Page 31 of Savior

She nods. “Work?”

“Yes. Mass in the morning. You could come if you wanted to. I know it’s really not your thing, and it doesn’t need to be. It would just get you out of the house.”

She bites her lower lip, and I zero in on it, wanting to know what her teeth feel like sunken into flesh. My flesh.

I shake away from the thoughts, and Sloane seems to notice the war within me.

I didn’t mean for this to happen. For me to save her only to prey on her with some unfathomable attraction, but I can’t help it. There’s something about her.

A strength I want to bask, drown, and be baptized in.

“What time is it? Mass?” she asks, and suddenly, my stomach is giddy, thrumming with energy that wasn’t there before.

The thought of seeing her in the pews beneath me as I preach makes my stomach knot, and I wonder if it’s a good idea to have her there in the first place, but it’s too late to resend the invitation now.

“Seven to nine-thirty,” I manage.

She smiles. “Maybe I’ll see you there.”

With that, she tells me goodnight and leaves me leaning against the kitchen bar, trying to get my racing thoughts together as I see her in my mind’s eyes, naked, flushed, and sitting in the pews beneath me, her attention rapt on me like I’m the one she’s worshipping.

I grumble and shut the thoughts down as I shuffle into my room and shut the door.

I ignore a text from Ardesia asking me how things are going because I can’t give him a straight answer without lying.

CHAPTER TEN

SLOANE

Idon’t go to mass. I can’t bring myself to even if I want to see the clumsy priest who saved me as he lords over his flock. I remember vividly Luca saving me from a nightmare a few times now, and I don’t know what that means or what he’s trying to be to me.

I hate to feel weak. To feel like I can’t handle all the demons raging within my breast. Lord knows I have a few. Wandering Luca’s house, I cleaned dust off things and looked over every inch of his things. Learning him is complicated when he seems like a perfectly wrapped enigma.

Luca returns after I watch some pointless television, shower, and organize his pantry.

He doesn’t look like he spent the morning preaching over his flock. To me, he looks like Luca—my savior.

I bite my cheek as he looks me over, trying to contain this strange pull to him. I know it’s all the darkness I’ve been through, blurring how I should behave.

“You have a good day?” he asks, dropping a few books topped with the Holy Bible on the table.

I nod. “How was mass?”

“Good.”

Could we be any worse at this?

“Sorry I didn’t come.” My voice is meeker than I’ve ever heard it before. I hate it.

Facing the inside of that church again feels like facing everything I’m hiding from, and I couldn’t do it.

“That’s alright. I wasn’t so hot this morning. Some messages don’t come across right, no matter how hard I try.”

Something in my chest deflates at his show of humanity. I’ll take it even if he’s giving me this glimpse on purpose. “I highly doubt that.”

He narrows his gaze at me, leaning against a chair to his right. “What do you mean?”

“You look like a man who has all the answers. You have this… air about you.” I shrug, shifting on my feet.

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