Jamie
Fourteen months and several interviews and petitions to the powers that be later and I was free to marry Eva. Edward hadn’t been kidding when he told me that the laicization process could take time. And a shitload of patience.
Fortunately, I had a few things to keep me from perseverating on the fact that Eva wasn’t Mrs. Eva Curran yet, like dealing with the fallout from the shooting. Thankfully, Eva had reacted quickly after I was shot and brought in an attorney that worked his ass off to have us both cleared. In the jury’s eyes I had committed justifiable homicide. To me, I had protected the woman who I loved, the woman who would be the mother of my children one day.
But in order to claim Eva as mine, my parishioners needed to know the truth, and that meant I had to tell people who had grown to trust me and look to me for guidance that I was leaving the priesthood because I had fallen in love with a woman. Edward had attended my final Mass and even stood beside me as I made the announcement from the pulpit. A few seconds of stunned silence ensued after I had said my peace, and I had started to panic. Then one by one, not all, but most of my parishioners had lined up in the center aisle and approached me. Some had shaken my hand, others had given me a hug. Many had thanked me for being honest with them, for being brave and strong enough to stand in front of hundreds of people and admit that I was human.
Eva had ended up resigning from Banks and Lowenstein. She had said that it was unfair for the two partners to deal with the press that followed her. But Eva hadn’t stayed unemployed for very long. My dad had snatched her up in a heartbeat and she was now happily working alongside him at his firm, sending scumbags to prison and loving every minute of it.
I had waited until things calmed down and the shooting wasn’t in the news every other minute to reenroll into medical school. As I had predicted, that process wasn’t a walk in the park. Having a student essentially drop out of medical school to become a priest wasn’t something the University of Pennsylvania encountered all too often. But after I had pled my case to the dean and explained the reason why I had left in the first place, the real honest to God reason and not the lie I had told myself for years, I was readmitted. I knew I had a long road ahead of me, but it would be worth it. With Eva by my side, making sure that I stayed focused and giving me encouragement every time I doubted myself and thought that I was too old to be going back to college, I couldn’t fail. It also helped tremendously knowing that I would be coming home to Eva every night and waking up with her in my arms each morning. At first, I had felt a little uncomfortable moving in with her, considering I wouldn’t be able to contribute financially for a while, but she quickly showed me over the course of several hours in bed how foolish I was being.
Shortly after Nate, Joe, my dad and I had gotten dressed in our tuxedos and toasted the women in our lives over a bottle of our favorite Irish ale in Nate’s kitchen, I left to see Eva. Not knowing if the ladies were decent, I knocked on Eva’s front door instead of going right in. The door swung open. “You know you’re not supposed to be here,” Cassie said with her hands on her hips. She gave me a mischievous smile. “Don’t you know it’s bad luck to see the bride before the wedding?”
“I believe in fate, darling, not luck.” Cassie’s cheeks turned bright crimson, matching the color of her bridesmaid dress to a tee. Cassie was a free spirit, the kind of girl who wanted to save the world one oil-covered seagull at a time. She was also a great friend to Eva and proved just how loyal she was when she had hopped on a plane and flew home the night I had been shot, just to be there for Eva. Cassie’s boyfriend at the time, Quinn the Highlander, had shown his true colors when he told Cassie that their relationship was over if she chose to leave Scotland and his family to help support her best friend in the States. According to Eva, Cassie didn’t take kindly to that and had promptly told that selfish motherfucker to shove that ultimatum up his ass.
Two months later, Cassie had relocated and moved to Philadelphia. Eva was thrilled to have her best friend so close again and to celebrate, Eva and I had decided to meet Cassie at the Plough and the Star for dinner. Eva and I had only been there for a few minutes when I received a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. Since Cassie hadn’t arrived yet and Eva was busy talking to our waitress, I had answered it and was shocked to hear Joe’s voice on the other end of the line. I hadn’t heard from him since the day he had walked into St. Bede’s and told me about his deceased wife and the guilt he had been carrying around for far too long. Since Joe hadn’t been a parishioner, I had assumed that he wasn’t aware that I was no longer a priest. But I had been mistaken. He had found out through some media outlet that I had left the priesthood. I had decided to take a risk and invited him to join a few friends and me for a drink, and surprisingly, he had accepted. When Joe had arrived at the Plough, I introduced him to Eva. He had been polite, shaking Eva’s hand and apologizing for infringing on our night out. Eva, of course, had told him that he was being silly and that he was more than welcome.
A few minutes later I had seen a flash of red out of the corner of my eye. Joe had been talking to Eva and me about Jake McGinnis, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback and the great numbers he was putting up when he had suddenly stopped speaking . . . and breathing. No song could have captured the way Joe had stared at Cassie as she walked over to our table and had done it justice. I had sat back in my seat and watched the fiery redhead, a woman I had grown to love like a sister, smile at Joe and I swore I could hear his lifeless heart beat once again.
