Worth Any Price
Page 23
Tenderly he put his hand on her head to encourage her and she leaned in and took him into her mouth. The shock of her lips touching him reverberated through his system and for a moment, he wasn’t sure his knees would hold him upright. He steadied himself by placing a hand on each of her shoulders.
She closed her lips and slid her tongue up and down the length of him, then she brought her hand up and enclosed him in it. His sudden gasp startled but didn’t deter her. With a single-mindedness that surprised him, she took to her task with abandon, licking, stroking, and sucking on the tip until he was whimpering. He tried to let go, to go against years of conditioning and let himself selfishly care only for his gratification. His mind knew it would help her if he could get this over quickly, but his body was savoring her touches, her lips on his manhood. When she reached down and gently cupped his heavy, full sac he was instantly lost. He locked his knees to keep from collapsing, threw back his head, and roared as the jet of hot passion poured out of him and into her waiting mouth.
He was hardly cognizant of the difficulty she had swallowing as he was careening outside of the universe at a dizzying, dazzling speed. But as he slowly came back into himself, he watched her struggle for composure. Instantly he reached into his deep pocket, pulled out a can of soda and popped the top. He knelt beside her and put it to her lips and she drank greedily, gulping the cool liquid down as fast as she could. Then she pushed the can away, whispered, “Thanks,” and crumpled into a heap.
Cayce took a swig from the can himself, then dropped it to the sand before reaching down and pulling up his pants and zipper. He worked on threading his belt back through the belt loops as he watched Paige cry into her hands. Then he stood, pulled her up with him, and bent to put his arm under her knees. He lifted the quietly sobbing woman high into his arms and carried her over the dunes.
She was touched. It had been very thoughtful of him to bring a can of Coke in his pocket for her. And now, he was holding her against his chest and carrying her away from camera range.
She wished she could stop crying, she must be making him feel awful. But she just couldn’t seem to stop, and now she had added hiccups to the cacophony.
“Shush, shush, it’s all right. It’s over now. Please stop crying Paige, you’re tearing me up here.”
“I can’t. I just can’t.”
He had picked a secluded section of dunes to hide behind. Propped against the wall of sand, he held her against him as he patted her head and held her tightly to his chest. He let his head loll back against the dune, heedless of the sand getting in his hair, as he tried to catch his breath and steady his heart.
He had settled Paige against him and as he continued to stroke her hair and settle her, he turned her head slightly to kiss her wet cheeks.
“Imagine how I’m going to feel, how hard it’s going to be for me to look over and see you sitting a few aisles down from the pulpit?” he teased, trying to get her to laugh, to do anything but cry.
“And it will be hard, I guarantee.” He waited a few seconds and laughed himself. “No pun intended there.”
She looked up at him then and blinked. “You’re the biggest man I’ve ever seen there.”
He gave her a wry grin, “So you noticed, huh?”
“Hard not to with my face right there. Did I hurt you? You yelled awfully loud.”
He chuckled. “No, you didn’t hurt me. Far from it.”
“I feel so dirty.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I mean . . . I didn’t mean—”
“I know what you meant Paige. You feel used. Like a tramp.”
“Yeah.”
“But you’re not you know.”
“I know,” she whispered. “I know.”
“C’mon, let me take you home. We’ve only got a few hours before it’s time for church. And I for one, have a new sermon that needs polishing.”
“Ohhh,” she said with dread. She had just remembered the final degrading test.
“I didn’t want to tell you before, in case I couldn’t pull it off, but I think I may just be able to keep those pictures private. God willing.”
He managed to get to a standing position in the soft sand. Using his hand he brushed the sand out of his hair and off his clothes. Then he took her hand and pulled her to her feet.
“Besides, if the police don’t arrest us for public lewdness, I’d sure hate to give them a second chance by having them spot us in the dunes. Then of course, there was the littering thing back there, too.”
She gave an ironic chuckle then. “That would be just great. After having followed all the other things to the letter, we end up in jail just when we need to finish this damned thing to get my boy back.”
“We’re going to get him back Paige. I promise you that.”
When they came off the sand much further up the street, he took her hand in his and told her what his plan was.
“So, you’ve heard me preach, think I can pull it off? Am I charismatic enough?”
She stopped walking and looked up at him. She really, really looked at him. He was very handsome in a collegiate way with soft light brown hair now mussed by the light breezes coming off the ocean. But even rumpled he was gorgeous, a quiet gentleman with a mischievous smile if there ever was one.
“I’ve always been impressed with your sermons. You do manage to mesmerize. But how are you going to convince almost a hundred people to ignore human nature, go against their baser curiosity and defy convention?”
He took her hand in his and continued walking with her back to his car. “I’m not. God is. I’ll just do my part. He’ll have to see to the rest. And you’ll have to trust that He will. Can you do that?”
She looked into his sincere face, focusing on his concerned but intelligent eyes.
