The Innocence Series: Complete Bundle

by Riley Knight

  “Good. I’ll drop by to meet him. Sign the paperwork, make it all official.” Tom sounded utterly delighted, and Ben knew that he had good reason to be. The bar was turning a decent profit, but both Tom and Ben had been worked half to death. They needed help.

  After ending the call, Ben flopped back onto the bed, looking upside down out the window into a clear blue sky that seemed to go on forever. A sky the same color as Isaac’s eyes.

  He didn’t want Isaac to get this job, and the reasons why confused him. Part of it was that he didn’t want other men staring at Isaac, and that one was new to him. He’d never been all that possessive. He’d never cared about anyone enough to really be bothered by what they did after they shared his bed.

  So that was shocking enough for him, but there was more. If Isaac got a job, then Isaac could afford to move out. Isaac could get his own apartment, and then he wouldn’t be living with Ben anymore.

  After all, Isaac staying with Ben was only supposed to be a temporary thing. And for the first time, Ben was finding himself wondering what it would be like when Isaac left, as it inevitably would.

  The thought tasted like battery acid, dripping down the back of his throat and burning all the way into the pit of his stomach.

  TWENTY-TWO

  The question wasn’t really if he wanted to do this or not because he did. More than anything, he wanted to know the truth, and if this girl was going to be the mother to his younger sister or brother, he wanted to help her as much as he could.

  Not to mention, he needed to know the truth about his father. But he was just so terrified, so utterly freaked out, and his feet felt like they wouldn’t take those last few steps along the gray concrete path, neatly planted with flowers that were already starting to wilt in the early afternoon heat.

  It was a big house, he noticed, and not like his own house with his parents had been large, because it had also been old and rambling and in need of repair. This house had been built within the last twenty years, he would bet, and the car in the driveway was probably bought in the last five or so.

  In short, for a place like this, these people were relatively well off. They probably weren’t on the same level as the Rockefellers or anything like that, but Isaac had to shake his head as he looked at the place, with its fresh coat of light green paint, white trim dazzling in the sunshine.

  If his father had been with this girl, he’d made a stupid choice, because a family like the Grants could make his life difficult. They could even drive Isaac’s family out of town, one of the few people with enough influence to turn other people against a man of God …

  There was something there, but Isaac shoved it aside. This wasn’t the time, no matter how that last thought nagged at him. Well, he had other things to do at the moment, and he turned to Ben, who was looking at him with an expression of mingled amusement and impatience.

  Still, he didn’t prod Isaac, and Isaac appreciated it. He let Isaac do this at his own pace, and he knew that he’d made the right choice in asking Ben to come with him for this.

  “Let’s go,” Isaac finally said, and, daringly, just for a moment, he allowed his hand to reach out and capture Ben’s, to give the fingers a brief squeeze. It wasn’t much, but Isaac took great comfort from it, from the real, sincere love he had for this man.

  Ben nodded, and Isaac smiled briefly as he looked at his handsome face. Ben had tried to point out that maybe he wasn’t the best person to have with Isaac for this since Ben was hardly known in the town as being a churchgoer. Isaac even knew that he had a point, it was just that he didn’t care all that much.

  Besides, if anything, Isaac was more of a pariah than Ben was. What an odd, strangely liberating, thought. He didn’t have to worry about anyone’s expectations because he’d already disappointed them.

  After the brief embrace of their fingers, Isaac stepped onto the path, between the cheerfully bright, if fading, flowers, and walked along it to the short flight of three steps that led up to the brilliant white door. Before he could let himself think about it, he knocked on the door and then stepped back and waited, fighting off the irrational desire to take off running as fast as he could.

  He wanted to do this. He reminded himself. And he held onto that thought, jealously guarding it, as the door was pushed open and a very familiar woman looked back at him.

  Carrie Grant, she was called, and though she was in her early forties, she looked to be at least five years younger. Her hair was still soft and gleaming gold, her eyes cornflower blue, her skin surprisingly soft and smooth, though Isaac had the somewhat uncharitable thought that it was because she’d never had to work even a day in her life.

