The Pastor
Matilda Martel
Copyright © 2019 by Matilda Martel
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Cover design by Matilda Martel.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue- 5 Months Later
Epilogue - Six Years Later
Follow Me
Also by Matilda Martel
Chapter 1
Troy
I’ve never met anyone quite like Sadie. I didn’t know they made girls like her when I was 18-years-old. They sure as hell didn’t where I come from. Her beautiful face, those stunning blue eyes, that long brown hair that cascades past her shoulders in waves, her breasts, shapely legs, her tiny waist that looks like she was corseted by the Almighty himself, have kept me on a pattern of sleepless nights since the day I first laid eyes on her.
This girl is something else.
If I’d known she was here all along, I would have taken this assignment sooner, but since she’s only just turned eighteen, it’s for the best that I've only now arrived. God help me, I’m not sure I could have kept my hands to myself. I certainly would have tried, but even now, the wait to be alone with her is driving me insane with a lust I haven’t felt since middle school.
The minute she walked through the door of Gatewood Church, in that cotton candy pink dress and that tight, white cardigan wrapped around those gorgeous, round breasts that no eighteen-year-old should have, I’ve been hooked. Being a man of God, I believe everything happens for a reason and the moment I saw her, I knew she was the reason I came here. There’s no doubt in my mind. This is destiny. She’s a sugary sweet, mouthwatering slice of delicious sin just waiting for me to consume, corrupt and ultimately revel in for the rest of my days.
“Have you signed up for choir, Sadie?” I hover over her shoulder as she examines the bulletin board riddled with notices for our summer activities meant to keep people like her out of trouble. She’s been hesitant to choose, and I need to steer her towards the few I’m directing. As much as I hate to seem pushy, I’ve got two more months here and I have to put a ring on her finger before I head home.
Shaking her head, she gazes up at me and sighs. “I would feel too self-conscious to sing in a room full of people. I’m not very good. My sister is much better.”
She’s more than a foot shorter than me, tiny but full of sharp curves angling in every direction. When I draw closer the smell of her perfume makes my head spin and I inhale it deep, imagining all the places she sprayed it on her freshly showered naked body. It’s smells sweet and fresh, like her. I’m desperate to have it sink into my skin or the fabric of my jacket so I can throw it over my head and smell her scent when I stroke off tonight.
Placing my hand on her shoulder, I lean in. “I bet you’re a fine singer. Who said you weren’t? Your mama?”
Sadie’s mother is notorious for knocking her youngest daughter down a few pegs on a regular basis. First thing on my list after we’re married, is getting my angel as far away from her brow-beating mother as possible.
She nods, and then gazes up, batting her dark lashes to keep her misty eyes from producing tears. She’s the prettiest little thing I’ve ever seen and my heart aches to steal her away from a family who doesn’t see her worth.
And I will. Soon.
“Why don’t you come anyway? If you don’t feel comfortable singing, you can help me by playing piano or hand out sheet music.”
She smiles, chewing her bottom lip, the same bottom lip I’ve fantasized about licking, biting and seeing wrapped around my hard cock. I’m a weak man. A weak man who needs to move away from this goddess before the stiffening I sense against my leg hardens to a shameful tent before the sermon begins. Things would be so much easier if I could wear a robe, but the head pastor prefers to stick to suits.
It’s been most inconvenient.
For the last four Sundays, I’ve finished the hour in agony, confused and restless after spending every ounce of mental energy warding off an erection from staring at the beautiful brunette in the fifth row.
She signs the roster and replaces the pen.
“Will you please put in a word with my mother? She’ll think I’m choosing choir practice because it’s at night. She doesn’t trust me.”
An idea springs to mind and my pulse quickens with anticipation. “I’ll do better than that, Sadie. You and I don’t live too far apart, I think.”
I know exactly where she lives.
“Why don’t I tell your mother I’ll give you a lift to and from choir practice? I’m sure she won’t question your motives if I escort you here and back home again.”
She nods with glee. “That would be wonderful, Pastor Donovan. Mama wants me to spend time here over the summer, but there isn’t very much that appeals to me. Choir sounds fun.”
“I’ll make sure you have loads of fun. And please call me, Troy.” I struggle to contain the wicked smile that is surely creeping over my mouth.
This might work. If I can get her alone, I can make a better impression. If we’re alone, maybe she’ll see me as a man, and not her heavenly advisor. She has Pastor Reynolds for that. I need to woo this angel, properly.
Parting ways, I make a frantic search for her mother. That old bat will listen to anything I say if I catch her with her friends. She’ll love that I’m giving her daughter special attention. These hens are all the same. And I’ll play their game, if it gets me Sadie.
