The Innocence Series: Complete Bundle

by Riley Knight

  When Judah looked around the room, he was gratified to see that all of the other kids in the room were also looking at him. With teenagers, it could be hard to tell. Sometimes he felt like they didn’t listen to him at all, but in this case, at least, that wasn’t true.

  “Yes, thank you, Ruby,” Judah told her, and she beamed at him and fell onto the comfortable, worn, overstuffed couch that was just one of many pieces of dilapidated furniture in the basement. “I do have something I’d like to talk to you all about.”

  There were more than twenty of them in the room, and honestly, Judah had never expected for this youth group that he had started to garner nearly as much attention as it had. But Serenada, Texas, was a small town, and there weren’t many other things for the older kids to do.

  “I’m going to be starting a choir.”

  Even as he said the words, he knew how stuffy they had to sound. He was sure that he was about to be laughed right out of the room, but, to his surprise, there wasn’t as much as a snicker. Rather, they all looked rather solemn, as though giving his words serious consideration.

  “There’s already a choir.”

  The words came from Stephen, the oldest of the group of teenagers, a young man with striking amber eyes and hair so dark it was almost black. He was sitting on the same couch as Ruby, not so close as to be improper, but he didn’t seem to be exactly heartbroken to be there.

  It had to be said that Ruby, too, seemed to be having a good time. Sometimes, Judah had to envy these kids their simple pleasures. His own personal life was quite a bit messier or would be if he let it.

  Stephen was one of the reasons that Judah had thought of this group. The youth group was relatively new, but again, it was pretty well attended. Stephen had been early one time, along with the boy, Jesse, who seemed to be his best friend, and they had been fooling around, laughing, listening to music before the meeting.

  Jesse was fairly tone deaf, though he sang in a loud, clear voice with a lot of energy that made up for a lot, but Stephen. Stephen was something else, a high tenor that so few boys kept past childhood. It had blown Judah away, and he had to wonder what other talents this little town might be hiding.

  The adult choir was good to have, but a youth choir? Well, Judah knew that his job was to get people into the church, and who wouldn’t want to come if their kids were singing? Not to mention that Judah really, truly, and deeply loved music. This would be a way to bring that music to everyone else.

  “Yes, there’s already a choir,” Judah spoke gravely, not letting the little smile twitch up the corners of his lips too much. Stephen sounded so hopeful, but it was sort of sad because it was like he wasn’t quite sure that he dared to hope. Like he wasn’t used to hoping very much. “But it’s for adults. This would be just for you guys.”

  Stephen wasn’t the only one in the room who looked interested now, but he did look like he was paying the most attention. Someone with a voice like that, who wanted to, should be able to show it off, and it seemed like Stephen might just agree.

  No one spoke, though, the group of teenagers looking around at each other, no one wanting to seem too uncool by jumping at something before they knew if their friends wanted to. Some people found teenagers hard to read, but it hadn’t been all that long ago that Judah had been one, and they didn’t seem so mysterious to him.

  “Think about it,” Judah suggested. He had planted the seeds, and only time would tell if anything would come of it. Besides, some of the parents were coming downstairs, ready to pick up their kids. Ruby gave Stephen one more lingering look. Then, with delicate color high on her cheeks, she ran off to a man, her father, maybe, who had come to pick her up.

  Oddly, he didn’t recognize either Ruby or the man from his church services. Most of the kids who came to this group also came to church, but he knew that he would notice this man, with his slightly cocky smirk and his round jade green eyes. He would notice him anywhere, probably more than he really should.

  The man gave him a friendly enough smile and a nod, and that was one thing about the people here. They were all neighborly, more than he was used to, especially since he was a stranger. He nodded back, but the guy didn’t stay to talk, or to introduce himself, which was also a bit odd because most of the other parents had done so.

