“A good strong hand, that’s what he needs.”
“So how about you come over and help me raise him more, Padre?”
The way his eyes turned icy for an instant at her words set my hackles on high alert.
Perhaps there was far more to these two than I’d initially thought.
“The sweetest rewards often await at the end of the greatest challenges.” I could hear Santiago and his dog outside, still shrieking and yipping.
Carmelita set a fresh bowl of piping hot rice and chicken in front of the old guy. But before she was out of his reach, he wrapped a thick arm around her, pulling her into his lap and tickling her with both hands. She giggled, cheeks pinking as he grunted softly in her ear. “You know I help you as much as I’m able,mi pajarita.”
I watched nearly stunned as they carried on like teenagers…in love.
Carmelita seemed to catch herself then, tearing out of the old man’s arms, his hand goosing her behind one last time before she was out of his grasp.
“Older you get, the more you need someone to control you.” She wagged a finger at him, smile still lifting her cheeks as she sat down again.
They exchanged a meaningful moment before I cleared my throat. “Looks like a lifetime of friendship exists between you two.”
“Feels like a lifetime.” The old guy grunted.
“If only!” Carmelita burst into a cackle. “Truth is it’s only been since Padre Juan was assigned to Santa Maria’s before he retired.”
A priest.
How had I missed that? Usually, I had an eye for picking out fellow seminarians.
“Assigned to Santa Maria’s, then, eh?” I took my chance at a rib back. “How’d you manage that?”
He looked at me, stately dark eyes trained on mine.
“I expect, the same as you.”
* * *
An hour later, heart hanging heavier in my chest than it’d ever before, I excused myself until next week, thanking them for the company and hospitality. Their shameless environment of love and connection was on my mind as I headed off on foot, red dust under my boots and the sun setting low at my back. Dense tobacco plants grew full and leafy, dew already clinging to the tips as I pushed down the small drive that led to Ms. Carmelita’s house.
Once I’d reached the end of her little lane, I turned, hand in the air and waving before I looked closely in the dim light and found them in an embrace. Shadows of light played tricks on Padre Juan’s rough and callused hands pushing up the soft linen of Carmelita’s dress, her schoolgirl giggle carried on the wind to my ears.
My love for Tressa burned brightly that night.
So brightly, that by the time I’d wound my way the mile back to the tiny stone chapel of Santa Maria’s, I was keyed up, her sweet face the only vision in my mind. The soft angle of her cheeks and the upturned slant of her lips. How her dark eyes sparkled when she teased me.
So much like Carmelita’s did tonight with Padre Juan.
I pressed a hand to the physical discomfort plaguing my chest, looping my finger behind the stiff white collar at my neck and tearing it from my throat as soon as I crossed the threshold of my room in the rectory.
Heat rippled through me, frustration spiking in my veins as I thought of the way her hair felt running over my fingers.
Her honeyed skin sliding against mine.
The warmth of her body the first time I sank inside of her.
Angry tears crushed at my eyelids, my hands pushing through my short hair before I worked at the buttons of my clerical blacks, shrugging out of the fabric and leaving it on the floor.
I kicked off my dusty walking boots, quickly unfastening the button of my pants and pushing the stiff fabric down my thighs. I hunkered down under the comforting discomfort of my church-issued sheets, tremors of carnal lust wracking my body as I fought the physical taste of her in my mouth. Her flavor on my lips. The ghost of her body running its deadly hands along mine.
Every muscle in my body was tense, my cock standing against my cotton boxers before I did the one thing I hadn’t allowed myself to do in all the time that’d passed since I’d last had her.
