The Innocence Series: Complete Bundle

by Riley Knight

  Good. It seemed only fair that he should be able to get to Sam the same way that Sam got to him.

  “Okay. You can come in,” Ruby allowed, and Gunner laughed and stepped inside when she moved out of the way.

  “You know, I worked that out for myself,” Gunner teased, and was rewarded with a quick smile from the girl. Gunner had always liked kids, and they tended to like him back.

  Too bad he’d never have any of his own, not just because he was gay, either. What kind of life could someone with his past, someone who was on the run and probably always would be, have with a family? It wasn’t going to happen.

  Sam brushed by him, and Gunner frowned. It seemed like Sam had deliberately pushed him out of the way. Maybe Ruby, and Ben, didn’t mind having him around, but it seemed that Sam very definitely did.

  Too bad for him. Anyway, it wasn’t like Gunner was going to be around for long. The spoiled brat could deal with it for a few days. Once Gunner’s bike was fixed up, he would be history.

  “Dinner’s on,” Ben said, nodding to both of them in welcome. Dinner. God, how long had it been since he’d last eaten anything? Much less anything that smelled like the delicious scents wafting in from the kitchen.

  Just because he wasn’t going to be here for long, he mused to himself, salivating already in anticipation of dinner, didn’t mean he couldn’t enjoy it while he had it.

  FIVE

  Dinner was, admittedly, delicious. Sam had been spending pretty much all of his time at the bar, and while they did serve some food, none of it was anything that Sam was highly excited about. He tended to prefer food that didn’t come floating on a pool of grease, and he’d eaten a lot of really bad salads there.

  So to sit down to a meal of thick, rich beef stew, filled with chunks of cut up carrot and potato and all sorts of other veggies, it was pretty much heaven. Even the fact that Gunner was sitting right across the table from him didn’t matter that much.

  Gunner was trying to get to him. Sam was positive about that. So the only way to win that was just not to play, and Gunner should get bored of that soon enough. That was probably the best thing that he could do for his own mental health

  So Sam let the conversation flow around him, and he ate. Hey, he was here, right? That was good enough. It was nice to see Ruby again, to let her chatter at him about school, and it always pleased him that she told him things that she didn’t tell other people.

  “This is good,” Gunner told them, mopping up his third bowl of stew with a piece of the bread that Sam knew Isaac would have made fresh today. “Thanks.”

  “It’s no problem,” Isaac commented, and it wasn’t that Sam was paying attention, except that he was, a little. There was a stranger in their midst, and that always made him wary.

  So he noticed, at least a little, when Gunner frowned, and he opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again. A tiny shake of his head, and then he did speak, even while Sam was silently willing him not to.

  He knew what the question was going to be, and he really didn’t like talking about it, or even hearing it spoken about. There was a reason that he’d rarely brought anyone home from school when he was younger. A reason that he had always gone over to his friends’ houses if he wanted to hang out.

  “Okay, I don’t mean to be rude …” Gunner started, and Sam spoke up, a sick, panicky feeling gripping at his stomach, making his heart flutter so that he was sure anyone who looked at him could see it.

  “So don’t be,” Sam interrupted, knowing the whole time that he was the one who was being rude. All of a sudden, the eyes of everyone at the long wooden table were on him, and he bit his lower lip but didn’t try to take back his words.

  “Let me guess,” Ben commented, a twinkle of amusement in his green eyes. “You want to know what the deal is with all of the people at the table.”

  Gunner turned away from Sam, which was a distinct relief, and then gave Ben a sheepish little grin and a nod.

  “I know it’s none of my business …”

  “It’s not a big deal,” Isaac commented, though Sam, as always, begged to differ. He had never understood how these people could be so blasé about all of this. They didn’t seem ashamed at all, which sort of blew his mind and always had, from the day he’d moved in with his big brother.

  “Isaac and I are married,” Ben said, and Sam recoiled as though he’d been slapped. He knew it already, of course, but that didn’t mean it was fun to think about. Much less to hear it so openly spoken. “Amanda, the blonde at the end there, is Ruby’s mother.” Amanda gave a friendly little smile, though she looked tired.