  There wasn’t a lot of time to think about it, though. Other parents were close behind the handsome man, and soon enough, it was just himself, Jesse, and Stephen, who wore a deeply thoughtful look on his face. There was a woman there with the same hazel-green eyes and sandy brown hair that Jesse had, and both Stephen and Jesse were heading for her. She was clearly Jesse’s mother.

  Judah smiled a little and nodded at the boys, and at the woman, too, one of the people he knew from church. She had been one of the friendliest people there, actually going so far as to bring him a basket of muffins just to say hi on the second day that he’d been here, just when he’d thought that he couldn’t bear the homesickness even a moment longer.

  Just when Judah was starting to relax, to look forward to some alone time, Stephen turned back and ran back down the stairs with the clatter that only the very young could manage. He had been halfway up them, but he was down again in a split second, coming over to speak, with an anxious look back at Jesse, earnestly and softly.

  “Do you think this choir could really happen?”

  Judah looked into that hopeful face and had to stifle a smile. He didn’t want to make Stephen feel like he was being mocked, and teenagers could be quite touchy, but he had thought so. From the moment he had first heard that lovely voice, he had thought so. He had somehow known.

  “Yes, I do, if there’s enough interest,” Judah told him honestly. And from what he’d seen, that interest had been there. Again, there just didn’t seem to be much to do in such a small town. “But you can help.”

  Stephen looked astounded by that revelation, as though he wasn’t exactly used to being told that sort of thing.

  “Me?”

  Judah nodded firmly.

  “You. You’re the oldest. They’ll follow where you lead.”

  It was true, too. People were social creatures, and the other teenagers looked up to Stephen, he had already seen that. Maybe Stephen didn’t realize it, but he had a lot of power.

  “Okay.” Stephen gave him a shy little smile and a slight nod, and Judah knew that he had him. He would have his choir. And he had a feeling that it would be good not just for Judah, and not just for the community, but also for Stephen.

  “Stephen, I can tell that you love music. Have you done any formal training?” With a voice like that, it seemed almost a crime not to, but Stephen sighed and shook his head, his face falling as he spoke.

  “My dad says it’s a waste of time for me to focus on my singing. He says I should be doing homework. Math. Science. Especially science, that’s his huge thing.” Stephen had been to this point a generally happy kid, from what Judah had seen, but his voice was flat and dull all of a sudden. Resigned, which seemed like a shame to Judah.

  Not that studying wasn’t important. Judah had spent his own time enslaved to the higher mind, and he had loved it. But there was more to life than just books, more to do than just slave away.

  “Math and science are important,” Judah was very careful to put that first, and he saw Stephen’s face immediately fall like he was expecting that sort of thing. “But so is art. Music. The world is a wide and varied place, Stephen, and there are many things to explore.”

  Immediately, Stephen brightened up, and there was even a smile pulling at the corners of his lips. It seemed that this boy, who clearly loved his father, was having a lot of pressure put on him. Should he offer to talk to the man? Only that could rebound pretty badly. It was probably better to wait, for the moment.

  Judah walked away from Stephen, going to one of the many bookshelves that lined the walls. He tugged out a hymnal and flipped through it, then beckoned Stephen over.

  “If the choir does happen, I would l
ove to have your help picking out songs,” Judah admitted. Stephen, after all, would have a much easier time knowing what would go over well with the kids around his own age.

  “Okay,” Stephen agreed, and he was trying to sound casual, but it wasn’t really happening. This young man was excited, thrilled, even, to get the chance to do something like this, and it was times like this that Judah’s job felt deeply gratifying.

  “Stephen.”

  The voice that echoed through the basement would have been lovely, rich and full and smooth, like the auditory equivalent of salted caramel, Judah thought, if not for the sharp tone of suspicion which laced through it like poison.

  “Dad! I told you, I didn’t need you to come pick me up. I’m going over to Jesse’s.”

  There was a strange tone to Stephen’s voice, defiant, but embarrassed. It was hard to put his finger on, exactly, but this relationship between father and son seemed strained, to say the least.

