Free The Cabin (The Cabin Novellas (Book One)) by Natalie Stark

shoulder as we lay in bed next to each other.
    “I think I do,” he smiled, the sound of the wind howling around the eves.
    “How do you know?” I asked him.
    “Don’t you think I wanted you just as much?” he said, turning his head so he could look at me. He took my chin between his fingers and kissed me lightly on the lips. I could taste myself on him.
    “It’s been a long time, Quinn,” I said, “People’s feelings change.”
    “I’m not people,” he assured me. “Did you really believe I could forget you?”
    I took a deep breath and said, “I thought there was something wrong with me. I thought you thought there was something wrong with me.”
    “Like what?” he asked, his brow furrowing.
    “That perhaps those nuns were right,” I said. “That there was something wrong – wicked – about me because I’d fallen in love with a priest.”
    “There’s nothing wrong with you,” Quinn said with a smile. “You just gave in to your sexual desires. Everyone has them.”
    “And you?” I asked, looking at him.
    “And me,” he sighed, propping his head on his arm. “I’m just flesh and blood like every other man. I know I chose to live a different life , and I honestly believed that’s what I wanted. But then...” he trailed off.
    “But what?” I pushed him.
    “You came into my life,” he said, looking up at the wooden beams which crisscrossed over the cabin ceiling. “I had feelings I’d never felt before. I tried to fight them, I really did. At first I thought I was being tested. I prayed on it and asked that the feelings I had every time I saw you – every time you brushed past me – to go. It was doubly worse for me because not only was I your priest, but I also lived and worked at the convent where you were schooled.”
    “I wasn’t a child when we met,” I said. “I was seventeen and you were twenty-two.”
    “You were young enough,” he sighed, still staring away from me and up at the ceiling. “I should have known better. That’s why I waited for you to turn eighteen before we truly gave ourselves to each other. I wanted you to be an adult. Not because it eased my conscience at all, but because I wanted you to know it was what you really wanted.”
    “It was what I wanted,” I said, pulling Quinn closer. “Our love for each other might be considered wrong by some, but is it so wrong for two people to love each other?”
    “It all depends who those two people are, I guess,” he said thoughtfully. Then, looking at me, he added, “Do you still love me, Mia?”
    “I never stopped,” I whispered. “I tried to fool myself that I had, but I hadn’t.”
    “Why did you marry Nathan then?” he asked.
    Quinn’s sudden question took me by surprise. “Nathan is kind and loving. I’ve never met anyone as patient and understanding.”
    “So why aren’t you with him now?” Quinn came back. “Why isn’t he lying next to you right now, instead of me?” He didn’t sound hurt, just confused.
    “I guess I was just kidding myself that I had found love with Nathan,” I sighed deeply. “In my own way, I do love him. I know that sounds strange after what’s just happened between me and you – but the love I have for him is nothing like the love I have for you, Quinn. I love him but I’m not in love with him.”
    “Why marry him?” Quinn pushed.
    “Because you weren’t there and I was so tired of feeling so lonely – feeling like some freak – unable to move on with my life because of what happened between me and you,” I said. “I was hoping that I might grow not to just love Nathan, but be in love with him.”
    “So why hasn’t that happened?” he asked me.
    “Because I couldn’t stop thinking about you!” I shouted, suddenly feeling pissed off with him again. “Although you weren’t there – you were, if that makes sense. I couldn’t get you out of my head. Every time I saw those scars, I thought of you. They were a constant reminder not of what we