About the book

"... the book is well-written and absorbing." -- Erastes, Speak Its Name

"Read this with your heart. [T. Baggins] has made me open mine, grabbing me and never letting go." -- Tom Webb, A Bear On Books

When Gabriel MacKenna enters Wentworth Prison in 1931, he promises himself two things: never to be buggered and never to turn prison queer. Tough, smart, and ruthless in a fight, he quickly makes a name for himself inside. But Gabriel, saved from the noose by a social crusader, is serving two life sentences. And life is a very long time to endure Wentworth with no comforts but prison food, card games and cigarettes. To survive endless days without the touch of another human being...

Five years after Gabriel's incarceration, Joey Cooper arrives at Wentworth. Every convict claims imprisonment through a miscarriage of justice, but Joey is truly blameless. Trained at Oxford as a physician, the young doctor is innocent of prison culture and too handsome for his own good. Facing eighteen years behind Wentworth's towering gates, Joey cannot hope to survive without protection. And protection is just what Gabriel MacKenna offers. At a price...

Warning: this book is an erotic romance set in a men's prison. Early in the story, there is one episode of non-consensual sex, as well as adult situations and graphic sex.

Author's Note: This second edition also includes the short story, CODA.

An excerpt from the book

Joseph Cooper looked good. He wore his prison uniform like a suit, filling it out perfectly. Every ginger-brown hair was in place. His cheeks were close-shaven, no nicks, just a neat sideburn beside each ear. As he moved down the serving line, accepting not only tomato soup and chips but also a helping of rhubarb pie, Cooper kept his chin up, a smile curving those lovely lips. Only the scab on his forehead, the fading bruise at his temple, hinted he hadn’t spent the last three weeks on holiday.

For all his quiet confidence, Cooper didn’t try to join this faction or that. Instead he carried his metal tray to a deserted table near the guard’s post, sitting down and beginning to eat with the single-mindedness of one who wishes to be left alone.

“Hallo.” Gabriel settled himself on the opposite bench.

Cooper glared at him, gray eyes hard. “You shouldn’t be here. I’ve given evidence against you.”

“Have you now. Poor me. ’Tis a wonder they haven’t clapped me in irons. Do you even know my name?”

Cooper’s gaze shifted to the top left breast of Gabriel’s uniform. “MacKenna.”

Gabriel struck a match. Lighting a Pall Mall, he pushed the pack across the table. “I’m Gabriel. And I know for a fact you said you never saw the man who had you. Whatever you are, Cooper, you’re no grass. Take a smoke.”

“I don’t—”

“Take it,” Gabriel repeated, voice barely audible yet filled with menace. “If you don’t, I’ll come across this table and dash your brains on the floor. You know I will.”

Cooper reached toward the pack. For a long time he stared at Gabriel, pupils dilated, upper lip curled. Then he lifted the box, tapped it and drew out a cigarette.

“Grand. Put it between your lips, darling.”

Cooper went rigid. Slowly, deliberately, he placed the Pall Mall on the table. Gabriel smiled, glancing around the cafeteria to make certain everyone saw he wasn’t insulted. Dozens of men looked back. It seemed not a soul had missed the exchange thus far, including the guards. Buckland looked curious; McCrory frowned. One of McCrory’s reasons for befriending Gabriel was his once-militant heterosexuality. Seeing Gabriel engage in Wentworth’s time-honored courtship ritual wasn’t easy for the guard, who looked up to Gabriel almost as an elder brother.

“They tell me you went to Oxford on scholarship,” Gabriel said. “Which says to me your mind’s ripe for educating. So mark me, Cooper. You are the sweetest piece of ass to walk into Wentworth since before Christ made crackers. I’ll bet men have made passes at you since you were – what? Twelve? Thirteen?”

The correct answer was thirteen. Gabriel, a good judge of character, recognized the truth in Cooper’s eyes. “Well, you can rest easy now. You’re no longer up for grabs. I fucked you in the showers—”

“You forced—”

“—and that’s debatable ownership. But just now I offered you a cigarette and you took it. Let me light it and you’re mine. Meaning you’re protected from all the bull-necked, ham-fisted motherfuckers who’d kill you trying to love you. No man in Wentworth will touch what’s mine.”

“I don’t want you to touch me.” Cooper’s voice shook with the force of his loathing. “Not ever again.”

Bringing his own cigarette to his lips, Gabriel took a deep draw, exhaling the smoke in the other man’s direction. “Sure and you don’t. But think on it, Cooper. I’m the devil you know. You’ve endured my worst. I’m only one man and easy to please. Care to let the G-block Lovelies gang-bang you? How bad will it hurt, taking eight men up that tender hole? Half of them have horse dicks and brains to match.”

With a swift intake of breath, Cooper shot a glance at the guards. Two stared straight ahead at nothing. The others – Buckland and McCrory – stood contemplating their shoes.

“They won’t help you,” Gabriel said softly. “You know I tell you true. I’ll help you, I’ll protect you, but I’ll have payment. Pick up the cigarette. Let me light it. Tell every man in Wentworth you’re my girl. I’ll go to my grave defending you and expect no more than a kiss before bed at night. Or thereabouts,” he added, grinning.

“I’m no girl,” Cooper said, lips curling back from even white teeth.

“My boy, then. Or just mine. But pick up the goddamn cigarette before the Lovelies decide to give it a go. Eight against one is hard odds, even for me. I don’t mind dying to protect your sweet ass, Cooper, but I’d rather not do it before supper tonight.”

With a trembling hand, Cooper seized the cigarette. He held it out, gaze fixed on some invisible point as Gabriel lit it.

“Good. Take a draw. Enjoy the goddamn thing. You a Catholic boy?”

“Anglican.”

“Close enough. Suck down the fumes and thank God Almighty you get so much pleasure in this vale of tears.” Beneath the table, Gabriel’s cock had stiffened the moment Cooper placed the lit cigarette between those perfect lips. It was like a watching an angel tempted into sin – delicious, painful and impossible to witness without suffering almost equally in the process. As Cooper smoked, Gabriel looked at the floor, silently reciting Mrs. Lavin’s multiplication tables until his crotch was decent again. Then Gabriel stood, gave Cooper a smile and said, “See you tonight. Remember – I’ll expect that kiss.”

* * *

By the time Joseph Cooper returned to his cell, just minutes before reconfinement, Gabriel had already made himself at home. He had precious few possessions – a Bible from his sister Maureen, a packet of personal letters, and a signed photo from the Marlene Dietrich Fan Club. This last had served him so admirably when it came to his late-night needs; he wasn’t ashamed to admit he’d obtained it by writing a fan letter. Marlene, though every inch a woman, had the verve, courage and hardness of a man. Kissing Lonnie’s mouth might do nothing for Gabriel, but kissing it while imagining Marlene’s flawless legs in those delicate stockings was surprisingly effective.

“What – what are you doing here?” Cooper stopped dead, hands curling around the bars behind him and squeezing until his knuckles turned white. “They told me I’d be alone until a cellmate was assigned.”

“And here he is.” Gabriel restrained himself from laughing in the other man’s face. “Didn’t I say I expected a kiss before bed?”

Wentworth’s guards, in their infinite, cosmic wisdom, chose that moment to begin reconfinement a full five minutes early. They strode down each long hall in turn, slamming cell doors and locking them tight. Once the all-clear was asked, confirmed and shouted back, the main switch was thrown and the overhead lights snapped off. As F-block went dark Gabriel sprang to his feet, a long-fingered hand closing around Cooper’s soft white throat.

“This is where you say yes or you die,” Gabriel whispered in Cooper’s ear.