When love is forbidden, the whole world’s a prison – #MMRomance #LGBTQI #SciFi #MFRWHooks

Welcome to this week’s MFRW Book Hooks blog hop – a great opportunity for you to find your next romance read!

Today I’m spotlighting my MM science fiction erotic romance, The H-Gene. The book is a dystopian romance about an all-too-believable near future. It’s also a heart-stopping adventure, as the heroes battle for not just for their love, but also for very lives.

Blurb

Dylan Moore will do anything for freedom. Seven years ago, a gay plague spread to heterosexuals, killing millions and sparking brutal anti-gay riots. The Guardians rounded up men who tested positive for the homogene and imprisoned them in remote quarantine centers like desolate Camp Malheur. Since then, Dylan has hacked the camp's security systems and hoarded spare bits of electronics, seeking some way to escape. He has concluded the human guards are the only weakness in the facility's defenses.

Camp guard Rafe Cowell is H-negative. He figures the lust he feels watching prisoner 3218 masturbate on the surveillance cameras must be due to his loneliness and isolation. When he finally meets the young queer, he discovers that Dylan is brilliant, brave, sexy as hell — and claims to be in love with Rafe. Despite his qualms, Rafe finds he can't resist the other man's charm. By the time Dylan asks for his help in escaping, Rafe cares too much for Dylan to refuse.

Dylan's plan goes awry and Rafe comes to his rescue. Soon they're both fugitives, fleeing from militant survivalists, murderous androids, homophobic ideologues and a powerful man who wants Dylan as his sexual toy. Hiding in the Plague-ravaged city of Sanfran, Dylan and Rafe learn there's far more than their own safety at stake. Can they help prevent the deaths of millions more people? And can Rafe trust the love of a man who deliberately seduced him in order to escape from quarantine?

The Hook

By the time Dylan and Rafe had finished consulting with Hammer, returned to the locker room and dressed, dusk was falling. Shadows made the shattered landscape of the exclusion zone even more forbidding. Rafe had relaxed somewhat during their technical discussion of streaming servers, encrypted feeds and specialized codecs, but now, as they made their way back to the gate, Dylan felt the other man’s unease.

The fear was contagious. Sweat gathered in Dylan’s armpits. Adrenaline boosted his pulse. Three days had elapsed since their escape, more than enough time for the Guardians to have disseminated images and particulars of the two fugitives. As they trudged along Market, hoods pulled over their masked faces, Dylan ventured a glance up at one of the screens. Just the usual programming, Technicolor fantasies of peace and plenty—glimpses of a world that was long gone.

He monitored the broadcast while he and Rafe waited to cross the street at one of the remaining traffic signals. It was six p.m., what passed for rush hour these days in Sanfran. A steady stream of miscellaneous vehicles flowed past.

A public service announcement popped up, full of chubby babies and clean-cut, beaming parents, offering free fertility augmentation. This was followed by an ad for Saturday’s rally, details posted both in English words and in simple icons that made reading unnecessary. There were no security advisories, no mug shots of his face, or Rafe’s.

He recalled his theory, that the Guardians might be unwilling to publicly admit his escape. That didn’t necessarily lessen the danger. A mini-copter droned overhead. He dropped his eyes to the ground, hiding behind his minimalist disguise, jumpy as a rabbit expecting the swoop of a hawk.

The red LED finally switched to green. Rafe strode forward into the intersection. The movement jolted Dylan out of his nervous fugue. He hurried after his lover, trying to catch up.

“Halt!” The flat, mechanical voice was a remembered nightmare. Dylan looked over his shoulder. A Robbie loomed on the corner they’d just left, its black carapace flickering in the light from the vidscreen. Its multi-function gripper extruded the sparking prongs of a tasegun.

“Halt, citizen 33609861022. Surrender, by order of the Guardians.”

Dylan sprinted across the street, snatching at Rafe’s sweatshirt. “Hurry!” He kept his voice down, not wanting to attract the attention of other pedestrians. They might be more deadly than the android. “Come on!” The signal had changed again and, for the moment, the Robbie was trapped on the opposite side.

Rafe gave a single glance backwards and understood immediately. He loped up the sidewalk, moving fast, but not running, not yet. Dylan struggled to keep up with the pace of his longer-legged companion.

Ignoring the red light, the hulking robot stepped into the road. Vehicles squealed to a stop. The Robbie marched across the road, each stride covering twice as much distance as Dylan’s own. People on the sidewalk shrank away from the ambulatory tank barreling along the broken pavement. “Halt! Halt!” the Robbie continued to intone, waving the Taser in their direction, gaining on them by the second.

“Run!” Rafe yelled back at him, following his own advice. The powerful black man streaked along Market, then ducked into a side street. Dylan raced after him, breathing hard as he strained to catch up. The Robbie was nearly in range. Desperate, Dylan summoned every ounce of energy and channeled it to his pumping legs.

The street sloped upward. Rafe had almost reached the top of the hill, a good twenty yards ahead. Dylan’s calves screamed from the effort. His chest ached with each labored breath. His hood had slipped off and his hair clung to his forehead, soaked with sweat. I won’t go back, he told himself, pushing himself to the limit. I’d rather die.

“Halt, miscreant,” came the Robbie’s order and then, an instant later, the crackle of a tase bolt.

Dylan felt a sting as the bolt hit the bare skin at the back of his neck. White-hot pain burned through him. He slumped to the ground, writhing and twitching on the sidewalk. Got to run, he thought. Fight this off. Can’t stop… He tried to stand, but his muscles wouldn’t obey. Convulsions wracked his body. Dizziness swept through him.

“Dylan!” Rafe called from the top of the hill, anguish evident in his voice. The black man started back down.

“No…” Dylan managed to croak. It took every shred of will to force out that one syllable. Don’t let them get you, too, he thought, unable to say any more. The black man jogged towards him. Meanwhile the Robbie was fast closing the gap from the other direction. A second android emerged from around the corner. Dylan managed to shake his head. Please, Rafe. You can’t help me if you’re captured, too. Go find Artemis, or Hammer. Please!

His lover stopped in his tracks, uncertain, staring at Dylan’s spasming form halfway down the slope. Go now, Rafe. Save yourself. Grogginess clouded Dylan’s mind. Sedative, he thought. Coating the tase bolt electrodes. The effects of the high voltage began to wear off. His muscles gradually relaxed, but now he couldn’t keep his eyes open. His limbs were leaden.

Darkness settled on him like a blanket. His last coherent thought was for his lover. Had Rafe escaped? Or had he fallen to the blasted droids, too?

Buy Links

Kinky Literature – https://www.kinkyliterature.com/book/7233-the-hgene-after-the-plague-book-1/

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CVNK6NL

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08CVNK6NL

Smashwords – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1032512

Barnes and Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-h-gene-lisabet-sarai/1137338272?ean=2940164186050

Kobo – https://www.kobo.com/th/en/ebook/the-h-gene

Apple Books - https://books.apple.com/us/book/x/id1523511955

Add on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/54529211-the-h-gene

Be sure to visit the other authors participating in today's Book Hooks!

 

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