Page 23 of Sins and Virtue

“Mmhm, just me and the Lord. You know some profound personal experience.”

“Ooh yes! Divine encounters are one of a kind, Blair! When you open your heart to God, God speaks to you, literally!” Marie rambled on and on until her voice drowned out at the end of the passageway.

Leaving me to an infinite time of misery during which I did a series of workouts, took another shower, followed by completing an unfinished crossword puzzle Blair had left like she did every morning, and when there was nothing left to do, I sat and waited. Eventually finding a photo of something Blair only knew about. But I wouldn’t press it.

Sometime later, when the moonlight shone through the slits of the window, the door creaked open silently as my hand reached for my gun on my wrist paint, and then Blair slipped through quickly.

I retracted my hand and cracked my knuckles one by one. “Well, kotyonok, didn’t you take your sweet time?” I had waited so long, I felt like a puppy wagging its tail to see its owner.

Blair sighed, closing and locking the door, then walking over to the tallest wooden drawer and retrieving a nightgown as she passed right by me and went into the bathroom.

I’d follow her if she didn’t slam the door in my face.

One of my eyebrows drew an inquisitive point.

Didn’t she see me? Or was she straight up annoying me?

No. No. It couldn’t have been me, maybe just something that bothered her during one of the activities the nun hosted. Definitely had to be it.

“Alright then, I’ll wait.” I went ahead, stalked over to the bed, threw pillows to the floor, and began to prepare my sleeping station.

Sitting on the floor with my back against the frame of her bed, my legs extended in front of me, after an excruciating amount of time, I lifted my wrist and checked my Rolex again.

“An hour?” My jaw tightened. “Come on, what’s taking her so long?”

“Hey, you can’t rush women. Especially ours. You can tell she was made with time and care, so let her get all pretty for us.” Dya’s voice intertwined with mine.

I groaned deeply, fighting for domain of my body. “Again, not ours. But, to think about her beautiful long hair loose, craving her face, glowing against her fair skin,

“You were saying?”

“Shut the fuck up, or I’ll shoot us both out of this misery.” I grunted loudly when the door popped open, and embarrassment crawled in the back of my neck. Shit, I hope she didn’t hear me.

My foot shook as I watched her turn off the light switch of the bathroom, casting us in complete darkness. The moon now hid behind the curtain of gray clouds, leaving the atmosphere feeling somber.

She closed the door, turned to look at me— well, more so through me, as she barely acknowledged meagain.Shuffling her feet to the bed, my eyes attached to her, waiting for her to initiate some conversation while all she did was move the comforter and slip in. “Night,” she whispered so lowly.

I angled my head back to her, eying her so tensely that it burned her conscience, to see if she was serious or just shitting with me.

Her body was still like a dead man’s, but she had been muttering something incoherent; my ears would barely have caught it if I weren’t so close.

She tossed and turned in bed, letting out a long, exhausted breath before she lay flat on her back. Well, it made sense since she had been decorating the church and monastery all day.

Her name inched on my tongue when she spoke first.

“Come to bed.” She patted the empty side of the bed.

Drawing my head up and looking at her, I drawled lowly. “Is this an invitation?”

The kindness fled from her eyes. “Forget it and suffer then.” She tossed a pillow in my face and flopped around to the other side.

That little feisty act made a chuckle stumble from my throat. “Ah, you don’t want me in your bed, kotyonok?”

“Go to hell!”

“Come on, do you know how many women have begged me to stay in their bed?”

“Well, they were either desperate, stupid, or drunk,” she huffed, keeping her arms crossed. “Plus, why would I care?”