Page 14 of Sinned

He narrowed his eyes at me then jumped out of the car into the downpour. The truck shook as he slammed the door closed and raced into the building. Minutes later the door flew open and he sat soaked and wet in the driver’s seat. His shirt clung to him like a second skin.

“Did you know it’s raining out?” He swept his hair back and wiped at his face.

“I think I might have heard something about that.”

“The guy in there only spoke Spanish and I’m rusty. From what I could understand he only had one cottage left.”

He handed me the room key then drove a little further to a cluster of small buildings. I spotted the number and pointed where we needed to go.

“Make a run for it at three,” he said. “One, two, three!”

We jumped out of the car and slammed the doors shut before running through the muddy puddles towards the tiny white plastered building. I tried unlocking the door, but the key wouldn’t fit. Charles took it from me, wiggled it into the lock, and opened the door.

The room was dark. I reached for a light switch, but it didn’t work. Charles pulled an oil lamp and a box of matches off the dresser.

“One thing I did understand him say was that there’s no electricity. The storm took it out,” he said as he lit the lamp.

In the soft glow of the lamp, the room looked even smaller than I expected. There was one small bed in the middle and an old tube TV in the corner. In the back of the room was an open closet with a stack of towels and two robes hanging.

“We need to get out of these wet clothes or we’ll get sick,” I said.

“You just want to see me naked,” he said with a smirk.

I stared at him, surprised by his joke. “Are you flirting with me, Father Charles?” I asked, repeating his question from earlier.

“I was joking. A priest can joke, you know.”

“Tell me what else a priest can and can’t do.”

“Let’s get out of these wet clothes and I’ll answer you whatever you want to know.”

He handed me one of the robes and a towel, then took a robe and towel for himself. He went to the other side of the small room and turned his back to me. I wanted to watch him undress. I couldn’t deny that I had a physical attraction to him. But I turned my back towards him and quickly undressed, toweling off as I went, then quickly tied the robe around me.

When I turned around he was in his robe, staring at me. If it was any other man I would have thought there was lust in his eyes, but I convinced myself I was seeing something that wasn’t there.

The only place to sit was on the bed so we sat next to each other, with our backs against the wall, and the robes as closed as we could make them.

“Okay, so you said you hate the nicknames for Charles. What does your mother call you?”

“She still calls me Charlie. But she’s the only one.”

“You realize I’m going to call you Charlie from now on, right?”

He laughed. “I guess so. So what about you? You didn’t really answer me earlier. How are you a doctor? You look too young.”

“So do you, for a priest.”

He rolled his eyes. “Don’t change the subject. You know I have my Masters in Divinity and I’ve been a priest for a year now.”

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-eight,” he said as he cocked a brow at me.

“I’m twenty-five. I was homeschooled so I finished high school early and immediately started college. I majored in emergency medicine, but because of my age I had a hard time with jobs. None of the interns respected me since so many of them were my age or older.”

“So what do you do?”

“The hospital I was working for offered me a paid sabbatical if I joined Doctors Without Borders. I love traveling so being able to help others while I got to see places a lot of people don’t see sounded perfect to me. I mean it’s not all peaceful and wonderful, but I enjoy it. Why exactly are you here?”

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