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

He opens the last door on the right. “Come in,” he says with a grin, sweeping his arm at the dark maw that stretches before them.


Jacob grins back. “This is cool.” His voice echoes as he steps inside.


Avery enters behind him. It’s crowded with the two of them in the booth, and Avery feels Jacob’s butt press against his crotch, but they fit. His libido flares to life again at the brief contact. Jacob throws open the tiny window that separates their booth from the priest’s. “You talk into here?” he asks in a low whisper. He presses his lips to the screen. “I’d like fries with my salvation, please.”


Jacob giggles. Avery smiles at the sound, so breathy, so close. Behind him, he fumbles for the bolt in the dark. When he finds it and slides it home, the scrape of metal on wood is impossibly loud in the tiny room. Jacob turns to him, eyes wide in the scant light that filters through the screen. “What was that?”


“Me,” Avery whispers. His hands find Jacob’s waist. “Just locking the door.”


Chapter 32