Fires of Crete

By Adrianna Dane

Unexpected, instantaneous, and combustible attraction. Two strangers meet online sharing a passion for Minoan history. An invitation to holiday on Crete. Andrew Larson, a studious university professor, and Stephanos Angelika, an attractive up-and-coming young Greek executive, finally meet, and an undeniable need blazes to life. They have two weeks to explore this heady level of their relationship. Is it lust or something deeper?

Andrew, adopted as a child, has only a medallion that ties him to his Greek heritage. And a faded photograph of a young woman, the name of a village scrawled across the back. He sets upon a journey of discovery, but finds even more than he bargained for when he sees Stephanos awaiting him at the airport on Crete.
Stephanos leads a cautious, solitary life as a young gay man leery of living his lifestyle openly, already estranged from a family that has disowned him. It’s a huge leap when he invites Andrew to visit. Upon seeing Andrew, Stephanos knows everything will change.

The friendship that began online erupts into something far stronger and lasting. Will the weight of past wounds destroy the deepening bond they have come to share? Or will it be love that triumphs?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dream Romantic Unlimited LLC
• Release date: Oct 2, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005160227

Adrianna Dane

Adrianna Dane has been putting pen to paper since the age of ten. She currently resides in the state of Washington. She has a great fondness for using a fountain pen when writing her first drafts. Hobby interests are varied, including photography and traveling. The first defining love story Adrianna read back in junior high school was "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, and that set her on the road to her long-standing love affair with books of all genres. Her inspiration in writing often can be found by listening to song lyrics, from hard rock to classical, and reading poetry by such poets as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Edgar Allen Poe, and Ranier Maria Rilke. But finding inspiration for her stories truly has no boundaries for Adrianna. In 2006, her dark fantasy GLBT story, Body Parts, won its category in the Dream Realm Awards. Adrianna has written more than 100 stories, short, novella, and novel length, delving into many facets of the human condition - contemporary, futuristic, and fantasy, and all the flavors therein and in between. In other words, wherever the story and the characters, as well as their intricate stories, take her imagination, then her pen and/or computer keyboard, are sure to follow.

Book preview

1Unexpected, instantaneous, and combustible attraction. Two strangers meet online sharing a passion for Minoan history. An invitation to holiday on Crete. Andrew Larson, a studious university professor, and Stephanos Angelika, an attractive up-and-coming young Greek executive, finally meet, and an undeniable need blazes to life. They have two weeks to explore this heady level of their relationship. Is it lust or something deeper?

Andrew, adopted as a child, has only a medallion that ties him to his Greek heritage. And a faded photograph of a young woman, the name of a village scrawled across the back. He sets upon a journey of discovery, but finds even more than he bargained for when he sees Stephanos awaiting him at the airport on Crete.

Stephanos leads a cautious, solitary life as a young gay man leery of living his lifestyle openly, already estranged from a family that has disowned him. It’s a huge leap when he invites Andrew to visit. Upon seeing Andrew, Stephanos knows everything will change.

The friendship that began online erupts into something far stronger and lasting. Will the weight of past wounds destroy the deepening bond they have come to share? Or will it be love that triumphs?

This story is a work of original fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the author's imagination, or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.

This book remains the copyrighted property of the author.

Copyright 2018 by Adrianna Dane

Cover Art Designs by T. A. Gallup

This story was originally released in December 2010 by Loose Id

CAUTION: This story contains explicit sexual situations and strong language. You must be over the age of 18 years of age to read this story.

Fires of Crete

By Adrianna Dane

Dream Romantic Unlimited, LLC

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Excerpt from Knave of Hearts

Author Bio

Networking Links

Chapter One

Upon the waters of the Mediterranean rests an isle of the Minoan race.

Passions erupt when he’s consumed by lust for a man destiny marks as his mate.

That was not the mantinada on the placard in front of him but one that slowly formed in his fantasies during the long flight from the US to the bustling city of Heraklion on the island of Crete. Lust was such a small word for the gorgeous man holding up the white signboard handwritten with a welcoming message in Greek. Andrew, weary after the flight and the time change and the tedious passage through customs, suddenly was reinvigorated with a flood of fresh adrenaline. He was here at last. And the man waiting for him was more than he could have hoped.

An image of Icarus flashed into his mind. Of the erotic statue that graced his home back in the suburbs of Boston. Well-formed, lean, and wiry. He imagined well-defined pecs beneath the casual shirt stretched across his chest. Legs that could grip, hips thrusting. Biceps, not bulging with muscle, but strong and fit, forearms well able to hold a man, to grip a hip, to claim control.

Andrew, at thirty-nine, hadn’t felt this randy in longer than he cared to remember.

Stephanos? he inquired, needing desperately to confirm that the man was waiting for the dusty American professor, with whom he’d struck up a conversation online about the history of Crete.

