If you could save someone's life, would you? Anyone's? Ali's older brother has a swastika tattooed on his knuckles, a prison ID number for nearly beating an immigrant to death, and spent his teenage years ruthlessly persecuting Ali for being gay. Blood may be thicker than water, but Ali has spent most of his life desperate to prove he is nothing like Tony. A committed vegetarian, charity-supporter, and blood donor, Ali would do anything for anyone. Ali may share parentage with Tony, but he’s determined not to share anything else if he can help it. So when Tony contracts leukaemia, and Ali is the only match for the urgently-needed bone marrow transplant, Ali is caught between two equally awful choices: to refuse and condemn a man to death, or to donate. And in donating, save the life of the man who nearly murdered Ali's Iraqi boyfriend?

Thicker Than Bone

“You sure?” he asked once he was allowed.


“You came to see my mother even though you had doubts, and she went and proved you totally right, and—you know, you had every right to get pissed off with her and with me, only you didn’t, and…”


He trailed off, shook his head, and kissed Yazid again.


Yazid smiled and gave in to whatever excitement was bubbling over, sliding his arms right around Ali’s hips and pulling until they were touching from mouth to legs. Ali’s knee slid—perhaps accidentally—between Yazid’s thighs, and without quite meaning to, Yazid rocked his hips forward and caught the muted groan between their lips.


“Your room,” Ali whispered fervently, and began to pull at Yazid’s shoulders.


Chapter 14