Detective Thomas Doyle has been living a lonely, compartmentalized life ever since the death of his life partner, Aiden. He vowed never to let anybody get close to him again -- the pain of losing a loved one is too much to bear. Despite his vow, Thomas is lonely, and has a number of one-night stands, sexual encounters with unnamed men he doesn’t care to remember. Then he meets Elias. Elias Byrne knows the pain of abuse and rejection intimately. Unable to escape the clutches of his older brother, Elias dreams of someone to love, and of being loved in return. He admires Thomas, but the detective never pays him any notice. In a desperate attempt to get closer to him, Elias steals his wallet, then gives it back the next day. Pretty soon, Thomas feels a strong attraction to the fiery, arrogant, younger man. Elias intrigues him, but he resists his growing feelings because he doesn’t want to get hurt again. When Thomas rescues Elias from his abusive brother, can he also rescue them both from the loneliness that threatens to consume them? Can Elias conquer the detective’s hardened heart and find the love he always longed for? Or will Thomas stubbornly refuse to give himself another chance at love?

Elias

“Elias, tell me what—” Thomas remained still, looking at him, without knowing what to say. Then Elias ran, and Thomas jumped when the entrance door slammed. He reached his hand out to the draining board to hold himself up. Elias had left him reeling.


Thomas didn’t know it; he couldn’t imagine what kind of disgust Elias felt for himself. How many times he’d decided not to do what Liam asked of him. To leave him. He wasn’t a kid anymore, as he often liked to repeat. Even with that cutting attitude, that was his signature. But he didn’t get his ass out of that fetid, shitty house. He couldn’t leave Liam. Elias continued to let him use him as he wished, all in the name of a strange guilt.


He was drawing a nauseating layer of mud over his life, suffocating it.


Chapter 30