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)
“Where are we going?”
“Mary Quinn just accused you of attempted rape. She is telling everyone who will listen that she was in her stable, seeing to her horses, when you came in smelling of weed and whisky and you assaulted her. She is saying she tried to laugh it off and push you away, saying how she is a happily married woman, and you were so high out of your mind all you could do was paw at her and grope her.”
“Father, I didn’t—” He lifted his hand.
“She said you hit her with a riding crop across the face and she barely got away. She is threatening to press charges.”
“You have to believe me. I—”
Again, he cut me off by raising his hand to stop me from speaking.
“Here’s what’s going to happen. I will not have one of my son’s reputations ruined. I will not have the stain on our name of having you in prison. This will not happen. I will not tolerate it. You’re getting on a plane tonight.”
“Where?” I asked, knowing there was no point in explaining, not when he was like this, not until he calmed down and could be rational. The best thing for me to do was to get on that plane and wait for Mary Quinn to get distracted with something else before coming home and dealing with this.
“Rome.”
I nodded, having spent enough time in Italy to have learned the language and fall in love with all the decadence that the ancient city offered.
“I’ve already spoken to a few cardinals here in New York and in Rome. You’ll be going to seminary school. You will become a priest.”
“What?”
“This is not up for debate. This has to happen.”
“But I have college starting in—”
“No, you don’t. You have seminary school, you will become a member of the Catholic Church as a priest, and you are going to stay in Rome, where you are safe from this following you.”
That was it.
In a single night, because I had no interest in fucking Mary Quinn Astrid and I was too high to realize I should feed her ego and find some excuse to get away from her, my entire life was gone.
Seven years ago, she had the upper hand and a sterling reputation. Her word in this city was law.
Now, she was no longer the pillar of the community she once was. Her reputation was far from impeccable, and it was time to start my revenge. All it would take was a few well-placed rumors and the destruction of her daughter to take her down.
I gripped my teacup hard enough it shook a little and took a careful sip before putting it back down.
With the things that I had planned, when it came down to finishing off her reputation, that would be easy. She had already done half the work for me.
Her money, assets, and livelihood were going to be a little bit more challenging.
But when I was done, it was going to come down to her word against mine, and I was a priest, a pillar of the community. She would be a ruined, friendless, penniless woman.
I looked at her with the same smile I gave the archbishop in Rome recently, after I swore to him I was a man of God and would never defile a woman on the altar, and Father Reyes was clearly seeing things and should seek medical attention. The same smile I had when I said I wouldn’t start trouble in New York, and the same smile I wore as I told Mary Quinn’s daughter that she was safe with me.
“It’s forgotten.”
CHAPTER 9
ROSE
He was a priest.
I still couldn’t believe I lusted after a priest. It had been an entire week since that night, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
If I was being honest with myself, most of the time I didn’t want to stop thinking about it. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw him. I saw the curl at the corner of his lips and how they turned up in that cruel smile, but also formed that sexy dimple. I saw the long, lean line that ran down either side of his spine, the curve from his broad chest down to his tapered waist, and even the chiseled definition of his abs.
Usually though, when I closed my eyes what I saw was color. The different shades of brown that had caught the candlelight and danced in his eyes. It had been just so unbelievably fascinating. For the first time, I felt truly inspired.
But he was a priest.
His body, his demeanor, everything about him made my body burn, and it didn’t help that he was the first man to touch me so intimately, to make my body feel things that I could never make myself feel.
Every night since, I tried to replicate what he did. I tried over and over to find inspiration elsewhere, to bring myself to the same pleasure he gave me, and it was nowhere near as satisfying or as frustrating.