The Cross of Sins (30 page)

"Assignment-due-gotta-go-home-for-dinner!"

The entire garbled sentence came out almost as a single word, but fortunately, Felix spoke fluent Will Hunter and knew exactly what he was trying to communicate. "Dinner at eight. Cordon bleu. Don't be late!"

A distant cry of "Awesome!" echoed through the house as the garage door opened.

Will grabbed the helmet off the back of his bike, swung one leg over the seat and the Ducati roared to life. A smooth, almost erotic vibration sent tremors up his crotch and through his torso. The back wheel spun out before finding its grip. Then, with a hard twist of the throttle, Will was off.

He glanced at his watch as he hightailed down through the San Diego streets—10:15—and then he checked it once more as he skidded to a halt at the university campus—10:29.

He knew Professor Nathan James, Will's archeology professor, had placed a deadline of 10:30 AM sharp on the assignment, and if Professor James had one rule, it was to never be late.

"Mr. Hunter." Professor James was standing in the doorway of his office on the third floor of the faculty building, looking at his watch now. "You're overdue."

Will stood before him. With his assignment in one hand and sweat dripping down his brow after his mad dash across the campus grounds and up three flights of stairs, Will checked his own watch. "Three minutes, sir."

"Late is late."

Professor James started to close the door, but Will put his palm against it and stopped him. "Please, Professor."

Professor James sighed. He wasn't just your average archeology professor; at only thirty-two, Nathan James was the youngest member of the History and Science faculty. Not only that, Will had always thought Professor James was kind of hot. Not only in an intellectual way, with his knowing eyes beaming behind his glasses and that quizzical expression on his face; but also because of the tan skin and somewhat manly exterior that had come from his years of field study.

He looked at Will now and shook his head. "You're my brightest student, Will. But the same rules apply to you as everybody else."

"I know, Professor, I'm not looking for any favors."

"Maybe you should be. Based on your attendance, favors are the only things that are going to get you through this course. And I'll be damned if I'm going to let a smart kid like you fail, not when it's my job to make sure you don't."

"What do you mean, sir?"

Professor James gestured for Will to enter his office, and then closed the door behind him.

It was a small space, with a slender window at one end, a desk in the middle and tall shelves stacked with books encroaching from all sides. Will saw a stack of assignments on the desk.

Professor James took the ruffled papers out of Will's hand and threw them on the top of the pile. "I'm willing to put the time in to get your grades up to scratch, if you're willing to do the same. I'm talking about private tutoring, Will. Just one-on-one, you and me."

Will grinned from ear-to-ear. He knew his education was important; he also knew that offers like this didn't come along every day. "You'd do that? For me?"

"I'm not guaranteeing results. I'm not giving you an instant pass. You'll get out of this as much as you're prepared to put into it."

"I'm prepared to give it my all, sir! You can count on it."

Will was so thrilled, so relieved, so excited, that before he could stop himself—before he even realized what he was doing—he took Professor James' face in both hands and planted a long, lingering kiss smack on his lips.

Nathan gasped as Will's tongue entered his mouth. He flinched.

Will realized what he'd done and quickly pulled away. "Shit, I'm sorry, Professor! I wasn't thinking."

He quickly turned to go, but Nathan James caught him by the arm. "It's okay," was all he said. He didn't let go of Will's arm.

"Professor, I don't want you to think I did that just because of my grades, or your position."

For a moment Nathan said nothing. Then, he smiled. "Tutoring can begin tomorrow. And perhaps right now, it's easier if you don't call me Professor."

Will and Nathan looked at each other for a moment longer. Suddenly, Will could contain himself no more.

He lunged at Nathan James, pushing him back against his desk and tugging at the buttons on Nathan's shirt so fiercely that three of them popped off and scattered across the floor. He laid a hard smothering kiss on Nathan's lips, and their tongues twisted and locked together, pushing and thrusting in and out of each other's hungry mouths. Will hoisted the shirt off Nathan's shoulders. He was more muscular than Will had imagined. His pecs were firm and large, his shoulders round and strong. A thick, neatly trimmed forest of hair circled his brown chest and ran down his stomach before disappearing into his now bulging khaki pants.

Pulling out of the kiss Will tried to drop to his haunches, his mouth desperate to taste Nathan's chest, his nipples.

But Nathan caught him, grabbed his T-shirt and pulled it over his head before tossing it on the floor.

He stole a moment then, letting his eyes wander happily over Will's smooth muscled torso. "God, you're beautiful." He slipped his fingers inside the top of Will's jeans and yanked him closer. "How am I gonna teach you anything if I can't keep my hands off you?"

With his lips parted and his tongue searching for more, Will left of trail of wide open kisses down Nathan's chin, his throat, the top of his chest, breathing, "We'll find a way."

Will's tongue slid in circular patterns with the grain of hair on Nathan's right pectoral, slowly closing in on the nipple until his tongue encircled it completely. His lips caressed the small hard bud, his teeth twisting it gently.

At the same time, his fingers made their way down Nathan's rigid stomach and zeroed in on the buckle of Nathan's belt, swiftly undoing it.

Before unzipping the khaki pants, Will played in the area for a while, teasing Nathan before unleashing him. His fingers kneaded the massive bulge that squirmed and throbbed inside Nathan's pants, yearning to get out, torturing him with the promise of more.

But two could play that game.

Nathan's hands suddenly grabbed at the crotch of Will's jeans, taking Will's bulge in both fists and squeezing it, gently at first, and then applying more and more pressure until he forced a loud groan from Will.

"Okay, you win!" Will breathed, suddenly pulling his hands away from Nathan, frantically undoing the zipper on his own jeans and letting loose his tall, hard cock. It swung free from his jeans so fast that three or four droplets of pre-come landed on the hair of Nathan's stomach and glistened like dewdrops on a web.

