For the Love of God Read Online Free PDF

were to leap on the suggestion, but Abbie seriously questioned whether she was motivated by a desire to help the church orwanted to accept because she was physically attracted to him. She strongly suspected it was the latter. All her responses to him at the moment were purely feminine.
    “I’m afraid I’m not a very active church member myself… Reverend.” Abbie had trouble getting his professional title out. It seemed at such odds with his compelling manhood. She was conscious of the little vein pulsing in her neck.
    If he noticed her hesitancy in addressing him, he tactfully ignored it. “Then I’ll have to make you my first sheep to win back to the fold.” His smile deepened with a heady force.
    Abbie lowered her gaze to resist his undeniable appeal. Charisma, that’s what it is, she told herself. He would attract anybody’s attention—not just hers.
    “Abbie, are you finished yet?” Her mother’s voice broke into their conversation.
    She turned with a guilty start, just as if she were a little girl again getting caught red-handed doing something naughty. It was an expression her mother recognized and it narrowed her gaze. There were still a half-dozen spoons in Abbie’s hand. She glanced quickly at them, her task forgotten until that moment. “I’m almost done,” she told her mother.
    But Alice Scott’s attention had already strayed to the man standing next to Abbie. Her eyes widened slightly at the black frock and white collar.
    “I don’t believe we’ve met.” Seth took the initiative to correct that. “I’m Reverend Talbot, your new pastor.”
    “I’m sorry.” Abbie realized she had forgotten her manners. “This is my mother, Alice Scott.”
    “I noticed the resemblance,” he said, directing that warm, male smile at her mother. “It’s easy to see that your daughter inherited her looks from you, Mrs. Scott.”
    The remark could have sounded so polite and commonplace, a meaningless response, but the way he said it seemed sincere, a glowing compliment. Abbie was a little astounded at the way her mother seemed to blossom under his spell, shedding years and acquiring a youthful beauty. Just for a minute, she was irritated with her mother.
    “My father is here somewhere,” Abbie informed Seth and glanced around the room in search of him. “But I don’t see him this minute.” The remark was offered in an unconscious attempt to remind her mother that she was married.
    “My husband has been looking forward to meeting you, Reverend Talbot,” her mother explained, then inquired, “Is your family here?”
    Abbie was suddenly crushed by the idea that Seth already had a wife and children. Seth. She was thinking of him by his first name. That had to stop.
    “My family?” An eyebrow quirked, then straightened to its normal line. “You mean mywife? I’m one of the rare ones, Mrs. Scott, an unmarried minister.”
    “You’re a bachelor?” Her mother’s tone of voice made it a question, as if she needed more confirmation of his single status.
    “Yes.” His straightforward answer didn’t leave any room for doubts, and Abbie felt a tremble of relief. It was bad enough being so strongly attracted to a minister. It would have been worse if he were married on top of it.
    “I wasn’t trying to pry, Reverend Talbot,” her mother assured him. “But as you said, it is unusual.”
    “I guess I’m something of a bad boy.” He included Abbie in his sweeping glance. “I should be busy choosing a proper minister’s wife, but I prefer to wait until I can find the right woman for me—not my job.”
    “I suspect you are unorthodox in a number of different ways,” Abbie murmured, remembering the way he had been dressed the previous day, and the racy sports car he’d been driving.
    “So I’ve been told.” There was a wicked light dancing in his eyes. It seemed totally inappropriate for a man of God. There was more than a trace of rebel in him, Abbie realized.
    “What do you do when