Page 21 of Sin With Me

Chapter6

Kate

“Are you sure about this?”Lola asked, as she combed through Mrs. Duarte’s hair, separating it into parts.

“Yeah, I need to clear my mind.” I raised my brows so that she could see my reflection in the mirror. I wasn’t about to come out in front of a seventy-year-old saying that I needed to get drunk.

“All right, all right. I’ll be there.”

“Why are you so grumpy? It’s not like you have to hike through the woods to get there.”

Yes, tonight, I would make another attempt at the Bistro. After all, it couldn’t get any worse than having a priest hold your hair while you puked your guts out, couldit?

“And youdo?”

Though he’d said that he was trying to help a friend who doesn’t know how seductive she is, everything in my body told me that he was referring to me. I knew it was me, and that confused me evenmore.

“You know what I mean, Lola. I really need to talk toyou.”

“Okay, okay. Why don’t you go, grab a drink… or two or three. Judging from that stress on your face, I personally vote for four, and I’ll be there in under anhour.”

“Promise?”

“Hey, this girl doesn’t go back on an offer to drink.”

I rested my hands on my hips, waiting.

“All right. If you must hear it, then I promise.” She popped her pink bubblegum.

“See yousoon!”

A moment later, I stepped into the bar. It felt like only yesterday that I swore I would never set foot in here again. I didn’t know why, but that bar was calling out to me — either that or it was the fantasy of thinking back to the time when I thought Father Cameron was an available man. Truthfully, tonight I hoped to burn all my hormones and completely forget about him. I wanted to stop the emotional imbalance from doing whatever dance that was in my stomach, and the only way I knew how was with a drink. Today was one of the more difficult days. When Father Cameron stepped into my back yard, I swore I could feel a connection of more than friendship. It confused me. It made me lose my focus of why I was here: looking for a man named Jack and staying hidden while the shit back home cooled down. Out of all the churches Father Cameron could have been sent to in this world, why thisone?

It was bad enough that the past week I woke up soaked in my sweat, fingers aching from the onslaught I brought on myself. He wouldn’t leave my mind. My fantasies of him being a man, one who wasn’t committed to the church, grew wilder every night. The guilt and embarrassment began to hover over me like a stressed bee trying to collect nectar from a woman’s artificial flowerhat.

I sat down by the bar, adjusted my tube top dress, and smiled at Bert. “They say you can correct your mistakes if you’re careful the second time around,” I explained.

“Looks like you got some sun today,” he noted.

“I fell asleep in the back yard. Hence the bare shoulders. They hurt like hell, but I’m hoping the pain will ease after afew.”

He passed me my shot of tequila, because honestly, if I was going to drink, I wouldn’t mix, and so I downed the first one before he had a chance to set the sliver of lemon on my shot glass.

“I’ll have anotherone.”

“Take it easy there, Kate. The night is young. Need I remind you what happened lasttime?”

“Nope, but I do need to be in bed early. We have a parent retreat meeting in the morning.”

“You want me to cut you off at half a dozenthen?”

“No cutting off.” I glanced at my watch. “But whatever I can get down in the next two hours, Iwill.”

I wanted to forget him. For one single minute, I wanted Father Cameron out of my mind. Except the more I thought about him, the more obsessed I felt. My body ached for a release. My first few attempts to find that high were short lived. The orgasm I’d had after Father Cameron left the day he had fixed my air conditioning unit came on too quickly and left me wanting more, to the point where frustration set in and I could no longer reach that moment of pure joy; not unless it was while sleeping. So, what was a woman who could possibly carry blue balls for the rest of her life supposed todo?

I had just downed my third shot when a familiar voice sounded from beside me, and I stilled.

“You better slow down or I’ll have to hold your hair while you throw up later.”

---