Eli

One bullet. One dead man. And now my wreck of a life is spiraling out of control.

The bastard deserved it, but I’m just a regular guy. I botched the escape, and since I killed him while wearing a Santa costume, they call me the Festive Fugitive. Cute. Too bad I’ll be spending Christmas behind bars or in a body bag.

Then he appears. Cesar.

My dark salvation. A trained killer who looks at me as if I’m his personal miracle. I killed his boss, yet he says I did him a favor. He wants to protect me, claim me, cage me in his arms, and God help me… I let him.

Because what’s falling for a monster when there’s a manhunt hot on my tail and a target on my back?

Cesar

Taken as a child, I was turned into a loyal weapon. I killed, tortured, burned, and bled. I was respected and needed. Until I wasn’t.

When I lost an eye, my master pushed me aside, but as I waited for my ‘one last job’ so I could retire, Eli pulled the trigger.

I never expected some half-starved, grief-drunk civilian in a Santa outfit to free me, but that’s what happened.

Eli is everything I am not—fragile, impulsive, untrained. And yet he killed the man I was bound to. He doesn’t know it, but he owns me now.

He thinks I’m his protector, that I’ve taken him under my wing. But it’s more than that.

He’s mine. My obsession. My purpose. My beautiful, reckless mess of a man, and I’ll burn the world before I let anyone take him from me.

I guess Christmas came early for Eli this year.

***

“Festive Fugitive” is a standalone M/M dark romance where a trained killer takes an amateur vigilante under his wing and gets increasingly obsessed with his new ward. (+Christmas crafts!)

Themes and tropes: Size difference, trained killer, snowed in, on the run, only one bed, hurt/comfort, revenge, loneliness, possessive hero, past trauma, brainwashing, dark humor, disabled hero, morally gray heroes, touch starved, free use (within the couple)

Warnings: Violence, strong language, PTSD