SEVENTEEN
Tressa
“The dark night of the soul? Mind telling me what the hell that was about?” The sound of the heavy wooden door closing echoed through the tight chamber when it slammed against the doorjamb.
Bastien remained still across the small sacristy, head bowed as he continued to work quietly, deft fingers sliding thin, golden ropes of sacred fabric through his fingers. “I’d rather know what you think.”
Frustration thickened my blood. “I’m your dark night of the soul?! I think you went a step too far.”
“If that’s what you call a step too far, I’d hate to hear what you call indecent.” His body was against mine in an instant, my breasts heaving with shallow irritation and grazing the fabric of his vestments.
This profoundly infuriating man was under my skin like no one else had ever been, and just like a bad tattoo, I’d pay a professional to gouge him out of my soul if I could.
“This, for instance,” he hissed, “is surely a step too close to your precious comfort zone.” His body pressed tighter, the deep ridge of his arousal cutting at my hip and causing my throat to crack and turn to dust. “Don’t trick yourself into believing that you knowyoumore than I do, Tressa.”
His dark eyes glinted in the dim light, my heartbeat vibrating in my ears the only noise in the room. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
I couldn’t catch my breath, his fingers crawling their way past my wrists, grazing the underside of my elbows before his thumbs dug in and he was as far deep inside my own heart as he could possibly go.
“You like the dance, dove, but just when things get intimate, you pull away.”
His scathing truth cut like a hot blade.
“No,” I squeaked.
His soft chuckle was his only reply, my eyelids already glued shut in opposition to his words.
“My sweet dove…my greatest temptation. I have already dishonored my God and broken my vows of faith with you in more wicked ways than I care to admit. I’m a fallen priest, and yet I can’t bring myself to repent.” Bastien’s thumb danced across the arch of my brow. “You think you only show me the side of you you want me to see, but I see more than that, sweetness.” His eyes flicked down to my lips, hips working softly against mine, and then harder.
So much harder I felt the ridge of his cock biting at my hip.
“I’m trained to see the broken parts you’ve spent a lifetime hiding. I’m trained to be your light in the darkness, Tressa. But all that darkness—” his thumbs worked inside my elbows, swaying me against his body as he gritted out against my neck “—it weighs on me some days. Seminary doesn’t teach a flesh and blood man how to channel all that darkness into…” His cock flexed behind his sanctified robes, my body humming with pure desire for anything more he had to give. “…productive activities.”
I didn’t have a reply for him. The way he swallowed my space and caused my heart to thrum like a hummingbird was distracting enough, but his skin setting flame to mine was beyond unbearable.
“What about you, then?” I summoned my earlier anger. “You fancy yourself some sort of holier-than-thou saint? Forgive me, Father, but I call bullshit.”
Bastien’s eyes held mine, the amusement chasing through his chocolate irises giving me enough satisfaction to live on for days.
I squared my shoulders. “You’re a prisoner to your belief.”
His eyebrows rose, shock striking him before his face settled into that same well-orchestrated calm he reserved for his parishioners. “You can bet I’m a prisoner, but not for the reasons you think.”
His admission caught me off guard, but not more than the next moment did.
His palms captured my face, thumbs trailing down the warmth of my throat before he smashed our lips together.
His kiss defiled as much as it gave life.
He desecrated me to the depths of my soul without ever removing a strip of my clothing.
“But that’s where my beliefs diverge from the church.” His lips teased at the corners of my mouth before his tongue darted out, tasting the bow of my top lip.
Oh sweet fucking heaven.
“I happen to believe it isn’t living if you’re not breaking a rule every now and again.”
He caught the soft whimper on my lips with his, swallowing it instantly before his tongue pushed past the barrier and he was sheathed in me again.
