Saving Sins (Forbidden Erotic Romance) Read Online Free PDF

"We can take the rest of what we have back
to the church and call it a night," he said, but at the end of his
sentence she felt some phantom words hanging, speaking without actually saying
anything.
    Tara chewed her lip. "Do you... do you want to go get
something to eat?"
    "Do you know a free salad bar?"
    She laughed. "No. But I can pay for myself." I
think. She had a ten in her wallet. If she didn't get anything to drink but
water and stuck to the cheapest stuff on the menu, they could go to an
all-night diner. Maybe she could just have a piece of pie or something...
    "I'll pay," Michael said. "It's the least I
can do."
    Tara blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"
    He shook his head. In the cold, his lips had turned pink and
kissable. "I mean that I feel like this was a little out of your league
tonight," he said. "Usually my assistants come once or twice and bail
on me, or I ask them to leave."
    She raised her eyebrows. "Ask them to leave?"
    "You know the kind of older woman who wants to help in
the church?" he asked. "I shouldn't say this, but they are not the
best for ministry on the streets."
    Tara nodded in understanding. "Yeah," she said
slowly. "They'd probably scare off every girl in a three mile
radius."
    "Not only that, but they always try to gossip to
me," he replied. "There's confession for a reason, and it's not so
that I can spread secrets, and if someone chooses not to confess to me that is
between them and the Lord."
    The Lord. The words made her itch, but Tara suppressed her
instinctive shudder. She didn't want to disrespect Michael. His faith had been
strong enough to pull her up. She needed to let him have it.
    "Let's go get something to eat," she said.
    Michael nodded. Together they piled into the van and set off
down the street as the snow began to fall.
     
    The middle of October. Or was it the end? Time on the
streets had no meaning to her. It was Wednesday or Saturday or Fuckday. It
didn't matter. The priest—Father Michael MacEnroe, what a cliche—had picked her
up again. He did it more and more often now, and each time he did she expected
him to make a pass at her. She wouldn't have minded. He was beautiful. But he
never did.
    They sat in a diner at one of the nicer ends of town, an
all-night place that served shit like skillets full of ham and cheese and
ridiculous slices of pie that no person in their right mind would eat, their
crusts so oily they gleamed in the dim light of the hanging lamps.
    Well, she never claimed to be in her right mind.
    "What's up, Father?" she said, shoveling her
second piece of pie into her mouth and chewing loudly. She always hoped to make
him disapprove of her in some way. She didn't know why. Maybe it would make her
feel better. He seemed so perfect, so accepting and kind. She wanted him to
slip up in some way.
    No one was perfect. Everyone hid something.
    "I've been worried about you," he said without
preamble, and she nearly choked on her blueberry pie. Forcing herself to
swallow, she took another bite and made sure to show him the contents of her
mouth as she chewed.
    "Yeah? Why?"
    "You haven't been around your usual places," he
said.
    That stopped her. "You keeping tabs on me,
Father?" She put extra emphasis on the last word, letting him know she
didn't need a father. She had one. Once. And then she didn't.
    "Of course," he said. "I worry about
you."
    She didn't know what to do with that information, so she
rolled her eyes and tried to play it off, but he was unflappable. Simply stared
at her with those glittering green eyes. The clerical collar shone white against
his throat. A flash. A target. She wanted to work her fingers under it and
loosen it for him. It couldn't be comfortable.
    What did he hide under that sober priestly garb?
    "I don't need anyone to worry about me," she
said. "You'd be better off worrying about Kairi or Ladonna or
Mychelle."
    "I do worry about them," he said, "but I
worry about you the most."
    She made a noise with her mouth, a