The Innocence Series: Complete Bundle

by Riley Knight

  When he stepped into the spray, though, letting it wash over his face, his body, down to his cock, which was more than half hard just from the turn that his treacherous thoughts had been taking, all he could think about was Will. Maybe Will in the shower with him, sparkling with droplets of water, his body tight and toned as he knew that it must be, just by the way Will carried himself. Will with his dark hair blackened to midnight by the shower, messy and hanging on his smirking face, though Judah had certainly never seen that before. Will always kept his hair slicked severely back, from what he’d seen.

  But this was a different Will, a Will who only existed in his imagination. A Will who stood back and just let Judah watch as his fingers drifted down to the hardened length between his legs, a Will who teased himself and Judah both in a way that no one had ever done to Judah before, a way which only could come from his imagination.

  It was hopeless. No matter how he tried to change his thoughts, no matter how hard he focused on trying to think about something, anything, else, he went back to Will. And Will, the Will in his mind, anyway, encouraged him, smiling enticingly, stroking himself as he leaned against the shower wall while his eyes seemed to beckon Judah on, encouraging him to do the same.

  With a soft groan of surrender, Will wrapped his fingers around his own erection, stroking himself briefly. That was all it took, a few rapid thrusts of his hips, his cock, slick with the water and his own precome, slipping into his palm once, twice, and then he was crying out, his back arching as the pleasure ripped through him and left him panting as he reclined against the wall of the shower.

  It wasn’t the first time that he’d touched himself, but it was the first time that it had been so good. The first time that he had been able to see something in his imagination that had made the whole process utterly irresistible.

  And it had been Will. Will, maybe the worst possible person in a sea of impossible people. Will, in truth, who had left Judah gasping and moaning as little aftershocks of pleasure rushed through his whole body, centered on his sensitive cock, still mostly hard, and his heavy balls, which still felt so full.

  Will who could easily have Judah needing to put his hands on himself again when usually, that was a temptation that he had very little problem avoiding. Will, who didn’t even like him, and who would probably be amused, or maybe disgusted, or both, if he knew what Judah had been doing here tonight.

  With a groan, he slid out of the shower which hadn’t helped at all. Even though he had just come, he was still thinking about Will, and wondering when the next time he would see him would be. If ever.

  SIX

  Time passed on, the days adding up into weeks, and Will managed to stay away from Judah. The more time that passed, he knew, the more he would be able to forget the beautiful young man, and that was really the best for everyone.

  But it didn’t end up working out that way. For one thing, Stephen talked about Judah all the time and seemed to be developing a bit of a hero worship thing for him. And that should scare Will more than ever. Only the thing was, he sort of understood it.

  It was probably just Stephen who kept Judah in Will’s mind. Probably. Stephen talked about choir all the time, and apparently, they were already thinking about Christmas, even though it was still a few months away.

  Although Stephen talking about Judah so much didn’t explain why Will kept thinking about the way Judah had sounded with his voice raised in song. The way that deep voice had seemed to echo right through him, right into the very center of his body and heart and soul. It didn’t explain why Will kept thinking about Judah when he drifted off to sleep every night, and why, every single time that Will jerked off, he thought about the man who was completely forbidden to him and could never be anything else.

  So he did the only sensible thing, and he stayed away from Judah. It was pretty easy, actually. Will might live in the same town, but he worked in Austin, and he ended up doing most of the shopping he needed to do there, too. He hadn’t laid eyes on Judah, not since the night …

  … When they’d almost kissed.

  Every time he thought about it, it made him shiver, all the way through his body. Judah’s lips had been slightly parted, and there had been a look in his eyes like maybe he wouldn’t mind if Will did lean towards him more, and their lips did touch. What would it be like? Would Judah give himself to him, or would he push him away? Somehow, he thought the former, but he couldn’t be sure, not really.

  In his imagination, Judah was always willing, but he was never going to find out if he would be in real life. And, of course, as he was always reminding himself, it was far better that way.

  Maybe it could have kept on going like that forever. Will was, after all, pretty much an expert at keeping to himself. But when Stephen came in after being dropped off by Sheila after a choir practice one day when October was threatening to turn into November, late summer changing to fall, he tossed Will’s fragile peace right out the window.

  “Pastor Judah wants to see you. He asked you to call him.”

  Stephen was holding out a piece of paper, surely an innocuous thing, but to Will, it seemed like that innocent scrap was as dangerous as a rearing cobra. Judah wanted to see him? Why? What did they have to say to each other, two men who were pretty much complete opposites of each other?

  Slowly, Will reached out and took it, looking cautiously down at the whiteness. It was marred only by the blue pen marks which had scrawled out a phone number, which made complete sense since Judah wanted Will to call.

  “Do you know why?” he asked his son, but Stephen just shrugged and wandered off to the kitchen. That boy was always eating, it seemed, and Will watched him with a fond look on his face before he glanced down at the paper again.

  Slowly, he dug out his phone from his pocket, and when he saw that his son was safely ensconced in the kitchen, crafting himself a sandwich that was really not so much a sandwich as it was a work of art and probably bigger than his head, he withdrew into his office and shut the door.

