by Riley Knight
“He did it again,” she said by way of greeting. Her tone was almost apologetic, and Isaac shook his head and stepped back, allowing her into the house. “They told me at the church that I could find you here now.”
“You don’t have to explain,” Isaac told her. “I said you could come anytime, and I meant it.” If it were up to him, if he had any sway whatsoever, he was going to try to take that apologetic edge out of her voice. She wasn’t even that old, not even fifty years old yet, but she seemed so beaten down.
How long had she been that way?
“Are you here to stay?” Isaac said, when his mother lapsed into silence, gazing around the farmhouse with wonder. Slowly, her eyes settled on the child, who was bright and cheerful with everyone she knew but a little shy with strangers.
“Is this her? Your father’s baby?” she asked, and Isaac sighed and shook his head a little.
“Maybe she’s biologically his, but she’s ours. He walked out on her,” Isaac kept his voice firm. He would brook no argument on that front, and his mother nodded. That actually seemed to make things a bit easier for her, and her shoulders visibly relaxed.
She probably wouldn’t be making friends with Ruby immediately, but Isaac had the idea that the little girl would work her magic on his mother’s heart. Maybe Ruby would have a grandmother figure, and it would be the only one because, for now at least, Amanda’s parents had pretty much written her and little Ruby right out of their lives.
But things could change, and he had never realized that as clearly as when he looked into his mother’s tired eyes. She was here, against everything that Isaac would have thought.
“If you’ll have me, I’ll stay,” his mother said, and Isaac nodded without hesitation. It might be a bit strange for Ben, and especially for Amanda. Isaac had the idea that maybe neither of them would be entirely happy with her, but it would happen. Isaac had faith in that.
Besides, Ben seemed to have this sort of superpower. He picked up strays, starting with Isaac, and then Isaac had started to do the same thing. Their family was a strange, unconventional one, but it was theirs, and he thought it could expand to include one more.
Carefully juggling Ruby, Isaac leaned in and pulled his mother into his arms, hugging her close in a way that he hadn’t done since he was a child if he had even done it then. She hugged him back in the same way, and at that moment, the first steps toward forgiveness, the first building blocks of a new relationship, were laid between mother and son.
His mother was home.
Ben
To say that Ben wasn’t thrilled when he walked through the door and saw Isaac’s mother there would be an understatement, and it was probably a good thing that Ruby, with her keen little ears that seemed to pick up everything that was said, was around, or else he probably would have had some choice words for the woman.
Isaac seemed happy to have her around, and that held him back a little, but he couldn’t help but remember that this was the woman who had restricted her son so much that he’d had no real idea how to even function in the world. The woman who had known that her husband was stealing and had let it happen. She was hardly blameless, and Ben, at least, remembered that.
He kept his silence until Ruby was in bed, and Sammy was safely ensconced at the kitchen table, very seriously focused on his math homework. Sammy was a smart kid, smarter than Ben was, and even though Ben didn’t really understand it, he was very proud of Sammy when the kid talked about maybe going to college someday. It wasn’t something that Ben could imagine for himself, but he could admire the hell out of it in his younger brother.
“Isaac,” Ben’s voice was firm, uncompromising, as he walked up to his lover, his boyfriend, who was just finishing up the dinner dishes. “We gotta talk, babe.”
Isaac lifted his eyes to Ben’s face, and he didn’t seem exactly shocked. His boyfriend definitely knew him, and well enough that it still made Ben, who had avoided connections like that for his whole life, a little bit uncomfortable sometimes. The younger man nodded, then wiped his damp hands on a dish towel and gripped Ben’s hand in his own as they went to their bedroom.
“You sure about this?” Ben asked, pulling Isaac through their linked hands so that they could sit on the edge of the bed.
Isaac didn’t play stupid. He didn’t even pretend not to know what Ben was talking about. He just sighed and then gave a slight nod of his head.