The dusky-skinned young Greek grinned, showing the whitest teeth Andrew imagined he’d ever seen. Against a darkly tanned complexion and eyes that rivaled a gleaming Mediterranean sea for breathtaking, Andrew once again was reminded of a winged man soaring high in the sky headed directly toward the burning heart of an immense auriferous orb.

The anticipation was almost more than Andrew could bear. His cock was already hard and pressing against his blue jeans. His heart pounded in his chest, the excitement making his skin tingle. A ray of afternoon sunlight highlighted Stephanos’s wild curly blue-black hair that defied confinement.

"Yassas. Hello, Andrew. Ne—yes, it is I, Stephanos."

Stephanos. Young. Beautiful. Greek.

Your cock, long and thick, driving deep, stretching my hole, consuming me.

God, yes. He wanted that with the man standing in front of him. At this moment, he needed it more than the history he’d come to Crete to find. They’d never really spoken out loud about sexual preferences. And Stephanos’s online profile had been decidedly uninformative on any personal level. The relationship they’d struck up had been through a Greek history site. It had been more an undeniable impulse than anything else that had Andrew contacting Stephanos. That and the fact he lived on Crete and had an interest in history. And that’s what they’d discussed, more in relation to Andrew’s past and a history he wanted to discover. After more than a year of building a friendly relationship, Stephanos had invited Andrew to visit Crete, and he’d offered to be Andrew’s guide and interpreter. How could Andrew refuse?

He’d had qualms about making the trip. After all, what did he really know about Stephanos? The man had shared so little of himself. He couldn’t turn down the invitation. Something far stronger than he understood had him making that reservation without only fleeting second thoughts. But meeting the man face-to-face, he knew it was the right decision, and it was going to take every bit of control he could muster to keep his hands off Stephanos until invited. Words seemed lacking at the moment. All he could do was stare at Stephanos, drinking in the beauty of the man, the exotic perfection. God, how he hoped the man was gay. He’d been up front with Stephanos pretty much from the beginning. His online profile was completely honest. Approaching the matter in a more direct fashion was fairly easy to do in an anonymous e-mail. He’d done it more or less in a conversational manner, tied in some ways to Greek history. Stephanos had never indicated whether he was gay or straight. They’d never approached the subject again after that. But Stephanos had indicated in passing that he wasn’t in a relationship at the moment.

The tension thickened as Stephanos stared back. There was that moment, that urge to reach out and hug Stephanos close. The painful urge to want to kiss him, to learn his body, to discover the newness.

I’ve been waiting for you, Andrew. Let’s go home and fuck. Those were the words Andrew wanted to hear. Yes, Stephanos. Anything, any way. Those were the words Andrew wanted to say. He could taste the words. They sounded loud and pleasantly arousing inside his head.

Stephanos turned away, breaking the connection. Andrew released a long, pent-up breath. The moment had passed. For now.

Let’s go, Stephanos said. He relieved Andrew of one of his suitcases. My apartment is not far. I expect you would like to rest. A fresh look out—I mean outlook—in the morning would be best, I think.

Andrew could listen to Stephanos’s voice forever. His heavily accented intonation, somewhat shy and carefully pronounced speech. He had told Andrew he wanted to work on perfecting his English while Andrew was visiting.

For a second Andrew stared at Stephanos’s lips—that fleshy lower lip, skin that Andrew wanted to taste, to tug at, to see what sounds Stephanos might make—deep and guttural? Or a long, slow sigh?

He bet the man could suck too. Fuck, he had to stop thinking about sex. That wasn’t what he was here for. But the young, sexy godlike man with the perfectly proportioned ass, leading the way toward the exit, was terribly inviting. Andrew watched him navigate through the crowds, moving with a fluid and easy gait.

Andrew was not known for taking chances. He liked his well-ordered life. He was old-school, the type of man who didn’t ordinarily involve himself in complicated intimate relationships. Most of the men he’d found some measure of satisfaction with didn’t want to hear about the Mycenaean Age. They didn’t much care about Theseus or the Minotaur. They didn’t care how many times Crete had been invaded, how they had triumphed, how the people possessed a vast and profound courage.

They hadn’t minded learning about the exotic sex lives of the Greeks. The secret rooms, the elite sects that catered to the eroticism of ancient Greek life. That had invariably been the topic that had gotten them into bed. He’d never had a problem getting a sex partner, and he’d always had a way of telling his erotic stories—showing it—that left his partners infinitely satisfied and eager for more. But satisfaction was inevitably short-lived and the relationships, if one could call them that, superficial.

For Andrew, something had been missing. There had to be more to it. History wasn’t simply about titillating sex fables, and when he’d discovered Stephanos online during a chat on the Spartan society, it was like he’d found a soul mate at the cerebral level. They had taken their exchange outside of the more populated chat room and spent hours in conversation and debate. It was exciting in a way he’d never felt before. And now, meeting him, he wondered—could the cerebral truly meld with a more intimate relationship? Could they find common ground?

Two weeks—he had only two weeks to find out. And he couldn’t