Page 53 of Prodigal Son

“You’re behaving like a domineering warthog!”

“I will not have you speak to me in such a way!” The bishop crossed the room, but instead of throttling his wife, he took hold of her and hugged her tight. “My beautiful lioness, you must trust me in this.”

She leaned into him but thumped his chest with her small fist. “I will not be bossed and ordered around like your inferior.”

He kissed her head and stroked her back with a calming touch. “You are my wife. My equal.”

Cain jiggled the knob and the door clicked open, the bishop’s focus now elsewhere. He drifted through the bishop’s private home, prepared for the onslaught of Destiny’s questions, oddly anticipating her demands. But when he reached the den, his gut clenched.

Destiny lay supine on an upholstered bench, her eyes in a trance and her limbs lifeless. A larger man—Vito he supposed—occupied the nearby chair in a similar state. He kneeled in front of the bench and swept a finger under the curtain of her dark, curly hair.

“Destiny?” He waved a hand in front of her face, unsure how she could be under compulsion now yet somehow retrieved her erased memories from before. “Can you hear me?”

Full, soft lips drew his gaze. He didn’t trust her.

“I know you can hear me, woman. Tell me how you found your way back here.”

She stared blindly at him, neither blinking or flinching when he snapped his fingers in her face.

“Stubborn.”

He gripped her jaw and studied her face. Glancing over his shoulder at the unmoving heap of her brother, he looked back at those tempting lips.

“Let’s see if this gives you away.” He pressed his mouth to hers, taking everything he could taste of her with one stroke of his tongue. It was no surprise she didn’t kiss him back, but she also didn’t shove him away.

Drawing back, he frowned. “Destiny?” He shook her shoulders but got no response. “Wake up.”

“She’s dreaming.”

Cain’s gaze jerked to the bishop, as his body filled the doorway. “How can you tell?”

“Her thoughts.”

Cain stood defensively, unsure what the bishop saw in her dreams and envious that mortals could enjoy such things so casually. “Do you plan to wake her?”

“In time. First, I must speak with The Council.”

“You can’t leave her like this.”

“What do you suggest?”

Cain glanced at her helpless form. As much as she infuriated him, he preferred her spitting and fighting to this lifeless display. “Let me take her to my house. I’ll watch over her. My parents are still out of town so she won’t be in the way.”

“Very well. As long as she’s in your care, I’m holding you responsible for her. As far as they’re concerned, we are just simple Amish farmers. And let me make this clear to both of you,” the bishop said, alerting Cain to his sister’s shadow on the other side of the door. “Neither is staying.”

“Of course, my love.” Larissa’s tone had softened from what it was minutes ago. He sensed she was hiding because her hair had come undone.

“And you will not be in this male’s presence without me. Understood?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Cain will take them both back to your parents’ house.”

“Both?”

“You volunteered.”

“To take the female—”

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