Page 42 of Savior

When he comes barreling through the door at twelve-thirty, his hair is askew, and his eyes look frantic. “I’m so sorry. I toldthem I was clearing my schedule, and Betty insisted I sign some documents. She’s a stickler sometimes,” he apologizes.

Betty, his secretary, is an older woman in her seventies who has too many cats but is kind enough to keep Luca’s secret. Me, being the secret.

She looks at him like she wishes he’d leave the church. I’ve caught her weighted stare when she thinks no one’s looking before, and I wonder if he knows how much she cares about him.

“It’s alright,” I tell him, standing and shoving my hands into my pockets.

I’ve been waiting on the couch for him, staring out the window every few minutes with my nerves churning, but I don’t need him to know that.

Luckily, when he burst into the rectory, I was drinking water in the kitchen, looking much less stalkery since I was away from my perch at the front window.

“No. It’s not. I’m a man of my word. I hate being late.” He’s quickly changing from what he’d worn for a day in the church to something more casual, completely forgetting me until he turns toward me from where he stands in his bedroom fissure in just his boxers.

My mouth is suddenly a desert as I rake my eyes up and down his perfect form.

If I thought him sexy in his cassock, this is another level entirely.

Swallowing over an aching lump as a new thrum begins between my thighs. I avert my eyes—though it’s the last thing I want to do.

“God, I’m sorry, Sloane. I wasn’t thinking. I’m a mess today. Maybe we should reschedule this trip. This already isn’t off to a great start.”

Trip?

Where is he taking me?

I hear a zipper and take it as my cue to look, but I am met with his dark stare and bare chest.

“Where are we going?” I manage, as he shoves into a turquoise-colored V-neck shirt that clings to him before grabbing his jacket off the hook by the front door.

“It’s a surprise.” He looks unsure about surprising me as he rakes his eyes up and down my outfit choice before grinning. “That’s a lot of layers.”

I shift on my feet, looking down at all my choices. “Well, I didn’t know where we were going.”

How much his presence tamps down my snarky attitude and sassy mouth is so unfathomable to me, like he strips away the mask I wear to face the world because it’s unnecessary here.

With him.

I swallow at the implication as he smiles and breaks through my worry. “You’ll need them, but I’d lose a couple of jackets for the ride. I’ll keep you warm.”

A blush heats my cheeks as I know I’ve misinterpreted his words as something far more dangerous than he meant.

His face tightens as he realizes what he’s said. “I mean, with the heater.” His hand works over his face as he growls at himself.

His spiraling is cute.

“Come on, then. Let’s get going on this trip of yours,” I tell him to pull him out of his head.

The fact that he planned a trip to get me out of the rectory and semi-cleared his schedule does wicked things to my insides that I’m trying to ignore.

He’s just trying to be kind, I remind myself.

Nice guys exist. In this world, anyway.

They don’t in mine.

“Wait,are we going to the Shore?” I ask, gasping as I see signs passing on the right side of the road for the upcoming exits.

He grins as I turn in my seat. “We are.”

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