Eli Bell is the only son of a police chief inspector and a forensic scientist. He's grown up wonky in a world that only deals with the straight and narrow -- and his new boyfriend isn't helping. Rob Hawkes is six feet of muscle, tattoos, and arrest warrants. A career criminal and a former guest of Her Majesty's Prison Service, he'd rather hit Eli's parents than sit down to dinner with them. One wrong move, and Rob could destroy Eli -- and his family -- without a second thought. But this isn't what it looks like. Rob's not in control here -- and Eli's the one to blame.

What It Looks Like

And Eli knew, in Rob’s case, what those doubts would be. That Eli hadn’t truly consented to it, or—by contrast—wanted Rob exclusively for the sex. That their sex life was either damaging, or the only reason Eli was hanging around. Rob was a hard man not prone to angsting and emoting if he could remotely help it, but he wasn’t a brick wall. So Eli nestled into the hot lines of definitely-not-brick muscles, and made his contentment as well-known as he possibly could without raising his voice and alerting his parents to Rob’s presence in the house.


Because Eli’s biggest concern was that Rob wasn’t—yet, at least, because Eli was going to get him there if it killed the both of them—open enough to simply tell Eli he was having issues, or ask for affection or reassurance if he needed it.


Chapter 22