The Innocence Series: Complete Bundle

by Riley Knight

  Somehow, Sam hadn’t expected Gunner to be the sort of man who had a different voice when he spoke to animals. Once more, he was being proven wrong about this man, and he forced his eyes away from Gunner’s body, irritated by himself, by his own foolish reactions.

  Was he being proven wrong about himself, too? He had always thought he was straight. Or wanted to think that he was straight, and he’d been able to get away with it because he was attracted enough to some women that he could mess around, at least a little, with them. And his feelings for men, he’d always been able to push away, had always been able to call it a fluke.

  Until now. Until Gunner, who haunted Sam’s mind. Gunner, who teased him mercilessly, but who was a good guy, obviously, deep down. Gorgeous Gunner, a man that Sam was honestly having a hard time resisting. He hadn’t thought that possible.

  Shadow wandered meekly enough to the tub, and Sam turned off the hose, for now. He got out the dog shampoo, busying himself with the tasks, keeping himself from thinking too much. He forced his eyes to focus on the hose, on the shampoo, instead of on Gunner.

  “He’s not great with baths. You might want to put your phone aside, or the water might ruin it,” Sam said, the first words that he’d said directly to Gunner in quite some time. It wasn’t what he wanted to say, but he still wasn’t sure how to put that in words.

  Besides, he was pretty sure that Gunner would make fun of him. And he would be entitled to, as well, after how Sam had treated him.

  “Look, don’t get weird about this. It just makes sense,” Gunner spoke, and Sam raised his eyes, just enough to see Gunner’s fingers at the waistband of his jeans, tugging them open and down his strong, thick legs, leaving him in just his boxers.

  Oh God. Why was that as hot as it was? Why did Sam have to actually, with a nearly physical effort, force his gaze away from that nearly naked body? He heard and watched, straining his peripheral vision, and Gunner wandered over to the patio and draped his damp clothes over them.

  It did make sense. Shadow was going to get them soaking wet otherwise, and Sam could do this. He could be logical about nearly anything, so he tugged his own clinging, wet jeans off and hung them, and his shirt, up to dry.

  Logic or not, his heart was beating against his ribs like a caged bird, and he was acutely aware of his own body, and of Gunner’s. What would Gunner think of how Sam looked? Would Gunner find Sam even half as attractive as Sam found Gunner?

  Sam was tall, too tall—he’d always thought. And he’d worked out a lot to force his body to put on muscle, but it was all lean muscle, not beautiful, sculpted, strong muscles like Gunner had.

  He was out of his league here, but it didn’t matter. Nothing was going to happen. Ever since the first night while they’d been doing the dishes, Gunner had kept his distance. And it didn’t matter, anyway, because Sam wasn’t interested. Why was that starting to ring so false to him, though?

  Gunner was dangerous. The first man that Sam had wanted, really, truly, whether he allowed it or not, wanted. A man who was just on his way through, and had made no secret of that. A bad boy, not the sort of person that Sam should be letting in.

  And yet, Sam had seen past that gruff, strong exterior. He’d seen Gunner being playful, grinning at him with mischief sparkling in his eyes. He’d seen Gunner scared. He’d seen Gunner in action, saving Sam’s dog.

  Silently, Sam knelt down and carefully sprayed water over the filthy black lab. A thick torrent of brown water ran off of him, and it seemed like it would never run clear.

  Shadow shifted uneasily, and Gunner came down to their level, whispering softly in that utterly adorable, sweet voice again. He spoke nonsense, soothing and calming things about how Shadow was a good dog, how he just had to stay still, that was a good puppy, because the words didn’t matter. It was all about the tone.

  As Gunner held Shadow, he distracted him enough that Sam was able to lather him up with the shampoo. Alone, this would have turned into basically a wrestling match with the dog, and while Sam knew that he would have triumphed in the end, there could be no doubt that it was a lot easier when he had Gunner helping.

  Just as Sam was thinking that he had been overly cautious to take off nearly all of his clothes, just as Shadow was stepping out of the tub, gleaming fresh and clean in the afternoon sun, the dog shook himself dry. Droplets of water flew everywhere, and Sam, who had pretty much dried off in the hot summer sun, gasped as he was misted liberally again.