  Oh God, let Ben and Isaac not get into those details. It was confusing enough as it was, without mentioning that Isaac’s father was Ruby’s father, that they were actually siblings. Not only was that none of Gunner’s business, but Ruby was right there, listening, fascinated.

  Amanda spoke up, which was something else. She tended to be quiet, even more than Sam was, mostly keeping to herself, so if she was getting in on this, it probably wasn’t a good sign.

  “It’s not really that complicated,” she said to Gunner, but she might as well have been speaking directly to Sam, and he knew it. “It was easier for us all to live in this big old house than to try to find separate places in town.”

  “Okay,” Gunner said slowly, a bemused look on his handsome face. “But I don’t think I’ve been introduced to everyone.”

  All eyes turned to the other person at the table, who gave a small smile and a wave. Despite the smile, she still cut a bit of a tragic figure, small and thin and wasted, the oldest person there by a few decades.

  “She’s my mother,” Isaac said, giving her a fond smile. Sam knew that everything hadn’t always been fine between everyone at the table, but he’d never wanted to know the details. She was just another adult who had been around when he’d been growing up, and that had always been good enough for him.

  “Okay. It’s nice to meet you all,” Gunner admitted, and to Sam, he sounded sincere. Sam fought back a growl as he finished off his stew and rose to his feet. He didn’t need to watch Gunner charm the hell out of his family, damn it.

  “Thanks, guys,” Sam said, looking at Ben and Isaac, who nodded in acknowledgment. With the social niceties out of the way, Sam went to the big old kitchen, ran some water into his bowl, and then started out before anyone else could finish. The bar. That was what he needed. He’d done his duty—no one could ask for more, right?

  But it was too late. Isaac was already walking in after him, already dressed for work at the bar. The only bar in town, and the same bar that Sam headed to more often than not instead of coming home.

  “Is there a reason you don’t like him?” Isaac asked quietly, and Sam knew that the question was sincere. Isaac was incredibly earnest, and if Sam had something to say against Gunner, he would listen, and he would take it seriously.

  Only how to explain his problem with Gunner? How to get into the fact that Gunner might take away the only source of income that Sam had? Could make all of his dreams dissolve into nothing more than smoke? Even to his own ears, Sam knew that he would sound petty, considering Gunner clearly needed the help.

  But it was his life, his dreams, his future, on the line. Didn’t that matter? Shouldn’t it?

  And then there was the whole issue with the kiss. But Sam wasn’t even going to think about that, much less talk about it. That was just some dumb mistake that was never going to happen again.

  “No. He’s just a dick,” Sam spoke quietly, not quite willing to be rude enough to let Gunner hear him. Not that it would be a surprise, he figured, that he felt that way.

  “He seems nice,” Isaac commented, and Sam swallowed down the growl and the snarky answer that wanted to come out at that. He seemed nice? He was a drifter, just passing through, the epitome of a bad boy and it was stupid to even have him in their house.

  But Sam couldn’t say any of that. Besides, everyone was finishing with dinner, and com
ing to dump their bowls into the sink. Isaac started some hot water running, and Sam shook his head. They refused to get a dishwasher, which he’d always thought was ridiculous. What was it, a hundred years ago? Washing dishes by hand in an old farmhouse?

  “Babe, you have to get to work,” Ben commented, and he even wrapped an arm around Isaac’s waist and gave him a tender kiss on the cheek which made a lump rise in Sam’s throat. They loved each other so much, and it was times like this that he felt guilty for judging them so much. For wishing that they could just be normal. “I’ll do the dishes.”

  “You cooked,” came a low, deep growl from behind them, a voice that Sam was coming to think he would notice, and hate, anywhere. “I’ll do the dishes.”

  Oh, for fuck’s sake.

  “Maybe you’d like to stick your nose a little bit further up my brother’s ass,” Sam snarled, losing control a little. At least he kept it together enough that he said it quietly, leaning in to whisper it into Gunner’s ear, because Ruby probably didn’t need to hear that sort of language.

