Sweetest Sin: A Forbidden Priest Romance Read Online Free Page B

asked.
    “You sure you
don’t want to anoint me again?” He snickered. “Tell me, son. What is it you wish to confess?”
    I didn’t react.
“Who says I’m here to confess?”
    “Right. I’ve only
been a priest for fifty years. What do I know?”
    I didn’t answer.
Benjamin learned his patience during his years at the parish, and most of it
was my fault. His temper had cooled as he endured my foolishness, stubbornness,
and reckless interpretation of right, wrong, good, evil, and the failures of
man.
    I was not one who willingly
sinned, nor was I a man who harbored it. I strived to confront that darkness
and expose it in every aspect of my soul, no matter the earthly consequences. But
now?
    I never hid from temptation. I’d always sought it out. Studied it. Learned from it.
The only way I could face the light of Heaven was to burn myself on the flames
of Hell.
    I never met a
temptation I couldn’t defy.
    Until last night.
    Until her.
    Until her
admission, her whispered confession, and the moment of stolen peace, earned
from her trembling fingers .
    I had instructed
her to sin.
    I should have confessed
then. Benjamin was the only priest who wouldn’t have immediately condemned me
to Hell for destroying the precious bond between Confessor and Priest.
    But to reveal that
wicked misdeed, I’d have to share everythingelse . How it felt
when she spoke my name. How my heart raced, blood boiled, and cock hardened
with her every baited whisper.
    That was my sin,
and it was also my delight. The secret wickedness was meant only for me, and that
soft, forsaken mew she whimpered within the confessional would forever belong
to my soul.
    And it was my
fault.
    If I wanted to
save Honor, I had to first master the desires which burned through me.
Unfortunately, I had no earthly or heavenly idea how to protect myself from
such terrible beauty.
    “Father…” This
sort of talk necessitated formality, titles, and respect. “You’ve had a long
life in the clergy.”
    “Yes.”
    “How did you learn
to deny temptations?”
    Benjamin took a
deep breath. “Is such a thing possible?”
    I was beginning to
think no . “It must be.”
    “Each man is
different, Rafe.”
    “I know. I thought
I understood what made me unique—my personal strengths and weaknesses.”
    “Which are?”
    “Faith.”
    He smiled. “Faith
is both your strength and weakness?”
    “My faith in the
Lord is my greatest strength…but I have no faith in man.”
    “Or yourself?”
    “I am a man.”
    “Yes,” Benjamin
said. “You are a very young, very passionate man. This life was never going to
be easy for someone like you.”
    “But it is my life.”
    “Yes.”
    “Every day, men
and woman are faced with temptations. They fear those uncertainties as much as
they want their desires. It is that fear which traps them in sin.”
    Benjamin sighed. “Are
you so different?”
    Yes . “I see no reason
to fear what tempts us.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I would
rather face it. Seize it, understand it. Then I would destroy it.”
    He silenced,
leaning against the pillow in a quiet prayer. Benjamin eventually looked to me,
his eyes hazy with drugs and face jaundiced by the illness raging through his
body.
    “Do not put your
Lord God to the test…” He groaned. “That’s in Deuteronomy. You don’t even have
to read far into the book to find that command.”
    “I’m not
challenging God. I’m challenging myself.”
    “ Why ?”
    “So I can fight
the temptations that endanger the virtue of those around me.”
    “ Virtue ?”
Benjamin tried to sit up. He didn’t make it, and his grimace of pain rolled
through me. “Be careful, Rafe. You are a strong, fierce man, but temptation
exists for a reason—to take advantage of those who would fall to their pride.”
    “I am not proud of
this.” My voice steadied. “Pride means I’d underestimate the danger. I do not.
But the only way I will overcome this is if I face it. Challenge it.”
    “This is a