“I’ll let you get back to your cleaning.” He stood up and Eleanor, still sitting, reached for his hand.
“Don’t go,” she said. “Please. We don’t have to talk. Stay a while. It’s been so long and I missed you so much….”
He threaded his fingers through her hair and she rested her head against his stomach.
“I missed you, too. Every day. But I can’t stay, Little One.” He caressed the back of her neck. “I have company.”
She turned her face up to him and tried to smile.
“Hot date waiting for you?”
“He wishes.”
“Don’t we all?”
“We’ll talk again soon. Once I’ve sobered up and recovered enough self-control to be alone in a room with you without thinking the things I’m thinking.”
“Do they involve us breaking the gift table?”
“It never stood a chance.”
Eleanor heaved a melodramatic sigh and stood on top of a chair.
“What are you doing, Eleanor?”
“I wanted to look down on you. This works.” She slid her hands over his broad back and wrapped her arms around him. She rested her chin against his shoulder and closed her eyes.
“You owe me this,” she said. “You dumped me. Now you owe me.”
“I’ll make it up to you in time,” he promised. His arms tightened around her, tight enough she knew he meant it.
She started to release him, but he wouldn’t let her go. Smiling, she clung to him even harder, relishing the feel of his large, strong hands on her back and his arms holding her so close to him not even God could slide between the cracks. Her body temperature spiked from the heat of him against her. A thousand dark and beautiful images flashed through her mind—him pressing her against the wall, capturing her mouth in a kiss, clothes coming off seemingly of their own will and him on top of her, inside her, claiming her as his own all night long.
“Why are you a priest?” She dug her hands in the back of his hair. Such soft hair and pale as spun gold.
“I love being a priest. It’s who I am. And it’s who I am because God wants me to be a priest.”
“Are you sure?”
“If I had any doubt in my mind, do you think you’d still be a virgin?”
“Who said I was?”
Søren pulled back long enough to give her a dirty look.
“Oh, stop glaring and hug me, Blondie.”
Laughing, he pulled her close again.
“You promised me everything,” she whispered.
“And I will keep my promise. But not yet.”
“Don’t worry about it. I told you I can wait, and I’ll wait. I know this is a big deal.”
“What you want from me, what we want from each other … it’s forbidden, Little One. If I’m caught, if we’re caught….”
The warning tone in his voice gave her a chill.
“How bad would it be?” she asked.
“Best-case scenario? A transfer, therapy, public ridicule, private ridicule. Worst-case scenario? Laicization. Most people would consider me a sexual predator if you and I were found to be involved.”
“That’s ridiculous. I’m the one trying to get you into bed. And I’m seventeen. I can donate blood and get the death penalty if I murder someone, but I’m not allowed to have sex at seventeen? Jesus, it’s my body,” she said. “Mine, not theirs. And it’s your body. Why do they get to tell us what we can do with our bodies?”
“Eleanor, are you trying to use logic on Catholics?”
She tried to laugh but the sound didn’t come out quite right.
“I think someone smart once said that was a pointless strategy.” She smiled at him.
“The whole world is a courtroom. And everyone loves to play judge, jury and executioner. A Catholic priest sexually involved with a teenage member of his congregation? I will be crucified. I’ve seen this happen over and over again. And the only people who won’t hate me will be the people who hate you instead.”
“Is this my fault?” she asked, afraid of the answer. She had pursued him, hadn’t she?
“No. It’s destiny. Or doom, perhaps. Hard to tell the difference sometimes.”
“Maybe they’re the same thing.”
“Perhaps they are.” He looked into her eyes and she saw her doom and destiny waiting in them. One kiss. Surely one kiss wouldn’t kill them. She leaned in. She knew Søren would let her kiss him. She knew he would kiss her back.
But then she heard something. Whistling. Somewhere in the building someone whistled. She’d heard the song before but couldn’t name it or place it. Hurriedly she pulled back from the embrace and put two feet between her and Søren.