Roger both loathed and loved Dr. Matt Ryan. Ever since he could remember, his parents have said: “Why can’t you be more like Matt?” It is only when he discovers that Dr. Perfect wants to do perfectly lusty things to him that he realizes being in hate and in love isn’t such a bad thing after all. One evening, Dr. Perfect asks Roger to go for a ride that ultimately changes Roger’s life forever…Excerpt:Roger both hated and loved Dr. Matt Ryan of Anne’s Mercy Hospital. For one, they had grown up together and had been next-door neighbors, but Matt had always been an over achiever: top of every class, student council president, volunteer group leader. They had also gone to the same high school, and Roger hadn’t spent a day without hearing the words, “Matt Ryan.” Roger, though, was his family’s underachiever and was the only child of two parents that had more than enough to say about their neighbor’s son: “Why don’t you act more like the Ryan’s boy? He got Valedictorian!” “Why don’t you go to medical school like that boy, Matt?” “Why can’t you be more social, more like that Matt?…” The only halfway decent thing that Roger had ever done, which was still not good enough in his parent’s eyes, was to go to nursing school. Now, years later, he had thought that he was over and done with that Matt Ryan stuff. That was up until a week ago when a fellow nurse had responded to a question that he had asked about the new doctor that was supposed to be arriving: “The new doctor? I think that his name is Matt Ryan or something…” And so Matt Ryan came to plague Roger’s life again, sixty miles away from home with all of the hospitals in-between. Yet Roger, with all of his envy and pain, was just like everybody else: he was completely head over heels in love with Dr. Matt Ryan, despite the fact that he was a guy. His deep felt love was one of the reasons why he left in the first place, besides his parents. What was the point of having a love/hate relationship with a man that everybody adored?Matt was probably going to end up with a model-esque creature that also had a graduate degree—basically, another “perfect person,” just like Matt. That was why, as Roger leaned downward as he smiled at an eight-year-old girl that was leaving after having gotten stitches, he was shocked when Matt remained longer than necessary, prolonging their closeness. They had talked a few times—many, in fact—but there was always a hidden edge to every personal conversation. Roger thought that this was probably due to the fact that Matt was more than aware of how much better he was, despite how he never said it. That was another reason why Matt was so perfect. He was humble to the point of it being damnable. “So…” Matt said, fumbling around with his notes. Once again, the conversation took that awkward, edgy turn that it always did. Roger silently looked down at his navy blue scrubs, suddenly feeling unnaturally short. “You’re off in fifteen minutes, aren’t you?” “Yes,” Roger said stiffly, shuffling his white shoes that nurses were required to wear. Inside the examination room, which was basically a tile area with a counter, a cot, and drawers, he felt entirely too conspicuous. “The same time as you, right?” “Yeah,” Matt retorted. “Want to go to dinner with me? It’s Friday, and I would like some company. I have big news and nobody to share it with.” Dr. Matt Ryan was inviting him out to dinner? The man who should have had the word overachiever tattooed on his head? What did Matt want with him, when he probably had a billion other people eager to dine with him? After all, half of the nurses had practically wet their scrubs when Matt had been introduced to the staff. Say no, thought Roger. This one conversation is awkward enough. Despite his own mind’s screaming, though, he heard himself say, “Yeah, I’ll meet you outside in twenty minutes.”About the Author:Penelope Rivers is an erotic novelist of M/M romance novels and short stories.