I woke up in the same position in which I must have fallen asleep. The cabin was pitch black, and I realized that I’d missed dinner.

Why didn’t Lola wake me?

I turned on the light and looked in the mirror. Blanket creases ran down my cheek. When my gaze caught the empty water bottle on the table by the door, I felt that my bladder had reached its capacity.

I don’t want to pull a Lola.

Waddling like Mrs. Windsor and squeezing my thighs shut, I rushed out the door, across the field, and headed straight for the outhouse. Night was falling, and long shadows covered most of the campground. The sky was almost dark, but there was still enough light to see the way. There wouldn’t be in a couple of minutes.

“Don’t pee, don’t pee, don’t pee,” I chanted, my voice rising with each step. By the time I made it to the outhouse, a few drops had leaked into my panties. I pulled on the handle, but the door didn’t budge.

“Hello?” a familiar voice called out. “I’ll be a while.”

“Lola? You gotta finish fast. I can’t hold it in.”

“There’s no way I can finish. I’m doing number two.”

“Lola, finish!” I said between clenched teeth.

“Well, if you want me to cut my shit, and I’m not swearing because it’s a noun, and walk out with half of it sticking out, then okay.”

Just the image of her doing so forced my pelvic floor muscles to tighten again.

“No, no. I’ll wait.” I started doing a tiny dance with my feet, turning around to wonder why they hadn’t installed a second outhouse for women, for emergencies such as this one. Women always had longer lines to the bathrooms, and then I realized that this outhouse had been opened in the first place because of an emergency, as the main toilets were closed. I almost bolted for the one the boys used on the other side of the field, but then I remembered them bragging about pulling a prank on one of their classmates with a snake.

“You know, you could use the bushes,” Lola suggested with a grunt and what sounded like a strong push from her diaphragm.

“Bushes?”

“Yes, like spread your legs, squat down, and pee on the ground. In the bushes.”

Bushes, right.

That definitely sounded much better than peeing my pants, which I was sure I was going to do within the next twenty seconds.

I hopped across the grass covered with fresh dew toward the line of the forest. Once I crossed into the darkness, I didn’t go far. God only knew how many snakes were slithering among the long grass strands. I spread my legs apart, hunkered down to the ground, and released my muscles. The fizz overpowered the sound of the forest, and I closed my eyes, relieved.

Steam rose, and while the smell of piss wasn’t pleasant, it was much better than finding a snake in the outhouse. Once the last drops fell to the grass, I shook my bottom, stood, and pulled my panties up, only to be shocked. About fifty feet away, Father Cameron was standing in the window – and he was looking straight at me. Embarrassment flushed my body with heat and shame, and so I timidly waved toward him, but he didn’t move. Father Cameron just kept on staring out the window, into the darkness.

He can’t see me.

I sure as heck didn’t see anything when I ran into the woods to pee. As I adjusted my pants and took a step forward, I saw his fingers trail up to his neck, and I stopped, watching him.

He traced the neatly tucked fabric underneath his Adam’s apple and I felt my heart drum more quickly. He slowly removed the white clerical collar from around his neck and set it on a table beside him. Then, one after another, he proceeded with the buttons to unfasten his shirt.

I should leave.

Yet my legs didn’t move. I watched his fingers slowly dance along the line of his partially open shirt, releasing the buttons, one by one, each movement more lazy than the last. When the final one popped open and the shirt spread apart, I gasped, and then held my breath. A perfectly tanned body with dark sprinkles of hair on his chest and above his belt buckle appeared. Flashbacks of seeing him like this in my office when he first came to town, drowned out the sounds of the forest. Not expecting such a beautiful sight this evening, I felt delectable shivers run through my body. When his fingers reached for the belt and he unclasped the buckle, my thighs clenched. It seemed as if he were removing the leather strap in slow motion, so tantalizingly slow that I thought he was doing it on purpose.

Holy shit!

Once he grasped the top of his pants and pulled them down over his muscular thighs, it was too late for me and any morals I’d once had. Warmth swooshed around my throat. Before my desire traveled down between my thighs, something swirled inside my stomach, tingling and arousing, and once it reached the apex of my being, that core of my existence which used to be satisfied every few days, I was in full heat, throbbing.

