Honesty and Artifice

**He'd trained for every eventuality—

*except losing his heart...***

Boaz Egan never expected to find another human being on his empty beach, especially one nearly dead. After years of isolation and secrets, he's unprepared for the feelings that Eric Atherton awakens in him. While Eric recuperates, the two men grow closer, and it doesn’t take long for Boaz to begin to question whether his reasons for remaining alone are good enough.

But Eric has secrets of his own, ones that bring grave danger, and could end what has been building between them, maybe their very lives. For the men to know if they have a chance together, they'll have to brave their fears and face demons from the past.

In the lonely and vast ocean waters of Alaska, the two men only have themselves to rely on. Can either man trust the other enough to survive the coming storm? Or will Boaz's one chance for love be over before it even began?

Genre: action/suspense/adventure

Tags: first time, masturbation, past abuse, strong HFN, Alaska, series, isolation, boats

Content Warnings: allusions to childhood abuse

This story was written as a part of the M/M Romance Group's "**Love’s Landscapes**" event. Group members were asked to write a story prompt inspired by a photo of their choice. Authors of the group selected a photo and prompt that spoke to them and wrote a short story.

This story may contain sexually explicit content and is **intended for adult readers**. It may contain content that is disagreeable or distressing to some readers. The M/M Romance Group strongly recommends that each reader review the General Information section before each story for story tags as well as for content warnings.

The original prompt:

*Dear Author,

I found him in the edge of the surf one morning, on one of my many solitary treks down the beach. Naked, battered, unconscious— just another bit of discarded flotsam on the sand.

Who is he? How did he get here? Is he telling me the truth? Can I trust him at all? Can I help him— or can he help me? Or maybe we can even save each other…

*

**Photo Description:**

A muscular, dark-haired man lies prone on a sandy beach, waves frothing and swirling around him. He is naked save for a tiny bikini or underwear that is barely clinging to the round globes of his backside. He also has on a small, dark, braided bracelet. If not for a mound of sand beneath his head, his face would be immersed in the water. He appears to be unconscious.