Even the nicest of guys can decide to cut loose at some point, especially if he's at college and a frat brother invites him to a party. Unfortunately, that can end quite badly. Luckily for Dante ap Owen, it doesn't -- until he keeps needing to piss every few minutes and he sees blood in his urine. Another stroke of luck for him is the substitute professor, also a medical doctor he’s been crushing on, who happens to be there when he passes out in class and pushes him to come to his clinic.<br><br>But Dante and his beloved, critically ill mother are under the control of his bitter uncle, who also provides health insurance. If his uncle finds out Dante is being treated for anything, let alone what Dante fears is an STD, he's ... Dante doesn't want to think about that. So he flees the clinic before he has to make a follow-up appointment.<br><br>The good doctor shows up at his uncle's farm when phone calls do nothing. And when Dante's uncle invites the doctor to dinner and serves a meal worthy of Medea, the doctor urges Dante and his mother to leave. But will they? And will Dante realize the doctor wants him as much as he wants the doctor?

So Let Us Rejoice

I held out my arm and watched while he fastened the tourniquet around my upper arm. Then he put on a pair of gloves, wiped the crook of my elbow with an alcohol swab, and reached for the syringe.


Why did they always say that? I turned my head away and was surprised when it wasjust a little pinch.


Not that it mattered. I still wasn’t going to look. Seeing Uncle John have a pig slaughtered on the farm might not bother me—much—but when it was my own blood, that was a different kettle of fish.


“All done,” he said, and I stole a peek to make sure he wasn’t lying to me, but he was telling the truth. He reached for a gauze square, which he folded in two and placed over the draw site. “Hold this in place, please.”


While I did, he used a strip of self-adherent wrap to keep it in place. With that done, he transferred my blood from the syringe to the tube, then dropped the syringe into a sharps container and set aside the tube.


Chapter 15