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 wakes with a headache and a cottony taste in his mouth. He grimaces as he looks around at the unfamiliar room, dimly lit by the morning sun that peeks through the closed blinds. He doesn’t remember where he is.


Beside him someone draws a long, shuddery breath. Avery.


He glances over his shoulder, only to find himself in Avery’s arms. Jacob looks at the shadows cast on Avery’s cheeks by his eyelashes, the pale skin, the pinked lips, and it all comes back in a rush. The party. Parker. The beer. The guy who hit on him, the one Avery called Tyrone. The kisses. Avery’s hands on his body, the kisses, the press of Avery’s crotch against his own. How could he have forgotten that? Just thinking about it again makes him tingle.


Avery’s head is buried against his back. When he rolls over, Avery’s arms tighten around him, like he’s an anchor and the only thing Avery holds onto. They’re so close, he’s breathing Avery’s breath.


Chapter 14