Free Snowed In by Rhianne Aile and Madeleine Urban Page A

dark-headed man sitting on the floor.
    Kasey’s chin shot around, his eyes wide. “Wha... How’d you know that?”
    “Gay sex,” Warren muttered, and he fell back against the couch, looking put out. “Would read better with a girl.”
    “Pretty obvious, actually.” Mitch shrugged. “It doesn’t work quite that way.” He smirked.
    Kasey’s eyebrows shot up. “Then how does it work?” he asked before thinking.
    Warren frowned and leaned over to read again. “I don’t get it,” he muttered.
    Both Mitch’s friends knew that he slept with both men and women, but since they’d never asked, Mitch had never gone into details. “Well, the way you’ve got him touching Brock... it’s more the way a man would touch a woman. You can’t just drop the ‘s’ from your pronouns and have gay sex. Would you want to be touched that way?”
    Warren tilted his head as he read more, still frowning. Kasey frowned and re-read what he had written, and then he sighed. “It’s crap. My publisher wanted me to write a subplot with a gay couple to see if it would go over, and I’ve got no clue.” He made to delete the whole section.
    “Wait.” Mitch grabbed Kasey’s wrist. “It’s not a bad set up, and I think your publisher’s right. With the success of ‘QAF’ and ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ it is an up-and-coming market.” Mitch grinned at his unintentional pun, drawing an echoing one from Kasey.
    “‘QAF?’” Warren asked, glancing at Mitch, who patted his leg with an indulgent smile.
    “Yeah, I guess so,” Kasey said reluctantly. Then his eyes lit up. “Think you could give me a few pointers, Mitch? Just for reference, you know?” Warren’s head was turning back and forth between his two friends like a table-tennis ball.
    “That’s a request I never thought I’d hear from you.” Mitch laughed. “Sure. Hand me the laptop so I can get a feel for the characters. You two go fix us some dinner. I’m hungry after my nap.”
    Kasey chuckled and passed the computer up to Mitch. “C’mon, Warren. Surely the concept is not so totally alien that you’re speechless,” he said, taking his friend’s hand and pulling him up from the couch.
    Warren flushed a little as he stood up right against Kasey’s chest. “Just... hadn’t really thought about it, I suppose,” he mumbled.
    Slinging an arm over his shoulders, Kasey started them walking to the kitchen. “Well, I hadn’t either, not really. I’ve been writing erotic romance for a while now, so it doesn’t shock me too much. After a while, it’s just parts, yeah?”
    As they walked through the door into the kitchen, Warren answered. “But man parts and man parts. Not man parts and woman parts.” The swinging door closed them off from the living room.
    Mitch chuckled again, sinking down into the overstuffed couch and reaching for his coffee. Since they were snowed in, he’d liberally laced it with brandy. It didn’t take long to lose himself in Kasey’s characters. The man was a damned fine writer with a knack for infusing his story with romance and humor, not just sex. He jolted, slightly disoriented when Warren and Kasey returned. “That was quick.”
    “Sandwiches,” Warren said, still looking a little oddly at Kasey.
    “And soup,” Kasey added, glancing to Warren, knowing he was still a little off-kilter. He handed a mug of soup to his friend with the laptop. “So, Warren is okay with my writing hot sex, apparently, just thrown by the whole guy-on-guy idea.”
    “Hey!” Warren objected. “I’m not thrown. I’m just….” He wrinkled his nose. “I don’t want to say ignorant, but I guess I am,” he muttered to himself.
    Mitch laid the computer aside and sipped his soup. “You’ve got a good set of characters, and your main hetero pairing is strong. The problem is the way the secondary two are reacting to each other. You’ve got a bisexual man attracted to his long-term straight friend. I’m not saying it couldn’t happen,