by Sosie Frost
The night dissolved away. The world. The responsibilities. Everything that wasn’t her body, her heat, and her soft whimper of overwhelmed delight was lost to nothingness.
The world once more had meaning in her arms.
But the sin of my obsession was only beginning.
12
Glory
Varius woke me with a kiss trailing along my neck.
I preferred the hardness pressed against my back.
Rolling over, I snuggled into his arms. Varius rested on his side, raised up onto his elbow. Those stormy eyes watched me with a ravenous hunger. How wasn’t he sated with a week of midnight rendezvous yet?
This man spoke like an angel, seduced like a devil, and had perfected the art of sin.
The Bible mentioned a fall, but it’d said nothing about how hard a girl would hit the ground.
“You weren’t supposed to spend the night,” I whispered.
He talked slowly, drawing heated words over eager lips. “You gonna kick me out of bed?”
“You make this so hard.”
“Likewise.”
God, this man. One of us had to be rational about this relationship. Unfortunately, when the lights turned off, all those bad decisions felt right. I wasn’t the sort of girl who worried about problems—usually I created them. But Good Pastor Payne had just spent an unchaperoned night with a single woman.
Such a scandal would rock the very foundations of Butterpond, but he was worth the gossip.
My fingers tip-toed along his chest, teasing the hard-packed muscle that rippled beneath my touch. He didn’t look away, even as I explored lower, past his tense abs and into his boxers.
“Think of what the town might say,” I whispered.
He hardened in my hand. “Think about what they missed.”
Butterpond wasn’t ready for that sort of debauchery. I checked the clock on the nightstand. Still early at least. We had a little more time before the fun ended, work began, and the insanity of the pageant consumed us again.
“What if someone sees you here?” I asked.
“Who’s gonna tell on me?” Varius pulled me closer, attempting to turn me onto my back. I knew where that path led—somewhere dark and tempting where we’d burn hotter than hellfire and damn ourselves to pleasure.
“This is risky,” I said.
“Oh, there’s no greater risk than surrendering to you.”
“But what if someone asks about us?” I baited him with a harder tug. “Would Pastor V actually make an innocent girl lie?”
His words promised nothing but sin. “No lies, just secrets. You’re very good at keeping secrets.”
“I learned from the best.”
“I’m very good at hiding what I feel.”
Only because he never allowed himself to acknowledge how he felt. Still, my gaze wandered to the monster tenting his boxers.
“You’ve always made your intentions known,” I said.
He didn’t hide it. “I want you. Now.”
“You’ve already spent the night ravishing me.”
“Were you satisfied?”
Exceedingly. But I couldn’t help but tease. “What happens if I say no?”
“I’ll take you again and again until you’re crying out my name.”
A girl could do worse. “And if I said yes?”
“Same thing…” His voice lowered. “Only you’d beg for a reprieve.”
“Would you give it?”
“Not in this lifetime.”
“What about the next?”
“I’m already in paradise, Glory. No book or sermon could promise more happiness.”
He had a way of twisting my prayers and binding me in blasphemy. And the worst part?
I believed him.
What we had was more than just fucking. Every moment in his arms was sensual and tantalizing, an ecstasy shrouded in a secret that led only to dangerous infatuation. Problem was, this relationship would jeopardize both of our reputations. And instead of being careful, we’d damned the consequences.
Our glances in the church were too familiar. Our touches too brazen. Our stolen kisses behind the scenery a risk we couldn’t live without.
Hiding a booty call was easy. But denying this—the sparks, the desires, the absolute need for each other? Every touch was magic, and every moment separated from his arms a new agony. The community couldn’t learn the truth, but our resistance weakened night after night, kiss after kiss, thrust after thrust.
But Varius was the town minister—whether he practiced or not. A man like him garnered more attention from behind the pulpit than I ever did dancing naked in a spotlight. So far, Butterpond hadn’t lost faith in him even when he’d lost faith in himself.
But one mistake, one wrong woman? He’d never be able to return to the only place that would finally heal him.
“Tell me what you want.” Varius could be so solemn it was sexy. “What’s your wildest fantasy? I’ll make it come true.”
I hummed. “Well…I’ve always wanted to seduce a man of the cloth. Got my wish.”
“You seduced me?” His smile warmed every bit of my skin not hidden under a blanket or the over-sized t-shirt. “Glory, I didn’t realize you were so naïve.”
Those were fighting words. “Naïve?”
“It wasn’t seduction.”
I stretched against his body, letting the shirt creep up to peek a strip of my tummy. “I must be losing my touch.”
“Don’t you see? You’re my own miracle, Glory.”
“You keep saying that. Good thing I like hearing it.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you.”
Didn’t need to lie to me when he kept lying to himself. “Who do you think I am, V? Really.”
“My salvation.”
“That’s a lot of pressure.”
“Shouldn’t be. You’ve already saved me.” His lips graced mine with a gratitude so sincere it had to be a sin. “You’ve done more than you can know.”
And the more I learned about him, the more it frightened me. I hadn’t yet melted the sadness frosting his voice. Hadn’t cleared the violent green from his eyes.
