Golden Leaves
August Blaze
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· Steam/Spice level: 3 of 5
Open door [?]
· 0 ratings · 150 pages · Published: 21 Nov 2025
AUREN STONELAKE
A fifty-five years old, introverted engineering professor. A happy childhood, loving parents and two sets of doting grandparents prepared him for many things… But not for getting cheated on after over a decade of what he thought was a happy marriage and having had two children together.
As if his life hadn’t been complicated enough, a year after finally putting the betrayal behind him and trying to stick it out for everyone but himself, an odd young man attends professor Stonelake’s lecture. And then his office hours. What was at first just casual chats with a possibly smitten but well-mannered youth turns into mutual interest… only to fall apart and leave professor Stonelake even more hurt after it turns out the youth did not appreciate his guidance on family values.
So, to sum it up – a bad husband makes his hard-working wife cheat, and then, after she graciously gives him another chance, he gets into an emotional affair with another man, less than half his age… only to get his comeuppance and get him to leave, too. With a record like this, professor Stonelake regrets many things… And, with both of his kids at a college in a different city, and his ex-wife out of his life and married again, he has a lot of time to regret them.
And what better place is there to do so than your beloved family home? Especially when you unexpectedly get a week off in the middle of a golden autumn. Professor Stonelake is more than happy to revisit the places he used to be so happy in, and to reminisce about all the people who are no longer there. Those whom he’d like to meet in another life (if there is any such thing). And those he has a feeling he won’t meet again in this one… Or will he?
JAMES GOLDEN
The eldest of five, no contact with all of them. A childhood of parentification, surrounded by the children and dogs of people too lazy to fix their own lives before they bring another life into this world might do that to you.
Having a string of age gap relationships, with each one of them crashing after you refuse to either “make amends with” or outright parent the people you had the misfortune to be related to, doesn’t help. Neither does having a married, middle-aged man reciprocate your feelings as you experience the least physical yet the most intense love of your life… only for him to do the same all the others have done to you before.
James Golden, after dealing with a not-so-easy life in a chronically ill body, has finally gotten his act together. He has made a miraculous recovery after getting the treatment he’d been denied as a minor. He’s gotten a more than decent paying job. A few investments. His own place. And what he’s quite sure is a pretty nice car.
He isn’t over a certain person. And he’s pretty sure he never will be. He can’t get where he wanted to be. But he can still keep going. He can go wherever he wants. To see all the things he once thought they’d see together. Think about all the things they would have done. And accept that none of it will ever come true.
With a month off, James can start his search.
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Tagged as:
- contemporary 1
- gay romance 1
- queer romance 1
- angst 1
- childfree 1
- age gap 1
- second chances 1
- small town 1
- rich hero 1
- silver fox 1
- older/mature 1
- hurt/comfort 1
- Add topics
- content warnings
- past abuse 1
- past child abuse 1
- past child neglect 1
- Format
- male pov 1
- dual pov 1
- third person pov 1