  He heard Gunner laugh, and while he felt a brief moment of chagrin, there wasn’t the same anger, the same defensiveness, as he had felt before. He raised his eyes and couldn’t even help but join in the laughter, though the sound caught in his throat when he saw Gunner kneeling there.

  Gunner was grinning, droplets of water clinging to his hair, his chest, his shoulders, even his eyelashes. Maybe it shouldn’t have been appealing, with the smell of wet dog all around them, but Sam found that his eyes caught on Gunner, iron drawn to strong magnets, utterly irresistible.

  “Hey, Sammy, think fast,” Gunner said, and as he sprung to his feet, Sam saw that he was holding the hose in his hand. But he noticed that far too late since Gunner had already turned it on. Sam had barely noticed it before Gunner was spraying him with it.

  “Oh, that’s it, it’s on,” Sam threatened, helplessly laughing as he lunged at Gunner, their bodies colliding as they wrestled over the hose, with Shadow happily barking as he bounded around them, enjoying the game.

  Which Sam thought was sort of hilarious, really, given how miserable Shadow had been while Sam and Gunner had been bathing him. Once the stream of water involved playing, though, Shadow was in, and the grin on his doggie face was as clear as day.

  Dogs were weird. On the other hand, Sam realized that he was actually having fun, trying to snatch the hose back from Gunner, wrestling him for it, laughing as the frigid spray of water washed over both of them, rinsing away some of the muck from the river.

  Maybe it would have just stayed playing, somewhat odd for the two of them but not dangerous, if not for Shadow. But the dog was still so young, so playful, and the next thing Sam knew he had a large black furry head knocking into the back of his knees, making them buckle and sending him flying.

  Right into Gunner, who put up his hands and dropped the hose, catching Sam before he could go tumbling to the ground. His chest smacked right into Gunner’s, and Sam was dimly aware of those strong, rough, calloused hands on his bare skin as the two of them tumbled to the ground.

  The ground was covered in mud from all of the water spraying around, and in two seconds, all of the cleaning that had happened from the hose was undone, on Gunner, at least. Sam landed on top of the other man, and for a moment, Sam was struggling to draw in a breath.

  Gunner was huge and strong, and it was a little bit like falling onto concrete to land on top of him. It didn’t take long for Sam to realize just what position they were in, though, their legs tangled together, hips pressed flush, so close to one another that not even a thin dime could have been shoved between them.

  Sam shifted uneasily, but that just brushed his skin over Gunner, rubbed the front of their boxers together in a way which sent a thrill of desire racing along Sam’s skin. His cock twitched, and the worst part was, he was pretty sure he felt Gunner’s twitch right back.

  They were both almost naked. Two thin layers of cotton were all that separated them, and Sam couldn’t actually remember a time when he had found anything to be this arousing. Just that light brush together, the feel of Gunner’s dick plumping up against his own, and Sam was ready to go.

  His eyes met Gunner’s, seeing the way that the gold in them increased as the desire built between them. At that moment, there was a wordless communication, an acknowledgment that what was about to happen was inevitable, unless one of them stopped it right now.

  Neither of them did. For Sam, at least, he didn’t even come close. He just groaned softly and his long legs settled on either side of Gunner’s. His hips
rocked, almost against his will, without his conscious direction, only that wasn’t true because at the very least he allowed it to happen.

  Gunner moaned, just a soft exhalation of air, and his hands, which had been pressed into the small of Sam’s back to break his fall, those hands slid down to cup Sam’s ass. Not on top of the fabric, but beneath it, and for the first time it was a man groping Sam’s ass, a big, strong, undeniably masculine man.

  The kiss was as utterly inevitable as everything else that was happening. Their hips started to roll, seeking each other out, grinding and bumping together until they were both so hard that they threatened to burst right out of their boxers. Sam felt it. He felt Gunner, and he heard him, and as their lips met and their tongues slid together, Sam also heard Gunner’s desperate, breathy little moans.

