Sole Support — Kaje Harper

He can find a use for his lover's hands...except when he needs help the most.

Kellen is short on cash-at least until his first novel starts to sell-but he has plenty of friends. None of them, unfortunately, share his love of books. For that he turns to IM chats with Mike from his online book group. Though he manages to coax the shy, socially inept pathologist into a real-time meeting, Kellen has no intention of letting his new friend become more than a casual lover. Shaky finances and ailing mother aside, self-sufficiency is Kellen's prime directive. Mike considers himself a nerd of the highest order-short, bespectacled, prone to blurting out the wrong thing at the worst possible time. Meeting Kellen face to face is the biggest risk of his life, and he wonders if they'll get more body parts together than just their faces. First meeting leads to first date-first everything for Mike-and soon Kellen's faced with breaking his just-friends-with-benefits rule. Yet as his elderly mother wanders deeper into senility, Kellen wonders if it's better to lean on Mike rather than fall.

Warning: Contains an emotional love story between a too-proud-for-his-own-good writer with an allergy to the L-word, and a painfully shy scientist who takes his sisters' nagging to "get out there" literally. Oh, and an adorable stray cat.