  Her husband worked in Austin, commuting back and forth every day. Isaac wasn’t entirely sure what it was he did, but it was enough that the Grant family managed to contribute quite a lot financially to the church. Isaac had always been told to be especially polite to her, so to be facing her like this was a bit intimidating.

  “Can I help you?” Carrie asked, in the soft drawl that everyone in these parts had. When Ben spoke, it sent shivers down Isaac’s spine. Somehow, that drawl was just plain sexy coming from Ben.

  Not a thought to be having right at the moment and Isaac pushed his mind away from it as best he could.

  “Hello, Mrs. Grant,” Isaac said, firming up his voice as best he could. “I was hoping to speak to Amanda if she’s around.” He tried to tell himself that he had every right, just as much as anyone else, to ask for this, but something about the way she looked at him made him feel about five years old, and like he’d been caught stealing cookies.

  “She’s here, but I think I’d rather she didn’t speak to you,” Carrie informed them, her eyes as hard as steel as she gazed at them down the length of her nose in a way that was actually quite impressive since she was shorter even than Isaac, and slender as a willow tree. How she managed it, Isaac wasn’t sure, but it was quite a trick.

  What could Isaac even say to something like that? Especially in the face of the disdain, the anger, that he saw in this woman’s face? Truthfully, Isaac had half expected this to go exactly as it was, and he sighed as he rubbed at his face, his eyes, trying to clear his mind.

  His parents would have spoken to the most important people in town, and told them that Isaac had misbehaved. It was the sort of shunning behavior that Isaac had seen before, though never directed at him.

  A young woman had been forced out because she’d fallen in love with another woman. Another one because she’d been pregnant. If there was a scandal, and the person in question refused to repent, they were no longer welcome in the church.

  “And I don’t think I appreciate you coming here spreading your sinful lifestyle around, either,” Carrie continued, the wind in her sails not dying down in the least. She denounced him like she’d been waiting to do it, and when she was done, she spun on her heel and shut the door behind her.

  “Sinful lifestyle?” Ben commented, and his smirk was a welcome sight for Isaac. This was the first sign that he’d had that he really, truly had been cast out, shunned, and it was hitting him harder than he would have expected. The church had been his life, after all, so maybe it wasn’t that shocking. “She has no idea about sinful lifestyle.”

  Isaac laughed softly. He couldn’t help it. The look on Ben’s face was so over the top, a caricature of seduction as those soulful green eyes settled on him. Ben was doing it just to cheer him up, and it worked, at least a little.

  It helped him keep the tears from his eyes if nothing else.

  There didn’t seem to be any point in doing anything other than turning and walking back down between the rows of drooping flowers. They were not going to be allowed to see Amanda. He’d just have to wait until he could find her somewhere away from her mother.

  “Hey! Isaac!” A hiss came from around the side of the house, and Isaac turned to look at Ben, and then he glanced over in the direction the call had come from. Ben shrugged at him, and they both looked over to
see a slender hand beckoning them over.

  Amanda Grant stood there, hidden from the road by the bulk of the house, and Isaac let himself settle back into the shadows there, looking curiously at the young woman who Ben claimed had probably slept with Isaac’s father.

  She looked different, that was the first thing Isaac noticed. Her cheeks were a trifle fuller, and her slender body just a little bit riper. She was, of course, one of the few young women in town about Isaac’s age, so his mother had pushed her at him, but that had never gone anywhere.

  “Amanda,” Isaac greeted her, a bit awkward, his tone coming out stilted. But what was he supposed to say to her, now that he was face to face with her? Did you screw my father seemed to be a little bit too blunt, though he did suspect that’s what Ben would say in his situation.

  Ben. He thought of him, and he settled back close to him, not quite touching, but taking comfort just from his presence.

