Seductive Studs is a weekly bloghop for authors and readers of m/m romance.
Click on the blue froggy button located right below the snippet to hop around to this week’s other #SedStud posts. Participants of Seductive Studs will post one of the following: a 100=150 word excerpt, a review, or a post about a M/M Romance that’s in the works or already published.
As I’m participating in Nanowrimo to complete In Pain and Blood, I’m not certain if I’ll surface from the novel long enough to visit everyone’s blogs. So this is likely to be all you hear from me until December.
This bit happens in the last quarter with them exploring a natural tunnel, which Tracker has problems with. Dylan’s talking…
“How are you holding up?” He’d never been anywhere that’d led him to have tons of rock above him, but now with the mere thought of the crushing weight fluttering in the forefront of his mind, he could almost see why the idea of venturing down here unnerved Tracker.
“I’m fine.” The words were small, tight. Little more than squeaks in the gloom. The grip on Dylan’s hand tightened. “I’d feel much better if we were leaving, but I can manage until then.”
He drew the man closer and brushed his lips against Tracker’s temple. “You’re safe with me. I won’t let you get trapped down here.”
There was that smile again. “I know, my darl—” It was hard to tell with the ball of light throwing strange shadows, but Dylan swore he spied panic of a different nature dart across the man’s face. “—dear spellster.”
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Aldrea Alien 
I like this–I can see why he’s unnerved, too. And I love the name Dylan.
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Tracker’s got a whole mess of issues with natural tunnels, but the reason won’t come to light until almost the end.
Dylan quite likes his name, too. He used to be called Daylen when he was just an rpg character I used to play, but I kept mistyping and calling him Dylan. Eventually, this guy pops up, a similar mage entity but with a whole different bundle of problems…
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I would be soooo claustrophobic! An enticing snippet.
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Oh yes, in a tunnel lit only by magic and accessible via a cave behind a waterfall… You wouldn’t get me this far.
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I’m unsure if I’m claustrophobic or not, haven’t really ever been in any tight places. But you do a great job of portraying it! And ooh, what was he about to say? Darling? I think it was darling.
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It might’ve been darling. But that would then mean admitting certain feelings that he’s not sure would be reciprocated.
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Hmm, wonder what changed that expression at the end of the snippet?? 🙂
It is crazy, being underground with tons and tons of rock and dirt between you and fresh air and open spaces. I worked underground daily for about 8 years. On the worst days, I was 2 linear miles down. Not sure how many vertical feet I was beneath the surface, but it only takes a couple to have the weight above you be lethal. Yep–it can get to a person. You learn not to think about it. It becomes just like going into a building. You have to be that way, or you’d get so anxious, you couldn’t deal with it.
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Panic due to misspeaking mixed with old memories of what happened the last time that word passed his lips in full?
The deepest and longest time I’ve been underground is when I went through the Waitomo Caves about twelve years ago. Not sure how deep we went, only that the biggest cave The Cathedral was about 18m high, and we had to go down to see that. We were walking for a couple of hours, apart from the fifteen-minute boat ride out underneath the glowworms. Didn’t really think much of the earth above us as everything was so well lit and beautiful in an otherworldly kind of way.
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I have been in a lot of cave and until know it never came to my mind that they could just collapse on me.
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Ever since the Pike River Mine disaster back in 2010, it’s always in the back of my mind whenever I even imagine being underground. Fortunately for my travellers, this isn’t a coal mine.
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Sweet snippet. I love the gentleness and trust between the two of them.
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And to think, they’ve only known each other a month. 🙂
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Oop, almost let it slip. Good snippet, Aldrea. 🙂
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😀 Well, he does have other things on his mind besides keeping his feels under wraps.
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Awwww. The pet names are slipping out! 🙂 Cute scene!
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Heh.
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