pick up the knocked-over table and put the books back into place. “I’m coming.”
No, you WERE coming.
I blush fiercely at the filthy voice in my head. I cross to the mirror and look at my bright red, flushed face—my panting lips, my wide, sinful eyes. My heaving chest, and the simple t-shirt and jeans I’m wearing.
And then, knowing how absurd it is, and knowing how wicked it is to even be thinking in terms like this, I quickly yank my clothes off and grab a short-sleeved blouse and a modest skirt that I just bought a week ago and haven’t wore yet from my dresser. I blush furiously and yank open my underwear drawer for a new pair, but I groan when I realize that I did laundry earlier and it’s all down in the basement.
Great.
But then, of course, I’m blushing even deeper and feeling even more sinful, since I’m actually worried about what underwear I’m wearing when I’m going to bring dinner to a preacher.
…No matter how wicked he is.
“Delilah!”
“Coming! I’m coming!” I gasp as I smooth the skirt and blouse, push back my long blonde hair, take a deep, shaky breath, and go to the door.
Time to face the music.
Time to look the Beast in the eye.
Time to enter the lion’s den.
Heaven help me.
Chapter Seven
Delilah
This is fine. This is totally fine.
I swallow thickly as the truck rumbles along the country road out of the east end of Canaan. Mama’s dinner leftovers are wrapped up in cling wrap and tupperware on the bench seat next to me, but not even the smell of still-warm pecan pie is yanking me from my own head. Not even the smell of honeysuckle coming in through the rolled-down window.
I can’t believe I’m doing this—walking right into the lions freaking den, like an offering. I’m alone, I’m still shamefully buzzing and tingling from what almost happened not fifteen minutes ago in my bedroom, and I’m about to walk right up to the front door of the man who’s slowly turning my entire world upside down and dragging me into sinful damnation.
Yeah, no, there is nothing “fine” about this.
The woods peter out, and suddenly, there’s the big expanse of grassy field. On the other side of it, I see the low lights of his Winnebago, and the big circus tent set up next to it. I pull the truck off the road into a little clearing in the grass, and I kill the engine. I shiver in the darkness, even though it’s muggy and hot outside. I swallow, and my skin tingles.
Okay, in and out. I’m just going to go over there, give him the stupid food, and then turn and run, not walk, back here to drive away. Easy, right?
I swallow again and step out of the truck cab, tupperware in hand. Step by step, I make my way across the field to his setup, my heart beating faster and faster the closer I get. Finally, I step into the soft glow of light from a small outdoor light on the Winnebago. I shiver and step up to the door, and before I can chicken out and run away, I knock.
There’s only silence in return.
I frown and knock again.
“Mr. Marsden?”
The door behind the screen door is open, and I peer in. It’s clean enough inside, but it’s not all that big, either. And he’s definitely not in there. I can even see that the bathroom door is open. I frown and step back off the single step to the door and glance around.
“Preacher Gabriel?” I say softly. “Mr. Marsden?”
Again, nothing but silence. I swallow thickly, and I start to walk towards the tent. At the door, where the flaps are pulled back, I glance inside, but it too is empty. I frown, and I’m about to call the whole thing off, when I notice a glow from behind the wall at the back of the small stage that holds the pulpit. The tent extends back behind it a little ways, and I see a flicker in the soft glowing light.
Movement.
“Mr. Marsden?”
I frown and start to walk quietly down the grassy aisle between the rows of folding chairs. I get closer to the pulpit and the small stage, and I can hear a soft…I guess it’s a bubbling sound, from behind the back wall. The light flickers again with movement, and I take a shaky breath as I walk to the right of the stage and start to creep around the edge of it to