Hadn’t spared him nightmares even while I slept in his arms.
I hadn’t saved him. Couldn’t save him.
So what would happen when he finally realized that truth…
When he understood how wrong this was?
I leaned close for another kiss, but the morning interrupted us. Lulu did an amazing impression of a squealing bottle rocket and an even better impersonation of a SWAT team.
The bedroom door crashed against the wall, and she burst into the room. Her bright eyes were covered by the silken bonnet meant for her curls. She wiggled, joggled, and screamed to the Heavens.
“Potty! Sweet Jesus!”
Well…
That was my cue.
I shimmied away from Varius, though Lulu was more than charmed by the man. Had she not been in the midst of a rather dire potty dance, she might have leapt into the bed beside him.
“Jesus! Potty!” Lulu bounded for the bathroom. She left her Pull-ups in the middle of the floor. “Jesus go pee pee!”
I shot after her, pausing only to tug on a pair of booty shorts. Varius watched, waiting for the right moment to ask those pertinent questions.
I beat him too it. “Jesus has been…an effective potty-training technique.”
“O…kay.”
It might have been easier to explain Lulu’s potty dancing and blasphemy if a half-naked minister wasn’t warming my bed. But a mother adjusted her priorities when a potential diaperless experience existed just over the horizon.
“Momma!” Lulu panicked, screaming in terror as she rushed to the toilet. “Santa’s coming!”
Varius edged from the bed. “Wait…what?”
I guided my baby to the bath room and helped her into her seat, encouraging her to let nature take its course with our favorite Christmas carol turned potty song.
Jingle Bell Rock
had never been so defiled.
“Potty time, potty time, potty time rocks!” I clapped to the beat. “Gotta go pee and gotta stay clean…”
This calmed the child. It also ruined my chances at ever seducing Varius again.
“Peein’ and pooin’ in my little chair…”
Lulu grinned and clapped. “And we wipe our rear!”
I spared Varius the refrain, though any successful potty in the morning promised a banner day. I helped Lulu wash her hands and freed her hair from the bonnet. She ran giggling into the kitchen for breakfast, cackling as she had bested her bladder in a race against time, Christmas, and eternal damnation.
Varius dressed, tucking his shirt into his slacks. “Do I…ask?”
I was either a genius or a monster.
Probably a monster.
“I told Lulu when we moved in here that she had to be a big girl,” I said. “No accidents in the parish house.”
“The ministry thanks you.”
“Don’t be hasty.” I covered my eyes. “I might have told her that since the house belonged to the church…Jesus was always watching.”
“Oh no.”
“I’d hoped it would motivate her.” I was the worst mother in the world. “But then I also thought—well, it is Christmas. So…I reminded her that Santa was coming, and he’d bring her lots of presents if she used the potty.”
For someone so uncomfortable around children, Varius understood far more than he’d admit. “What happens now?”
“Pure panic. I’ve traumatized my child by telling her invisible men are in her house, watching her at all hours of the day and night, spying on her in case she has an accident.”
Varius laughed. I loved the sound, but not while I contemplated spending my every last dollar on either Lulu’s therapy or diapers.
“It’s not funny,” I said. “I should have known better. When I told her the story of Noah’s Ark, she was terrified. Kept asking me for a boat so she could help her toys.”
“Remind me not to attend your Sunday school.”
I pointed at him. “Let this be a lesson, Pastor V. You don’t realize how talented you are. The entire town hangs on your every word while you preach, but their developmental milestones won’t be accompanied with night terrors.”
His smile faded. “You’ve never heard me preach.”
“Everything you say is a sermon, V.”
“Liar.”
I only lied when it benefited me, not when it’d hurt him. “You have no idea the power you hold over people. You motivate. You comfort. You teach.”
“Not anymore.”
“V—”
Lulu called for help from the kitchen. Unfortunately, she had yet to learn the difference between help and clean up after my bout of failed independence. Cheerios exploded across the countertops and floor. Good thing she’d already tipped over the entire carton of milk. The cereal couldn’t roll away when it drowned in a puddle of dairy.
“Every morning, Lulu…”
At least these morning disasters came after I was well-rested and awake, not after a night of dancing on stage just to give half of my earnings to the only babysitter I’d found who could stay until four in the morning. Still, I’d learned a few things—spills were easier to clean in slippers, not stripper boots, and it was prudent to buy two boxes of cereal while at the store.
I sat Lulu at the table and bribed her with a chopped banana. “Promise me you’re going to make messes here at home and not on the stage today, okay?”
Lulu nodded. “No.”
She was either honest or precognizant. “You’ll be a good girl for momma, right?”
She thought about it, grinned, and popped a banana into her mouth. “No.”
“A sign of things to come.”
I dreaded checking the calendar I’d posted on the fridge. V did the honors, crossing off another day with a big red X. The month had more red marks than days now. Lulu offered me a chunk of banana. Unless she mushed it up with some rum and offered mommy a daquiri, I’d never get through the rehearsal.
“I haven’t gone ten minutes without thinking about the pageant,” I said.