Nathan grabbed the top of Will's unzipped jeans and jerked them all the way down to his ankles.

Will did a heel-toe maneuver with his feet, kicking off both shoes and flinging his jeans across the floor.

He stood before Nathan now completely naked and rock hard.

Nathan took one more moment to admire Will in all his youth and masculine glory. Then, he took the young man's hands and guided them back to the zipper on his khaki pants.

Slowly, Will took the zip in his fingers and unlocked the treasure inside.

Nathan's cock was wide and hard and laced with thick bulging veins.

As soon as it was free—bouncing and pulsating, heavy with weight—Will moved quickly to touch it, to take it in his hands. But before his fingers could reach the stiff swollen cock, Nathan swung Will into an about-face position and pushed him hard against the desk.

Willingly, the young man bent across the desk, face-down.

Nathan leaned over him, pressing against him, and with one wide stroke, he swept all the books and assignments off the desk.

It was a dramatic gesture, full of urgent desire.

Papers fluttered into the air.

Will thought to himself—
there goes Cleopatra, there goes Tut
—but before another ancient icon could flash through his head, he felt Nathan's right index and forefinger part his ass cheeks and promptly slide inside his hot tight hole.

Will's breath snatched a short sharp breath of air.

He spread his legs wide and leaned further over the desk, as if inviting Nathan—no, daring him—to explore deeper.

Nathan accepted the challenge, pulled a bottle of lube and a condom from a drawer in his desk, greased up Will's crack, and pushed his fingers all the way inside Will, stroking the warm passage of his rectum, loosening him up, preparing him for a much larger load.

With his left hand, Nathan caressed Will's well-toned back, the muscles writhing and flinching under the skin as the ripples of pleasure shot up from his ass.

Leaning low over the desk, Will's hands ran down his own taut stomach 'til they found his own cock and balls.

With a gush of relief, he felt Nathan's fingers slide out of his hole, but he knew the real pressure—the real pleasure—was on its way. He squeezed his own cock in one hand and his balls in the other, pulling them down low as if to make way for Nathan's entry.

He felt the head of Nathan's large, sheathed, greased-up cock nestle between his cheeks, and then—

Will held his breath as Nathan pushed his way inside him, slowly at first, filling Will with the full length of his shaft. Once completely inside him, he lingered there a moment, letting Will's ass become accustomed to the intruder.

Then slowly, he pulled back out, but not all the way, just far enough, before thrusting himself back inside Will, this time a little faster, and with more force.

Will's fingers felt his balls lift a little, but he pulled them back down, squeezing them hard. With his other hand he began to stroke and tease his own cock, twisting the bulbous head in his fist, turning pain into pleasure.

Nathan continued to pull back and push inside, gaining speed and force with each thrust.

With every entry, Will's sphincter tightened its grip on Nathan's cock, and then released the tension a little as the massive shaft slid out of him before pushing inside him again and again.

Nathan took Will's hips in his hands now, riding him as the pace quickened.

Will let go of his balls and let them rise up into his body a little. He used his free hand to grab the edge of the desk, holding himself steady as the force of Nathan's body began to rock him back and forth.

With his other hand, Will continued to stroke his own cock, also picking up the pace.

Nathan began to groan. His khaki pants had slid down around his ankles now, and his glasses began to steam up. He knocked them off with one hand and they landed on the desk next to Will's grimacing, grinning face.

With Nathan's ever-hardening lunges, the desk inched along the floor, grinding against the old floorboards until it bumped hard up against a bookcase. The whole bookcase began to rock, the books collapsing on the shelves like dominoes.

"I'm coming," Will heard Nathan breathe.

"Me, too," Will managed through clenched teeth.

The young man unlocked his jaw and let a loud moan escape him.

He felt that familiar hot rush inside his balls.

With three quick strokes of his fist, a blast of come shot from his cock and splashed across Nathan's desk.

At the same time, Nathan threw his head back and pushed out a groan that came all the way from his loins. He thumped his hips hard against Will's ass one more time and held himself there as he unloaded a flood of his steaming come inside the condom inside Will.

Will felt the burning flush inside him, and a second spurt shot from his own cock, flying even further than the first, this time slapping against the bookcase.

He cried out loudly, unable to stop himself, as he squeezed and stroked and teased the last tide of come from his swollen spent dick.

Panting and heaving, Nathan fell against him and wrapped his arms around him. He laughed and placed one of his fingers against Will's moist, moaning lips.

"Shh," Nathan breathed, smiling. "The whole Faculty will hear you."

Will smiled back, taking Nathan's finger into his mouth and sucking on it. Eventually, he let the finger slide from his lips, and with Nathan still inside him, he grinned and asked, "So, what's tomorrow's lesson?"

XX

Tuscany, Italy

The attic of the convent was chilly. The nuns were too old to maintain the building by themselves, so with planks of wood, a hammer in hand and nails clenched between his teeth, Luca climbed a rickety old ladder to the hole in the ceiling. He ducked as a pair of pigeons fluttered and flapped out through the hole into the bright Tuscan sky.

"They don't have a nest there, do they?" Sister Margarita worried, holding the ladder beneath Luca. "I wouldn't want to shoo them out of their home."

The attic was used for storage, and Luca had leaned the ladder against a bookcase filled with boxes, blankets and dusty old books. He took the nails from between his teeth now and set them down on the top shelf. "No, Sister Margarita. And this isn't their home. It's yours. Do you want to go through another winter like the last one? Look at these boxes. The rain has ruined—"

Luca stopped talking. He put down the planks of wood and hammer and was staring at something tucked behind a box on the top shelf.