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

“Love you,” he whispered, stretching up on his tiptoes to card both hands through Rob’s hair and begin to wash it. The reply was a lazy blink and a slow, open drag of lips on lips that vaguely resembled a kiss.


The doorbell rang before the shower was over, and Rob slipped away again. Eli sighed and shut the water off, retreating to the bedroom to rummage for clothes and his sketchpad. He ‘borrowed’ one of Rob’s jumpers out of his drawers and a pair of socks, and shuffled back into the living room damp-haired and bundled up, surrounded in the smell of powder and Rob, feeling so utterly contented that the world could have ended, then and there, and Eli wouldn’t have given a shit.


He gave even less of a shit when Rob, sprawled on the sofa in his briefs, pizza boxes arranged and opened on the coffee table and some shitty telly already playing, gave Eli’s attire a dirty look.


“I’m going to allow you to break the rules just this once,” he grumbled.


Chapter 63