This is the girl for me. She is the reason I’ve held out marrying when town after town, assignment after assignment, mothers have pushed their single daughters on me as soon as they hear I’m an unmarried pastor.
Sadie Quinn is going to make me a very happy man. She just doesn’t know it yet.
Chapter 2
Sadie
“Pastor Donovan? Are you trying to seduce me?” I giggle as I stare at my legs in the mirror, remembering the line from that old movie The Graduate. I know he likes them. He stares long and hard, salivating like a hound dog, every time I walk by. It must be hard to be such a handsome man and be forced to live a life of constant denial.
I wonder why he hasn’t married.
He must be in his mid-thirties by now. Surely, some woman must have caught his fancy. Pastors always want to settle down and start their families young. Daddy says he’s due to get his own church somewhere up north after the summer is through. Maybe he’s waiting until he’s settled in his own place. What a shame. I’ll be sad to see him go. It’s been nice having that tall drink of water with seductive green eyes to gaze at every Sunday morning.
Sometimes, I imagine he’s looking right at me. It’s silly, I know.
Brushing my hair, I consider his offer once again. Mama is thrilled, of course. I wasn’t lying about being a terrible singer. But then again, I’ve never truly tried. That was always Sally’s thing. My older sister has such a beau
tiful, angelic voice, you’d think Christ himself opened the heavens every time that sourpuss sang one of those silly hymns. I’ve never been one for competing in things I know I can’t win. And I’m fine with her having the nicer voice.
I suppose, God needed to give her something to help her catch a husband.
Now that she’s away at school, and my brother is off and married, I’m the only one left for Mama to pick on. And she’s so good at it. It’s a wonder she doesn’t teach classes on how to ruin your daughter’s confidence and stomp on her dreams.
“Good girls don’t look like you, Sadie. Your body was created for sinful things.”
Mama’s been drilling those words into my impressionable mind ever since I developed, and then quickly overdeveloped at the age of fourteen. Her condemnation of my natural assets and paranoia that they would not only get me into trouble, but humiliate her in the process, has made my life a living hell. By the time I turned eighteen, Mama has put in overtime following me wherever I go and now she wants me to spend my last summer before college volunteering at church.
If we belonged to a small church in a small town, it wouldn’t be so bad. But we don’t. My parents attend an insufferable megachurch with too many people, too many pastors and no soul. My poor father works his fingers to the bone just to donate enough money to that church so my horrible mother can look like the grandest Christian lady in town. She loves being a queen bee with her own designated pew, strolling into church dressed to kill every Sunday just in case she has a chance to come out on the televised version that airs on public access.
She must feel like some sort of movie star.
Making me volunteer is both practical and opportunistic. She can keep an eye on me there and she looks like Mother of the Year for having raised such a hardworking, humble, and charitable daughter.
When Pastor Troy Donovan, the most handsome pastor at Gatewood and who’s been the talk of the town since he arrived last month, approached her in a crowd of friends to request that I help him with youth choir practice, she just about fainted with pride. She hasn’t stopped bragging since yesterday.
Thumbing through my dresses, I search my closet for something nice but not too flashy. I want to make a good impression. He must hear so many bad things, gossip and talk started by my own mother, I don’t want him think I’m not there to work.
No matter what Mrs. Mary Alice Quinn thinks, Sadie Quinn is not a bad girl.
Chapter 3
Troy
The choir director and my fellow Junior Pastor, Chase Wilder, has ill intentions. I feel it in my bones. Ever since we arrived, he’s sought excuses to loom over her while she plays, turning her music and making small, barely humorous quips that only serve to make her boobs jiggle while she laughs.
This is outrageous!
I need to tear her away from his pervert grasp before he corrupts my angel with his seedy urges. Nothing he’s done is pounce-worthy, not yet. He's kept his hands to himself, and although I’m positive he’s ogled her inappropriately more than once, I have no fast and hard evidence to call him out.
Drawing a few breaths, calming myself, I gather the singers from the back, leading them to the pews for a break. I want to take Sadie for a walk before it grows dark. He’s been monopolizing her since we arrived, and I’ve hardly had a chance to ask her about her plans after summer. I know what she’ll be doing. She’ll be with me in New Hampshire. But it’s best to find out her dreams and aspirations now in order to help put them in motion for her in New England.
Sadie and I are fated. There’s no doubt in my mind she’s leaving with me. But I need to get her alone to convince her we’re perfect for each other. And I’ll never do that with this scoundrel hovering over her and placing his goddamn hands on her shoulders...
“Alright, that’s enough!” I bark, marching over, scaring them both out of their wits.
Sadie looks up, blushing from her cheeks to her chest, her pupils dilated and possibly turned on from that lowlife’s groping.
I’ll kill him.
“What’s enough?” Chase feigns ignorance as he backs away from my girl.