Leave. I should leave. I panted.

But I couldn’t. I stood there and watched him carefully fold his pants onto the chair, followed by his shirt. At that moment, to me, he was no longer a priest at our parish. He was a man. A delicious man I would have given up my faith for, and that scared me – but not enough to close my eyes and walk away.

Toned, with a lean waist and broad shoulders, he moved around the room like he owned every square inch of it. The strong demeanor and confident steps were also a turn on. I imagined the way the floor would have shifted underneath his weight, and then my mind flew in a wild direction as I pictured my body trembling underneath that same weight. I wanted to feel him over me. I needed to feel the heat of that body on mine more than the next breath.

I shook my head and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to get rid of the image. It didn’t help. When I opened them, Father Cameron was reaching his arms up, stretching them, pulling all the muscles of his abs along. He then massaged his fingers into the right shoulder, where my fingers had been earlier in the day. I felt a twitch in my palms.

He was a sinner and he didn’t even know it, because that body had to be meant for a greater good. I already knew that Father Cameron had a good heart – after all, he worked for God – but the way his physique taunted me was nothing short of the sweetest temptation I’d ever seen. Was he my test? Would he determine whether I was a good human being? I hoped it wasn’t so, because I was afraid that I’d fail.

He turned away, his tight ass muscles contracting with each step he took. That body should have been abolished by the church. They shouldn’t have allowed hot men like him within the parish’s perimeter. As he walked to the far end of the wall and turned off the light, I exhaled with relief. For the first time since he began undressing, I realized where I was, and the timing couldn’t have been better.

“Kate?” I heard Lola call out. “Are you still peeing?”

I hopped a few steps away from Father Cameron’s cabin before calling out, “I’m done. I’m coming.”

“What took you so long?” she asked.

“Do you really want to discuss our bathroom habits and how hard it is to pee in the dark and not get any on your leg? Because you know, when we squat down, it doesn’t always go straight. Besides, my bladder wouldn’t have been that full if you’d woken me for dinner.”

“Okay, there, slow down, Babbles. Sorry about your bladder. You looked so cute when you were sleeping. Father Cameron said to let you rest.”

“He saw me sleeping?”

“Yeah, but you should have seen the way he was looking at you. I’m telling you, I’ve never seen a man look at a woman that way.”

“If you’re trying to play matchmaker for me again, with a priest, please stop.”

“Just sayin’ what I saw. That’s all.”

I checked my watch. “It’s almost time for lights out. We better get our butts to the cabin before we won’t be able to find it.”

I was afraid that given the opportunity, my legs would only be able to find one cabin tonight. I followed Lola across the field, our destination illuminated by a single bulb outside the girl’s cabin door, which I’d thankfully left on before leaving. The image of Father Cameron’s body remained in my mind’s eye. I made a note to pray over and over during the night, to be freed of the sudden desires that were flowing through my body. If I wanted a chance to fulfill what could be one of my mother’s last wishes, to see Jack, I couldn’t do anything to destroy my relationship with this parish.

After all, I’d just found out that Pace held my family roots, and that my mother had possibly known one of the Cortez brothers. She could have met the same man I was hiding from.

Father Cameron promised after the retreat that we’d continue our search through the documents in the attic. Watching Father Cameron sweat up there could never get old. Then he’d laugh and smile, offer a piece of advice or provide some wisdom. I had a feeling that organizing the attic in the tower would quickly become one of my favorite pastimes.

Apparently some of the boxes had been moved to the church from the Bistro after the Cortez family abandoned the town. Maybe there would be a clue there. If we knew where the family had moved to, we could keep an eye out. We could find them before they found us. After all, it was best to keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. One thing was certain: Father Cameron was more than hot. He was exciting and mysterious at the same time, and made my body react in ways it shouldn’t. My mind was no longer the only one sinning when I thought about him because my body seemed to be entering a personalized highway to hell, one without any speed limits. I lowered my head in shame. I would never, ever invade his privacy again the way I had tonight.

Boy, was I ever wrong.