No, I didn’t believe in luck. Luck didn’t bring Joe to my grief group that day, nor did it prompt Cassie to move to Philadelphia on a whim. Fate had brought Cassie and Joe together. Fate had been responsible . . . and I knew her very well.
“Hey there, handsome.” I peered over Cassie’s shoulder and saw Liz grinning from ear to ear. Marcia stood next to her and she too looked like her face was going to crack from smiling so much.
“You ladies look absolutely gorgeous,” I said. Like Cassie, Marcia and Liz blushed profusely, which caused me to chuckle.
“Flattery is going to get you nowhere, Jamie. Eva is off limits,” Liz said.
“Is that so?” I asked. Both women folded their arms over their chest as if they were determined to stick to their guns. But I knew Marcia would crumble. Just a little coaxing was all it would take. “Marcia, could you tell Eva that I would like to speak to her?”
“You’re being quite pushy, Dr. Curran,” came a voice from down the hall. Liz and Marcia were blocking my view, but it didn’t matter that I couldn’t see her. That voice of hers, that smart-assed tone she liked to use with me, made me completely hard.
“Ladies, would you mind giving us a moment? I have something to discuss with Eva.” I heard Eva’s footfalls on the hardwood floor draw closer. The sound made my heart race and I silently told my cock to hang in there. “Actually, Eva and I will meet you at the church.” The three women blushed again but this time they didn’t fight me. They knew why I was here, and it wasn’t to engage in conversation. Liz and Marcia turned and hugged Eva goodbye. Cassie was next and then they were gone.
We stood there staring at each other. I knew her dress was beautiful. I knew her hair was most likely stunning and her makeup flawless, but I couldn’t see all that. Because I had gotten lost in her eyes and the way she was looking at me. Like I was the most important person on this earth. Her heated gaze went straight to my groin and I gave in to it. I gave in to her like I knew I always would. I stalked over to her, grabbed her chin and forced her to look at me. “I should punish that smart mouth of yours.” Her eyes darkened and her lips parted. “You find me pushy, Eva?”
A whimper escaped her, making my cock throb beneath pants that were growing tighter by the second. “Demanding,” she said, her voice shaky. I trailed a finger over her quivering bottom lip and then watched her swallow hard. I knew that look. She was so damn aroused.
“You have no idea how demanding I can be.” I kept my voice low, the voice that made her body tremble with each stuttered breath she took. I knew if I reached beneath her dress I would find her panties soaked through. I cupped her cheek. “Take your panties off, Eva.”
“I’m not wearing any panties,” she said, her words dripping with sweet defiance.
“You were planning to marry me today in a church surrounded by our family and friends with your pussy bare and exposed?”
“Yes.”
So. Fucking. Perfect.
“You’re a naughty girl, Eva.” I slipped my hand beneath her wedding dress and brushed my fingers between her slick folds. She shivered and a gush of heat soaked my hand. “Do you need something, baby?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice strained.
“Do you need me here?” I asked, dipping a finger into her slick channel.
Her eyes fluttered and she grabbed onto the lapels of my tuxedo jacket. “Please,” she begged.
I feathered my lips over hers but I didn’t kiss her. Not yet. “You want me to take you in your wedding dress? Pin you against the wall and fuck you less than an hour before we are to be married?”
“Jamie, I need you.” I felt her body rise and fall as she rode my finger. I inserted a second and she gasped.
“God, you’re beautiful.” I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed to be inside her, to feel our bodies become one.
“Jamie?”
My fingers pumped into her while my thumb swirled over her clit. “Yes, baby?”
“I’m no longer on the pill.” That sentence alone could make some men’s dicks go limp and unresponsive. But for me, those six words made my heart leap and my already rock-hard shaft turn to steel. Eva and I had already discussed having children. We both wanted to start trying as soon as we were married. I just hadn’t expected it to be right now. But she couldn’t have given me a better wedding present. To think that I could possibly be meeting that green-eyed, brown-haired boy from my vision nine months from now, that I would lay eyes on his angelic face. I needed that vision to come true. I wanted my son. I wanted Eva. I wanted to get her pregnant again and again if that was God’s plan for us. “I know we discussed this, but are you truly okay with it?” She bit her lip, and I saw what looked like worry flash in her eyes.
I wanted to tell her about the vision I had the day I had been shot. But today was not the day. Somehow I knew exactly when I wanted to share the experience I had, when my wife and children had been shown to me, and God himself had spoken. I could think of no better time to reveal what I could only describe as the most sacred moment in my life to Eva than when she was holding our son for the very first time. “I don’t want to wait anymore, Eva. I need our family . . . I need you.” Crazed, I unzipped my pants and pulled out my cock. I cupped her ass and lifted her up against the wall. The tip of my cock nuzzled her entrance.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her forehead against mine. “I love you, Jamie.”
With a sway of my hips I was inside her, going deeper than I ever thought possible. “I love you, Eva.”
This was heaven. This was where I belonged. Where I never wanted to leave.