Rejection (The Mate Games 2)

ChapterThirty-One

CALEB

My fecking phone buzzed in my pocket, an intrusive annoyance I should’ve removed before I knelt in my chamber of atonement. The skin of my back still smarted from the last of the lashes I inflicted after once again giving myself over to the remembrance of Sunday’s perfect mouth around my cock. I groaned.

“What?” I growled as I answered the call.

“Oh, he’s grouchy. I like it when you’re mean.” Lilith’s voice washed over me, sending dread and excitement through me at the same time. My traitor of a dick twitched in anticipation. She only contacted me for one reason.

“Where is she?”

“Waiting. In the room. In need.”

“Where’s Blackthorne?”

“He’s not the one she needs right now, Priest.”

If I wasn’t already hard, I would be. “It can’t be me.”

“But it is.”

I closed my eyes as longing nearly as painful as the wounds on my back swept through me.

“It's what her heat requires. No one else will do. If you deny her, you will leave her in pain. It may even kill her. Need this intense is... dangerous.”

Gritting my teeth against the overwhelming urge to fix Sunday, to heal her and serve her, I stood and strode up the stairs. “Fecking hell, I’m on my way.”

I tossed my phone on the desk, the very desk Sunday had swallowed my cum underneath, and sat on the edge, my entire body trembling. Reaching up, I pressed my palm over the marks on my chest, three now. Was I about to be the reason for the fourth?

I should let her be, let this run its course and see what fate had in store for her. If I didn’t help her, see her through this, would she die? Would that stop this?

The instant the thought appeared in my mind, pain sliced my heart. If I was a stronger man—a better one—I would have put the needs of many before hers. But I had never been a very good man. Or a good priest, for that matter. I was a sinner through and through. Locked in a cycle of eternal atonement destined to fail.

“Forgive me,” I whispered as I stared at the crucifix hanging on my wall. “I know exactly what I’m about to do, and I can’t stop myself.”

I closed my eyes, wishing God’s voice would come to me, that I would feel His presence and unconditional love answering my prayers. Reassuring me that I had not strayed so far from the path of righteousness as to be denied that mercy.

Instead, it was a woman who answered.Help her, Caleb. She is yours.

Was it an angel or a devil whispering in my head?

I snagged my shirt off the back of the chair where I’d left it and slid the fabric on. Then, with shaking hands, I buttoned it as I steeled myself for the war I knew I was destined to lose.

The night blurred around me as I raced across the campus grounds to the secret tunnel that was my personal access point to Lilith’s lair in the city. Once I was outside the door that separated me from her club, I pressed my hand against the aged wood and closed my eyes, gathering my strength once more.

This time I didn’t know if I was hoping to resist or praying that I wouldn’t.

Either way, I was determined to see this through. She needed me, not them. And tonight, she was mine alone.

Temptation, thy name is Sunday Fallon. And like a siren who lures her prey to their deaths, I am helpless to resist your call.

Lilith didn’t greet me as she usually did. In fact, no one spoke a word to the depraved priest skulking in the hallway. They left me to my destruction, and I was thankful. My heart hammered in my... wait.

Myheart.

It wasn’t Sunday’s pulse in my head; it was mine. The small miracle held me captive. I hadn’t felt my heartbeat since the night I lost my soul. Was it possible it had been my heart all this time? Was this the sign I’d been searching for?

Lifting my face to the heavens, I closed my eyes and whispered, “Is this you? Are you showing me where I’m supposed to be?”