towards the house, Fionn acted on a sudden impulse and scooped up a handful of snow. A moment later his snowball was flying towards Johnathan. He'd meant to hit the farmer in the back, but it flew high and got him smack in the back of his head.

Sputtering in shock, Johnathan turned around and stared at Fionn. He just grinned back. "Gotcha!"

Johnathan suddenly grinned too and scooped up his own handful of snow. Fionn tried to dodge, but the snowball got him square in the chest.

"Well now it's war!" he said, and soon snowballs were flying back and forth. Both combatants were fairly accurate, but Johnathan threw harder. After getting hit right in the face with a particularly large snowball, Fionn grabbed another double handful of snow and then snapped his wings open.

"Hey, that's cheating!" shouted Johnathan as Fionn rose into the sky. With a laugh, the aivan dropped his snowball right on Johnathan's head. He yelped and shook his fist up at the sky. "You have to land to get more snow, you know. I'll get you then!"

"True. However ..." Fionn suddenly dove straight at Johnathan. He yelped, trying to dodge out of the way, but Fionn back-winged expertly and landed just in front of him in a flurry of flying snow. Next thing Johnathan knew he'd been tackled to the ground and Fionn was sitting on top of him.

"You won't win so easily," Johnathan said once he'd recovered his breath slightly. He rolled, pushing Fionn off of him, and pinning the smaller man down in the snow. He was about to grab and handful and wash Fionn's face with it, the way he had with his brothers when he'd been young, but suddenly Fionn reached up and pulled his head down for a kiss.

For a moment Johnathan melted into it, giving in momentarily to the suddenly changed mood, feeling the warm softness of Fionn's lips against his.

Fionn slid his hands down Johnathan's back, pulling their bodies tight together. They were both bundled up against the cold, but as Fionn continued to kiss Johnathan passionately, he could feel that the other man was having a reaction to the kiss. A warmth and hardness where their hips pressed together was obvious even through the heavy winter trousers they both wore. He was sure that Johnathan could feel his similar reaction too.

But it seemed that Johnathan was still uncomfortable with such things, for he pulled back, rolling off of Fionn and getting to his feet.

Fionn lay in the snow, his wings half-spread around him, making a somewhat literal snow angel, and looked up at Johnathan. He'd been letting such moments slide for months. Perhaps he should try to address the subject. "I'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable," he said.

Johnathan scuffed a foot in the snow, shaking his head. "I ... It's ... You have nothing to be sorry for."

Fionn looked at him for a moment, wanting to say more. But would prying get him what he wanted, or only chase the apparently shy farmer further away? "I'm glad you're not upset," he finally said as he rose to his feet. He shook snow from his wings and added, "I'm also half-frozen, a hot cider and a seat by the fire sound pretty good right now. What do you think?"

"Yes, that sounds good to me," replied Johnathan.