Bastian is running away from a painful past and hoping to escape his complicated present, too. A defected soldier from the German army, death and war was all around him and when he ran straight into Gabriel - a Belgian civilian who was picking up the pieces of his destroyed village - a sudden, strong chemistry formed that he hadn't felt in a long time.
Gabriel hadn't expected to find a wounded soldier in his village. Mistrust turns to pity quickly, and then feelings he didn't even know existed formed: every time Bastian looked at him, his face would flush and his heart would skip a beat. Love, desire, and an overwhelming need to protect Bastian was growing.
Soon, passionate encounters between them show that they can heal one another, and that it's never too late to learn how to let go of the past. Through it all, the German army is still out there, threatening to tear them apart, and they must work together to rebuild what they both have lost, or risk losing it all.
Note: This is the complete first story of Gabriel and Bastian. This is a first time vanilla romance with explicit details of sex described. 27,000+ words.