Buried Down Deep

By Rae Owens

You never know what you might stumble across when you get lost in the woods. Ben was supposed to be on his way to Pensacola when he got lost on a forgotten road in the middle of Alabama. With no cell service and a broken down rental, all hope of being rescued on the old deserted back road is pretty much non-existent. Having no options, Ben decides to walk until he finds civilization again, but instead finds himself in a place he never imagined with the most beautiful man he's ever laid eyes on.

Ari has been trapped under an evil curse for over a thousand years, waiting for the one who is destined to set him free.

"Buried Down Deep" is approximately 11,000 words of pure steamy, romantic, m/m fairy tale fluff with barely an ounce of angst and a guaranteed HEA. Enjoy!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rae Owens
• Release date: Jul 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463385807

Rae Owens

Like all good tales of iniquity, this one began in a run-down trailer park in rural Alabama in 1979. An only child, too poor for the diversions of luckier tykes, and jacked up on too much sugar, I resorted to using my imagination as my primary source of entertainment. Monsters didn't just hide in my closet; it was a portal for all kinds of creatures, both humanoid and not, and not all of them were bad. Tiny, mischievous people hid in my Hee-Haw overalls and stole my mother's jewelry when she wasn't looking, and convinced me to do things like eat an entire can of chocolate frosting and then try to steal my neighbor-down-the-street's pony. And then, cable happened, and late nights were spent sneaking into the living room to watch soft core porn and horror movies. However, I can only lay partial blame for the warped adult I've become on Cinemax. No seat belts, lead-based paint, half-drunk parents who chain smoked Marlboro reds next to gaudy ashtrays filled with crushed butts-there are a thousand tiny things that led me down the path of a middle-aged woman who alternately writes smut and horror, depending on the day and how much coffee I've had. Quite simply, I write the books I want to read, and hope that a few others will too. Enjoy!

Book preview

Ben walked with quiet trepidation down the old, broken Alabama backroad, wondering what the odds were that a short, blonde gay guy, wearing his favorite new unicorn PRIDE tank top could avoid being harassed and/or murdered by a roving band of rednecks as he wandered, lost, in the middle of nowhere. Judging by the number of pick-up trucks bearing rebel flags he'd driven past, and the many strange looks he'd gotten at the last service station he'd stopped at an hour before, he guessed that the odds were probably not in his favor, and sighed at his own stupidity.

He was supposed to be in Pensacola right now, meeting up with some friends and sipping on a frozen strawberry margarita the size of his head in preparation for the Memorial Day Pride weekend that they were planning to attend the next day. He SHOULD have been making his way down the boardwalk to some tacky souvenir shop, buying sunscreen and an obnoxiously big beach towel. He SHOULD have been drunkenly flirting with some hunky tan guy in hopes making good use of the safe-but-dirty-hot-sex-with-strangers kit he'd put together just especially for this weekend. He was young, he was single, and a beach full of thousands of gay men in a celebratory mood was the perfect opportunity to get himself debauched in ways he could brag about for years to come. Instead, he was stuck in Alabama because he'd decided to take a detour. Curiosity and opportunism would ever be his downfall.

After dropping out of school due to a lack of funds and an excess of personal drama in the form of one lying, devious, and very married Art Appreciation professor, Ben floundered around for a couple of years, working odd jobs and wondering what to do with his life. It was through sheer luck and a little creativity on his part that he managed to carve out a lucrative little niche gig for himself by painting watercolor renditions of buildings and homes. He'd never be the darling of the New York art scene, and he'd probably never make millions, but Ben had created a steady and stable income by simply walking up to the owner of a business or big, fancy house and offering to sell them pictures their own property. After he'd sold a few, people started coming to him, and he'd been working out of his one-bedroom studio ever since.

The problem was, that even in a city the size of Atlanta, there were only so many buildings and houses to paint. He'd already begun branching outward into the suburbs, and had planned to head down to Savannah soon. When he'd mentioned to a client that he'd be traveling down to Florida the following week, the client had encouraged him to take some back roads through Alabama and get a few shots of the old plantations, general stores, and farms that still dotted the landscape in small towns across the state.

The client had promised to buy at least two paintings of his old hometown, Hayneville, and so Ben had altered his plans, promising to meet up with his friends a day later than planned. He'd made it through the three-hour trip to Hayneville just fine, and had taken some amazing photos of a place that in many ways, seemed frozen in time. Others might look on in disgust as they