Tension unspoken, but tension felt in every bone of my body.
“Oh?” His dark eyes widened, arousal simmering to compassion before he dropped to his knees and pressed a hand on either of my thighs. “If being with me makes you…”
He tore his eyes from mine, jaw clenching into something harder than marble as an inner battle waged behind his eyes.
“If just being in my presence has even half the effect on you being around you does on me…”
He cleared his throat, as if suddenly aware his hands were on me and that his touch alone violated some ancient vow between man and woman.
“Well, Tressa, I couldn’t bear to think, through any fault of my own, that I had any sort of…” His eyes scanned mine, searching for something deeper. “…pull.”
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t find a single coherent word.
All I could do was sit awestruck, Father Bastien kneeling between my thighs, his eyes clinging to mine like a life preserver.
Did I want to leave?
I could hardly bear the thought.
“I-I wouldn’t want to leave Lucy so soon,” was the lie that fell from my lips.
Father Bastien’s gaze blinked me away, one palm giving my knee a soft squeeze, so soft I could have imagined it, before he stood. “I see your desire to save people, Tressa. I see it because it’s in me.” He slipped his fingers around my wrist, pulling me gently from my place in his seat until my body was hovering just out of reach of his.
Focused on his breathing, I counted the rhythmic rise and fall of his chest, willing my heartbeat to align with his.
“That desire to save people, Tressa—” his thumb skated along the underside of my wrist, a tsunami of arousal swirling in my bloodstream with just his scant touch “—it’s a blessing, and it’s a curse.” He leaned in closer then, lips whispering just out of reach of my ear, close enough to arouse me with his breath. “And it says more about you than you know.”