“I forgive her,” he said simply, and Ben snorted and turned his gaze to the floor. That was all very well and good for Isaac, but Ben could so easily see all of this going wrong.
“Yeah, well, I’m not sure that I do,” he admitted, then raised his gaze to look directly into Isaac’s luminous eyes. “She’s no saint.”
Isaac didn’t try to deny that, but that look of quiet determination didn’t go out of his face, either.
“I know. Neither am I. Neither are you. We’ve all messed up, Ben. No one’s perfect, but she’s trying to fix it now. Shouldn’t we help her do that?”
Ben thought about his own mother, who was tucked away in a jail, maybe, hopefully, learning some lessons of her own. What would he do if she came back? Wouldn’t he want to think that she might have changed?
Though he wouldn’t let her screw around more with Sammy, that was for sure. But Isaac was being cautious, he was reserving judgment a little, and Ben thought that he would probably do the same thing in Isaac’s position.
Damn it. That meant he was going to have to let her stay, and to be honest, he couldn’t see himself bringing himself to the point where he could actually turn his boyfriend’s mother out onto the streets. After so long having no real home of his own, it seemed like he was now doomed to help provide one to others.
Well, he could think of worse things, he supposed.
“Fine, but I’m keeping my eye on her,” Ben grumbled, and Isaac nodded, as though he hadn’t expected anything else. He probably hadn’t. He was way too good at reading Ben.
Isaac shifted on the bed, not sitting beside Ben now but rather perched in his lap. Isaac was so small, and his body seemed to fit perfectly like this. When they were alone, this was pretty much how they always sat, Isaac’s body nestled in Ben’s lap, Ben’s arms around him.
Whatever else was going on, one thing Ben knew for sure was that he and Isaac belonged like this. All the rest of it, that was something they could work out. But nothing was as flawless, so effortless, so utterly right as Isaac in Ben’s lap, as Isaac finally raising his head to brush his lips against Ben’s.
“I love you,” Ben admitted, not words that he was comfortable saying very often. But they were true, and they felt like they needed to come out then because he had never felt them this strongly. Maybe he didn’t love that Isaac’s mother was back, but he sure the hell loved his boyfriend for letting her. For being the sort of person who could forgive like that.
“I love you, too,” Isaac smiled, saying the words readily, then allowing his full, soft lips to slip from Ben’s lips, up the line of his jaw to his earlobe, which he sucked lightly between his teeth.
Ben shivered. Isaac still had an intriguing air of innocence around him, and Ben was starting to suspect that he always would, but the younger man had learned some things, too. He so effortlessly stoked the fires of desire which were, let’s face it, always ready to burst into flame. Ben had always had a high sex drive, and Isaac had learned how to use that.
Not that Ben was complaining. Not with the payoff that Isaac always made sure that Ben got from it.
In this position, Ben knew that Isaac would feel it as Ben hardened, as his cock plumped up and lengthened, the material of his faded blue jeans really not hiding any of it. And Isaac, he obviously felt it, because his hips started to rock and his firm, round little ass started to grind against Ben, teasing him, encouraging his pleasure.
It was comforting, having Isaac settled in his lap, but it was also, more often than not, enough to get Ben going. Isaac too, he realized, as he glanced down at saw
that Isaac’s own pants were straining at the front, bulging out in a way that made Ben’s mouth water.
Reaching down, he covered that bulge with his hand, rubbing at it lightly with his palm. Yes, Isaac was teasing him, but he could do some teasing of his own. He had learned Isaac’s body very well by now, and he knew exactly how much pressure to put on that hand, the best way to make Isaac writhe and moan against Ben’s cock.
It took nearly nothing for them to work each other up, and there would be no time, no patience, for either of them to go for much foreplay. A little bit of stroking each other, freeing themselves from the prison of their clothing, kissing and groaning and shoving close against each other as the energy between them spiraled out of anything that Ben could control. He knew it was the same with Isaac, too.