  “Isaac, why did you come here? You gonna gloat about what your father did to me?” Amanda asked, and even in the shadows cast by the house, tears were obviously shining in her eyes. As she spoke, her hand slid down to press protectively against the roundness of her stomach, and Isaac knew, at that moment, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Ben had been telling the truth.

  This woman was pregnant. And what she had just said made it pretty clear who the father of that child was.

  “No,” Isaac told her. “I want to help. What do you want to do? I can talk to my dad. Make him acknowledge what he did.”

  It might break up his parents’ marriage, but that didn’t really actually change anything. It was based on a lie right now, at least one lie, as far as Isaac could tell.

  “No!” Horror filled Amanda’s pretty round face, and she clutched at the baby in her stomach with both hands and fell against the side of the house. In that one moment, Isaac understood a lot more about her situation.

  “Your mom is going to figure it out soon enough,” Isaac told her, and he felt Ben’s fingers slipping over the small of his back, which was, for once, more comforting than arousing.

  Amanda lapsed into a sullen silence, refusing to meet Isaac’s eyes. Ben snorted behind him, his bigger, stronger body cradling Isaac, offering some measure of protection to him, which Isaac eagerly took.

  “How the damn hell long do you think you’re gonna be able to hide this from your folks?” Ben asked bluntly, and Amanda’s face fell. Clearly, she wasn’t a stupid girl, and it was equally clear that she had thought about these things before.

  “Just leave me alone,” Amanda told him, told them both, her eyes burning even through the thick layer of moisture, of tears, which shone in her eyes. She was gone then, running around the back of the house, and Isaac knew that if they followed her, she would already be inside.

  “That went well,” Ben commented, and Isaac shook his head. He wasn’t in the mood for humor, so he just turned and walked away, feeling about a million years old and like the earth was trying to suck him in with every step he took.

  He’d been so excited, but it looked like he wasn’t going to get to have anything to do with his younger sibling after all.

  TWENTY-THREE

  Ben studied Isaac anxiously as they made their way to Ben’s car. He tried to keep it subtle, but then, he realized that he didn’t even really need to bother because Isaac was so lost in his own world that Ben could stare openly and Isaac wasn’t likely to notice.

  That had gone, honestly, about as Ben had expected. Isaac, who had been the good church boy for so long, couldn’t really know what it was like to not be that anymore. His first impulse had been to rush off and see the girl, Amanda, and he had obviously subconsciously expected to be welcomed.

  But he was having his first taste of life in a small town when the good people of the church don’t accept you. Ben, having lived here for a few years now, was more familiar with it, which didn’t mean that he didn’t feel bad for Isaac, or for Amanda, for that matter.

  And then there was this other issue. He was supposed to bring Isaac to work with him tonight, but was this really the time to be talking to him about it? To add more stress to the whole situation?

  “I called Sylvia today,” Ben offered, as they got into his car. “She’s gonna drop by tomorrow, and if it’s all good on her end, then Sammy could be with us a few days later, once the paperwork goes through.”

  Isaac glanced over at him, as though surprised to hear him say anything, and then nodded shortly.

  “I’ll make sure the house is clean while you’re at work tonight,” Isaac commented, and Ben’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked at his lover, who was so obviously suffering. But Ben had never been very good at knowing what to do in a situation like that. He’d hardly had much practice.

  “Yeah,” Ben commented, and he turned back to the road, heading through the small town and toward his apartment building. If he didn’t do anything, if he just went off to work, he could tell Tom that Isaac just hadn’t been interested. Or he could say that he’d forgotten to ask him, and the whole thing could be dealt with later.

  Yeah, that was the best thing to do. Just let this Amanda thing chill a little in Isaac’s mind, and tell him about the job offer when things had calmed down a bit. Give Isaac a little bit more time to get over stuff before pushing him into the world of working.

  Enjoy just a little bit longer with Isaac living with him.

