Page 61 of Intimately Faithful

“He’s nice,” Aoife remarked once they were alone. He hadn’t set her aside, his arm still wound around her waist, he dipped down and inhaled her hair. Fruity and sweet. Just like her. “I wouldn’t have come over had I known you weren’t alone. I hope I didn’t make things awkward.”

“Robert has always known about you, Aoife.”

“Oh…” she stiffened against him and if not for his fixed grip, she would have pulled away. “I guess nothing good then,” she murmured.

“He knows it all. The good and the bad. He’s seen me at my worst, I was a mess when I made it to America. He encouraged me more often than not to get out and date. But he knew why I didn’t.”

This shouldn’t be the time for that kind of talk, wrong place too, but he felt her zipping up her emotions behind a blasé expression, fearful he’d spoken badly of her all these years.

“You—you haven’t dated anyone?”

“Nothing serious, a few dinners here and there.”

Giving her a moment to think, he set a kiss on Misha’s forehead. She smelled of milk, so he knew she’d had her morning bottle, but greedy little girl was always hungry because she instantly went to sucking on his chin. Danny laughed and settled her on his chest. She curled up just like she’d always been his and he felt his heart settle into a lazy, loving beat.

He loved this little girl already. Not just because she was Aoife’s.

He curled his free arm back around Aoife, a rumbling of satisfaction slicked through his bones when she not only burrowed into him too but wrapped both arms around his waist as they headed towards the door.

Part way to his house he dropped a kiss to the top of her head.

It’s still early but there’s always someone around his neighborhood and several dog walkers noticed him and Aoife. Giving their pastor a speculative look with good reason because as he’d just confessed to her, he was not in the habit of being seen with women.

He didn’t have to declare his relationship status to the community, but it was a given that any woman in his life would be known to his people attending worship.

Not that he’d expect any partner to be involved in the church, it would be ideal, if only to spend more time together. But he didn’t push his faith on anyone who wasn’t open to God and his word. That’s never been Danny’s way of teaching.

Would Aoife want to be included in all the events he chaired and organized throughout the year?

Would she want to sit in the front on a Sunday service and then host afternoon tea for all his older parishioners? Or go and visit the elderly shut-ins to make sure they were taken care of? His job was so much more than being a man of God. He was a taxi driver, a confidant, a carrier and a friend. And he’d loved every moment of it these past four years.

Only having Aoife back did he realize there’d always been a gaping hole inside him. Coincidently it was shaped just like her because now he felt full again.

Once back inside his house, he didn’t mention how he’d caught sight of two Renegade Souls motorcycles parked just three houses down on his street. He felt comforted by the fact, but he knew this guarding couldn’t go on indefinitely.

Could he confront this Russian man and ask for Aoife’s safety? Maybe arrange for the man to see his child? No. He couldn’t accept letting a man who could kill in cold blood around either child or his girl.

A week ago he was going about his life like he’d been happy, and he had been. But nothing felt as rich as watching Aoife drift around his house, doing chores and putting a meal together and lounging on the couch with his iPad and a glass of grapefruit flavored lemonade by her hand. Nothing felt as right as lifting her legs while he sat on the sofa and placing them over his thighs. He worked for a good hour in that position while Aoife scrolled and chuckled to herself with whatever she was watching on the screen.

Only when he was done, did he set his work aside and without another thought he’d hoisted her across the space, so she was fully on his lap. Resting achingly perfect on his dick.

His thumb found her lower lip, traveling back and forth, pulling it down just a little. The wet pink skin inside drove him wild.

“Something I can be helping you with, pastor Daniel? I was minding my own business, if you didn’t know.”

Her smile was a siren at sea.

She was a Goddess on her throne knowing how much she was worshipped by her servants.

His guts stirred, sending him into a higher state of arousal and his two bigger hands gripped her outer thighs, there was no more space between her crotch and his, but yet he still drew her closer. Needing her inside his skin, so it felt.

“You are my business,” his rough voice blew against the side of her cheek.

“Is that right?”

The girl he once knew and loved looked back at him with mischief in her eyes as she oh-so-slowly circled her hips, grinding down at the same time.

As one sound, they both groaned feeling how much harder he became under her.

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