  “Thanks,” Ben shot Gunner a grateful smile, and Isaac, too. Was everyone falling for Gunner’s charm? It didn’t seem fair somehow. It was like Sam was the only one who could see through his act.

  Well, there was no way in hell that Sam was going to let this happen. So he rolled up his sleeves, grabbed a drying towel, and started to wipe down the clean dishes and put them away as Gunner washed them. Gunner wasn’t the only one who could help.

  Fuming, Sam noticed when Isaac left that the other man gave him a peculiar smile and a raised eyebrow before disappearing. What had that been all about? It was like Isaac thought he and Sam had a secret, and there had been that significant look at Gunner like Isaac was inviting him to consider something …

  Ridiculous. All of it. Even Sam’s behavior, and he knew it. Maybe even especially Sam’s behavior. He was pretty sure he’d never been so angry while doing dishes in his life, and every time he snuck a look at Gunner, the guy was watching him with a small smirk.

  “What is it?” Sam finally asked when he couldn’t take anymore. There was surprisingly little sound in the house. The murmur of the television, the soft sound of voices, Ruby’s and Ben’s. They were probably doing her homework, thanks to Gunner.

  And Sam, too, he reminded himself. He was helping, too. But only because of Gunner, which only made him angrier than ever.

  “Oh, nothing,” Gunner murmured, though there was a challenge in his eyes as he wiped out the stew pot, the last of the dishes. The two of them had gotten it done pretty fast, he had to admit. “It’s just that you’re pretty cute when you’re mad, Sammy. Did you know that?”

  Sammy again. Sam didn’t even let his big brother call him that, not most of the time, anyway, and yet, he was coming to sort of like it from Gunner. Or did it infuriate him more than ever? Or both? His head was all in a mess over this asshole.

  “I’m not cute,” Sam muttered, and he considered telling Gunner not to call him that yet again, but hadn’t he decided to ignore it until it went away? So he fought back the urge, putting the clean pot on the drying rack and hanging up the towel he’d been using.

  When he turned around, Gunner was right there, that same challenge gleaming in the depths of his mischievous eyes. A smile lingered on his sensual lips, slightly parted, a gleam of white teeth as Gunner shifted toward him with all of the smooth grace of a predator.

  Once more, they were almost, but not quite, touching. Once more, Sam’s heart picked up until it was drumming away as though being pounded on by a manic hand, thumping away so fast and hard that Sam was sure that Gunner would be able to hear it. And doubtless, he’d make fun of him for that, too.

  Why he did it, he didn’t even know. Maybe to try to catch Gunner off guard, like Gunner kept doing to him. There could be no doubt, though, that it was him who started it. Last time, Gunner had kissed him, and this time, it was all Sam.

  There had been a bit of a questing element to their last kiss, a discovery. There was nothing like that now. It was all heat, and fire, and anger, and this time, Sam hooked his fingers onto the back of Gunner’s neck and pulled him close, forcing the kiss to deepen until it was almost rough enough to bruise their lips.

  Their tongues didn’t so much dance together as they did battle, and while they hadn’t really touched each other last time, this time Gunner was soon pressed right up against him, pinning him against the fridge, one leg pressing between Sam’s until Sam felt like he couldn’t breathe.

  This kiss had been to prove a point, hadn’t it? Only somehow, Sam couldn’t remember exactly what that point had been. Or had he ever known? Wasn’t it possible that he was doing this just because he wanted to? Because the memory of their kisses had haunted him, had made it difficult to think about anything else at all?

  Sam had never thought that he would kiss another man. But even if he had, in his deepest, darkest fantasies, considered it, he had never thought that he would be kissing another man in this kitchen, in a house where so many other people lived. He had never thought that his legs would be pushed apart, that he would feel that strong, muscular thigh pushing right up between his, or feel another man’s weight against him, trapping him, pinning him with his dense body.

