Read Online Pure & Sinful (Pure Souls) by Killian McRae - Free Book Online

you’ve been away from Marc and Dee too long. You three are bonded now that you’ve assumed your rightful place amongst them. You can’t stay away for more than a day or so before you feel the drain of their absence. Separation will have a physical effect on you now. The longer you go, the worse it will be. You need them nearby.”
    His angelic smile broadened. “And more importantly, they need you.”

Chapter 7
    “Forty-…. Damn it!... Four. So you…haven’t heard from… ahhhgh, forty-five… her?”
    Dee clicked his tongue but kept his eyes fixed on the magazine. “Just an email yesterday to tell me she gave up on getting the rest of Jerry out of her shirt. What’s up, Marc? You were never this concerned when Nicolai didn’t check in.”
    The priest flinched, but didn’t vocalize. Unlike Riona, their last Keystone witch had never appeared in his dreams wearing nothing but the hood of a nun’s habit and a sheen of sweat.
    “I’m sure she’s fine,” Dee continued. “Probably still a bit off kilter is all. Your first demon explosion tends to stick with you. Or, in Riona’s case, stick on you.”
    A grunt and a groan accompanied the shift of iron in Marc’s hands. Three days of doing the early-morning workout thing hadn’t helped much in the sleep department, but it still occupied his time better than lying on his bed with his eyes open, trying not to think about how great it would be to roll over and see the sleeping, red-headed female curled up next to him. “Do you think… forty-six … we should go over and check on her?”
    “No, Marc, I think Riona’s a big girl and she’ll be just fine. She’d let us know if she needed anything. Been awhile between Keystones. You’ve forgotten how the separation builds up your anxiety.”
    The corner of Marc’s mouth pulled tight. “Why do you deal with that so much better than I do? Even with Nicolai, that one time he took off to Minsk for a week, I was sweating bullets and you were cool as a cucumber.”
    Dee’s shoulders did the wave. “I expel a lot of my nerves with a great amount of sexual activity. It helps. All these workouts should be doing the same for you. I wonder…” He glanced back at his magazine, before adding rhetorically, “It’s like you’re addicted to her.”
    Marc hoped that the workout reddened his face enough to conceal the blush he’d otherwise have to explain. Quickly, he moved to finish the set. “Forty-seven…. Forty-eight…. Forty – ugh- nine… Fifty!”
    Slam.
    Marc looked to Dee, waiting to be congratulated and declared an exemplar of iron-packing prodigies, as the weight-laden barbell kissed the ground. With the rate he was hitting up the equipment, a Mr. World prize wasn’t too absurd a goal, though the priest was sure the Vatican would disapprove if he showed up to the competition in nothing but a collar and a pair of Speedos.
    What he got from the demigod, however, was a whole bunch of You’re expecting something from me? and an eye roll. “Half the soccer moms and forty-three percent of the old grannies who come in here can do twice the reps at that weight. Did you want a participation medal or something?”
    Toweling off his sweat-glistened brow, out of breath, and feeling the San Andreas fault running the length of his biceps, Marc plopped on the bench next to his friend.
    He glanced at the glossy spread. “ Better Homes & Gardens ?”
    “Yeah, so?”
    An eyebrow quirked in surprise as the priest just sat there, waiting for Dee to explain. Or to come out of the closet. Come to think of it, considering his flagrant womanizing….
    “Look, just because I’m built like Schwarzenegger, run a gym, and get more tail than a lobster fisherman doesn’t mean a guy like me doesn’t eventually want to settle down and plant a tulip garden someday.”
    “You’ll forgive my confusion, Dee, but you do a really good impression of someone who is perfectly happy with his relationships being … well, kinda