Varius caught my glance. “Then I didn’t do my job last night.”
Oh, he did his job. Did it well. “Okay…I haven’t gone ten minutes this morning without thinking about the pageant.”
“I can help with that.”
I checked my watch. “You’re good, V, but I need more than a quickie right now.”
“Didn’t mean that.” He sat next to Lulu, surprised she offered him a bit of her breakfast. “Bastard.”
“Pastor.” I corrected her.
Varius kissed her forehead. “How about just V, Lulu?”
“Bastard.”
“It’s cute until she does it in the middle of the chapel,” I said.
He didn’t mind the blasphemy. Her little grin would melt the man where he sat. “I have a surprise for you today.”
“If it isn’t an extra two grand for lights, I can’t take any more surprises.”
“This won’t be like those surprises.”
Thank God. A girl could only handle so much, including a Joseph with cirrhosis of the liver, a narrator forced to use an electrolarynx, and an anatomically correct, life-sized stuffed reindeer with a light bulb for a nose and a Yule log that made the women’s group blush.
I checked the back window. A few cars had arrived in the church’s parking lot. My stomach dropped, but Varius was already heading to the door.
“You’re going to love her,” he said.
“Her?”
“Just wait.”
I didn’t like this new, mischievous Varius Payne. One week of sex, and he’d turned from angel to imp.
“What the hell are you planning?” I asked.
“You’ve gotta see her for yourself.” He winked and headed out the door. “There aren’t any words that can describe it.”
Oh, that was a lie. Butterpond had words for everything, and they passed quickly through the town.
I stuffed Lulu full of Cheerios, suited her up in an adorable leopard print leotard, and managed to get in and out of the shower before she Decked the Halls with my lipstick. We made it to the church just in time to catch the crowd.
An old, barely functional animal trailer backed into the lot.
Attempted to reverse into a parking spot.
Quint shouted from the driver’s seat, and Varius leapt out of the way. Tidus bailed from the passenger side before the wheel jumped the curb.
“Stop!” Varius yelled. “You’re gonna hit the church!”
“That’s the least of your problems…” Quint hopped out of the truck and tossed the keys to Varius. “We got her here. Don’t ask us for a favor ever again. You deal with her now.”
“We’ll take care of it, Quint,” Varius said.
Tidus rubbed his face and groaned. Not sure if he wasn’t a morning person or if he hadn’t yet gone to bed. Couldn’t tell with the mop of hair on his head.
“What do you mean we?” Tidus swore. “You’re on your own.”
The parking lot was suddenly a little too crowded. Varius gestured for the growing audience to take a couple of steps away from the trailer…then a few more.
The entire vehicle shuddered, shook, and roared.
What the hell had Varius brought upon the church?
“Tidus, help me get her suited up,” he said.
Tidus laughed in his face. “I’m not helping with that hell beast. Quint’s got the right idea.”
The youngest Payne brother armed himself with a cross and a bottle of holy water that looked suspiciously like a can of Natty Light. This did nothing to ease the fears of the cast and crew lingering in the cold outside the church. Breath nervously puffed. The whispers grew loud.
And an unholy grunt snuffled from inside the trailer.
“She’s not a hell beast.” Varius unlatched the lock on the trailer and took a deep breath before yanking on the handle. H
e stepped aside, bracing himself for a fight. “At least…not according to the canonical scriptures.”
All three Paynes ducked as a thudding of hooves echoed an apocalyptic beat. The clattering punished the thin, rusted metal, and the trailer thrashed wildly from side-to-side.
I swept Lulu into my arms and prepared to run.
What devil had Varius unleashed upon his church?
“Dinosaur!” Lulu squealed as the creature emerged. “Momma! Dinosaur!”
I clutched my baby to my chest. The rest of the pageant cried out in horror.
A leathery, demonic creature hissed into the cold. It snorted, flaring its nostrils. Red, beady eyes scanned the crowd before it bared its teeth at the very church itself.
The morning fell darker, the air colder as the monster clamored from its prison.
The man had gone mad. Where had he found this atrocity?
Why did he bring it to the church?
Quint gave the creature a cautious birth. “That’s not a dinosaur, kiddo. Demon.” He winked at my baby. “Can you say demon?”
Too little, too late. My daughter fell in love. She wiggled and bounced, motioning towards the unholy creature with grabby hands.
“Demosaur!”
Varius carried a leash in his hands, though the animal snapped as he attempted to loop it over its neck. It reared up. Loose, rubbery skin jiggled over its hairless body. The hooves crashed down. Varius dodged the kick and countered a nip.
Well, he had managed to surprise me.
What better way to ruin a pageant than by releasing a vile creature that would murder the cast, crew, and audience members?
I prepared to run. “Please tell me you brought a crucifix.”
“She’s fine…” Varius saw the best in everything but himself, and, unfortunately, it’d probably kill us all. “Just a little agitated after leaving the farm…”
“What the hell is that thing?”
“Alicia.”
The animal bucked, and the cast scattered, parting like the Red Sea as the monster bellowed a cry and rushed toward the church.