“Babe,” Ben gasped, trembling as he gazed at his lover, at the one person in the world who meant the most to him. “You want top or bottom?” At this point, Ben didn’t much care. He would happily roll over for Isaac if that’s what his boyfriend wanted.
When he saw the flare of passion in Isaac’s eyes, his body clenched, seeming to melt inside. Actually, maybe he did have a preference, now that he thought about it, and he could only hope that Isaac shared it.
“I need you,” Isaac admitted, and Ben grinned. It looked like he was going to get what he wanted, what he needed, and he nodded at Isaac. They were still sitting on the edge of the bed, having only parted long enough to strip down, and Ben shifted more fully onto the bed, pulling Isaac’s smaller body against him.
Isaac knew what to do now, and Ben couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride as he watched his beautiful young lover reach for the lube and slip down between Ben’s legs. He had taught Isaac this. All of it. Isaac had learned it well, but Ben had been the one to show him first.
And then he was groaning as he felt the teasing touch of pretty pink lips against his aching, throbbing cockhead when he felt that mouth part, and that tongue come out to trace over the leaking slit there. Isaac had gotten so good at this, at working his mouth on Ben, at driving him crazy, at distracting him and almost bringing him right over the edge just with that pressure of his lips and tongue and the slow press of those fingers inside of him.
One, and then two, Ben relaxed and took both digits without the slightest issue. He moaned and thrust his hips, not even able to help himself, pushing his cock up into Isaac’s mouth but also shoving himself down onto Isaac’s fingers. And the whole time, those slightly solemn, focused blue eyes were fixated down at him, and it was those eyes which made sex with Isaac the most intense of any experience Ben had ever had.
It wasn’t long before he knew that he was going to come. Either that or he was going to go insane trying to hold it back because Isaac’s fingers seemed to know exactly how to stroke deep within him, how to find his prostate and stimulate it with no mercy.
“Now,” Ben gasped when he just couldn’t handle it any longer. When his body was tightening up, and no matter how much control he exerted, he knew that his pleasure would soon erupt from him. “Isaac, fuck me, now.”
Once, there would have been a faint look of shock at the curse word, but Isaac was getting used to Ben now. An incredibly sexy, teasing little smile formed on those impossibly beautiful lips, which Isaac mercifully drew away from Ben’s throbbing dick.
With deft hands, Isaac drew Ben’s legs apart and out of the way, leaving him open and vulnerable and oddly content to be so. He was so slick, so ready, that when Isaac took him all at once, when he slid in deep, right to the hilt, Ben took it with no pain, no discomfort. Nothing but a deep sense of satisfaction, of relief, that he was finally getting what he needed.
Chest to chest, belly against belly, the two of them nevertheless kept up that relentless contact of their eyes. From the beginning, Isaac’s eyes had devastated Ben, had disarmed him despite how careful he had always tried to be. Those were a weapon, aimed right at Ben’s heart, and he couldn’t even make himself mind.
Rocking, thrusting, bodies straining together desperately, they moved together, sweat and passion and heat building between them. Ben heard the soft little noises coming from his own lips, and those from Isaac, too, and at the same time they came together in a kiss that was as much about keeping those noises at bay as anything else.
Over and over, they kissed, their lips straining together as much as the rest of their bodies. The blunt head of Isaac’s perfect cock rocked against Ben’s prostate, knowing exactly how to push, the absolute flawless angel to move inside of him to bring him pleasure.
And that pleasure was shared. Ben knew that, even as he let his orgasm build. He didn’t strain for it. He knew that he didn’t have to. It would happen, and probably at the same time that Isaac’s did.
He was right. At the same time as his own pleasure hit and slammed through him, he felt Isaac’s cock twitch, lodged deep inside of him as he painted Ben’s channel with his fluids. The feeling of being filled only made Ben’s pleasure seem to go on longer, and he groaned helplessly against Isaac’s lips as he clung to him and writhed against him.