“Yes, if you tell me to, I will. Because I trust you and I know how devoted you are. God will work through you much more than through me.”
“Why do you say that?” he asked with surprise.
“You’re so good, so uncompromisingly good. I’ve never known a man who believed as much as you. You live the life you talk about.”
He groaned, stopped walking, and let his head fall back. His squeezed his eyes shut and wanted to scream at her. I’m not good! I’m terrible! I’ve loved every degrading moment you’ve had to be with me, and if we didn’t have a rather tight schedule right now, I’d like nothing more than to take you to my bed and make love to you until you begged for mercy. I loved feeling your lips and tongue and hands on me, and I know that deep down in my black, black heart that I am going to do everything in my power to feel them there again!
He shuddered from the act of suppressing those awful words, but he knew he had to face them. And her.
“I don’t live the life I talk about all the time. I slip. I fall out of grace just like anyone else, maybe even more than anyone else. And to be perfectly blunt with you, I’ve thought and had to suppress more perverted, dark, carnal thoughts in the last few hours than I’ve had in the last ten years. Paige you make my blood boil and it scares me how much I want you. So please don’t tell me how good I am, how worthy I am. Right now I feel like I’m the biggest hypocrite in the world.”
The look of shock on her face humbled him. She truly hadn’t known.
“I’m sorry. I’m just human. And you are so lovely. And I’ve had to see you in very sensual positions, provocative to say the least. Must be why those magazines sell so well,” he said with a sheepish smile. They had reached his car. He unlocked the door and held it for her. Then he went to the driver’s side, slid in, and turned to face her.
He looked over at her and noticed her dark fringed lashes were shadowing her cheeks. Her eyes were closed as if she was lost in thought.
“I ha
d no idea you wanted me. Or that you still do. How can that be after all that I’ve done?” Tears were slowly seeping out of her eyes and running freely down her cheeks.
“Oh, Paige,” he said as he drew her to him. “You haven’t done anything wrong! Please don’t allow yourself to be shamed over this. You did what you had to. No man can fault you for this.”
“Even you?”
“Especially me.”
“And will you still want me after pictures of me are everywhere, and everyone is talking about them and snickering?”
“Yes. I will still want you, even then. I may be jealous that others are viewing what I would like to consider to be mine alone, but that won’t make me want you any less. I think I’m falling in love with you Paige and I’m not sure how to handle this. But for now, let’s just say I’m possessive about you, and that I’m going to pray that I give the best sermon of my career so I can keep you all to myself.”
“You think you’re falling in love with me?”
“It’s a distinct possibility,” he said with a smile and a kiss for her nose. “Can’t say for sure though. We’re not exactly having your typical first date experiences. But I would like to. When we get Joshua back, I’d like to meet him and take you both out to dinner and to the movies, picnics in the park and birthday parties at pizza parlors.”
“You’ve already met Joshua. He talks about you all the time.”
“Really? I visit the nursery all the time, but I can’t place him. What’s he look like?”
She took a picture out of her pants pocket and showed it to him. He instantly recognized the little boy that had stolen his heart months ago. “That’s Joshua? I’ve talked with him, he’s talked with me, but I don’t think I ever knew his name.”
“He tells me that you talk to him. You’re one of the few people he talks to. He says you walk with God and that you talk with God. It’s why I knew I could come to you for help.”
“Oh, Paige. I taught him that song, that’s all. And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own . . . .” he sang in a clear strong voice.
Tears came to both of their eyes. “We’re going to get him back, Babe,” he whispered. Then he kissed her softly on the lips before turning back and starting the car.
Chapter Twenty-three
As he drove into her parking lot and pulled in front of her building, he reached behind the seat and brought out a large envelope.
“To save time, I took the liberty of printing out the picture you have to put on the windshields in the church parking lot. I copied it on the copier in my study. The computer print out was in color, but the copies are black and white. There are a hundred copies here along with the original. I deadened the image somewhat by fogging the glass on my copier with hairspray. If it weren’t for the name you have to put on each one, I’m sure no one would know it was you. All you have to do now is print whatever name you choose to use on each one, and then while I’m giving the sermon, put one under the wiper on each windshield. If all goes well, when church lets out, it won’t matter what’s on each sheet.”
She looked over at him and blushed scarlet. She wondered if he had looked at them. Seen her in that horrible, submissive pose again.
He knew what she was thinking, and was angry with himself that he couldn’t reassure her. He’d not only looked at the print out and the copies, but he had studied them more carefully than he cared to admit, even to himself.
“Do you really think this is going to work?”
“We have to try, don’t we?”
She nodded and took the oversized envelope he was handing her.
“I can’t do any more, Paige. After the sermon, you and I will have done everything possible to get Joshua back. Whatever happens after that, we’ll just have to deal with it.”
“We could both lose our jobs.”
“We could.”
“I might have to leave the state, maybe even the country.”
“If you do, I’ll go with you.”
“How can you be so sure of this, Cayce?”
