Love, Honor, and Betray by Roby, Lawson (ebook reader ink txt) 📕

This burning desire that will never go away. But like I told you before, I’m very patient.”

“I won’t call, and from now on, the only time I’ll see you is at church.”

“You do know what this is about, don’t you?”

“Yes. Me doing right by my wife and my children.”

“No. This is about your son and that incident at his school. I saw the whole story on the news. Things like this tend to bringfamilies very close together and can even help sustain a bad marriage. But only for a little while.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

“No, I don’t think so. But you’ll see.”

“Well, that’s all I called to tell you.”

“Talk to you soon,” she said.

Curtis hung up and turned into Raven’s driveway. She wasn’t standing in the doorway and he didn’t see her looking out, sohe called her cell.

“Hey,” he said when she answered. “I’m here.”

“Oh, okay. Um, Pastor, there’s something I really need to talk to you about. So, would you mind coming in for just a few minutes?”

Curtis glanced at the clock on his dashboard. “No, actually, I need to get to the church. But we can talk on the way if youwant.”

“That’s fine. I’ll be down shortly,” she said.

Curtis wondered what that was all about. Especially since she sounded disappointed about his not agreeing to come in. Nowhe wondered if there was something wrong with her car after all.

He sat for a few minutes, and Raven finally came out and got into the truck. She didn’t say anything, though, and looked outof sorts.

“So, what’s up?” Curtis finally said, heading down the street. “What is it that you wanted to speak to me about?”

“Us.”

“I’m not sure I know what you mean by that.”

She turned her body toward him. “Us. You and me.”

“But I thought we already cleared that up.”

“I thought so, too, until you asked me to stay after when our meeting was over on Tuesday.”

Curtis squinted his eyes. “And?”

“You told me I shouldn’t feel bad about these feelings I have for you.”

“No. What I said was that you shouldn’t feel bad about the things you told me.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“No. Not to me it isn’t.”

“You also said you weren’t offended.”

“Okay, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“It means you understand and that you don’t have a problem with it.”

“I think you misunderstood our whole conversation. The reason I had that little talk with you was so you wouldn’t feel uncomfortableabout anything. I was trying to clear the air so that it wouldn’t be hard for us to work together.”

“What about the way you look at me whenever I’m leaving your office? You did the same thing when I left the conference room.Even without looking back, I could feel your eyes all over me.”

Curtis wasn’t sure how she’d sensed it, but she was right. He had scanned her entire body. But that was two days ago and thiswas now. Two days ago, he’d been a confused man who was being ignored by his wife. Today, he was happily married and had nodesire to look at another woman in that way, let alone be with her.

“Look,” she said. “I won’t tell anyone. This can be our little secret. No one else will ever have to know. We can enjoy eachother, and then you can go home to Charlotte. I won’t cause any trouble. I just want to be with you. That’s all.”

“Raven, I don’t wanna talk about this anymore. I’m married, I’m not getting involved with you, and that’s that.”

“But why?”

“I just told you.”

“So are you saying that if you weren’t married to Charlotte, you and I could be together?”

“I couldn’t guarantee it, but the bottom line is that I am married. So none of what we’re talking about really matters.”

“It matters to me, Pastor.”

Curtis decided to leave well enough alone and not say anything else. But he wondered what was going on with Raven. She’d beenso apologetic the other day, but now here she was coming on to him again. He also had a feeling she’d staged her so-calledcar problem, and that her plan had been mainly about getting him inside her house. Women.

They rode the rest of the way to the church in silence but when they parked, Raven switched gears on him again.

“Pastor, please forgive me. I don’t know what came over me. I’m very sorry. My actions were completely uncalled for and ifyou want to fire me, I will totally understand. You certainly have every right to.”

“No, that won’t be necessary. We all make mistakes.”

“I promise I won’t approach you like this again. I’ll get over these feelings I have, and things will go back to the way theyused to be with us. Everything will be strictly business.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Curtis said, and they both got out and went inside the church.

Chapter 33

Curtis hadn’t been sitting at his desk for more than an hour when he asked Lana to summon Raven into his office.

“You wanted to see me, Pastor?” Raven said, walking in.

“Yes, and please close the door behind you.”

Raven did as she was told and took a seat.

“I know we basically finished this conversation during our ride here, but I just want to make sure we’re on the same pageabout everything.”

“Okay.”

“You keep saying you have all these feelings for me, and I keep telling you that I’m married. But what if these feelings ofyours don’t go away?”

“They will. It might take a while, but they will go away eventually.”

“I can live with that. But what I can’t live with is the way you’ve been approaching me. When you first did that in my office,I sort of blew it off, but now today, this was something different.”

“What was different about it?”

“Well, first of all, you lied about your car needing to be repaired. Am I right?”

Raven stared at him, clearly caught and definitely embarrassed. “I just didn’t know any other way to get you to my house.”

Curtis sighed. “Well, you know how I feel about people I can’t trust.”

“I know. And I’m