Free Conrad, Kelly - Rogue Preacher (Siren Publishing Ménage and More ManLove) by Kelly Conrad Page B

his jaw back and forth. “You bastard!” he shouted. “You ain’t turned your back on God at all. Your faith is just as strong as it ever was. You just took a little vacation, that’s all.”
    “I guess that means the frontier preacher is back!” Sunset shouted.
    “Somethin’ tells me he never left.”
    “Look,” Sunset began, “I don’t know what happened to me that day at my wife’s grave, but I know one thing. You ain’t turnin’ me into a drawing card for your greed.” He pointed toward the empty tent. “I saw miracles out there tonight! I saw salvation enter men’s souls! I saw Jesus use me just like he did before, and if you think I’m throwin’ all that away just so you can line your pockets with their life’s blood, you’re as crazy as you look!”
    “You all right?” Chick said, running in.
    “Yeah,” Vince answered. “I guess I just shouldn’t have let myself get mixed up with a…Christian!” He turned back to Sunset. “Do you know where you’d be right now if it wasn’t for me?”
    “Somewhere preachin’ the gospel!”
    “Yeah, you’re right. And after that you’d be out in back of the tent fuckin’ some cowboy’s ass.”
    “At least I wouldn’t hate myself.”
    “Oh, yeah, you’d hate yourself all right because you’d still be carrying around a load of guilt that would kill a lesser man. But you are what you are, Sunset! Don’t you understand that? When I came along, I picked you up off the ground, fucked you with a ten-inch rod, and showed you what it was like to be with a man.”
    “You also got me here! Cheatin’, swindlin’, and lookin’ like a fool! Well, I ain’t a fool no more. This is where it ends, Vince. You go your way, I go mine!”
    “Yeah? Who you gonna get to fuck your ass, Sunset?”
    Sunset turned his back on Vince and lowered his head in his hands. He had no answer, and the pain inside him felt like a knife piercing his heart. He wanted Vince. He even thought he might love him. He didn’t want him to leave, but God was pulling at him on one side, and Vince was pulling at him on the other. He knew that sometime tonight he would be burning up with need, and only a cowboy’s ass could make it go away. But what could he do? He couldn’t stand the thought of cheating those people. Hell, maybe he had been a little dishonest with their donations in the past, but it wasn’t for his profit. It was for his pleasure. And he couldn’t help it. He had a need inside him—a drive. And it was still there. No man was perfect. He knew that. Everyone sinned a little in his life. You couldn’t live on this earth without sinning.
    God knew that—but Sunset knew it most of all.

Chapter Eight

    The next night when Sunset was in the pulpit, he noticed a man sitting off to the side writing something in a notebook. He tried to ignore him, but he became curious about what he was writing. He didn’t look like the usual reporter that was constantly dogging him. They dressed more like easterners with bowler hats and wire-rimmed glasses. This man dressed like a gambler you might see on a riverboat. He had dark hair and skin, and long sideburns that met his light beard and continued along his jawline. He wore a vest, coat, and a cravat instead of a tie, and didn’t have a speck of dust on him. His clothes were expensive and totally out of place among the dirty cowpokes, drifters, and poor farmers that filled the tent. Since he’d never seen anyone like him before, Sunset wondered if he might be from New Orleans.
    That night Sunset preached with his usual passion, looking into the faces of men and women who thought he was a god. “We talked about Jesus, now let me tell you about his forgiveness…”
    His words faded when he looked up and saw a cowboy with a heavy scowl on his face walking down the aisle. He immediately stopped preaching. “What do you want, cowboy?”
    “You want to tell ’em about Jesus’s forgiveness? Go ahead. Tell ’em, Sunset. Save ’em