  Once he was safely private, he dialed the number, then settled back in his chair to wait. It wasn’t that he was eager, or not to talk to Judah, anyway. Not to hear his voice. It was just that he wanted to know what it was the minister wanted.

  Sure. Even he wasn’t sure that he bought that anymore.

  “Will?”

  A slight, fond little smile touched Will’s lips before he forced it away. Most people answered the phone with a hello, but somehow, it didn’t surprise him that Judah would be different from what everyone else did.

  “Yeah. What’s up?” Will asked, getting right to the point. This wasn’t a social call, and it was better if they both kept that in mind.

  “I’d prefer to see you in person to talk about this.” Judah hesitated for just a moment, and just when Will thought that he had probably better just say no to this, he continued. “It’s about Stephen.”

  “Is he in trouble?” Will spoke sharply, because although he didn’t think that his son had been up to anything, how could he be sure? Stephen was naturally pulling away, as all teenagers did. Will was very aware that he had it better than most, though.

  “No. Not at all,” Judah assured him, and Will’s shoulders relaxed. “I just have something that I’d like to run by you before I talk to him about it.”

  Well, that made sense, and was actually, though he hated to admit it, pretty thoughtful of Judah. Lots of people wouldn’t do the same, but Judah knew that Will was worried, so he approached him. That was actually sort of nice.

  “Okay. When?”

  Will assumed that it would be tomorrow, at the earliest, so when Judah spoke next, he was quite surprised.

  “I’m free now.”

  * * *

  I’m free now.

  Those words hung in Will’s mind all the way over to the church, where he and Judah had agreed to meet. It was so easy to take them the wrong way. Like maybe Judah was thinking about Will as much as Will thought of Judah. Like maybe Judah was
eager to see him, despite what a horrible idea that it so clearly was.

  Back into the church, a place that was actually starting to feel somewhat familiar to him at this point, and how weird was that? Through the hallways to the office, where the door was sitting half opened already.

  Rapping softly, Will poked his head through the door, and the first sight of Judah in so long hit him like a sledgehammer. He had forgotten, though it seemed strange to him, with how vivid his memories were. But even those fantasies couldn’t really hold a candle to how utterly gorgeous this young man was.

  Those eyes were more vivid than he had remembered, the lips softer and wider and fuller, the curve of his cheek delicious. Everything about him was physically pleasing, and Will had to swallow down his emotions, the rush of something which might just be desire, as he laid eyes on him again.

  “Will,” Judah spoke, and there was an odd tone to the way he said Will’s name. Was he just as affected by seeing Will again as Will was by seeing him? Did he, too, feel like his stomach was swarming with insects?

  Abruptly, Will fell into the chair opposite Judah, his eyes firmly on the young man’s face. It was ridiculous. This was utterly inappropriate, the things he was thinking, but then Judah was looking right back at him, and his eyes had darkened in a way that Will couldn’t help but find fascinating. A steely blue-gray now, they somehow seemed to burn despite the color being one that really should be cold and unwelcoming.

  “How old are you?”

  Will didn’t mean to ask the question out loud. He really didn’t. It was supposed to stay firmly locked in his head, just something that he was wondering about. But the words had escaped the inadequate prison of his lips and teeth, and they were out now.

  “Twenty-seven,” Judah admitted, his chin tilting up with a sort of pride that he probably wasn’t even conscious of. It probably wasn’t the first time that he’d been asked that, and no wonder, with how young he looked.

  “Isn’t that sort of …” Will searched Judah’s face, and oddly, he found that he didn’t want to give offense. He was curious more than anything else because he realized that he had absolutely no idea how one went about becoming a Methodist minister.

  “Young?” Judah smiled a little bit, and Will relaxed. It didn’t seem like Judah was going to take offense. “Yes, I suppose it is. But it’s been a long road. I had to get my B.A. first, and then my Masters, and then there was a practicum …”

  Huh. Well, that was uncomfortable. It seemed that Judah had gone through much the same process as Will had to become a teacher. He wasn’t used to being around people who were as educated as he was, and Judah, despite his youth, was obviously not as ignorant as Will would have expected.

  For a moment, they just sat there and stared at each other, and without meaning to, Will found that his opinion of the younger man had changed. Quite abruptly, in a way that left him reeling. This was someone that he could not only lust after, but also, and this was almost more important to him, talk to.

  That was crucial if he wanted to date someone. He had to be able to talk to them. Of course, that wasn’t an issue here, because Judah wasn’t someone he could date. His age, ten years younger than Will’s own, made that impossible.

  But their eyes wouldn’t part. But the stream of sparks that spun and whirled in the air between them was stronger than ever, and Will found himself leaning, inclining his body, toward Judah. It was all so stupid, so random …

  … So irresistible.

  There was a reason he was here, but at that moment, Will forgot about it. All he knew was that he was around someone that he couldn’t have and that it was driving him insane not to have him. And in that moment of weakness, he spoke again.

  “When you said you were inexperienced, what did you mean by that?”

  He knew what he thought Judah meant, but Judah had been deliberately vague. Will should leave it alone, and he knew it, even as he spoke, but he couldn’t quite seem to make himself back off.

