Masuk"I'm going to come.""Do it. Do it now."She came with a shattering, silent scream, her mouth open against the cloth, her whole body convulsing around him. He followed her over with a muffled curse and a last brutal thrust, spilling hot inside her, his forehead pressed to the back of her neck.They stood there in the stuffy dark, tangled together and gasping, while the dust settled on the crimson robes."Well," whispered Lucien, shaking with silent laughter. "I'd say your penance is complete.""Not funny," said Seraphina, laughing in spite of herself. "Not funny."***By nine o'clock the loft was empty.The teenagers had gone home. Old Mr. Charles had been escorted to his car by the three Murphy sisters. The great organ lay silent under its cover, and the crimson robes hung in a neat row on their pegs. Seraphina sat alone at the little piano, still in her robe, her hair slightly mussed, her mouth still tender.She heard him come up the stair.It wasn't Lucien. The tread was different:
"We have ten minutes," he growled against her skin. "I don't intend to waste a second.""Where?""Not here." He lifted his head. His eyes were dark with wicked purpose. "The vestry. Behind the choir room. There's a robe closet back there with a very solid door.""Lucien, we can't...""Seraphina." His thumb traced her swollen mouth. "Tell me you don't want me to."She stared at him. She was shaking. She was aching, and soaked, and so alive that she thought she might burst."Hurry," she whispered.***The robe closet was no bigger than a pantry, a narrow, windowless space lined with racks of crimson and white vestments, smelling of cedar and candle smoke and starch. A single bare bulb hung from the ceiling. Lucien pulled her inside, shut the door, and turned the little brass key.He stripped off his collar and shirt in three quick motions. Her mouth went dry. In the harsh light, his body was breathtaking, broad and hard and scarred, a thin line of dark hair vanishing into his trousers.
Mrs. Abernathy said nothing.That was the worst part. Seraphina lay on the old velvet chaise with Lucien's weight still pressing her down, her heart trying to climb out of her throat, and listened to the soft click of the door closing and the shuffle of sensible shoes descending the spiral stair. Slowly. Unhurried. As if the parish secretary had simply popped in to check the radiators.At the bottom, a voice floated up one last time."Thursday's rehearsal is at seven, dear. Do wear the red robe. It does wonders for your coloring."Then the heavy door of the nave thudded shut, and there was only the great hush of the church and the sound of two people not breathing."Lucien," said Seraphina, faintly. "What just happened?"He lifted his head. His dark hair was wild. His mouth was swollen. And, to her utter astonishment, he was laughing, silently, shoulders shaking."I have absolutely no idea," he said."She heard us.""Yes.""She's going to tell the bishop.""Perhaps." He kissed her bar
"I can't...""You can." His hands slid up her ribs. "You've been singing like this for six years, Seraphina, with your whole body held back. Let it out. Let it all out."She sang. His hands moved up and cupped her breasts through her blouse, squeezing gently, and she gasped, and the note wobbled, and she held on, and kept singing. Pleni sunt caeli et terra... He found the buttons of her blouse and undid them one by one. Her voice shook. He slid the fabric from her shoulders and let it fall. She stood at the rail in a plain white bra with her hair tumbling down her back and sang, voice trembling, to an empty church.He unhooked the bra and It fell to the floor."Beautiful," he whispered. And he cupped her bare breasts and rolled both nipples between his fingers, and Seraphina's voice went up an octave on a sharp, breathless, helpless note that was not in the music."There it is," said Lucien, low and pleased. "That's the sound I've been waiting for."He turned her around and lifted her
Seraphina had been told her whole life that she had the voice of an angel, and she was beginning to suspect that angels had no idea what she was thinking.She was twenty-eight. She sang soprano and led the choir at St. Brigid's, and every Sunday for six years she had stood in the loft above the nave and poured her whole body into the Ave Maria, the Panis Angelicus, the Agnus Dei, while two hundred parishioners tilted their heads back and wept. Her voice was pure. Clear. Silver. People said it made them feel closer to God.What they could not hear, what no one could hear, was what Seraphina was thinking while she sang.It had started in September, with the arrival of the new priest.Father Lucien Reyes had walked into choir rehearsal on a Thursday night to introduce himself, in a black cassock, with a smile that hit her low in the stomach like a hand. He had said a few warm words about music being a form of prayer. He had asked her name. When she told him, he had repeated it slowly, Se
"Always," said Lucien."Do you both want me?""Yes," they said at once.She closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them, something fierce and bright had risen in her chest, a feeling she hadn't felt in years: the feeling of being entirely, thrillingly alive."Then I'd like you both to stay," said Rose.Father Brennan came to her slowly, the way a man approaches something he has wanted for a long time and is afraid of breaking. He took her face in his lean, strong hands and looked at her."Tell me if it's too much," he said."I will."He kissed her.It was different from Lucien's kiss. Slower. Deeper. A kiss from a man who had spent thirty years learning restraint, and who was letting it go one careful piece at a time. She melted against him, sighing into his mouth, and behind her she felt Lucien's hands settle on her hips and his mouth find the back of her neck.Two priests. Two mouths. Four hands."You're trembling," said Matthias against her lips."I'm not afraid.""I kn







