Coveted

Chapter 4 - Mass

"The more you help people find their light, the brighter you both will shine." - Anonymous

Aylin's POV

I shook my head as I sat in the front pew of the chapel, unable to take my eyes off of the obscenely handsome man that stood before me.

It was simply impossible for a person to live so immaculately when they looked like that.

I refused to believe it.

It was not right and it was not fair.

Perhaps I was being selfish - refusing to believe what I had heard purely out of self-interest - but there was no means by which I could accept that the ethereal specimen before me had devoted himself to a higher being.

He should not have been able to deprive the world in such a way.

He had been given a face that far exceeded Adonis, and a body that seemed to have been chiselled and sculpted by the angels themselves, yet he was not putting either of them to use in the way that they were supposed to be used.

He had turned himself away from the gift that he had been given upon his birth - the gift that would allow him to expose more people to the light that he had devoted himself to.

Father Xenon had shunned his gift to reproduce - he had hindered himself from bringing more people to his faith, and I was determined to show him why this decision was wrong.

I was sent here to turn myself to a life of good, and the only way for me to do that was by helping those around me.

Just as I had lost my way, Father Xenon, too, suffered from that same problem.

The light had blinded him rather than guided him, and it was my duty - as a fellow member of his community - to help him recover his lost sight and set him back on the right path.

In a way, it wasn't self-interest at all.

I truly wanted to help this inconceivably handsome, undoubtedly sexually-deprived, young priest improve and make progress in his career.

This was all for his sake rather than mine.

This would be my first act of kindness on the path to spiritual contentment.

* * *

An elbow nudged me as I sat admiring the tall priest that easily commanded the attention of the room, my head snapping to the side and glaring as my eyes landed on Xavier.

I was already irritated that he had gotten me stuck on helper duty, but interrupting me while I was admiring possibly the most heart-wrenchingly beautiful man that I had ever laid my eyes on was very nearly crossing the line.

Xavier was just teetering on the edge of being put on my blacklist.

Xavier seemed to sense my displeasure immediately, his eyebrow quirking, though my reaction seemed not to deter him as he leaned in and whispered lowly,

"A thank you would be great."

He was definitely trying to get on my nerves.

"Thank you? You've got me stuck on helper duty. Why should I thank you?"

I practically hissed the words at him, trying to keep my voice as low as possible so as not to attract attention and interrupt the mass, but also loud enough that he could hear the sharpness of my tone.