  “Hey, Isaac? When are you gonna go home and get your stuff?” Ben asked because Isaac had turned to look at him and there was a strange look in his eyes like he had noticed some hesitation from Ben and wanted to ask him about it. It was a bit of a panicky question, and hypocritical, too, since Ben had walked out on his own family, his mother, with just the clothes on his back and what he could pack into his suitcase.

  But the question did what it was supposed to. It distracted Isaac, took that thoughtful look out of his eyes.

  “My stuff?” Isaac asked, and Ben nodded, grateful for the distraction. It helped him ignore the gnawing of guilt in his own stomach.

  “Yeah. Your clothes, maybe your car … where is your car, anyway?” Ben grasped around for anything that might keep Isaac from asking the questions which had briefly shown in his eyes.

  “At my parents’ house, I guess,” Isaac answered. “Unless they got rid of it.” Ben could tell that Isaac was deep in thought, like the idea of going back to see his parents and get his stuff hadn’t even occurred to him.

  There was a long, long silence, and Ben was glad for it. He didn’t exactly want Isaac’s questions poking around right at the moment, not when he was sure that the fact that he was hiding something was written all over his face. This gave him time to get it under control.

  That silence lasted until Ben pulled up at the apartment building, and when he turned to Isaac, he found that those brilliant, sky blue eyes were gazing at him already.

  “I don’t know,” Isaac said and then got out of the car and headed slowly in. Ben watched him go. When he’d first seen this young man, he’d been almost immediately struck by how very young he seemed, how carefree, almost.

  The world had taken that from him. Or had Ben? Shaking his head, Ben got out of the car, too, but his gaze was fixed on Isaac’s shoulders, his slightly bowed head.

  It wasn’t like he was lying to the guy, he comforted himself. It wasn’t like he was never going to tell him about the job offer. Just not right this second, when he’d been through so much.

  It rang hollow, but he pushed that all away and made his way into the house behind Isaac.

  Just a little while longer.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Isaac lay in bed, sweaty, his balls throbbing contentedly, and with good reason, too. He’d just emptied them inside of Ben’s hot mouth, and then he’d made Ben at least a little bit late for work by demanding to return the favor.

  As he recovered, he thought about whether he

  should go back home? Should he demand, at least, his clothes, some of his books? He didn
’t really have much else, but those things, at least, it would be nice to have. He was doing laundry every day, washing his clothes, and while Ben had been very nice about lending him things when he needed them, it would still be nice to have his own things.

  His parents would be furious, he knew, but as he poked cautiously at the idea with a long stick in the corners of his mind, he realized that maybe, just maybe, he was sort of furious with them, too.

  The idea of going back home, not to beg for forgiveness and to return, because he knew that he would never do that no matter what happened, but it stuck in his mind to think about getting his stuff back. Confronting his mother and father, if they brought it to that.

  It was strangely hard to let go of. Maybe he just needed some closure. Maybe he needed to look right into his father’s eyes and ask him why he had been so willing to write Isaac, his son, off.

  He wouldn’t like the answer, he suspected, but it would be nice to hear it, anyway. Nice to know that he didn’t have to live in fear of running into them because this was, after all, not a very big town and it could easily happen.

  Idly, he rolled onto his side, every movement lethargic like he was floating in water. That’s what it felt like, anyway, like the air itself was providing resistance. Ben had thoroughly worn him out, and a smile lingered on his lips as he went to plug in his cell phone, knowing he could steal Ben’s charger to do it. It had been beeping at him for awhile now, plaintively announcing that it was about to die.

  Only there was a phone plugged in there already. Ben’s phone. The poor guy had left in such a hurry that he’d left it charging, and Isaac picked it up and glanced at the battery bar. No, it was fully charged. Maybe he could just run down to the bar and give it to his lover.

  A sudden shock of vibration exploded in his hands, and a split second later, the device in his hands started to ring. Isaac bit his lower lip, struggling with himself. He had no right to answer Ben’s phone, but what if it was important? What if it was Sylvia? Did Ben even have voice mail on his phone?