Priest (A Standalone Bad Boy Romance Love Story) (14 page)

CHAPTER
TWENTY-NINE

JACE

I went from a dead sleep to infused with
adrenaline in about thirty seconds flat. I had no idea why Daphne would call me
instead of the cops, but I couldn't just leave her alone to deal with someone
who was threatening her.

She sounded scared to death. He must have
hurt her really bad in the past. I had a hard time even letting myself imagine
that. Every time I did, I was suddenly filled with an anger that I’d never
experienced before.

I’m a priest. I’m a pacifist. I’d never
actually been in a fight. I’d trained for them, but that was always just
supposed to be about exercise. I was never supposed to use it.

When I first became a priest, I met this
other young father that was completely ripped. I couldn’t help but notice and
one day, I finally asked him about it. Growing up, all the priests and Bishops
that I’d known had been older and most of them were soft and a little paunchy.
I’d assumed back then that taking care of their body would be considered vanity
and vanity is a sin.

But this young priest told me about a new
movement amongst the leaders of the Catholic Church. It involved being
physically fit. Taking better care of the “temple” that God gave you.

I started going to his gym with him. It
was a gym opened by a devoutly Catholic family, and the man who did the classes
and the personal training was one of the board members of our church. I started
working out with him and because I’d always been healthy and athletically
inclined, I progressed quickly.

After about six months of intense daily
work-outs, he started teaching me the basics of boxing. I’ve been doing that
with him now for over three years and I wouldn’t doubt that I could take on any
MMA fighter and come out on top, if I was so inclined.

I’d never had the desire to beat anyone up,
though…until that phone call. It was frightening and exhilarating at the same
time.

As I threw on my clothes, I said a prayer
for guidance and one for patience. It wasn’t going to look good for the acting
priest of the biggest parish in Lexington to get arrested for assault. I may as
well kiss my career and any good reputation I had left goodbye. I finished my
prayers on the road and assured myself that there was no way I’d be getting
into a fight.

When I drove up to Daphne’s apartment
building, I could see her door. It faced the street and the outside light was
on. There was a big man on the porch, and I watched as he kicked the door
several times and then had to reach out and grab hold of the railing to steady
him. I had to assume that was her loving father. Poor Daphne.

I parked the car and tried to think fast.
At last, I decided that feigning ignorance might be my best option.

I jogged over to him. He was on the
landing and there were three small steps that led up to it. “Excuse me, sir? Is
everything okay?” I said it as politely as I could. I didn’t feel neighborly at
all, but I hoped I sounded it.

He glanced over his shoulder at me. His
look was dark and menacing. He narrowed his eyes and said, “Mind your own
business.”

This wasn’t going to be easy. He was drunk
and obviously an ass. I took a deep breath and said, “You seem upset, sir. I’d
like to help if I can. I live here, and we don’t like any problems. I’ll have
to assume you’re trying to break into that apartment and call the police unless
you tell me what is going on.”

“I’m just trying to get my daughter to
open the fucking door,” he shouted the last part and slammed his open palm
against the door. He was slurring his words together. She was right about him
being drunk. He not only looked and sounded it—he stank. I was almost getting
drunk off the fumes.

“Who’s your daughter?”
 

He looked annoyed again, but he said,
“Daphne Carter…my Daffy…”

“Well that explains it, sir. The person
who lives there isn’t named Daphne…”

“Oh, shut the hell up and go away!” he
said, kicking the door again. He wasn’t buying my act any longer. “Daffy! Open
this fucking door!”

“Sir, I’m calling the police” I had my
phone in my hand, and I was literally shocked when he swung around and kicked
it out of my palm. It flew into the bushes lining the stairwell. My hand
stung…and now I was pissed.

Without thinking, I reacted. I reached up to
grab him by the front of his shirt and pulled him down towards me. He tried to
take a swing, but I had him too close, he didn’t have enough room to connect.

“What the hell are you doing? Let go of
me!” I tried. I let go of him with a shove, and he fell on his ass on the
sidewalk.

“Get out of here, this is the last time
I’m asking you,” I told him. I was shocked at the feelings raging inside of me.
If he was this willing to attack a stranger, what had he done to Daphne? He
outweighed her by at least a hundred pounds and his fists were like huge bear
paws. I felt sick to my stomach at the thought of him hurting her…of anyone
hurting her.