  Judah tilted his head at him in that incredibly endearing way that he had and gave him a little shrug. His lips were stretched at one corner, a little smirk that was almost unbearably flirtatious. Did Judah know that? How could he?

  Still, he couldn’t help but think that Judah would wave aside the question. Maybe outright tell him that it was none of his business, which, of course, it wasn’t. He was being far too forward, talking about these intimate things which was really not okay at all.

  “I mean what it sounds like.” Judah did answer, and he didn’t drop his gaze for even a moment, looking at Will so frankly and openly and with that tinge of flirtation in it that it seemed to steal Will’s breath and make his heart flutter oddly. “I’m a virgin.”

  A virgin. Of course he was. Really, Will had known the whole time, but hearing the words out loud, they seemed to go straight to the base of his spine and rush through his entire nervous system. He had never had a thing for virgins before, but hearing that Judah was one, for some reason, just made him wild.

  Of course, he had always had a thing for teaching people, and maybe that was all it was. Judah wasn’t uninterested, that was becoming more and more clear with every moment that passed between them. Every inappropriate question that Judah answered. And there was no doubt that he would like the challenge of teaching the virgin minister what being with another man was like.

  If only Judah hadn’t already told him that he was gay. That had been the beginning of the end of it for Will, and the last chance that he could deal with his attraction without acting on it seemed to have flown right out the window.

  “Have you ever done anything?” Will barely recognized his own voice. It was both deeper and also quieter, breathless, which made sense because he felt like he couldn’t get enough air. Had all of the oxygen left the room? It seemed thicker in here, tight and hot with the pressure of the desire between them.

  “What do you mean?”

  Judah’s lips were parted again, just as they had been on that night a week ago when they had almost kissed. Even in his modest black shirt, it was obvious that his chest was rising and falling more rapidly, and this conversation, it seemed, was turning the sweet, beautiful young man on.

  “I mean, have you ever kissed anyone? Touched them? Been touched?” Will fought the urge to rise to his feet and then finally just gave in to it. He moved over to perch on the edge of the desk, his whole body throbbing and pulsing more every inch that he got closer to Judah.

  “No.”

  Judah was looking at him, an expression of wonder on his face, and Will knew that he should stop. With each question that he asked, he told himself that he would, but each answer naturally seemed to spawn another. That one-word response was no different because there was so much longing stamped on that lovely face.

  “Do you want to?”

  It was just a question. Just a request for information. He was not, definitely was not, proposing anything. Only it sort of came out that way, and Judah was suddenly on his feet, standing by Will, only a few inches away from him. Will stood, too, and they just looked at each other.

  There was a struggle on Judah’s face, in the depths of his eyes, one that Will knew far too well. The minister’s hands were clenched at his sides, and when Will looked down, he saw that the knuckles were white, like Judah was struggling not to touch him.

  “Just now …” Judah’s voice trailed off, and it was the last chance, maybe, for either of them to back out. Will was at the point where he knew that he couldn’t, not unless Judah did, and he held his breath, waiting to see what Judah would say. What would happen.

  In the end, Judah didn’t say anything. He just gave a soft, desperate little groan that made Will’s cock, already rigid as a steel rod, throb into whole new levels of arousal. Seconds later, he almost spilled right in his pants because Judah grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him forward.

  Their lips met, and it was Judah who had started it. Will had spurred him on, no doubt about that, but Judah had
been the one who had finally taken the step over that line. His lips were just as soft as they looked, and though he had clearly told the truth about how experienced he was, the excitement was undeniable and made up for a lot.

  Gently, Will took control of the kiss. He was, after all, the experienced one, the one who knew what he was doing, and he was the teacher in this situation. His lips parted, his tongue slipped out and pressed against Judah’s lips, teasing it open and coaxing Judah’s tongue out to tangle with his.

  Some people were just fast learners, and Will learned right then that Judah was one of them. It took him only a few seconds to learn, to start to stroke his tongue sweetly against Will’s, and the feverish heat inside of Will, which had been threatening to break free from the moment that he’d seen Judah behind the desk, only grew hotter inside of him.

  It was all over for him then, or maybe it had been when he’d allowed his desire to make him ask the question that he’d really had no business asking. But when Judah whimpered into the kiss, when he felt the taut body rock toward him, that was all he could take. Judah was hard, that much was clear, and more than that, Judah was reaching down, his hands a little awkward but very eager, and they settled on the curve of Will’s ass.

  It was like they belonged there.

  His desire, he had carefully kept locked away, only letting it out when he had absolutely had to. This was one of those times, because of all of the far too numerous times that Judah had featured in Will’s fantasies, and nothing had ever been as vivid, as irresistible, as actually having Judah there, willing in his arms. Having Judah’s hands on his ass, pulling him closer.

  If at any point Judah had shown even the slightest hesitation, Will wouldn’t have done it. But he didn’t, not even a tiny bit, and Will put his hands on surprisingly broad shoulders and turned them both. Judah’s legs hit the desk, and he went down over it, his back on the smooth wood, as Will eased him deliberately down and let Judah’s hands, still on his ass, pull Will down on top of him.