  It should have been disgusting. He’d always told himself that he wouldn’t even be able to tolerate such a thing, but he was doing a lot more than tolerating it. He was gripping Gunner tight, pulling him close against himself, rocking against him, and whether he liked it or not, his pants were stretched tight around the thick hardness of his erection.

  Gunner was making him hard. Gunner, with his strong, calloused hands, with his attitude, with his cocky grin. Gunner, with his hot body, and the way he pressed his thigh up toward Sam’s aching cock, encouraging Sam to grind against him.

  If this kept up long enough, Sam was going to completely humiliate himself by shooting off in his pants like some desperate teenager. Already, he was leaking, messing up the inside of his boxers with slick precum as he arched toward Gunner, hating his own rebellious body for liking it so much.

  If they’d been truly alone, Sam had to admit to himself, at least, that he had no idea if he would have been able to stop. Just because he’d never done anything like this before, not with a man, didn’t mean that his body, treacherous as it was, didn’t know what to do.

  It knew. It knew all too well. His hips moved in a dance as old as time itself, seeking out that thick thigh and grinding on it as he kissed this man over and over again. On some level, of course, it did feel weird, but the weirdest part about it was that it didn’t actually feel that weird at all.

  It felt normal. Good. Like something he’d been waiting for. Completely natural, and maybe that was the most terrifying part of all.

  In the end, he was saved, not by himself as he would have thought. Not by disgust, or fear, or dislike for what was happening. He was saved because the sound of voices from the other room were coming closer, and even lost in a haze of desire as he was, Sam heard it.

  He shoved hard against Gunner’s shoulders, pushing him away, only Gunner didn’t need to be pushed. He had an expression of panic on his face exactly like the one that Sam knew was on his own.

  Ruby walked in, chattering away, barely looking at them, but Ben, who was with her, shot them a bit of a look, one that Sam didn’t quite know how to interpret. It was a deeply thoughtful look, but also amused, like he knew more than Sam really wanted him to about what he’d been up to.

  It felt like he wore his guilt on his face, for anyone to see. Without meeting his brother’s eyes, without even so much as a snarky comment at Gunner, Sam pretty much ran out of the room. Ran straight to his car, heading to the bar.

  Funny how the place he ended up running to was a gay bar. Funny how it had been for the entire time, short as it was, that he had legally been able to drink. It felt especially ironic now that he was trying to hide from what he’d done.

  But it was the place where he could go a
nd drink, and that was good enough for him. Hopefully, it would help him calm his pounding heart, his throbbing, aching body, his racing mind.

  SIX

  Maybe he should be proud of himself. It had been three days, almost half a week, and Gunner hadn’t fucked anything up. Other than that one slip where he’d let Sam kiss him again, where he, let’s face it, had pretty much dared Sam to kiss him, he had kept himself under control.

  The phone calls had been made. Chad had been asking around, but so far, everyone was keeping Gunner’s secret. His job in Austin was safe, waiting for him to get there. It probably always would be, to be honest, because from what Gunner had heard, there was some pretty high turnover there.

  In short, he had himself some breathing room, as long as he didn’t mess it up. He had a place to live, regular meals, and work. The American Dream. Too bad he couldn’t keep any of it, though it actually surprised him how much he wanted to.

  At least he’d managed to keep his own grabby hands to himself when it came to Sam. The kid was the last person on the planet that Gunner should get involved with, and that was saying something because he really shouldn’t be getting with anyone. Not as long as his life was so unstable. And really, what were the chances that it would ever be anything else?

  At least Sam seemed to be on the same page as him on this one. The younger man stayed away from Gunner, for the most part, except when he couldn’t help it. Even then, he always made sure that someone else was around. Or almost always, anyway, which suited Gunner just fine.

  There was something about those sweet, desperate kisses that drove Gunner wild. Made it impossible to think about how careful he needed to be. After all, a one-night stand might be fine, but Sam didn’t exactly seem like the one-night stand sort of guy.

  Oh, yeah. And he hated Gunner, and Gunner hated him right back. There was that tiny little detail, too.