The bed attempted to swallow Adam, and he didn’t want to resist its pull. If Mrs. Janina knew the extent of his involvement in the desecration, she’d have whipped him herself.
Now, he would lose one more shield against sin, because he couldn’t admit that the scourge belonged to him.
“Then we better stay here. Keep the crime scene untouched.”
Mrs. Janina eyed him, as if she could see right through his laziness, but she nodded in the end. “True, I’ve seen that kind of thing on crime shows. I will indulge you in a late breakfast, Father, but I wouldn’t like these migraines to turn into a habit.”
As if he could control a migraine. If he actually had one.
She looked at the window. “Fresh air should help with your headache. Come over when you’re ready.”
Oh, how merciful she was.
Adam only relaxed when the door closed.
He wasn’t hungry anyway. Who would have been after having another man hammer his cock inside them?
He’d showered twice last night, but it hadn’t stripped his skin of Emil’s scent. The rotten part of him whispered that he should be thankful that he got to experience sex at least this once, regardless of the circumstances.
Because he had wanted it. Emil had kissed him in dreams that made Adam sweat and his cock swell, and as much as he detested it, the demon had given him exactly what he desired and in its twisted way, satisfied a craving Adam had been struggling with all his life.
But there was another possibility, one that frightened Adam even more. Mental illnesses often ran in the family, and while his mother had never been diagnosed, some of her paranoid behaviors skirted the edge of pathology. If there had been no supernatural intrusion, then he was losing his grip on reality.
The little boy inside him longed to talk to someone more experienced, but Father Marek was an older man, set in his ways and, like Adam used to, didn’t believe supernatural powers affected people’s lives in dramatic ways. And a man of his generation might be wary of living under the same roof as someone who suffered from delusions. Pope Francis himself said he did not want mentally unstable young men to take on the priesthood. If anyone found out, Adam’s career in the Church, the one way he could serve the Lord, would be over.
He glanced at the pilled black sweater he’d neatly folded on the chair. Even though it smelled of washing powder, it still carried a faint aroma of Emil. A bit of nicotine, fresh wood, and a dark cologne Adam had breathed in as Emil’s cock pulsed inside him.
Despite the bitterness of last night, Emil had believed Adam. But now that they were apart, Adam was freaking out, because he couldn’t check whether his hands had really left burns on Emil’s flesh.
He lay still for endless minutes, gaze settled on the black sweater, but he could avoid Mrs. Janina for only so long and left his room, keeping his guard up as high as possible. The scent of tea was the first good thing that happened to him since last night, but he stopped in front of the kitchen, feeling awkward about breaking up Mrs. Janina’s phone conversation. She was talking to someone about being unable to lend them money. Hardly a topic she’d like to share with him, but he chose not to make the same mistake he had on the first day of his stay in Dybukowo and stepped inside, intent on going straight to the dining room. But halfway through the kitchen, he looked out of the window and spotted a tall figure in black.
Emil was hitching Jinx to the gate at the front of the church.
Adam wasn’t ready to face him, not in daylight, not ever. Not when every move he made reminded him of the intense sex they’d had last night.
Mrs. Janina put down the handset, unaware of Adam’s distress. “I bet it’s those boys from Myszkowice. They come riding through Dybukowo on their motorbikes every now and then. Police won’t do anything about them, and I’ve called them about it many times.”
“Mrs. Janina? Please tell him I’m not in,” Adam said and ran before she could have finished asking who Adam was talking about.
He burst into his room and shut it before diving back under the covers. Maybe the comforter would choke him to death, and that would be the end of his misery.
Enclosed in the burning hot cocoon, he listened to his own breathing in the cave made of fabric and down. In. Out. In Out.
Maybe the devil already left his body, and he was now free? He needed to have faith and wait before he did something that couldn’t be undone.
“What the hell, Adam? I can see you,” Emil said from just a couple of paces away, and when Adam peeked out from under the covers, Emil was already climbing inside through the narrow window.
Cleaned up, in those sinfully tight jeans and a T-shirt with the words Not Today Satan, he was the last person Adam wanted to see.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Adam whispered, glancing at the closed door. “What if she hears that you’re here?”
Emil spread his arms. “What are you even talking about? You were possessed by a demon last night, and you care what Mrs. Luty would say if she saw me in your room? Are we fifteen?”
Adam’s face boiled, because when Emil stepped his way and the T-shirt tightened around his torso, all he could think about was the way Emil held him down last night. “You’re one to talk. What is that print? Are you making fun of me?”
Emil grinned, looking down at the words on his T-shirt. “I thought it was appropriate. All others in my collection are more like ‘nice to see you, Satan’.”
Adam pushed back the comforter and rose, stepping toward the door in order to put some distance between him and the object of his very-real wet dreams. “We shouldn’t be alone like this.”
Emil cocked his head. “You wanna tell Father Marek the devil sat you on my dick?”
Adam swallowed, stepping back as guilt seamlessly intertwined with arousal, both pushing him away from Emil and inviting him closer. “You’re so crude. I don’t want to discuss this ever again.”
“Listen, I’m not here to talk about your repressed sex issues, but I will not be dismissed about magic. We need to explore this, find out more. It could be ground-breaking. I couldn’t sleep last night. I was thinking that maybe what is happening to you has something to do with Mrs. Zofia’s murder. Aren’t crows associated with witches and magic, like black cats and goats?”
Adam had no right to demand anything from the man he’d rejected, but it still stung to know that while he’d been sleepless over visions of their brief time together, Emil had focused on magic and demons. But what did Adam expect? Sex was nothing out of the ordinary for someone like Emil, so why would he see last night as special in any way?
“I don’t know. There’s no magic. I feel fine now. I’m sure we had some kind of collective hallucination. Or folie à deux,” he said, pushing his fingers through his hair while circling the perimeter of his room to avoid getting too close to the beautiful beast who had invaded his safe haven. His stupid brain kept suggesting that Emil was the dragon to storm his tower, but in that scenario, he’d be a princess. He did not like that analogy much.
Emil shook his head and peeled off his T-shirt. Adam had seen him naked, and in detail at that, but right here, in the bright sunshine, he was a sight to behold. Thick, meaty pecs, pink nipples, and a powerful chest dusted with dark hair.