That moment was when it finally clicked
for me: what I felt for her went way beyond sex. I was actually tempted to kick
him while I watched him struggle to his feet. I almost made myself sick.

I took a deep breath and watched him. I
thought he was finished, and I was going to resist my urges and let him go. He
turned his back to me and started to walk away. I had almost breathed a sigh of
relief, when all of a sudden, he turned back and like a wild animal, he came at
me.

I could have stepped out of the way…I
suppose. But instead, I chose to bring up my knee. It connected with the soft
part of his gut and as he fell forward, it hit the underside of his chin. He
went down again. This time, he had blood trickling from the corner of his
mouth.

I had to try one last time to talk to him.
It’s what I’m supposed to do…right? “Please, don’t make me hurt you anymore.
Just walk away. My intentions here are not to hurt you.”

“Fuck you! You didn’t hurt me, you little
pussy!” He wiped the blood from his chin and crawled back up out of the dirt,
immediately taking a swing at me with his right arm.

I blocked it with my left and threw out a
right jab. It landed squarely between his eyes, and his nose started spurting
blood. He covered it with both his hands. Blood oozed out from between his
fingers.

I couldn’t believe I caused that. In a
nasally voice he said, “You broke my nose, you dumb fuck!”

“Not yet,” I told him. It wasn’t broken. I
hadn’t hit him hard enough. “But I will if you don’t leave, right now.” The
most frightening thing about that was that I meant it.

He looked like he might be drunk enough or
stupid enough to say something else. I stayed in my fight stance wondering who
the hell I was.

If Max and Ryan saw me as I was then, it
would blow them away. We used to spar as boys and I was always the one to give
in first. Not because I was a pussy, but because I just really hated the idea
of fighting.

Finally, whatever good sense he had left
kicked in. He dusted himself off, and with blood still pouring from his nose, he
started to walk away. I tried to tell myself to just let him go, but I was
beyond reasoning, even with myself.

“Hey!” I yelled at him. He stopped and
turned around to look at me. He still had a smug look on his face and God help
me, but I was tempted to wipe it off. Instead, in a voice infused with rage, I
said, “If you ever come near her again…or even call her…I will find you and I
will make your life a living hell. Do you understand me?”

In his nasally voice, he said, “Fuck you.”
He spit on the sidewalk and blood went everywhere, and then he flipped me off
before turning around again and walking away.

This time, I let him go. I think I was
frozen for several seconds over the shock of hearing those words come out of my
mouth.
I’m a Catholic Priest. Jesus, what
is happening to me?

I watched him make his way through the
parking area. He was weaving as he walked. He didn’t get into a car. That was
at least one good thing. I watched until he disappeared down the street into
the night. He would probably walk into the nearest bar. Hopefully, they’d take
one look at him and not serve him.

I knocked on the door and so she wouldn’t
be too frightened to open it I called, “Daphne, it’s Jace. He’s gone.” Several
minutes went by. I thought she wasn’t going to open the door so I said,
“Daphne, you’re safe. Please open the door.”

Finally, when I was just about to knock
again, I heard the latch. She pulled the door open just enough to peek out. I
could see terror in her eyes and felt that surge of rage once more. I wished
that I had broken his nose.

“He’s gone?” she asked in a shaky voice.

“Yeah, he’s not going to hurt you
tonight…or ever again if I have anything to say about it.” She closed the door,
and I heard her disengage the chain.

She pulled it back open and the rage
morphed into instant desire. She was wearing a white tank top and it was
evident that she didn’t have a bra on underneath. I could see her dark nipples
through it and the flesh of her full breasts in the arm holes on the sides. Her
shorts were what I think the girls call “booty” shorts. That was all they
covered. The rest of her long, tanned legs were exposed. Her blonde hair was
loose and disheveled, and although she had tracks of tears on her pretty face,
she was still the sexiest thing I’d ever seen. God help me.

I knew at that moment what was happening
to me, although I wasn’t really ready to fully admit it. I would do anything to
make sure this woman was okay. Anything. I suddenly knew that I would die
protecting her. I felt that strongly about her, and that wasn’t just physical
attraction. I needed her to be okay. I was falling for her, right or wrong.