Funny, in a way, how he’d been so determined to keep this young man at bay at first. How he’d been convinced that Isaac was too young, too innocent, for him, even as he’d been drawn to him by those very same qualities.
“Isaac, some day, I’m gonna marry you,” Ben informed him and then fell back on the bed, utterly exhausted, completely spent, with Isaac still lodged deep inside of him.
The smile he got back, growing as slowly as the dawn but just as brilliant, was more than enough of an answer for Ben.
THE END
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TOUCH OF INNOCENCE
ONE
The phone rang, jangling on the very edges of Sam’s nerves, already worn down almost to the breaking point. Once more, he was forced to lower the pages of his graphic novel, the bright colors giving way to the rather more depressing shades of gray and dirty silver that made up his reality.
“Damn it,” he hissed softly and then immediately winced when he saw, with the worst possible timing, the town’s one and only mechanic walk into the room from the little work area in the back. The man who had walked in just in time to hear Sam’s comment, and the man who just so happened to be Sam’s boss.
“You got something better to do than your damn job?” Mike, the mechanic, drawled, his voice calm but his eyes stormy and flashing with annoyance. Which honestly, Sam couldn’t put his finger on a time when they hadn’t looked like that, at least when Mike was looking at him.
“No?” Sam tried, marking his place carefully and letting the pages of his book slip closed. Clearly, he wasn’t going to get time to finish the issue he was on just now. He could remember a time when he’d gotten to spend pretty much every work day reading, answering the occasional call, but those times had changed.
The little town itself had changed. When Sam had come to live with his brother twelve years ago, it had been a tiny place, under two thousand people. Now, it was more than twice that, as people had to leave Austin and other big cities to try to find more affordable places to live.
All of which meant, Sam’s cushy job wasn’t quite as easy as it had once been. It meant he was more often called upon to do the work which he disliked most about his job, the part where he got his hands dirty. Answering the phone wasn’t so bad, but having to crawl under a dirty car and get oil dripped on him?
Yeah, he knew very well what he would prefer. And so when the phone jangled at him again, this time he reached for it and answered it, with one eye on his boss, who wasn’t even pretending not to look at him.
“Mike’s Auto Repair,” he rapped out smartly and then frowned when he saw a familiar car pulling up into the small parking lot through the smudged plate glass windows. His face seemed to freeze when he saw two figures inside of it, one of them an adult man in his early thirties, the other a chi
ld, not quite a teenager.
Great. This was absolutely the last thing he needed right now. Fighting down a surge of frustration, he looked away from the window and tried to focus on the phone which he held to his ear. At first, the voice jabbering away at him didn’t make much sense to him, as focused as he was on his boss and on the car he’d just seen pull up.
“No, I don’t know why your car would be making a noise like that,” Sam tried to keep his voice from sounding absent, but he was pretty sure he failed utterly. “Have you tried …?”
He stopped dead, though, because he really had no idea what could be done for a rattling noise in the engine of a car. And Mike was glaring daggers at him like he should somehow magically know. It wasn’t like he’d gone to mechanic school or whatever, so it seemed a little unfair.
More jabbering in his ear was interrupted by the cheery ring of the silver bell which hung over the door to let them know when a customer came in. Sam closed his eyes and sent out a fervent prayer to anyone who would listen that the ground would open right up under him and send him hurtling away from this situation which was doubtless going to get awkward.
Well, more awkward than it already was, anyway.
“Give me that,” Mike grumped, snagging the phone out of Sam’s hand. “You deal with your dad.”
That only made Sam wince and feel worse than ever. His dad? The blue-eyed, dark-haired man who walked in seemed far too young to be anyone’s dad. At least anyone who was an adult, as Sam was.
“He’s not my …” Sam started and then turned his attention to the delicate, small man who walked in, one slender arm around the twelve-year-old blonde girl who gazed around her with eyes the same shade of summer sky blue as the man.
