AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The thought left me cold. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, Zeph. The not knowing with Fawn. The daily struggles I have to watch my grandma go through. This life is fucking cruel. It breaks me, day by day, until I don’t even know what’s left. How am I supposed to raise Amelia and explain all of this stuff to her when none of it makes sense to me?”
His fingers covered mine. “You could have faith. That someone or something bigger than you has a plan. Let them take the reins for a little while. You don’t have to do everything alone, Lyric, even though you think you do. There are people who want to have your back.” He cleared his throat. “I want to have your back.”
His words were meant to soothe me, and until that last sentence had slipped out of his mouth, they had. But him saying he wanted to be there for me? That he was someone I could lean on? It wrapped its way around me and squeezed until all I felt was confusion and breathlessness.
“You can’t make promises like that,” I said quietly.
“I already did.”
I wanted him to put his arms around me, draw me tight against his solid chest, and hold me. I wanted to tilt my chin up and feel his lips press down on mine.
I wanted all manner of things I couldn’t have with him, and I was torturing myself by continuing this when I knew it couldn’t lead anywhere. I needed to change the subject. “You ever want to spill what’s on your mind? You spend all day listening to other people’s problems, who listens to yours?”
“I go to confession, I guess.”
“In the little boxes with the peephole? They still have those? I thought they were some ancient relic that was done away with back in the caveman times.”
He chuckled and pointed to the booth-type structure to the right-hand side of the church. At this time of morning, it was bathed in early sunlight and looked quite warm and inviting, but I couldn’t imagine walking in there, pouring out all the things I’d done that made me a shitty human. Of course, nothing Zeph did was shitty. But I wondered if he’d told anyone about the chemistry between us.
“Do you pretend you’re someone else so your boss doesn't know it’s you?” I asked curiously.
He raised an eyebrow, then said in his deep, so-sexy voice, “I don’t think that would work well.”
It wouldn’t. His voice was too toe-curling to be mistaken for someone else.
“So you just spill all your secrets? And trust that he won’t judge you?”
He paused, gaze firmly on me. “Not all of them.”
A breath rushed out of me.
I was sure I was the secret he wasn’t confessing. He was as good as admitting there was more between the two of us than just friendship.
His gaze flickered to my lips, lingering on them longer than they should have. His fingers tightened around mine, and his head moved toward me, so slowly it was maddening because all I wanted to do was lean and close the distance.
But I didn’t dare for fear of scaring him off.
I wanted his kiss. His lips on mine. His tongue in my mouth and my fingers in his hair.
I should have cared that kissing me would be going against everything he believed in. But in the moment, I didn’t. All I could want was right there in front of me, with a heat and desire in his eyes that stole my breath.
“Father Zepherin? Are you still in here?”
We jumped apart like we’d been electrocuted, right before an elderly woman with a walking stick stuck her head around the entrance. Her frown smoothed out into a warm smile.
“Oh, there you are. Are you coming out? There are a few people still milling around, and Mr. Thompson would like a word before he leaves.”
Zeph stood stiffly, wiping his palms on his robe. “Of course, Mrs. Dodds. I’ll be right there.”
I slunk down in my pew, wishing I could slither onto the floor like a snake. My face burned at being caught.
All we’d been doing was looking at each other, but it had felt like so much more. I felt exposed. Like old Mrs. Dodds had walked in on me and Zeph, naked and making love on the altar.
Oh fuck. There was something wrong with me that I found the idea such a turn-on.
Zeph was equally stiff, and I wondered if he was playing out the same fantasies. But then he held a hand out to me. “Come. You can’t sit in here all day.”
He was right, I needed to get home so Peggy could leave but I could barely get my breathing under control.