“God has His reasons for things, Paige. He wouldn’t have brought you into my life like this, just to yank you right out of it. He’s the ultimate matchmaker. If such a bad thing had to happen, at least He did this for us. That’s something. Do you have any feelings for me, Paige?” he asked and the hope in his eyes floored her.
She thought for a moment, unable to take her eyes from his. “I don’t know. I just don’t know right now. I know I trust you, and I know I want you to kiss me and hold me again when I can concentrate on you and the feel of you. But I’m very worried.”
“About Josh?”
“Yes. And us. How can we possibly start a relationship after everything that’s gone on between us is known. How can we go on when we’ve both lost our jobs and we’re scandalized in the community?”
“Let God worry about all that. And me, let me worry some. And like I said, we’ll deal with whatever we have to. As long as we get Josh back, we’ll deal with all the rest. Now kiss me and go get ready for church.”
She tilted her head while he bent his to hers and their lips met softly, almost reverently. Feather-light, he brushed his lips along hers, molding them gently to his. Then he lifted his head, ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and closed his eyes. Yeah, he was definitely in love. No doubt about it. Not a one.
Chapter Twenty-four
“And so I ask, how can any one of you know God’s will in your life? How can you know for sure what it is He expects of you? I’ll tell you how you can know, and know for sure, beyond any doubt. If you show Him an obedient heart, if you let Him know that you are truly only concerned with His will and not yours, then you can overcome. Things will be set right, even the things that Satan has had a hand in. So my brothers and sisters, today, he has a test for you. A test of wills—yours, fueled by the devil’s wishes and curiosities, against His. His righteousness, His all-knowing truth. So don’t ask why, or how, or who, just accept that He has faith in you to do the right thing, and the right thing is to honor Him with your obedience. For you to revere His decision and turn away from sin. For sin is surely what you are being led to. Let us show our solidarity, our blind faith and devotion to the one who loves us unconditionally. Our love for the God who sent His son to guide us, and then allowed Him to die on the cross for us, must be strong. As His love for us knows no bounds, let us revel in that love and allow Him to redeem us. It sets us apart from sin, and from the desires of the flesh that keep us from being one with Him. Let us all be an example to the next man. Let’s pass this test of faith and let Him see us strong and Christ-like instead of weak and easily led by evil. Remember, what you do, you are doing for one of us, one of Jesus’ beloved. In Christ’s name, we commit out hearts and our minds to His service. Amen.
“Your test is in front of you. You will all find a small card stuck in the crease of the last page of the hymnal. It says simply, that when you go out to the church parking lot, you will find a folded piece of paper tucked under your windshield wiper. If you want to pass this test and honor the Lord, your God, you are commanded to take that piece of paper, without unfolding it, for it is the work of the devil, and place it in one of the trash cans that have been placed at the curbs. Triumphantly, we as the united body of Christ, will stuff Satan’s evil in the ashes. His evil deeds will burn as every sinner will burn in hell, but we, we will be victorious over sin. It will not touch us. We will dispose of it before it can eat into our minds, our hearts, and our bodies. Take your cards now, read them and do God’s bidding. Let us rejoice in singing as we all march to be obedient.”
Everyone stood as one, with card in hand, and as Cayce led them in song, he also led them out to the parking lot where Paige had interspersed every trash can the church owned between the cars. The contents of ea
ch wire cage had been set afire and there were flames licking the rims. On each vehicle there was a folded white sheet of paper.
Cayce, in great voice was still singing. “For He is Lord, He has risen from the dead and He is Lord, every knee shall bend, every heart confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.” Dramatically he tore the paper from under the wiper of his own car, marched purposefully to the nearest burning waste basket and dropped it into the flames. One, by one, they all followed suit. Until finally all the papers had been burned and accounted for. All except one. Deacons, stationed in each row, had been instructed to count how many papers had been fed into the cans. Paige had put out eighty-nine, eighty-eight had been burned.
Cayce led everyone in thunderous applause as the last person marched up to a can and dropped the folded white paper into it. Peer pressure being what it was, and with everyone watching to see if anyone was going to go against God’s wishes and disobey, it was really no problem destroying all the evidence of Paige’s desperation. Yet, when Paige and Cayce conversed, they had to acknowledge that someone had managed to slip one into their pocket, and without saying, they both knew exactly who that someone had to have been. The monster had her picture, her dirty, vile, nasty, pornographic picture. He had what he wanted, now all they had to do was wait for Joshua to be returned. Behind the closed door of Cayce’s office in the now-empty church, in the shelter of Cayce’s arms, Paige wept. For fifteen minutes, she cried her heart out while he held her. Then together they walked through the fellowship hall to the church. Silently, they both knelt at the altar and they prayed.
Then Cayce lifted Paige by her elbow and turned her to him.
“I’ll stay here, you go home and we’ll wait. He’ll probably drop him off someplace innocuous. I’ll call the police and alert them to be on the lookout for him.”