Page 27

After getting everything June wanted, we grab a couple mall pretzels and head back to the car. June wears some of her new clothes, shoes that actually fit her, and a pair of sheer tights that make me desperately want to tear them apart. Fuck. Shoulda bought those in bulk. She looks too damn sexy in them.

Sliding into the bench seat, I turn the car on, blasting the heater, and tell her about my night.

“Daren? A cultist?” She raises an eyebrow. “I mean—the guy is evil, but I’ve never noticed anything like that. He goes to church every day with my mom since he’s moved in,” she explains.

I shrug. “I don’t know for sure either, but it feels a little convenient. I think I have to check it out, if you’re okay with that?”

June fidgets with her fingers. “Will I . . . have to see him?”

I grab her hands, holding them tight. “Not if I can help it.”

She stares at our hands for a moment. “Okay.” She nods. “Let’s go.”

The car thrums under us as I drive through the back roads of western Massachusetts. June is slouched in the seat, staring out the window as my music plays from the stereo. From the corner of my eye, I see June tapping her thigh to the beat.

“It’s a love song,” I tell her, raising the volume a little, the reggaeton beat vibrating through me just a little more. “He’s talking about her body, and how she’ll be the end of him.”

She scoffed. “Sounds romantic.”

I smirk. I love this sassy side of her. “ There would be no better way to die, with the beat of your heart in tune with your moans, as the last thing I hear, ” I translate. “In Miami’s standards, this is probably the most romantic thing a guy could say.” I laugh.

June laughs, and it sounds . . . so genuine, so different from anything I’ve heard coming from her. It sounds so free.

“What is Miami like? I’ve rarely left Belmouth, let alone Massachusetts.”

“Hot. Sweaty. Palm trees everywhere.” I settle further into the seat. “But it’s also home. The salty, humid air, the loud shitty cars, the echoing base of reggaeton down every street—there’s something different about it. Something I haven’t seen in any other city or town I’ve been to. The nights are late, and the people are always so . . . alive . Parts of it are like the movies, yeah. But everyone also somehow knows everyone, and the little grandparents in the corner bakery will give you free coffee if they simply recognize your face.”

I never miss home. Not really. At least, not cognitively. But when I really think about it, Miami is home. It sings to my blood and calls to me when I’m gone for too long. I yearn for the gorgeous sunsets and horrible drivers, for the buttered tostadas and five a.m. dinner trips after a night of clubbing. For early mornings sunbathing in front of the ocean and naps on the beach.

“That sounds amazing. I’d love to see it someday.”

“You should come with me next time I go.”

June’s eyes widen before another smile pulls at her lips. “I’d like that.”

When we finally get back to Belmouth, I follow the path Daren took last night, trailing right back outside of the quiet town, and pulling over next to the Welcome to Belmouth sign. No cars linger around it now with it being the early afternoon—another good indicator that whatever happened last night was something secret, something nefarious.

As I shift the car into park, I turn to June. “Do you want to stay here?”

Her eyes are hard as she looks at me. “No way. I’m going with you.”

I smirk, pinching her cheeks between my thumb and fingers. “Good girl. Remember, you’re never leaving my sight.”

Her plump lips capture my eyes, and with them pouted like this, they just look so . . . delicious. I pull her toward me, sliding across the bench to get closer to her.

June’s breath shudders as I near her, but she doesn’t pull away—instead, she opens her mouth just enough for me to pull her bottom lip between my teeth. A soft whimper rumbles in her throat as I suck on her lip, scraping it with my teeth. She tastes like cherries and coffee and salty pretzels.

Her lip falls from my mouth with a pop, but immediately, she’s on me. June pushes herself into me, crashing her lips to mine once again. Long fingers drag through my hair as she pulls me down to her. Her hot tongue finds mine as easily as breathing and it is everything I can do to not completely dissolve into her, become one with her. My hand falls to her waist and I pull her onto my lap, her ass warming my thighs.

The kiss the other night hasn’t left my mind. It’s been almost fifteen years since I’ve done such a thing, but kissing June feels like kissing for the very first time again. I told her I’d have no problem breaking my vows for her, and I was telling the truth, but a shred of guilt has followed me since. Yet, when I kiss her, every shred of guilt melts away and I can’t help but fully give myself to her.

She kisses me as if she’s starved. It’s clumsy and her tongue doesn’t quite know what to do once it collides with mine, and it drives me to absolute ferocity. I cup her face and slide my tongue across her lips, sucking her tongue into my mouth. I show her how to kiss me, how to take my lips, nibbling her to remind her to breathe.

