Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93482 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 374(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
“I would be honored,” I answered. “I think I have the perfect topic for today’s sermon.”
The other priest nodded and then went to the back of the room, to the staircase that led to the choir loft. There were benches behind the choir, and as the choir sang, the acoustics of the room drew the sound down around the congregation. No doubt he was going up there to lie down and hopefully sleep it off.
Fucking lightweight.
I proceeded to the altar as the organist signaled to everyone that it was time to start.
Mary Quinn Astrid was sitting between her husband and her daughter up front, as if she had nothing to hide. Stubbornly sticking to the idea that she had lost no standing in the community. Never mind that there was at least a three-person width around them in every direction that was completely empty. Completely empty in a packed church. There were even several congregation members who stood at the sides or at the very back instead of sitting near them.
Perfect.
This made it so much easier for me to watch my angel squirm. I took a sermon out of my breast pocket; it was one of a few I always carried with me to mass in case I was asked to lead. This wasn’t the first time I had to fill in at the last minute, but this was the first I was so damn happy about it.
I raised my voice, making sure it carried to the very back of the room.
“The Temptation of the Flesh.”
Immediately, my eyes returned to Rose. Her eyes were wide, and her cheeks burned. She tilted her head forward, using her long hair to shield her face from anyone else, but I could still see her just fine.
“Beloved congregation, today we gather to discuss a topic that weighs heavily on the soul and tests the very fabric of our faith: the temptation of the flesh.”
In seminary school, we were often taught that certain women can form an attraction to religious leaders. It wasn’t their fault. It was completely natural. Many women felt that we were talking directly to them if we stared out into the crowd. They got it into their heads that we were looking at them, that we were making eye contact. More often than not, our eyes were completely glazed over, and we were just repeating the sermon for the fiftieth time.
The best way to prevent this from happening was to use bouncing eyes. This meant that we never looked in the same direction for more than a sentence or two. I could stare at the far left for a couple of moments, then somewhere in the middle, then somewhere up front, then back over to the right.
If my eyes were constantly moving, then no one would think that I was making eye contact. But this time I couldn’t help looking straight back to my little angel.
Thankfully, since she was sitting next to her mother, the entire congregation assumed that I was speaking to Mary Quinn about her dalliances outside of her marriage.
Just another nail in her coffin.
“Our Lord has given us commandments to guide us, yet the human heart can be swayed by whispers of temptation. We may lick at the edge of sin, tantalized by the promise of satisfaction. But let us not forget that these fleeting pleasures often come at a price. We must resist the allure of orgasmic ecstasy that tempts us to surrender to earthly desires, for such indulgences can lead us down a path of moral decay.”
Bouncing my eyes for a moment before returning to my angel.
Her hair still curtaining her face, her eyes were bright as they stared up at me, and I could see a mix of emotions in those beautiful green orbs. She was conflicted. Her mind was telling her that what we were doing was wrong, that it was a sin and it would send her to hell. Her body was telling her to obey me. That only I could give her such exquisite pleasure, and the candle shoved up her ass was supporting both arguments. But I knew exactly what I wanted my little angel to think. I knew the path that I was going to lead her on.
“Consider the act of submission to the will of God, a far nobler submission than yielding to the lustful whispers of the flesh. Just as the faithful must bow in reverence to the Almighty, so too must we discipline our bodies, keeping them in check. Yet, how often do we hear the call to lash out in passion, to taste the forbidden delights that beckon from the shadows?”
When my eyes came back to my angel again, I looked at her and willed her to think of the punishments I had given her, and the rewards.