I inched closer and pushed a knotty braid away from his face. Letting my fingers linger on his stubbly cheek, I relished how his prayer cut off with an exhale against my lips.
In the next breath, his hands found my bare ass beneath the shirt, pulling me to straddle his thighs where he knelt. The rosary beads, still tangled in one hand, dug into my butt cheek.
He looked down at me with glittering jade eyes and an indulgent smile. “Mornin’, love.”
“Good morning, Father Molony.” I returned his smile then leaned in to whisper seductively in his ear. “If you move those beads up and a little to the right, you’ll find another use for them.”
He buried his laughter in the curve of my neck then proceeded to nibble and kiss the skin while he was there. “I should just shag ye and get it over with.”
That might’ve made me breathless, except I’d heard it before. Like every time he got worked up.
With his hands on my ass, he ground his quickly-swelling cock between my legs, separated only by his cotton briefs. If I sat there long enough, he’d dry hump me to exhaustion. Then he’d have to change his underwear. And pray for his sins again. And well, we had shit to do.
But God in heaven, it was hard to deny those hooded eyes and pouty lips.
I cupped his scruffy jaw and kissed him long and hard. “You’re a sexy…” I kissed him again. “Wickedly tempting.” Another kiss. “Celibate man.” I rubbed his tongue with mine until a moan vibrated in my throat. “And I need coffee.”
It was his turn to moan. As I stood, he lifted the hem of my thigh-length shirt, the intensity of his eyes heating my already-simmering parts. When he reached out to slide his hand between my legs, I knocked his arm away and went in search of some pants.
He huffed. “Isn’t she the bitch?”
Impossible to take offense to that when there was a smile straining behind his lips.
I grabbed the first pair of pants I found on the floor. “Sucks to be teased, doesn’t it?”
“I think it's fair to say I'm the only one suffering from a serious chub.” He pulled the waistband of his briefs from his stomach and peered down. “Look a’ the color of it!”
“I’ll pass, drama queen.” I gave him my back and dragged on a pair of denim cut-offs. “Where’s Shea?”
His arms came around me from behind, his skin warm and bare of the cassock, his hands pushing mine aside to zip and button my fly. “She wanted to go explore. Jesse’s with her.”
I leaned my head back against Roark’s chest, my jaw clamped against unwanted thoughts of Jesse and Shea walking together…bonding. “That’s great. She’s recovering faster than Elaine.”
Like Elaine, Shea remembered nothing of the aphid plague. It would be a kind of bliss, sleeping through the past two years. But her shock over what she’d missed had been painful to watch. Hearing how much the world had changed. Losing her husband and everyone she cared about.
She’d taken it better than Elaine had, but she’d yet to experience the scariest by-product of the virus. She’d yet to see an aphid. I hoped we hadn’t kept her too isolated in this tiny building.
Roark threw on some cargo pants, strapped on his sword, and strode to the door. Man, he looked good without a shirt. All that golden skin showed off his muscle definition. And the pants barely clung to his narrow hips under the weight of the sword.
I snapped out of my hungry trance, gathered my weapons, and shoved my feet into boots. "Where are you going?"
He paused outside the door and glanced back at me with smiling eyes. “Figured ye wanted to find Shea before she molested your Lakota.”
I walked past him and stopped. “What’s that smell? Do you smell it?” I looked around and met his eyes. “Oh. Never mind. It’s just you. The shit stirrer.”
The field swallowed his laughter, but his words…yeah, those stuck with me. Shea seemed like a nice lady. Quiet. Unassuming. And sick with fever. What was she like at full health? What if she was Jesse’s type?
I paced my steps, trying not to hurry. This was reality, just another obstacle on an endless road. I would confront my competition like I confronted everything else. Armed with possessiveness and high-carbon steel.
Ten minutes later, Roark and I emerged from the field and found Jesse leaning in the doorway of the only residential house on the animal reserve. The home Shea used to share with her husband.
I stepped beside Jesse, a little taken back by the fatigue reddening his eyes. I shouldn’t have been surprised. With Michio gone and Roark sleeping at my side, he was running a skeleton crew on the night shift. But I was willing to bet Tallis and Georges were getting more sleep than my overprotective guardian.