Dauntless

The narrator is a closeted young man whose parents keep him hidden. He is waiting years for an inheritance that will let him live openly, free and wealthy. Until then he sticks to one-night encounters, because he refuses to drag anyone else into the closet with him.

Then Bowen Whitlock arrives. A farm boy with a lazy smile, he agrees to join the narrator's band, and soon after, to share his bed. One night is not enough for either of them. The timing could hardly be worse.

Bowen has his own troubles. He is trying to keep his family afloat and to avoid being fired from his job at Vino and Veritas. He lives openly and honestly, and that gives the narrator a first real taste of what living his truth could mean.

The two keep their relationship secret, and for a while it is everything to them. Loving Bowen is dangerous, though, and someone betrays them in the worst possible way.

This is a first-person LGBTQ romance with a music-band setting, told from the closeted narrator's point of view. The tone mixes longing and humor with real risk to both men.