Page 94 of The Love of Priest

Priest scoffed while waving Britain off. "I'm not intimidated, Gioia,” he asserted with a shrug of his shoulders. "Yeah, I planned on getting you out of your dress, but if you ain't with it, then we can talk." He grinned beguilingly.

Britain rolled her eyes as she shuffled her way over to him. Priest was so different from her past dealings. He wasn't controlling or territorial, and that alone only made Britain feel liberated."You just casually threw in the option to talk, so that means you have something to say." Britain raised a brow as she pieced him together.

Priest chuckled in a guilty manner. Sometimes he underestimated how well Britain understood and knew him. "You studying me now?"

A light smirk graced her face. "The subject of you comes easily to me."

Priest reached out to her. She placed her hand into his, feeling herself get whisked into his arms. "You're smooth,Gioia," he teased as he placed a light kiss on her cheek.

Britain laughed. "Yeah, I learned from the best." Like she always did, Britain cupped her smooth and tender hands around his face. She pulled his head down so they could meet for a gentle kiss.

Gravitating toward the couch, Priest sat down, and Britain took comfort next to him with her feet on his lap. Priest distracted himself a bit by toying with her gold ankle bracelet. He was silent. The only time he was silent was when he either had a lot on his mind or was asleep. Other than that, he was always saying something, whether it was a joke or stripping himself down to the bare nothingness of the pain he suffered as an adolescent that carried on to his current life. Britain noticed that he was far too interested in toying with the anklet she was wearing.

With her brows furrowed, Britain waved her hand in front of his face to catch his attention. "What's the matter, Priest?"

Priest shook his head, trying to figure out how to ease into the conversation. "Nothing," he assured her. "I just think you should exclude Caroline from your life." He shrugged his shoulders as if his suggestion didn't need much explanation behind it.

Confusion cluttered her face as she eyed him. She wasn't friends with Caroline in the first place, but the fact that Priest was mentioning her after the rehearsal had her wondering. When Britain was around Caroline, things were cordial, despite the fact that Caroline insisted on calling her the wrong name often. Britain let things slide simply because she knew how much Jadey enjoyed Caroline's friendship. Britain wasn't that type of woman who sabotaged other friendships because she couldn't see herself as a part of them. Sadly, while she was giving Caroline the benefit of the doubt, Caroline was busy envying her from the sidelines of her friendship with Jadey.

Britain tried her hardest to not pay Caroline any mind at all. It was getting to the point that Britain didn't even have to act like she didn't notice Caroline. Now, she just blatantly ignored her without any remorse."She was never a friend to me anyways, but what happened?" Britain asked as she reached over to grab one of Priest's hands to toy with his fingers.

Priest scoffed lightly. "She's just foul and a fucking airhead." He shook his head. "I—a complete stranger to her — now knows more shit about you than you've told me." This caused Britain to screw up her face.

Britain adjusted herself in her seat to sit up. "What do you mean?" Britain questioned.

"I don't know what the beef is between you two, but shorty got it out for you bad. She thinks you're jealous of the fact that all the women in y’all’s circle are in relationships or married." Priest sighed with a light shrug. "She brought something to my attention, though," Priest briefed her before repeating what Caroline told him.

Britain glanced away from him, letting his hand go from her grip. "She told you about my pregnancy, didn't she?" Britain assumed, not realizing that she hit the nail right on the head.

Priest cleared his throat. "Yeah. If you not ready to talk about it, I'll respect your decision," he assured her as he pulled her closer. The look on her face made it evident to him that she needed some sort of comfort. With her in his arms, Priest slowly her bare shoulders with the pads of his fingers in hopes of easing her.

A silence overtook them both. Priest knew she needed time, and he was willing to give that to her. He didn't grow concerned about her being in his arms until he heard her light cries muffled by his shirt. She was trying her best to keep her composure, but a flood of emotions and memories flashed in her mind and heart.

Priest didn't interrupt her crying. Instead, he consoled her. He allowed her to get it all out so she could feel emotionally stable to vent.

Priest was patient. He let her cry. Britain was grateful for that. Once she felt like she no longer had tears to cry, she lifted her head from his chest. "I'm not ready," she croaked in a shaky voice.

"That's okay," Priest assured. "I'll be around when you are." Craning his head down, Priest placed a subtle and gentle kiss on her forehead.

The feeling of having someone she could be absolutely open with was just so refreshing. Britain trusted Priest enough to tell him anything, whether it was degrading to herself or not. He made her feel better and less like the abnormal person people tried to deem her as whenever she lived her truth.

ChapterTwenty-Five

The next day,Priest's voice tunneled onto Britain's ears as her eyes fluttered open from her night’s slumber. Despite the fact that she wanted to sleep until the last minute before her alarm went off, she woke up anyway.

"J'Ru, she hasn't called. The fuck do you want me to do?" Priest huffed out a heavy breath. Not only was he annoyed by the fact that J'Ru had awakened him out of his sleep with a slew of phone calls, but he was also annoyed by the fact that J'Ru found it necessary to screech at him from the other side of the phone.

Britain sat up and made her way over to Priest who was sitting at the end of the bed. She wrapped her arms around his torso, applying a kiss onto his shoulder. He didn't think she would be awake, but because of how loud J'Ru was shouting, he wasn't too surprised.

"She's your nineteen-year-old sister! You don't think you need to get on that ASAP?!" J'Ru jeered, causing Britain to furrow her brows.

"Yo, calm the fuck down. It's only been a fucking day. Like she said, she's a grown-ass woman who doesn't need shit from either of us. Just let her live. I realized that's what I've been preventing her from doing."

Priest shrugged his shoulders. He didn't want anyone thinking he just didn't care about Jazzy because that was all he did. However, he didn't think he should be killing himself to find out exactly where she was. It had only been a day. She hadn't sent for things from the penthouse. Plus, she had both J'Ru’s and Priest's numbers blocked. They were sure she was still mad as hell, but they still expected to know her location at all times, especially now that she found it necessary to just vanish.

As J'Ru was about to respond to Priest, he quickly cut in and urged the end of the phone call. "Listen, I got shit I gotta do. I'll hit you when I can. If she gets in contact with you, let her know I'm ready to talk when she is." With that, Priest ended the phone call before tossing the phone off to the side.

"Care to explain?" Britain asked as she got out of the bed and made her way to the bathroom to clean herself up from her slumber.

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