Priest (A Standalone Bad Boy Romance Love Story) (11 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FIVE

JACE

“Jace!” Lily was waving at me from shore
as we rowed in. Daphne’s friend Carla was standing next to her and looking at
Lily like she was crazy. Lily was waving like she hadn’t seen me in weeks. It
had literally only been minutes. I guessed that’s why she was getting the look
from Carla.

I waved back as I waded out of the boat
into the water and started to pull it the rest of the way up to shore.
Suddenly, Daphne was beside me.

“You should have stayed in the boat. I
would have done this.”

She smiled. She has a beautiful smile. I’d
made myself keep my eyes trained on her face the whole time. They really wanted
to go to her chest. That tight, little t-shirt was soaked and clinging to her
body. The water was cold, so her nipples were hard and pressing hard against
her bra and t-shirt so that if I looked right at them, I could almost visualize
the entire outline.

Look
at her face, Jace.
That didn’t help a lot. Her pretty blonde
hair was wet and stuck to her face in places. I was incredibly tempted to reach
over and tuck one of those long strands behind her ear.

Temptation was killing me. I wished the
Lord would tell me what He expected me to do already, so we could move on.

We got the canoe up out of the water and
suddenly, Lily was also by my side. “Are you okay?” she asked me.

She was touching my arm again, rubbing her
hand up and down. I took a step away. What part of “You’re hitting on a priest
in front of the entire congregation” was hard for her?

I smiled as I stepped away to ease it a
bit and I said, “I’m fine, Lily. I really am. Daphne and I need to go find some
dry things and change. Can you do me a favor?”

“Of course.” She glanced at Daphne with a
smug look. Can women sense competition or am I that obvious when I look at
Daphne?

“The rest of the boats will be coming in
one after the other here. Can you ask a few of the guys to stand by and help
whoever needs it get their boats up to the shore and maybe two or three of the
ladies to start lunch?”

“I can do that,” Lily said with a smile.
Now I noticed that Daphne was looking at her with curiosity; I was willing to
bet that she thought I was sleeping with her. Once a fallen priest…

I supposed I deserved whatever it was that
she was thinking of me. I was still praying that she would choose to keep it
between us. I knew that one day I’d have to answer for my sins, but I’d like
for that to be in the face of God and Jesus Christ and not the faces of my
entire congregation.

“Come on, Daphne, I’ll show you where the
clothes are.” I tried calling myself a sick pervert and remembering my vows of
chastity that I had taken, but God, she looked so hot in that wet t-shirt.

How
am I not supposed to look at her? Yes, I’m a priest, but I’m also a man. If she
was in a club right now and they were having a contest, she’d win it hands
down.

The cut-off jeans already looked hot. Her
legs were long and lean and tanned…too much good stuff to look at and I
shouldn’t have been looking at any of it. I especially shouldn’t have been sporting
the erection that I was desperately trying to hide. But I was still a man,
right?

“This wicker trunk has the ladies clothes
in it. The men’s are on the other side. We can change in the bathroom and hang
ours out somewhere to dry while we have lunch,” I told her.

She smiled. She was so pretty. “Okay,
thank you,” she said. She lifted the lid on the basket. When she looked back up
at me nervously a few seconds later, I realized that I was still standing there,
staring at her beautiful backside. I felt my face go hot. She blushed, too.

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it,” I said.
Shaking my head at myself internally, I went around to the other side of the
little wooden building. I opened the men’s trunk and pulled out a pair of
shorts and a t-shirt. I took them into the little building where the bathroom
was. I stripped off my wet clothes with Daphne still on my mind.

My erection got larger and I felt
guiltier. I wondered if God would hold my thoughts against me, as well as my
actions. I wanted to touch myself, but at least I resisted that. I wanted to
picture her in that wet t-shirt while I masturbated, but that in itself was
another sin.

I physically shook myself and went over to
the sink and grabbed a few paper towels to dry myself off. As I was dabbing
under my arms, I heard a creaking sound. I turned around and me and my erection
were staring at Daphne’s shocked face. Jesus, I’m glad I wasn’t touching
myself. Her eyes automatically fell to my throbbing organ and seemed to stick
there. That didn’t help the state I was in at all.