CHAPTER
THIRTY

DAPHNE

“Daphne, what’s the deal with you and him?
Does he hurt you physically? Do you think your life could be in danger? If you
do, we really need to call the police.”

He looked so worried that it made my heart
feel happy and sad at the same time. “I’m sorry, Jace, but I really don’t want
to talk about all of that. I can’t right now,” I was shaking and my voice
cracked. “I’m sorry.”

He looked at me softly. “Don’t be sorry.
Just be safe, okay? I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

I smiled at him through my tears. It was
so nice that he cared. He cared enough to run over in the middle of the night.

“Thank you; I will be. I moved here
because I want nothing more than to go on with my life and forget all about
him. I’m not sure how he found me. I do have a restraining order, like I said,
but it doesn’t do any good. He does what he wants.”

“Daphne, you really should-”

“Please, don’t say it. I know I should
call the police. I can’t explain it, though, no matter how horrible he is…he’s
still my father.”

I wasn’t sure what happened between Jace
and my father out there. I tried to see through the peephole, but they’d moved
too far away. I did hear a struggle and I was surprised to say the least. I was
so grateful to Jace just for coming…I hadn’t expected him to fight for me.
I know that’s another thing he’s not
supposed to do. I’m batting a thousand here.

He was rubbing one of his hands in the
other so I said, “Is your hand okay? Do you need some ice?” He looked down at
it. His knuckles looked a little red, but there was no blood and they didn’t
look too swollen…yet.

“Nah, I’m okay. If you’re okay, I’m going
to take off. Just do not open the door to him, and please, please, please, call
the police first next time…then you can call me.”

I tried to smile. I wasn’t going to call
the police, but if it made him feel better to believe that I would, so be it.
“Thank you again. I should get to bed. I have to work the breakfast shift
tomorrow.”

He smiled back.
God, he’s beautiful.
“You’re welcome, anytime. If you ever want to
talk about this, or anything, I’m all ears, okay?”

“Thank you, that means a lot. And hey, if
you ever want to talk about anything, it goes both ways. Carla said that girl
at the picnic was your ex. You two seem to be getting along pretty well, but if
you ever want to talk even about that, I’m willing to listen.”

I laughed after I said it. As soon as it
was out of my mouth I felt like an idiot.
God,
please give me a filter
.

“I don’t think Lily will be around much
anymore,” he said. I hated that I was so petty that it made me want to dance
naked in the street.

“Oh, I’m…sorry?”

He chuckled. “Don’t be,” he said. “I just
kind of turned down a come on from her last night. She wasn’t happy.”

“Oh, kind of like you turned me down. I
guess you have women coming onto you all the time.”

He got a look in his eyes then that I
didn’t recognize. It was kind of like he was tortured. “No, Daphne,” he said,
softly. “This wasn’t like that at all. I turned her down because I’m a priest, but
also because I don’t feel anything for her other than friendship. I turned you
down simply because I’m a priest and what I did with you the night I was drunk
was wrong. But if I could be with anyone on this earth, Daphne, it would be
you.”

I could feel my heart move up into my
throat and my pulse went crazy.
He still
wants me! Shit! Why am I celebrating that? He just said it’s wrong. He didn’t
have to say it. I know that it is.

God, maybe I was better off when I thought
the feelings were just one sided and I was obsessing over a man that didn’t
want me. My chest ached.

“Sleep well, Daphne,” he said then and he
turned towards the door.

“Jace?”

He turned back around and before I lost my
nerve, I embraced him. He didn’t push me away. I hugged him tight, and he
hugged me back. I put my mouth next to his ear and said, “Thank you, so much
for coming tonight.”

When I finally let him go, he looked at my
face and I could see the sincerity in his eyes as he said, “Anytime; I mean
that.”

I watched him go, and he waited at the
bottom of the steps for me to lock myself in. Once I did that, I pressed my
forehead into the door and wondered what I was going to do.

One thing I knew for certain: I wasn’t
going to sleep. There was going to be no getting the feel of his body against
mine off my mind. There wasn’t even any use in trying.
My mind knows the difference between what I want and can’t have, but my
heart doesn’t.