Page 42 of Sin With Me

“…in case a branch breaks.”

There were no branches on the lower part of the trunk, and the more I looked at the nearly shaved bottom of the tree, the more I wondered how in the world Matt had climbed up there.

“How and why did he do that?” I asked Lola. She was the other chaperon on ourtrip.

“He wanted to show off that he could be closer to God than the rest of us. As for how? I guess like that.” She motioned with her head to where Father Cameron had already removed his cassock, then his clerical collar, and unfastened the top three buttons of his black shirt. I rushed toward him and grabbed him by his arm. “Wait, you’re not going to climb up there, areyou?”

“How else are we going to get him down? I don’t see a ladder around.”

Ladder – that would be much safer.

I never panicked. Never. But lately my hormones were so all over the place that I surprised even myself. Plus, there was something to be said about being in the wild with a hot priest.

Sinning in nature.

I turned around and ran back to Lola. “Do you have a ladder?”

“Do you see me holdingone?”

“How is he going to get backdown?”

“I don’t know. But what goes up must comedown.”

I growled at her. By the time I turned around again, Father Cameron was already five feet off the ground, climbing the tree like a monkey.

“Holy shit!” Lola pointed to him, and some of the kids turned her way, giggling.

“Shh, don’t swear.”

“‘Shit’ is not a swearword.”

“It is when you use it in that context. Why are you stepping from one foot to the other?” I asked.

“I need topee.”

“Thengo.”

She shook her head. “There’s no way I’m missingthis.”

Father Cameron’s foot slipped, and a unanimous gasp echoed. I watched him grip the tree tightly, his arms nearly hugging it and fingers digging into the bark for support, and all I wanted to do was throwup.

What the hell happened to my nerves of steel? If anyone from the precinct saw me this broken up, I could never show my face there again.

“He’s a monkey,” I gasped.

“I’d like to think more… like Spiderman,” Lola sighed, with a somewhat dreamy look in her eyes, and I elbowed her in theside.

The group of kids cheered Father Cameron with encouragement and when he reached the first level of branches, grasping one, the tension in my shoulders somewhat eased.

“That was absolutely sinful.”

Was Lola panting? I elbowed her again, but truthfully, I couldn’t have agreed more. One minute I was in a confessional, telling Father John fragments of my immoral fantasies about Father Cameron, and the next here he was, doing just what I’d imagined a sexy man would do: effortlessly climb atree.

Like Spiderman.

Actually, scratch that. I was pretty sure I couldn’t have imagined it better.

“You heard it first from me: I’m actually enjoying myself at this retreat.” She had a goofy and satisfied look on her face. “These kids never disappoint, dothey?”

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