Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 53965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53965 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
I smile and shake my head. “I do thank you, sir, but respectfully—”
“Aww, please, preacher? It’d mean the world to me and the missus. Plus, our son, Paul, is actually a divinity school man, and he’s looking to start his own church. It’d make his whole month if you’d give him some encouragement. Oh, and Delilah here,” he beams. “Well, I know she’d love a chance to hear an honest man of God speak His word while we sup.”
I groan. Shit. Shit shit shit. This is a terrible idea. I need to say no, and I need to just keep my damn distance from this girl for the next week. But then Jeb reaches out and takes my damn hands in his.
“Please, preacher?”
God fucking damnit. I’m getting soft in my years.
I beam at him. “But of course, sir. I’d be my absolute pleasure.”
He grins. “Well hot damn!” Instantly, he covers his mouth. “My apologies, preacher.”
I stop myself from saying “No fucking problem,” but I just grin instead and tell him it’s fine.
“Seven okay for you? We’re forty-seven Ridge Street, just through downtown past the post office. It’s the white house with the blue door.”
“Well I’ll be seeing you then, Jeb,” I smile. “And I thank you kindly.”
Jeb grins, but Delilah is standing behind him, shifting on her feet nervously and definitely avoiding my eyes. This is a very, very bad idea. Beyond the fact that I want to rip that dress off, bend her over the edge of this tub, and fuck this girl silly, there’s the very real thought that she might crack in the middle of dinner and out me for the sinner I am. We might be halfway through a pot roast when she decides to tell the whole damn Somerset family that Preacher Gabriel’s big cock was hard when he laid hands on her in the baptism tank.
“See you then, preacher.”
Jeb shakes my hand and whirls, and then he’s off before I can say a damn thing or take back my agreement. Shit. I watch the two of them walk away back across the field, wondering how the hell I can get out of this without looking like a dipshit.
But suddenly, Delilah stops, and she turns back. It’s only fleeting, but her eyes land on mine, and when she realizes I’ve been looking at her, she blushes hotly. The sun catches her dress and shines right through the transparent damn thing, and for a second, I can see everything. I can see ever curve of her body with the translucent white dress glowing around her. And my cock throbs thick and hard all over again.
She blushes deeply, her eyes spark again, and then she quickly turns back and runs to catch up with her father.
Fuck.
She was never part of the plan, and this is temptation I never saw coming. I watch her walk back across that field with the Georgia sun glowing around her, and I groan.
She’s temptation, all right. She’s goddamn original sin, incarnate. She’s the fucking apple in the garden, and God help me, I’m going to eat her whole.
Chapter Four
Delilah
“Lord that smells good, Christina.”
My father beams as he sticks his head into the steaming kitchen full of bubbling, simmering pots. My mama flashes him a smile, but her face is tense. “Well, I wish we’d discussed it first before you invited a preacher over for dinner, Jeb,” she says with concern. She frowns and bustles past me, checking the gravy, peeping into the oven at the roast, and quick-stirring the green beans simmering in butter and sugar in a pan.
“I mean, he lives in a Winnebago,” I shrug. “I’m sure it’s going to be—”
“Delilah May!” my mother says in a shocked, scandalized way. She brandishes a wooden spoon at me. “Don’t you dare speak of a man of God like that! Preacher Gabriel has humbled himself before the Lord in order that he may travel this great country spreading His word!”
“Yeah, jeez, a little charity, Lah-lah,” Paul, my older brother, throws in from the other room.
“Paul, shut up.”
He chuckles and my mother even cracks a grin. But papa frowns.
“Alright, that’s enough of that. Paul, call your sister by her God-given name, please. And Delilah, honey, please show a little respect for a wonderful, pious, and Godly man like Gabriel. Christina, sweetheart, the roast smells divine, and he’s going to love every bite of it, just like we all are.” He smiles and crosses the kitchen to kiss my mother’s cheek before he ducks back out.
A wonderful, pious, and Godly man. Yeah, right. They’re all so excited for Gabriel to come for dinner, even the perpetually sullen Paul. And they all see him exactly how they want to see him, and how I’m willing to bet he’s gone to great trouble to make them see him.