Page 16 of Seducing Daddy

That would have to wait.

“What did you have in mind?” she asked, nervously moistening her lips.

I hated the hold that sight had on my cock, draining my intellect of every IQ point.

Say something, you idiot.

“We don’t see snow like this but once every few decades. How about we run away on a sleigh together?” I tried to keep the words light and playful, but my entire future was on the line as I cleared my throat, my muscles as twitchy as a squirrel on cocaine.

She crinkled her nose at me, and while waiting for her reply, my heart thudded in my chest. It was a definite turn-on the way she nipped at that puffy bottom lip of hers. The thought of what else that mouth could do entranced me.

“Do you actually have a sleigh, with horses and everything? How is it you can take your leave from the parish amid such an event?” I expected her to throw up one challenge after the other and was ready for it.

“As you can see,” I gestured to the light-filled room around us where families were enjoying the warm food prepared by my mother and her many volunteers. The room could hold up to 600, but I estimated there were only twenty-five people sheltering here now. After the meal, Mama planned to hold a story hour in the Fireside Room before helping to get all the children bedded down for the evening. “My parishioners are in excellent hands. If I’m needed, I’m only a quick phone call away. Besides, the world may knock down my door, but it won’t pry me from your side.”

Jesus, Pritchett. Intense, much? Tone it down a little.

I failed to keep my powerful feelings to myself, and anxiety cooled my thoughts. What if she said no?

“I’ll go with you.” There was a spark of some indefinable emotion in her eyes. “On one condition.”

“Talk to me,” I told her.

“You weren’t jealous of your brother. Were you?” she said, her breath quickening.

I wondered about her composure, which was a fragile shell around her. Jolene clasped her hands in front of her belly to keep them from trembling, elbows pressing into her sides, making her body as small as possible.

“You want the truth?” I spoke the words in a low, pained voice.

“Always,” she insisted.

Everything around us slowed down, a blurred dance in a movie montage where colors and motion blended into one, and my stomach rolled. “When you’re around, I sometimes forget how to act.”

A shadow of alarm touched her face, cueing me to tone down the potency of my emotions.

“You walk around all the time, looking like you need a hug while at the same time flinching away from any overt sign of affection. I’m not a jealous man, baby girl. But I want to spend time with you, learn your favorite color, unearth your greatest fear so I can protect you from it, discover what makes you the happiest, and uncover the haunting secret you keep hidden away.” Entirely caught up in the effort to ease her concerns, I was fearless now. “Tell me if you need space. I’ll give you space. It’s obvious you don’t like to open up to people, especially men. You don’t let anyone in right away, if ever. Something caused you to be cautious. Despite all that, being scared is just what you’re feeling, but brave is what you’re being. I see you being so courageous.”

Right there in front of God and everybody, I put my hand on her shoulder and drew her to me to whisper hotly against her ear. “Make me the luckiest man in the world. Let me take you on a sleigh ride. Show me your quiet, sweet side. The fun and crazy side… and the side of you that you want no one to see.”

Chapter 9

Jolene

Who could refuse an offer like that from a man like him? I’d never received one so tempting in my life.

So, here I was, once again enjoying the privilege of admiring his bulging backside as he reached out to put a bridle on the well-behaved horse who was taking us for a ride. The mare belonged to his mama, who’d given us permission to take her out with the sleigh after telling us she’d be staying over with her friend, Sheila, and some girlfriends who were hosting a “girl hang” and poker night at the back office of the center, after the work was done.

“Are you sure you’re warm enough?” he asked.

A feeling sweeter than hot cocoa and homemade marshmallows washed over me. What a privilege it was to be the center of a man’s kind attention.

A man like Rex.

The perfect minister for a flock, shepherding them to safety and herding me toward comfort in a way that was at once both unusual and more than welcome.

The horse bobbed its head up and down, and Rex took the hint, giving the colossal beast’s forehead a nice scratch between the ears.

Once the rig was ready, he held my hand to help me step up into the carriage. Thoughtfully, he draped a faux fur blanket across the seat and tucked it around my body.

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