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

When Ali found himself pacing the kitchen with his mug of coffee that afternoon and counting the ticks of the clock on the wall, he knew his stress levels had gone beyond bearable.


He put the coffee mug down and went upstairs.


Some guys got into fights to relieve stress, or blew up pixelated characters on their computers, or played aggressive sports. Ali didn’t. When Ali got really, ridiculously stressed, he had sex.


Under their bed was a cardboard box, and Ali slid it out and blew the dust off the top before carrying it downstairs and emptying the contents onto the kitchen table. Most of the box was just their innocent—or as innocent as possible—toys. A couple of vibrators, cock rings, various novelty condoms that they’d never gotten around to using ever since Yazid had introduced Ali to barebacking and Ali had promptly banned condoms from the bathroom cabinet entirely…


Chapter 73