The whole thing only took seconds, but it
seemed like hours before my brain kicked in and I grabbed the shirt and held it
in front of me and Daphne’s wide eyes found my face.

“I’m so sorry! The door was unlocked…” Her
face was bright red as she turned and raced out the door.

Jesus,
could this mess get any worse?
Cursing my luck, or
wondering if it was luck or another test by God, I hurried and got dressed.
This was only going to make things more uncomfortable between Daphne and me.
The poor girl already acted like she didn’t know what to say to me and she was
a nervous wreck any time we were alone together.
I need to talk to her.

When I got out to the picnic area, I saw
that a lot of the boats were coming in and a few people were already walking
over. Daphne was sitting alone at one of the tables. I took a deep breath and
started towards her.

Just as I did, Lily called out my name. I
turned and saw her and Daphne’s friend struggling to get one of the canoes in.
It had been manned by an elderly couple who wanted their own boat, but the Mr.
is almost eighty and his wife probably weighs about ninety pounds.

I looked back at Daphne. She was looking
at me. I gave her a little smile and she smiled back, nervously. Our talk would
have to wait until later, but I was convinced it had to happen. This…whatever
it was that I felt for her, was getting out of hand. I turned and went back
over to help pull the boat in.

“Nice shirt,” Lily said with a giggle as I
walked up. I grabbed the canoe out of her hands and pulled on it. I heard
Daphne’s friend giggle, too. I guessed the two made friends. After I got the
boat in I looked down to see what they found so amusing.

My shirt, or the one I’d borrowed, was
inside out and it stopped about a half an inch above the waist of my borrowed shorts.
I looked like I was wearing a crop top. I had been so nervous after Daphne
walked in on me that I didn’t even pay attention to how ridiculous I looked.
Now, I couldn’t help but laugh at myself.

Shaking my head, I looked at Lily and
said, “I think I’ll go pick out another shirt. Would you mind helping with the
plates until I get over there?”

“Not at all,” she said. She touched my arm
again as she went by and looked at me flirtatiously as she dragged her fingers
seductively across my bicep.

Daphne’s friend Carla was watching us and
then her eyes cut over towards where her friend sat.
Son of a…she knows.
Daphne had to have told her and now she was worried
about her friend. Dear God, now I had to worry that another person is going to
say something to someone.

CHAPTER
TWNETY-SIX

DAPHNE

Jace looked like he was about to come over
and talk to me before that woman called out to him. She was awfully possessive
of his time and I wondered if she annoyed him as much as she did me. I wondered
how many times she’d seen him naked.

And, what was up with Carla being all
giggly with her? Was it ridiculous that I felt betrayed by both of them? I
sighed. Of course, it was. I was ridiculous…the entire situation was
ridiculous.

I watched Jace help them pull the boat in.
His t-shirt looked a little small. As he moved, it pulled up and from where I
sat I could see a couple inches of his bare skin.
It doesn’t matter. I’ve already seen plenty of his naked inches.
I
was still looking, anyway.

I watched his “friend” touch his arm with
a smile and then head over to the table where the food was. Jace went back
towards the bathrooms. I wondered if he was going to change his shirt. Carla
came in my direction.
Nice to know she
still remembers me.
I’m ridiculous, I know.

“Hey,” she said with a smile. “You feel
better now that you’re all dried out?”

“Yeah,” I said. I tried not to act like a
big baby. I tried not to be mad at her. My emotions were a wreck.

“The clothes fit you good. Better than the
priest,” she giggled.

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Wow, what do you have shoved up your butt
all of a sudden?”

I gave her a glare. “Nothing is up my
butt, but thanks for asking.”

“Are you mad at me?”

I sighed, “No, I’m sorry; it’s this stupid
jealousy again. You seemed so chummy with his girlfriend.”

“Oh, come on!”

“I know, I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.”