  Judah kept his eyes focused on his book, uncomfortable and not sure how to deal with it, other than to stay out of the way, to listen, to not make any assumptions just yet. Not until he knew more.

  “Go wait in the car, Stephen,” the newcomer demanded, and slowly, drawn by more curiosity than was good for him, Judah raised his gaze to look into the most intense, sultry, warm pair of eyes that he had ever seen, eyes that couldn’t be robbed of their beauty even by the annoyance that snapped in them.

  Stephen hesitated, but then obeyed, though not without a pitying look back at Judah. And despite it all, despite the near hostility that this man was displaying toward him, he still couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away.

  This man was dangerous. Not because of the annoyance glimmering in his eyes, but because of the beauty of those eyes. Because of the sharp intellect in them. For a moment, Judah forgot how to breathe, forgot how to do anything but stare at this man, so forbidden to him, as was every other man.

  Forbidden had always been fine. He’d never really had much trouble ignoring those urges, so then why, with this one glance, did he feel like he’d been tossed out into the middle of an ocean with no idea how to swim?

  TWO

  There had been something in the way that Stephen had told Will that he didn’t need to come pick him up from the church. Something that had bugged him until he couldn’t put it out of his mind. It had lingered at the edges of his brain, nagging at him, until Will had felt like he had no choice but to go. That was just logic, confronting the issue head-on.

  It was probably nothing. But Will knew himself well enough to know that it would bother him until he just went to check for himself. Stephen was fourteen now, and probably too old to be checked up on, although Will had seen too many kids who were given too much freedom and the results were never pretty.

  Funny, though, that he should be thinking about that, because he was just leaving work when one of those very kids dropped by his office, just as he was packing up, to ask him for an extension on her most recent missed homework. She batted her eyes and smiled sweetly, obviously expecting to get leniency because of it, and Will softly sighed as he settled down to deal with this situation.

  It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last. The life of a high school science teacher wasn’t always an easy one, particularly once it had gotten around that he was willing to stick around and help students who were struggling. It was part of his job, but it didn’t seem like it was a part that most of the teachers did.

  Especially in a case like this, where the girl in question was plenty bright enough, she just wasn’t used to having to apply herself. To this point, she had mostly gotten through life batting her big brown eyes and being charming. She would probably go far wherever she ended up, business, politics, anything, but only if she didn’t flunk out of high school.

  Well, Will had time. The church group thing wasn’t supposed to be over for a couple of hours, so he settled down, put his briefcase on his desk, and got to work. No one was getting a free pass through his class, but he could, and would, help.

  “Thanks, Mr. Sanford!” the girl finally chirped at him and bounced away, and Will wasn’t sure about anything, but to him, she seemed happier for having done the work herself. He definitely hoped so, but it was mostly out of his hands, and he sighed as he rose to his feet and rushed to his car. That had taken longer than he’d expected, and he was just barely going to be in time to pick Stephen up.

  Stephen. What was he going to do about Stephen, who had been raised in a house of logic and knowledge, and yet wanted to be involved with a church youth group? The kid had his head firmly in the clouds, which Will didn’t understand. It definitely didn’t come from him, all of the daydreaming and the singing.

  Oh well. Stephen had certainly shown logic when he’d appealed to Will to let him go to the church group. He had pointed out that there was nothing else to do, that Jesse was going, and that his homework was always done. He had assured Will that it wasn’t a particularly religious focused group, more just some teenagers hanging out, and that the new minister was only barely involved.

  It was the last thing which had comforted Will most of all. A glorified babysitter, he could probably handle. But he didn’t need any crackpot theories being jammed into Stephen’s overly impressionable head. Still, the kid was smart, and Will flattered himself that he had given him a good bullshit detector.

  All of these things were why Will had allowed Stephen to go, despite his own personal beliefs, so it felt like an odd sort of betrayal when he saw Stephen, talking excitedly with a man in the sober black religious clothing which marked him very clearly as the minister. The minister who was supposed to have nothing really to do with the group, other than keeping his eye on them.

