EIGHTEEN
Tressa
“Scripture points to the moment Adam took the apple from Eve as the exact sliver in time that humankind took its first bite of consciousness. In that moment, men and women became shrouded in selfish ego. Feelings like shame and guilt and lust and greed flooded the brain for the first time in history. So nothing about this—” the tip of his index finger traced the brown edge of my nipple as he rhymed his own brand of scripture “—is inherently sinful.”
He ducked his head, sucking a peak into his mouth, eliciting moans of rapture.
“We are love. And loving shouldn’t be done with shame or guilt. We are God’s expression of physical love on earth. Two souls uniting.”
His words struck all the lonely chords of my heart.
I hated him for that.
The selfish side of me wondered if he knew I yearned to hear his words like an addict searching for the next high.
“You’ve pledged your love to God.”
He flicked his eyes up before he turned back to loop a golden rope between his hands, gaze fading back to my peaked nipples. Soft, emotion-filled eyes observed me, his actions slow as he began to wrap the braided rope around my wrists, winding the shiny fibers up my forearms before leaving the loose ends hanging.
He drifted his eyes up and down my body once before searing my gaze, then ducking to loop my tied arms over his head.
“Looks like I’m pledged to you for at least the next time being.”
“Someone could open those doors at any moment, Bastien. This isn’t funny.” Trembles of fear soaked my desire cold. “Undo the ropes.”
Bastien cinched them tighter, drawing one fingertip down the line of my arm and sending shivers over my skin.
“Didn’t they teach you in seminary that bad company corrupts good morals?”
Bastien’s smile twisted up, both his hands working softly at the flesh just under the waistband of my pants.
“And you, just as the bee, having gathered heaven’s dew and earth’s sweetest juices from amid the flowers—”
I slammed my eyes closed, ears locked to his well-worded weapons. “A lying mouth deals death to the soul, and that sounds like lies of the first order.”
Damn biology, tangling with my logical thought, his assault on me becoming too much. The emotion, the pressure, the pain and pleasure.
With ragged desperation and tears itching my eyes, I recited, “Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake, or you will be in danger of losing your soul.”
“Tressa.” Bastien’s voice broadened, his hands sinking into the flesh of my waist, hovering just out of reach of the elastic of my waistband.
I gulped, dampening all of that pent-up desire for him before I breathed the words that’d been floating just out of reach for days now.
“I’m leaving.” I paused. “Soon.” I pressed my lips together, looking anywhere but at his face. “Consider this my noticeor whatever.”
The words cut my throat like they carried miniature knives.
My heartbeats stretched long and slow, all four chambers echoing thunderously in the tiny shell of a holy room.
It was laughable.
All of it.
Wewere laughable.
A thousand angry secrets sped up in my throat. I wanted to scream and cry and run my way out of this moment. But instead, the bastard had me here, facing my worst fear, my fucking self.
“I just think it’s time for me to move on—” The words were weak even to my own ears.
