Sinner (Shelter Harbor #1)(44)
“You didn’t even finish your drink,” I say with a grin.
She bites her lips, that wildness coming back into her eyes for just a fleeting second.
“It stopped raining, I should go.”
“You don’t have to.”
She looks at me. “Yes, I do.” She blushes again as she reaches down and quickly pulls her panties back up under her skirt.
Jesus, those white cotton, totally not sexy and yet entirely sexy panties with the matching plain white bra — like every filthy Catholic uniform fantasy every guy has ever had.
I can still feel her slickness on my hand, my cock still throbbing hard as she quickly buttons up her shirt, tucking it back into her skirt.
“Thank you, for, um.” Her lips twist.
“For making you come?”
She blushes bright red. “For the lesson.”
“Any time. So, this is just a practice thing?”
She nods. “Uh-huh.”
“And you’re okay with that.”
She shrugs. “Yeah, of course.”
Of course.
Like Evangeline Ellis practicing getting fingered to a knee-shaking orgasm with a guy like me is some sort of normalcy for her. She’s trying to play it cool, but that wild look in her eyes and that hitch in her voice says otherwise.
I might want more, but I also want to make sure she’s okay.
“You want a ride or anything?”
She shakes her head. “Nope! I’m okay.”
She pauses, and we look at each other for a second before she stands up on her tiptoes and kisses my cheek.
Chaste.
Quick.
Pure.
The opposite of the gasping orgasm she just had with her pussy clenching tight around my fingers.
She ducks under the bar and moves across the room. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
I nod. “Walk safe.”
She turns at the door, her eyes flashing that fire just once more before she blushes. “Goodnight,” she says quietly. And then she’s out, the door clicking shut behind her.
This is a problem.
Messing with Eva was one thing.
Indulging the filthy, dirty side of me that wanted to take her purity and be her first?
That was all one thing.
But now I’ve had a tease. I’ve tasted the forbidden fruit.
And fuck if don’t want another bite.
Chapter Twenty
Evangeline
“Forgive me father, for I have sinned and I need absolution and penance.”
The man on the other side of the screen clears his throat. “Oh, well, we just do confessions here, my dear.”
“Oh, right.” I toy with my fingers, looking down at the floor of the confessional booth at Holy Trinity Church in Chatwick, the next town over from Shelter Harbor.
“Are you a Catholic, my child?”
“Grace Church of Salvation and Divine Retribution”.
There’s a pause.
“It’s, um, sort of Protestant.”
And sort of Seventh-Day Adventists, and also sort of out there, if we’re being honest.
“Ahh, well then.”
I continue to toy with my fingers. “We do absolutions and cleanses of the soul.”
“I see.” The priest chuckles softly. “Well that’s fine, I suppose. Are you okay if we do the confessional version I’m familiar with?”
“Please,” I say quietly, looking back at my toying fingers and the floor.
“Well, why don’t we start with how long it’s been since your last confession. Or absolution.”
He sounds older, grandfatherly, his voice both soothing and confident.
“Two weeks since my last soul cleanse.”
“I see,” he says softly. “And what would you like to confess here today?”
“Sin.”
The word is ice on my lips — a bitter taste lingering in my mouth.
The priest clears his throat again. “It’s good to clear ourselves of our mistakes and our guilt, which is why we have confession. Any sin in particular, my dear?”
“Carnal.” My face blushes as I cringe at the word.
I know he can’t see me. I know the whole point of this is anonymity. I know I’m not even from around here, but it’s still mortifying to say out loud.
“I see,” he says with a sagely voice.
“I was with a man I shouldn’t have been with. Out of wedlock,” I say miserably.
The priest is quiet for a moment before he speaks. “For what it’s worth, we here at First Trinity take a perhaps more modernist view of the Holy Word. We don’t feel, for instance, that sex before marriage is inherently a sin. However,” he pauses again. “However, it’s my path to counsel you, and bring you abatement from whatever sin is weighing you down. And if having intercourse with this man has caused you-”
“Oh, no, we didn’t have intercourse.”