Sixteen year old Jacob Smithson has quite a temper. He’s picked on by other kids because he likes boys, and recent fighting has kicked him out of public school. As a last resort, his parents have placed him in the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Boarding School for Boys.<br><br>It’s at his first mass at St. Thomas where he sees Avery Dendritch, a senior who serves as altar boy during the service. When they meet, the attraction between them is hard to deny. The two become fast friends, and as the school year progresses, their friendship deepens into something more. For the first time, Jacob has found a place where he belongs ... and someone with whom he’s falling in love.<br><br>But the other students gossip about their growing relationship, and while Avery can ignore them, Jacob cannot. As the rumors and slurs start up again, can he curb his temper, or will his penchant for fighting get him expelled from St. Thomas, as well?

Without Sin

Jacob’s head is down as he walks back to his pew, so he sees the loafer-clad foot when it juts out into the side aisle to trip him up. He’s wondering where Avery is and if he’ll ever see the altar boy again. He’s wishing the boy would serve every day just so he can stare at the altar—Avery has grown cuter the more Jacob thinks of the boy, so by now Avery is almost an Adonis in his mind. Jacob thinks if he ever sees Avery again, he’ll swoon. Then the foot sticks out and Jacob stops an instant before he can step on it. He looks up, thinking it’s that kid he got pissy with earlier, and finds himself staring into those catty eyes that haunted his dreams last night.


“Avery,” he whispers, before he realizes he shouldn’t say the boy’s name. But Avery smiles and Jacob can’t help but smile back. Was he thinking Adonis? Because that Greek god has nothingon this boy.


Chapter 4