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

“Ssh,” Ali whispered, heart lurching in fear when he caught the glimmer of tears, but then Yazid turned his face into Ali’s kiss, and nudged his nose against Ali’s cheek for another. “It’s okay,” Ali breathed, his own voice seeming too loud and sacrilegious against this beautiful, shocking sight—Yazid, completely undone, completely open and pliant, brought so close to the edge they could both feel the danger, and yet trusting Ali not to push him over it. “Oh my God, I love you,” Ali murmured, dropping soft, open kisses over Yazid’s face, cupping his neck in both hands and kissing away every single drop of sweat he could find. “I love you so much, I love you.”


He loved this even more. He loved the feeling of control and dominance, the power he had over Yazid when they played these games—which wasn’t often—but more than that, he loved this, the aftermath when Yazid was completely undone and shattered from what it took out of him to put himself so completely in Ali’s hands.


Chapter 75