Showing results by narrator "Joel Leslie" in All Categories

Beast has been disfigured in a fire, but he's covered his skin with tattoos to make sure no one mistakes his scars for weakness. The accident not only hurt his body, but damaged his soul and self-esteem, so he's wrapped himself in a tight cocoon of violence and mayhem where no one can reach him. Until one night, when he finds a young man covered in blood in their clubhouse. Sweet, innocent, and as beautiful as an angel fallen from heaven, Laurent pulls on all of Beast's heartstrings.

Often referred to as the father of science fiction, Victorian author Jules Verne is renowned for his fantastical adventures imagining extraordinary voyages to strange new horizons. Prolific and prophetic, he wrote over 50 novels and numerous short stories, in which he foretold the skyscraper, the submarine, space missions and even the Internet. Featured here are contemporary adaptations of four of his most famous tales, as well as a special episode of The Forum examining the long-lasting appeal of his work.

Quintus Furius Varus is one of the best lanistas in Rome. Tall and strong in build, fearsome in manner, and sharp of wit, he trains the best gladiators bound for the arenas of Rome. When Senator Servius Augendus seeks personal guards, he attends the Ludus Varus for purchase of the very best. He puts to Quintus an offer he cannot refuse, and Quintus finds himself in Neapolis, contracted as a trainer of guards instead of gladiators. Kaeso Agorix was taken from his homelands of Iberia and delivered to Rome as a slave.

Magnus Carlsen is determined to grow old disgracefully. At 52, he doesn’t believe in keeping anything. Men, sofas, books—everything gets jettisoned, eventually. He’s divided his life into happy compartments. A successful trial lawyer, he spends his days lecturing jurors, exasperating judges, and striding arrogantly around courtrooms. He fills his nights with a parade of handsome young men who want to make him happy. Why date someone his own age to discuss back pain, retirement planning, and corns when he can date men who don’t care to discuss anything at all?

Sora finds this to be doubly true after meeting the struggling Burkhard Clan and the mischievous Ravi. The wind dragon has stolen his breath, and heart, away. Sora suspects he might have found his mate. But his inability to be truthful with Ravi eats at Sora. When the Jaeggi attack, Sora can’t keep his secrets any longer. Not when Ravi is in the center of the war raging around them. He has to reveal who he really is. It’s the only way to be with Ravi and give the Burkhards the help they need.

Robert Selby is determined to see his sister make an advantageous match. But he has two problems: The Selbys have no connections or money, and Robert is really a housemaid named Charity Church. She’s enjoyed every minute of her masquerade over the past six years, but she knows her pretense is nearing an end. Charity needs to see her beloved friend married well and then Robert Selby will disappear...forever.

Gabe and Josh Roman-Wyatt have been living life in the fast lane. Demanding jobs, precocious twin toddlers, an ever-growing circle of friends, and a menagerie of pets means their home is filled with love and laughter but very few quiet moments for the happy couple. Gabe's solution is to plan a surprise vacation at a perfect hideaway where the two of them can slow things down and reconnect.

Malcolm Tate hung up his flogger when his submissive sought out another Dom and landed in the hands of a serial killer. Convinced his lack of dominance sent his sub away, Mal has spent two years blaming himself for what happened. But when his best friend finally convinces him to go back to the local dungeon, Mal's grateful. Especially when he wins beautiful, submissive, firmly closeted Kyle Bingham in a charity slave auction.

Mark Cooper is angry, homesick, and about to take his stepdad's dubious advice and rush Prescott College's biggest party fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. Greek life is as foreign to Aussie transplant Mark as Pennsylvania's snowstorms and bear sightings. Studious Deacon Holt is disappointed to learn Mark's pledging Alpha Delt, his fraternity Phi Sigma Kappa's sworn enemy. Mark is too beautiful for Deacon to pass up an invitation for sex, but beyond sex, Deacon's not sure. He wants a relationship, but a difficult family situation prevents him from pursuing anything beyond his studies.

Alpha Marc Thierry was used to the North Woods of Minnesota so his elevation to third on the loup garou council necessitated a move to a Gramacy section of New York City. On Monday nights his housekeeper is off and Marc doesn't like casseroles. He calls for Chinese and gets a musical voice on the line that calls to him. To his delight and surprise the boy on the phone delivers his food and is his destined mate.