  It was so easy to rock, to thrust, to grind himself against Gunner. To press their erections together, to finally shove Gunner down, his hands on those broad shoulders, and to rut against him almost frantically as the pleasure rose inside of him.

  For some reason, it didn’t take too long for the desire to overtake Sam. This shouldn’t be the sort of thing that drove him this insane. He shouldn’t have felt himself building toward an orgasm, not this easily. Not with a man.

  And yet, this was the most intense, the most real, sexual experience that he already had. The way Gunner thrashed under him, the way those eyes seemed to glisten gold as he got close, too, it was all unbearably hot, and when it happened, his orgasm slammed through him with a force that brutally stole his breath.

  Their bodies arched and they kissed hard enough that their lips were almost bruised with it. At the same time that Sam felt his own release tear through him like a tidal wave, at the same time as he soaked his boxers with cum, he felt Gunner tense up under him and heard his urgent, primal moans as he spilled more fluids between them.

  It was the first time that Sam had ever made a man come. It was the first time he’d ever come for another man, too. It was utterly terrifying, and Sam felt a cold chill deep inside of himself when he realized that he had liked it. More than he had ever liked any other sexual experience that he’d ever had. Far, far more. There was just no comparison.

  He could go again far too soon, and when he looked down at Gunner, he saw the same desire written in his eyes, stamped on his face.

  EIGHT

  Well, he’d certainly done a good job of keeping himself the hell away from Sam, hadn’t he? For a moment, he and Sam stayed frozen in place, the evidence of their satisfied desire sticky and hot between them, both flushed and panting and covered in sweat from the burning heat of the day as well as their pleasure.

  “Get up. You’re squishing me,” Gunner finally protested, though it really wasn’t true. Sam’s body was tense and lean and strong, yes, but his weight was welcome on top of Gunner. A little bit too welcome, which was why he was pushing him off. “And it’s too damn hot out here for that.”

  Sam smirked at him, just a little quirk of pretty pink lips, but thankfully, or maybe it was regretfully, he slid off of Gunner and knelt beside him again.

  “It ain’t that hot,” Sam murmured, and Gunner was interested to note that that sexy Texan drawl of his was thicker after orgasm. Sam usually tried to hide that accent, but it seemed there were limits to how much he could even do that.

  Those eyes were practically glowing, though, shimmering in the sun which glinted off of the gold in his brown hair and made it seem to shine brighter. God, Sam was gorgeous, and now, Gunner knew that it wasn’t just his face.

  For a geeky bookworm, the man was built. He had to work out or something, because damn.

  “Well, I didn’t notice it being too hot about thirty seconds ago,” Gunner teased, even as he wondered if that was going too far and if he would spur Sam into one of those pouty fits of his. But Sam just gave him a secret little smile as he rose to his feet, gathered his clothes together, and called Shadow over. The dog, bored by them, had gone to lie in the insufficient shade that the house cast.

  “I’m not sure I would have noticed if the ground had turned into a bed of nails about thirty seconds ago,” Sam admitted, with a beautiful, sincere little smile, his eyes speaking loud and clear of the intimate thing which they had both done.

  Gunner hadn’t meant to, but when he saw the shimmering in those gorgeous, limpid eyes, he couldn’t even regret it. Maybe he was getting himself into trouble, but for orgasms like that, it seemed worth it.

  Besides, it wasn’t the first time he’d gotten himself into trouble, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. As long as he could keep Sam from getting any inconvenient feelings, which didn’t exactly seem likely to happen anyway, and as long as he could keep himself from getting any feelings for Sam, it should be fine just to play a little.

  “Fair enough,” Gunner murmured, and then, when Sam offered him his hand, he took it and hauled himself up to his feet. He looked Sam over, and let Sam look at him, and they both started to laugh.

  They were a mess. Covered in sweat, cum, and mud, they looked like they’d been through, well, pretty much exactly what they had been through. But that shared laughter, and that felt somehow even more dangerous than getting each other off had. It had felt so much safer when they hated each other.

  “Come on,” Sam finally said, his gaze still warm as he looked down into Gunner’s eyes. Gunner had gotten used to hostile, unfriendly Sam, but this new Sam? A Sam who was smiling at him, who didn’t seem to hate him?

