First off, I've gotta say that I love this cover...rarely do I see a cover match up so exactly with what I have in my head but this D and Jack is perfect...body language and all. D is sort of badass and standoffish, Jack is a bit more boyish and nervous. I love it!!!This is a story about a hit man, D, and and his mark, Jack. You'd think that no excuse is good enough to convince you that a man who kills other people for a living could be a good person, but D can change your mind. He's not ALL good. He still kills people. But he gets to choose which jobs he takes, and he would normally pass a job like Jack up...D does have some scruples. Under threat of exposure, D is forced to put a gun to Jack's head...if only D didn't fell like he was losing his own humanity..."He didn't like to think about how far gone he was into the abyss that even the humanness of lust was now foreign to him. At least he still felt hunger, and cold, and the craving for nicotine. How long until event hose animal sensations left him? Would he eventually be left with nothing but a set of skills that suited him for only one profession, and a head full of things he didn't want to know? Maybe he's disconnect enough that he would no longer swear, or piss, or get stupid songs stuck in his head. He's been told over and over again that he'd have to become a machine, but he hadn't really believed that he would. He knew better now."Jack has worked for the last decade to get to where he is now...a maxillofacial surgeon who has not one but two college degrees, his work is his life. But now life as he know it is over. He's under witness protection after witnessing a mob like hit on an innocent woman, and has been forced to give up everything he's ever known...friends, family, job, house, life...Now they are on the run together, hiding from some really bad people...people who used to be D's bosses and colleagues...who can and are trying their hardest to find Jack and D. But D's really freaking good at hiding. Which leads to a lot of down time for these two. A lot of time to to know each other. And their romance is so slow building, growing by miniscule increments. It's easy to see how these two fall in love...and it's real love, not the kind of lust that is life affirming in the face of death. Because D is just that badass, and Jack becomes quite proficient at badassery as well...Honestly, the best part of this book for me was watching D accept who he is...not as a gay man, but as a man. A person deserving of the love that Jack has to offer him. I just feel so bad for D. His lot in life has been one of pure hell, all of it not under his own control. Circumstances have led him again and again into tragedy, and it's no wonder that he's shut down his emotions to the extent that he has. The way that Jack is able to get inside him is what fairy tales are made of if they're not made up by Disney. This dawning realization that Jack could very well be his soul mate...it's breathtaking."To think I almos' put a bullet between them eyes, and took that life that now I'd die ta save, and I never woulda known what he was in the world, and who he was or could be, and I woulda never even known what I was misin', nor known how right it could feel just ta lay my fingers alongside his."The sex is fairly PG13 for the most part...I'd not call this erotic at all. It's more romance than anything. It's a story of two people from such opposite walks of life who are thrown into circumstances that almost seem serendipitous. D and Jack are just meant to be together. They heal each other, they soothe each other, and this is their story...Oh, and the epilogue!!!! Made me so happy...all is not automatically bright and shiny for these two. But you do know how much they love each other, and you can feel how content they are.