  It was hard not to feel betrayed because Will had to admit to himself that it wouldn’t have gone over well with him if Stephen had told him the truth. Which was apparently that Stephen had some sort of relationship with this man, this preacher? Stephen was grinning, looking happy as he gazed down at a book with the man, and they seemed at least familiar with each other.

  The rest of the interaction was strained, awkward, because Will heard the sharpness in his own voice and hated it, but there didn’t seem to be any way for him to hold back. Or, rather, he was holding back, because what he wanted more than anything was to grab his son and pull him out of this church and never let him come back.

  But he had seen the look on Stephen’s face, embarrassment, but also resignation, a sort of flinching back away from Will which was deeply upsetting and probably completely instinctive. Will was driving his son away, and he had to be careful about that. So he would have to be at least moderately polite to this guy, no matter how much it killed him to do so.

  So, as politely as he could, he asked his son to go wait in the car, and he ignored the look that Jesse and his busybody mother were shooting his way. They lingered for a while, and there wasn’t much that Will could do about it, so he let them.

  Still, it was time to put the record straight. Will wasn’t interested in letting his only child get involved with the local church. He had seen what religion could do to people, had seen it up close and personal, and he turned to the man, the minister, who he couldn’t help but see as some sort of threat.

  Only he hadn’t expected for the man to be so utterly, breathtakingly gorgeous.

  He really was, Will realized. The more he looked, the more the minister refused to let Will’s eyes drift away. Any words which he had meant to say faded away, replaced by wonder, awe, in full, wide, generous pink lips, a gently rounded face, a defined chin, and the most beautiful set of eyes that he had ever seen. Neither blue nor gray, they were some mixture of the two, and they reminded Will of a lake on a cloudy day.

  Not a tall man, but one with a certain presence, with broad shoulders and a small waist that even his modest black shirt couldn’t hide. This man was, without a doubt, the most beautiful human being that Will had laid eyes on in quite some time, and even though he was still co
nvinced that he was dangerous, he couldn’t help but wonder just what that body would look like if he got his clothing off.

  Could he be any more delusional? This guy was a minister. Off the table, completely off limits. Will knew that, so then why couldn’t he drag his eyes away from the guy? And the worst part was, the minister was staring right back at him, raising those remarkable eyes away from the book he’d been studying and looking right back at Will with a frank curiosity that Will was sure was innocent but it certainly didn’t seem that way.

  “Pastor Judah? Is everything okay?”

  It was Jesse’s mother, and her words broke the spell, which was probably a good thing though Will internally cursed her for interfering. It would have been nice to enjoy the eye candy for just a few moments longer. It was so seldom that there was anyone who caught Will’s attention quite like this man had, and though Will had never suspected himself of having a fetish for preachers before, he couldn’t help but sort of enjoy the sight of all of that black against the man’s pale skin.

  It was forbidden, of course, and all he would ever do was look, but the attraction was definitely there.

  “Yes, everything’s fine.”

  God, even his voice was sexy, though much deeper than Will would have expected, slightly rough and utterly beautiful. It was too easy to imagine that hoarse voice gasping and moaning during sex. Did Methodist ministers get to have sex? Will had to admit that he hadn’t paid a lot of attention to that sort of thing.

  Still, he’d been snapped out of it, and that was probably a good thing, no matter how he felt about it at the moment. Will took a deep, deep breath, and told himself that eyes, lips, and dark, messy hair didn’t matter. He could almost make himself believe it, at least when he avoided the curiosity in those lovely eyes.

  “I’d like to speak to you in private,” Will told the man, trying to keep his voice civil, but maybe he didn’t succeed because he could pretty much feel Jesse’s mother hovering on the stairs, not quite willing to leave. In case he bit the pretty little preacher’s head off? Oh, but that brought mental images to mind of biting him, just lightly nipping at the slender column of that neck, and that, Will didn’t need.