It's 1793, and Simon Cavendish needs to get to his station at Fort Charlotte, a fur-trading outpost in the untamed Canadian wild. The fort is only accessible by canoe, and there's just one man daring enough to take him on the perilous, thousand-mile journey from Montreal this late in the summer. Young Christian Smith, the son of an Ojibwe mother and absent English father, is desperate for money to strike out on his own, so he agrees to take clueless Simon deep into the wild. As they travel endless lakes and rivers, they butt heads.

Apprenticed to the infamous Necromancer of Boston, Daniel Macavoy has seen a lot of upheaval in his life since that fateful day. Rescued from an abusive father and the monster he was once enslaved by, Daniel has struggled with every trauma that scarred his heart and mind. Yet with the love and support of his found family, Daniel has become stronger than he ever imagined. A capable sorcerer, he's been entrusted with the ancestral family seat of the Salvatores, the legendary site of the Massacre, the culmination of the centuries long Blood Wars between the Salvatores and the Macavoys.

Former Queen’s Enforcer Mal Kendrick doesn’t think his life could get any worse: He’s been exiled from Faerie with a cursed and useless right hand. When he’s not dodging random fae assassins in the Outer World, he’s going toe-to-toe with his tree-hugging neighbor. And when he discovers that the tree hugger is really a druid, he’s certain the gods have it in for him - after all, there’s always a catch with druids. Then he’s magically shackled to the man and expected to instruct him in Supernatural 101.

Tommy hears dead people. Okay, one dead person. His best friend, Chase. Since his death, Tommy can't stop hearing his voice. They talk every day and Tommy even sends him texts, but it always ends the same. Message failed to send. Until one day, a stranger texts back. Getting stuck in nowhere Georgia was not on Nick's summer agenda, but a horoscope, a chance encounter, and a cute boy has things looking up. Just one problem: the boy hates him. When a broken phone leaves him with a new number, Nick is ready to write off the entire summer as a loss. But then he receives a strange text.

I should be happy. My childhood best friend and I are living our wildest dream—making music and touring the world as famous rock stars. I've got everything I could wish for. Except him. I'll never have Silas. Not the way I want. Our onstage behavior gives fans a lot to speculate over, but it's only an act. The truth is, I die inside every time we touch. It might be pretend for Silas, but for me, it's a constant reminder that I can't have him the way I truly desire.

It’s the middle of the night when part-time police consultant and full-time empath Reece gets an anonymous call warning him that his detective sister needs his help. At an out-of-the-way Seattle marina, he discovers that three people have been butchered—including the author of the country’s strictest anti-empathy bill, which is just days from being passed into law. Soon, Reece’s caller arrives: a shadowy government agent known as The Dead Man, who is rumored to deal exclusively in cases involving empathy.

In the war-torn rubble of the human world, can a rebel elf and a lost dragon prince find love, or will a dark threat tear them and their world apart forever? A new land, a new court, a new king, but some things never change. Broken in all ways, Akiem fled his life as the amethyst prince only to land at the mercy of the beautiful but deadly diamond king, Luceran. Akiem knows dragons. He knows he’ll die today, tomorrow, whenever Luceran’s executioner brings down his axe, and maybe it’s all he deserves.

Psychic Emory Jackson and former black ops specialist, Jonathon Silver, are men from two completely different worlds with one thing in common: heartbreak. Emory still mourns the loss of his husband five years prior, and Jon is reeling with grief from the recent death of his twin brother. Sparks fly when mutual friends introduce them, but it's so much more than basic attraction. There's an undeniable awareness and a sense of belonging that neither man can deny.

Trauma surgeon Ronan Grisham lost everything the day the man he loved was stolen from him in a brutal attack. Driven by a thirst for vengeance, he turns his hatred into building an underground group that can do what he couldn't that fateful day...take the lives of the guilty to save the lives of the innocent. But years later, he's forced to confront the one link to his past that he can't sever.

Lorcán Kennedy is a take-no-prisoner vampire whose grit is tested when slain vampires start showing up in his sector. His investigation reveals a blessed weapon was used in the slayings, which leads him to a rogue hunter with a grudge against vampires. Christian Wolfe is a no-nonsense hunter who believes the only good vampire is a dead one, but his code of honor keeps his hatred in check. When his integrity is questioned, he will do anything to defend it, including work with his enemy.