Page 7 of Welcome to the Sins of Blackstone
"Nice to meet you, Maria," I say, my voice slow, deliberate.
I notice the slight catch in her breath. The way she grips her hands together, like she’s holding something back.
Interesting.
"She come back home now, and will finish the last few weeks here." Father Dominic continues proudly. "She teaches Sunday school, volunteers?—"
"An angel," my father muses.
I chuckle under my breath.She’ll be my angel.
Maria’s face reddens, but she says nothing.
And that’s when I know.
She feels it too.
This weird pull between us. The wrongness of it. The temptation. It might be wrong for her, but to me it’s playing on the line of good and evil.
Father Dominic glances toward my father, continuing their conversation about community efforts he would like to work on, and my father nodding like he cares.
But Maria’s eyes find mine again.
And I swear, for just a second she isn’t praying for strength.
She’s praying for me to stop looking at her.
I keep my face composed, my hands folded in front of me, but inside I’m unraveling.
Wanting to touch her, to taste what a pure innocent girl who’s never been touched tastes like.
The heavy wooden doors of the church creak as we step outside, sunlight slicing through the morning air. The scent of incense still clings to my clothes, but it does nothing to cleanse me. Nothing ever will.
Not even church air will clean me from the things I’ll do. One day, stepping inside might burn me.
My father walks beside me, nodding to parishioners, shaking hands, exchanging pleasantries like a proper businessman, like a respectable man.
It’s all a fucking act, one which I will have to prefect myself.
I follow, hands in my pockets, but my mind is somewhere else. On her.Maria.
I feel her eyes on my back, I don’t turn, I need her to wonder. To think about me when she lays her head on her pillow tonight.
Sebastian falls into step next to me. "That was unexpected," he mutters, glancing over his shoulder.
I know what he means. He saw the way she reacted. The way she looked at me like she was standing too close to a flame but couldn’t move away. The famous saying, the moth to the flame.
"Unexpected?" I grin. "No. It was inevitable."
Sebastian snorts, shoving his hands into his suit pockets. "You going to start praying next??" The loud laugh escaping him, even has me smiling.
“I’ve got better things to worship.”
I don’t believe in fate.
But I do believe in getting what I want.
And I want Maria.