I groan June’s name into her mouth, moving my lips across her face, along her jaw, down her neck, pulling her closer, closer, closer—till I feel her soft warmth all over me.

“So fucking delicious,” I huff, licking her neck. I want to leave marks all over her, kiss her till her lips turn blue, bruise her skin with hickeys, and show her how real affection feels.

June pulls away, her lips plump and red from my kiss, and her cheeks rubbed raw from my facial hair. She looks stunning, her eyes sparkling as she catches her breath.

“I could’ve been doing this my entire life?”

I chuckle, tucking the loose hair behind her ear. “You could’ve. But I’m happy you waited for me.”

June instantly throws herself on me again, her lips warm as she kisses me with just as much ferocity as before.

My hand is entwined in June’s as we traverse the woods, following the same path I took the other night. It’s odd—the atmosphere is completely different today. The eerie shadows have been replaced with a pleasant breeze, the shadows of possible demons for colorful leaves. It is almost as though the woods changed overnight, became something else.

June and I cut through the trees, stepping over branches and dying foliage, as I follow the path Daren took last night.

“This is near where I lost him,” I tell her.

“Where the imps swarmed you?”

I nod, pointing west. “It was a little farther down that way, but I felt them from here. Hell, I felt them the moment I entered the woods.”

June studies the ground, her eyes moving from where we stand to a few feet ahead. “And they didn’t follow him at all? Just you?”

Good point.

“So . . .” she says, and I can see the gears in her brain turning, putting pieces together. Pieces I may have not seen yet. “You were called here because of a demon infesting the church.”

“A supposed demon, yes.”

“And now there might be a cult involved.”

“Correct.”

“Is that normal?”

“Lately, yes. Cultist activity has been ridiculously high in the last few years. Most demonic sightings have been caused by summonings.”

“So it’s not out of the question that this . . . cult ,” she says it like a dirty word, “is what brought the demon to the church in the first place?”

I nod.

“And the imps you fought last night, they were protecting the cult.” She meets my eyes. “Which means we’re in the right place, going the right way.”

“They wouldn’t protect somewhere unimportant,” I agree.

June bites her lip, her eyes falling. “Which means Daren is probably involved.”

I squeeze her hand, letting her make the next connection herself.

“And which is possibly why I’ve been affected?”

I nod again. “I believe so.”

She cringes, her eyes squeezing shut, but I quickly pull her into me. June thumps her head on my chest, leaving it there.

“I remember something from that night. It didn’t really make sense then, but it’s starting to.”

I swallow hard, afraid to hear whatever she’s about to tell me. “What is it?”

“He said something right after my mom left. ‘ He said if I wait till the time is right, I can have you.’ It was such a weird thing to say, it stuck out to me. But, obviously, I didn’t really get any time to ask questions.”

I squeeze her tighter, my jaw clenching. June is not something to be offered, not something to be given, and definitely not something to be taken—by anyone but me. I’ve stolen my little songbird. She is mine, and mine alone.

And she knows it.

June pulls back just a bit, but stays within the circle of my arms. She meets my eyes once more. The ghost of memories sweeping across her features is being shoved away, back into the box she keeps within herself.

The box I plan on destroying.

“Should we continue? We’re in the right place,” she asks, stepping back more.

But I grab her arm.

I want her to know who she belongs to. That she is mine, and mine alone. That being mine means she will forever be safe, that being mine means she doesn’t have to fear the demons from her past, or the demons trying to find her now. That being mine means she is free.

“He can’t have you, Junia.” My voice dips as I squeeze her arm, reminding her she is here with me —not Daren. “Ever.”

Reaching into my back pocket, I pull out her Salvation. June’s eyes widen a bit, but as she pulls her lips between her teeth, I can see just how much she wants this—to be dominated, to be cared for, to be mine .

I feel the shift within myself, the shift from priest to . . . other. The depravity has been present since I touched her in the dressing room back in the mall, and again with her tongue down my throat in the car. And now, I want her tongue around my cock.

With the mask on, I meet June’s eyes again. They’re wide, and a sliver of fear traces the gray ocean of her irises. But there’s also arousal and lust and want .

She wants to be dominated. It’s all she’s ever known. But to be dominated by someone who actually cares , who knows how to take care of her? It’s the missing part of herself she’s never had.

June takes another step back. She swallows, and a small smirk appears across her lips. Her back straightens, and a new-found confidence I’ve only seen a handful of times overtakes her.

“Why? Because I already belong to you?” she goads.

I take a step forward. “That’s right.”

“I’m not yours,” she says. “Not until you make me yours.” And without so much as another breath, June turns from me and runs deep into the woods.