nor the taste of unease clouding around him like a perfume.
“You look like you’re about to fall asleep on your feet.”
“Yeah, you know. Getting tossed out of another realm, walking a couple miles through hellfire, and barely eating anything tends to be pretty draining.”
His mouth tightened, and again that sympathy washed over me like a cool waterfall. As much as he tried to be a righteous hard-ass, that sweet sympathetic taste was palpable in him.
“I need to take a few confessions.” He tilted his head toward the wooden box, only slightly bigger than a phone booth, to the side of the pulpit. “Can I trust you to stay back here while I do that?”
“Mmm.” I tapped a finger on my chin. “I’d really prefer to go up to the balcony.”
“No! Fucking—” He stopped himself, jaw clenching with a huff of breath.
“Careful now,” I chided. “Wouldn’t want you to say your Lord’s name in vain.”
The look he gave me was ripe with anger, but I picked up a heady taste of desire from him too. Ah, anger and lust—the perfect emotional mix for a hate fuck. He’d never take me up on it, but it would soothe the barbs of his prickliness nicely.
“Come on, please?” My plea wasn’t desperate now like it was to get out of the office, but I couldn’t help from poking Zach’s hornet nest just to see what would happen under all that restraint. “I’ll stay hidden, I promise. And I’ll be able to see when Stav or Kais come back so I won’t be your problem anymore.”
He hesitated another moment before grunting out, “Fine. Let’s go.”
“No need!” I headed for the door we’d just come out of. “I know my way.”
I pulled it open and headed down the hallway Kais took me last night. Part of me wanted to see if Zach would insist on following me like a reluctant, sexually repressed bodyguard. The fact that he didn’t caught me off-guard. If the most pious of my three priests actually took me at my word, maybe there was hope for me yet.
Taking care to stay out of sight of anyone below, I made it to the second level just in time to see a woman step into the confessional and close the small wooden door behind her. Zach was presumably already inside, no doubt taking the responsibility of unburdening this woman’s soul very seriously.
Curiosity locked my gaze onto that little wooden booth, wondering what they talked about. These days, humans did little more to survive from one day to the next. Earth was no fun anymore, what sins did people have to confess?
A creeping thought wandered in just as the ancient, heavy front doors of the church opened and Stavros walked down the aisle. Several heads in the pews turned to look, all female.
“Good morning, Father,” some murmured as he passed them.
“Good morning,” he returned politely, the twitch in his eye at being called Father barely visible. “Where’s Father Zach?”
“Taking confession. If you don’t mind, Father,” one woman rose from her pew, stepping out into the aisle to get closer to Stavros, “might I have a word with you in private?”
I froze, watching the exchange from my voyeuristic hiding place. The woman stepped closer to him, hands clasped in front of her demurely, while her forearms conveniently pressed her breasts together. Stavros' gaze flicked over her, his expression unreadable, but I tasted the apprehension spiking off of him. And from her, the want was thick and palpable in the air.
“What is this regarding?” Stavros asked with measured caution.
“A personal matter, Father. I would really prefer to speak with you alone.”
His tongue stuck out to wet his lips, a large hand coming up to idly scratch the dark scruff coating his cheeks.
“Don’t do it,” I whispered, not that he could hear me. “You think I’m a trap? You’re looking right at one!”
“Sure, why don’t we, uh,” he scrubbed a hand down his face, suddenly looking weary, “talk in the office?”
The woman looked all too pleased as they walked together around the pulpit to the back door of the chapel. I hesitated for all of five seconds before leaving the balcony, making my way silently down the stairs and hallway. Zach wasn’t likely to come looking for me if he had more confessions to hear, and Stav would know where I was soon enough.
The main hallway was empty when I made it back to the first floor, the door of the office where I’d been kept was closed.