“You know what you were doing. Mrs. Quinn left me in charge of Sadie, and I didn’t bring her here so you could fondle her.” Taking her hand, I walk her outside and immediately regret my boorish behavior. It’s not like me to be such a caveman, but I know what that jackass has in mind. I know because it’s more than likely exactly what I’m thinking, and I don’t want anyone else in this world thinking those things about her.
“I’m sorry, Sadie. I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I probably overreacted.” I mumble a poor apology and follow her to my car.
I wasn’t planning on taking her home yet, but she seems upset with me. She has every right. I’ve taken liberties. If she was a few years older and I wasn’t a pastor, she might have stood up and slapped me and I would have deserved it. I’m not her father and I’m not her husband, not yet. Even if I was, I’d still have no right to do that.
Who am I kidding? If she was my wife, I would have knocked him out the moment I caught him leering at her ass.
Tugging her sweater, buttoning it to the highest button, a small quiver escapes her bottom lip. Stopping in her tracks, she looks around us and I watch her eyes grow sad as she searches the horizon for something to look at, anything but the jerk standing next to her. I’ve made her ashamed. I’m no better than her horrible mother.
You, unbelievable asshole.
Before we reach the car, I jump in front of her, waving my hands to get her attention and hopefully elicit a laugh. It doesn’t work. She looks confused. Staring up at me, incredibly befuddled, her mouth falls open then closes again. Words escape her. That's fine, this is my doing. Leaning down, I lift her chin.
“That wasn’t about you, Sadie. I’m so sorry. I was mad at him. You didn’t do anything.” A lonely tear falls down her flushed cheek and she pulls away.
Frowning, she purses her lips and huffs.
“You only think something bad was happening because you believe the things my mother says about me. But that’s not me. You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about me and neither does my mother. I thought you were different, but you’re not. Please, take me home.”
She shuffles past me, gripping her bag tightly to her chest like an elderly woman who’s afraid she’ll get mugged.
Running after her, I reach the car and unlock it, standing in front of the door to block her entry. “Sadie, you’re right. I don’t know you.”
She pouts and sniffles, exhaling slowly to steel herself. If she continues, my heart will break.
“Sweetheart, I don’t believe anything your mother says about you. What happened back there was all about me. I like you, Sadie. And not like a pastor. I just like you. I like you very much. Do you understand?”
Her big, blue eyes widen with surprise and her faded blush returns.
Stuttering, she looks down. Perhaps she’s afraid to look me in the eye when she rejects me.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t understand, or you wish I hadn’t told you. I didn’t want to tell you this way, but I don’t want you believing my outburst was about you. It was me. I was jealous he was touching you. I’m sorry.”
She wipes her tears and lets down her guard.
“Thank you, for telling me. I won’t tell anyone. Please, don’t say anything to my mother. She won’t let me come to practice if she knows.”
“I won’t. Will you come have a quick bite with me before I take you home? We have another hour.” I take her hand and kiss it gently, making her giggle.
Her soft laugh melts my heart and reminds me of her age. She’s eighteen. I’m twice her age. She doesn’t look eighteen, not with that body, the body I fantasize about deriving every ounce of conceivable pleasure known to man, but those are the facts.
She’s a young, innocent, naïve girl and the worst part is, that makes me want her even more.
Chapter 4
Sadie
“Mama wants me to go to school in north Texas with my sister Sally and I’m set to join her, but that’s not really what I want.” I hold a finger to my lips and swear him to secrecy with a small pinky tug. He smiles, almost laughs, his green eyes shining with affection as he throws in an extra snap.
I know I’m treating him like a teenage girl, but Mama never lets me out of the house and Sally was never much of a friend. So far, he doesn’t seem to mind.
He leans in across the table, offers me some of his strawberry milkshake and watches me leave a large smear of lipstick on his straw.
“Gee, I’m sorry. The ad specifically said it doesn’t come off easily and look at all that.” I try to wipe it off with my napkin, but he pulls it away, simply switching it out with another.
“I’m glad you’ve confided in me, but you haven’t told me what you want to do instead of school. You must have some idea.” He tilts his head and passes me the basket of fries we’re sharing.
Shrugging my shoulders, I shake my head and dismiss his question. “It’s nothing, really. I do want to finish school, but I’m in no hurry. Mama doesn’t know I graduated with my associate degree from taking college courses and exams in high school. Daddy knows, he encouraged me. I have the drive to finish at my own pace.”
“But?” He raises an eyebrow, sensing I’m not quite done.
“But I want to move away. Further away than north Texas. I want to have a simple life, get married and start my family. I’ll be a good mother, not like mine. I want to work with children one day, but for now, I want my own.” I sound childish planning for a family when I’ve never been allowed to date.
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