Page 23 of Mass Sins

When we first met, me losing my faith was all we had talked about, and because he was a priest, I hadn’t thought there would be any other dynamic between us. But here we were, with our tummies full, and walking along the small lake located behind the restaurant.

Joska had his hands in his pants’ pockets, and I had mine in front of me, fidgeting with my fingers, and trying not to pick at the skin around my nails. I wasn’t nervous around him, but I didn’t know what to say now that we had practically talked about everything back at dinner.

Although we had been silent for a while, it was a comfortable silence. At least, for me it was.

When I looked at him, he turned his head to face me. His expression was soft, but there was a certain gleam in his eyes. One that excited me when I looked into them.

I bit my bottom lip to hide a smile, but I was unsuccessful. The corners of my mouth curled up, and I lowered my gaze to my hands, thinking about words to say.

“I had a really good time,” I told him, meeting his eyes again.

“I had a great time too. And I think we should do it again.”

That shouldn’t have surprised me. Joska was direct and honest, which was something I truly liked about him.

He stopped walking, and I slowed down too. I turned toward him, not questioning why he stopped.

“So that second date is still on?”

I noticed how fast my heart was beating. I hadn’t noticed before, probably because he had been making me feel extremely comfortable at dinner. But now, standing by the lake with the moon shining down on us, and him looking at me the way he was, I slowly started to realize what was happening here.

And I was liking it.

“Yes, definitely,” I said. I didn’t want to sound so breathy, but it felt like he was coming closer, which made it hard for me to focus.

God, he had an effect on me. Whether he meant to do that or not, he already had me wrapped around his little finger. There was no going back now. At least not for me. And if I was interpreting this wrong, and he was simply using me to have some fun, then I’d really have to question my intuition, which usually was really good when it came to people.

My gut feeling was rarely wrong.

“Good.” Joska smiled, and there was this comfort in his eyes again. “Your place or mine?”

He was giving me a choice.

“Mine.” I pursed my lips, rethinking my decision. “Although…I would love to see how a priest lives.”

He chuckled. “My place is nothing special. Definitely don’t live in a penthouse like Tabor, but I have my own little house in a nice neighborhood.”

“Then we’ll have our second date at your place. I wanna see it,” I admitted with a grin.

“Fine with me. And what should we cook?” he asked, taking a step closer to me. He placed one hand on my hip, and without telling me what his intentions were, I moved backward until I was standing against one of the tree.

I leaned back and tilted my head to keep looking at him as he came closer. Normally, I wouldn’t have let him get this close on our first date, but I had been breaking rules lately anyway, and this one seemed like one I had to break too.

“I’m really good at cooking steak,” I told him proudly.

He was amused, but not in a condescending way. “Yeah? That’s kinda hot.”

I laughed out loud, unable to hold it back.

“You’re laughing now, but a woman who looks like you cooking a nice, big steak sounds like a reoccurring dream I’ve been having for the past forty years or so.”

I couldn’t stop laughing, but I tried hard to calm down. I slapped his chest, then grabbed on to his jacket with both hands. “You’ve been dreaming about a woman cooking steak?”

“Hell, yeah. You got me excited there. We can cook steaks and steam some vegetables. How does that sound?” he asked, grinning at me while his hands moved along my sides before he rested them on my hips.

“Sounds really good to me,” I said once I managed to calm down.

“And maybe we’ll make a nice dessert for after,” he suggested. His voice kept going lower, and so did his eyes. They moved from my eyes to my mouth, and they stayed there as I sucked in my bottom lip.

---