Read Online Sweetest Sin: A Forbidden Priest Romance by Sosie Frost - Free Book Online

fear.
    Except me,
apparently.
    The silence ached
through me. I hated this.
    “I don’t often
talk about myself,” I said.
    “Maybe you should.”
She leaned against the pew. Her arms crossed again, but not to hide. She
turned…almost playful. “It might alleviate some of your mystery.”
    “I’m no mystery,
Honor.”
    “Are you so sure?”
    “I am a priest.
That is who I am.”
    “Why?”
    “Why what?”
    She didn’t look
away. “Why are you a priest?”
    “I ask myself that
question every day.”
    She didn’t
understand. I arched an eyebrow.
    “I wouldn’t be a
good priest if I didn’t meditate, pray, and reconfirm my faith every day.”
    “Have you ever…”
    “Regretted it?” I
answered for her. No need for hesitations, not when I knew why she asked. “No.”
    “Not even once,
not even for a moment?”
    Was it another
temptation? Or was it honesty? In her, I was served a vision of sensuality and
wicked ambitions. I’d overcome those desires in the past. What made her so
different?
    I’d never
regretted becoming a priest. The clergy, my vocation, my faith was the barrier
I had and the only protection I possessed that granted me the strength to
overcome my own monstrous self.
    But footsteps
echoed from the hall—high heels clacking along the linoleum.
    I stood, heart
racing. I jerked away from the pew in a sudden movement.
    There was my regret.
    I knew I wasn’t supposed
to be here. When I’d stepped into the adoration chapel, I feared we’d repeat
the same sins.
    But that was the
wrong fear. I should have worried for my own guilt .
    We flinched away
and tensed—as if whoever walked the halls might have peeked inside and
witnessed our sins. Honor leapt up, stubbing her toe on the pew. A small
penance to pay for the guilt which raced in my heart.
    Except I hadn’t
surrendered to any desire. I didn’t touch her, hadn’t indulged in what wasn’t
mine. My vow remained unbroken, and Honor’s lips untasted.
    We had done
nothing wrong.
    But for how long?
    The footsteps
hurried across the hall and into the sanctuary. The wooden door banged closed.
    Honor spoke first.
She clutched her phone and braced as if to run. “I have to go.”
    “Honor.”
    “No,” she said.
“Don’t. Don’t say anything. Please. Can we just forget what happened that
night?”
    How could a simple
comfort become such a dangerous lie?
    “No.” I hated to
hurt her. “We need to remember what happened.”
    She lowered her
eyes. “So it doesn’t happen again?”
    Yes. And no. That
memory was a moment of joy and sin, utter infatuation and great weakness. “We
need to confront this. Hiding from that night will damn us. It’d be too easy
for that desire to take hold in our minds. We can’t let it steal our thoughts,
invade our dreams…fuel our fantasies.”
    Honor bit her lip.
“I’m trying not to think like that, Father.”
    “As am I.”
    “Is it working?”
    No. “You did not
take the Eucharist during the evening Mass.”
    She shook her
head. “It didn’t feel right.”
    “It would have
been.”
    “How can you
forgive this?”
    “Why would you
punish yourself? Everyone… everyone has desire, Honor.”
    “It was more than desire .”
    “Lust then.
Attraction. That…” The hardness returned, persistent and demanding and almost
painful in its beauty. “Need.”
    Her body trembled with
mine.
    One touch, and I’d
be scarred with sin.
    One precious
moment, and I’d rend through her soul.
    One forbidden
night…and we’d be lost in each other, damned for eternity but blessed for this
lifetime.
    “How are we
supposed to protect ourselves, Father?” Honor’s voice haunted like a hymn and
scourged like a flogger. “I have to go. That’s the only way.”
    “No.”
    “ No ?”
    Selfish, terrible
desire. It addled my brain, blurred my thoughts, and hardened every
irresponsible part of me.
    “I want you to
stay,” I said. “I want you to become more involved with the church.”
    “How could that