Carla smiled. She really was a good
friend. That quickly, I was forgiven. “It’s fun arguing with you. I forgot how
much I liked it. What’s really wrong, baby girl?”

I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, you’re
right. I do have something ‘up my butt.’ I just walked in on Jace in the
bathroom when he was changing. He was completely nude.”

“Shut up!”

“No…I can’t. I just saw my priest
naked…again.”

Carla grinned. “How was it?”

“Terrible.”

“What?” she looked confused.

“Not him. He’s like a sculpture or
something; he’s so perfect that he makes everything in my body go crazy—everything.
But, it was terrible because he had an erection and I stood there for God only
knows how long, staring at it.”

Carla busted up laughing. “That’s
hilarious.”

“No it’s not! Stop laughing. It’s
horrible, Carla. This whole situation is horrible.” I was on the verge of
tears. She finally stopped laughing and said,

“I’m sorry, Daph. You’re right, it’s not
funny. It’s not funny because you’re so upset about it. Honey, God is going to
forgive you for this…for all of it. You’ve been the best Catholic I know for as
long as I’ve known you. My mother pushed me to be friends with you specifically
for that reason.”

“Really? We’re friends because your mother
wanted us to be?”

“Well, at first, but you know I grew to
love you. My point is that you’re the kind of girl that mothers love and mothers
don’t love just anyone.” I let my mind flit to my own mother and then I tamped
it down again and said,

“Just because I was good in the past,
doesn’t give me a free pass to keep sinning now.”

“Keep sinning? What other sins have you
committed?”

“I dream about him every night and wake up
all sweaty and…”

“Horny?”

“Shut up. But yeah, I guess.”

“Horny is not a sin. It’s an actual
undeniable human emotion. He was obviously feeling it, too; he was sporting
that big old erection because you turned him on.”

“That doesn’t help me knowing that. It
makes me more so. I’ve never really felt it before that night. And now, I’m a
raging pervert. Then, there’s the jealousy; I’m committing that sin all over
the place. This chick that’s hanging all over him, I’m so jealous of her that I
can’t see straight.”

“She’s his ex-” Carla started.

“I’m jealous that you know that,” I told
her, honestly. I was. I hated that she knew so much about the woman. I’m
pathetic. Carla cracked up again. When she stopped laughing she said,

“I thought you meant you were jealous of
her and Jace.”

“I am, but like I said, I’m jealous that
you bonded with her so fast. I feel paranoid like she’s trying to take you both
from me.”

Still laughing, Carla said, “Oh, baby
girl. She can’t take me from you. I was stuck in a boat with her, so naturally,
we talked. Her name is Lily. They dated in high school. She broke up with him
and just recently ran back into him.”

“Did it seem like they were sleeping
together?”

Shaking her head at me, Carla said, “You
know, it’s hard to tell just by looking at a person.”

“You know what I mean. Did she say
anything that made you think they were doing the…”

“The horizontal mambo? The nasty?”

“Okay, never mind!”

She giggled. “I’m sorry. But no, honey,
she didn’t say anything to indicate that; although I’m not sure what that would
be other than, “Guess what? I’m doing a priest.”

“You can be so crude sometimes.”

“I’m just trying to lighten the mood. Come
on, I’m only here for the weekend. Stop stressing and let’s have fun, okay?”

I suddenly felt bad. She was right. She
was here to visit me and all I was doing was commiserating over my own issues.
“I’m sorry. Yes, I’m going to drop it and we’re going to have fun.”

My eyes cut over to where Jace and Lily
were serving lunch side by side. He’d changed into a black t-shirt that fit him
better, but was tight across his big chest and arms. Nothing about him looked
like a priest right then—not that it did most of the time. What is a priest
doing taking that good of care of his body? Isn’t that a sin, too? Maybe not.
Maybe God just wanted them to be healthy, I didn't know.

“Stop staring at him,” Carla scolded me.
“At least be more subtle. All of these other churchy people are going to notice.”
She lowered her voice and said, “And then, they’ll make up a story that the two
of you are fucking…only it will be true.” She had a harsh way of putting it,
but once again, she was right.