  That, he had no idea what to do with at all.

  “Uh …” Gunner found himself at a loss for words as Sam wrapped his hand around Gunner’s wrist and tugged him toward the house. On the way past, Gunner grabbed his own clothes, and Shadow followed them in. The poor dog seemed just as happy to be inside out of the heat. “Where are we going?”

  “To have a shower,” Sam informed him, speaking like it was the most obvious thing in the world. And maybe it was. They were both covered in mud and sweat and cum, but the way Sam said it, it was like he was saying that they should have a shower together. But surely that wasn’t what Sam meant …

  “Come on. There’s never enough hot water for two showers in a row in this stupid house,” Sam prompted, and Gunner stared at him. No, that was pretty clear. Sam was inviting him to have a shower with him, or maybe it should be called more like assuming that he would, demanding it, even.

  “What about your family?” Gunner asked because he had noticed that it was pretty rare that there was no one in the house, with as many people living there as it did.

  “Isaac and his mom are grocery shopping, Ben’s at work, Ruby’s staying over at a friend’s house, and Amanda’s at work,” Sam informed him. And there was a seductive tone, definitely, to the way he spoke, a coyness to the cock of his head, a slight smile lingering on his lips.

  Sam was flirting with him, and if there was anything that Gunner didn’t know how to deal with more than he didn’t know how to deal with Sam being nice to him, it was Sam flirting with him.

  “So it’s just you and me,” Sam concluded, and damn it, Gunner was only human. He might be able to tell himself that the smart thing for him to do was to run away from this, to take off and never look back, to leave town completely, if at all possible.

  Then again, he had never been known for doing the smart thing, which was sort of how his life had gotten to the place of pure, unadulterated mess that it was. And a chance to get all wet and soapy with Sam, well, the idea didn’t exactly break Gunner’s heart.

  So he casually, not making a big deal about it, wrapped his arm around Sam’s slender waist and pulled his lovely body against his own. It was strangely freeing to wander through the house nearly naked, to take their time as they made their way to the washing machine to put their clothing in to wash.

  And it did take a while. What with stopping to kiss once every two minutes or so, what with how Gunner didn’t seem to be able to keep his hands off of Sam’s toned, tanned, golden body. And what with h
ow Sam seemed to be having a lot of the same issues, it took them awhile to even make it out of the laundry room.

  But they had that time. No one would be home for at least a couple of hours. And this thing, whatever it was, that was going on between him and Sam was by far the most interesting thing to Gunner at the moment. So he let it happen. He let each kiss build up into something intense so that by the time they made it into the hallway, it was something that Gunner couldn’t even begin to control anymore.

  Just when he knew that he needed Sam again, just when he became aware that there was no way that he could even wait as long as it would take to get to the bathroom so that they could shower together, Sam turned to face him. Gunner found himself spun around so fast it made him a little dizzy, and then he felt the coolness of the wall against his back as Sam pinned him there.

  The wall might be cool in the big old farmhouse, but Sam’s body wasn’t. He was hot and urgent and demanding, and if Gunner’s mouth had been free to do so, he would have snorted. Sam had insisted that he was straight, hadn’t he? Well, Gunner officially didn’t believe that, not when he felt Sam’s hands on him, groping him, felt the way he hardened against Gunner.

  Sam wasn’t straight. Maybe he was bisexual, maybe flat out gay, Gunner wasn’t sure. But he was absolutely certain that, whatever it was, straight didn’t come into the picture.

  Closeted, though, Gunner tried to remind himself. He was getting himself into a bad situation, but he quite simply wanted this too much, couldn’t think past the throbbing of his body, the way it seemed to pulse and flow toward Sam. Everything else could wait until later, and he opened his mouth to Sam, let his tongue slip with sweet heat over Sam’s, their bodies seeming to fit together like they were meant to …

  And that was quite enough of that—Gunner informed his rebellious mind.

  “Sam. Beautiful.” Gunner smirked as he finally broke the kiss, before this whole making out thing turned from sexy to emotional. It was ridiculous that it even wanted to go there. “We have to get into the shower. We’re getting dust all over the floor.”