Carnal Desire

WET and ready… she bit her lip at the glorious sight in front of her.

Penelope watched Nicholas put on his shirt after fixing the broken faucet in her house. The man was freaking hot with or without a shirt on, but he was deliciously gorgeous every time he did those manly chores inside her house. 

“It’s done,” Nicholas told her and smiled. “Next time, don’t smash the faucet when you’re pissed off or just not in the mood.”

Penelope giggled. “Why don’t you just stay here with me, Nic? I need a hand here,” she said and almost choked on her choice of words. Fuck, oh, yeah, I badly need his hand down there…

“I wish I could,” he said and laughed. “But you know that I can’t, Penelope.”

She sighed; Penelope wished she could touch him, caress him, taste him, and feel him inside her. But she also knew that she couldn’t. She couldn’t do that to her best friend, and she shouldn’t do that to a priest. Desiring him, even in her wildest dreams, was a sin.

But Penelope knew she couldn’t control her thoughts, her feelings, her emotions. Especially when Nicholas was so heavenly handsome, smiling like an angel sent from heaven to give the kind of pleasure that will satisfy all her carnal needs.

She wished she could break all the rules just to be with him… Penelope wanted to sin with Father Nicholas.

***

“ARE YOU a professional beauty consultant?” the woman who looked in her late twenties snarled at Penelope. “How do you explain these wrinkles under my eyes?”

Penelope took a deep breath and controlled herself for the nth time. “The skin under your eyes is dry because of lack of sleep or too much exposure to gadgets,” she said and pointed her gloved fingers on the dark circles under the woman’s left eye. “I can see that you also oversleep sometimes. Your eye bags are a bit puffy.”

“Then my skin type is dry, right?” she said with a roll of her eyes. “I have dry skin. These lines under my eyes, I got them because my skin is dry.”

Penelope bit her lip. When she spoke again, her voice was low. “I never said that your skin was dry, Ma’am.” She took the water-based moisturizer from the shelf and placed it on her desk. “You have a combination skin type. Your T-zone and cheeks are oily, which is why you have pimples. Excess oil causes pimples.”

“Then, what’s my skin type?” the woman asked in an arched brow.

Penelope glanced at her co-consultant, Grace, who was suppressing a laugh. “Your skin type is a combination, Ma’am.” She opened the sample of their newest water-based products. “I advise you to only use water-based moisturizers on your skin, just like our Glowing Bloom water-based moisturizer.”

The woman took the glass tub from her and checked it closely. “Is it safe to use?”

“Of course, Ma’am. It’s made of organic ingredients that will help your skin bring back its moisture without putting oil on your skin. Also, please avoid oil-based products because it might trigger your breakouts and cause acne.”

The woman gasped. “Does that mean I have to give up my daily night cream?” Her face distorted as if she couldn’t let go of the skincare routine that didn’t suit her. “It cost a thousand dollars!”

“Sometimes, we have to let go of the things that aren’t good for us anymore,” Penelope said sympathetically. She forced a smile on her face when her client turned to her. “Just like your nightly routine,” she continued. “But to replace the oil-based night cream, you can use Beauty Bloom as your moisturizer at night. It has vitamin E that helps restore the glow in your skin, vitamin C to lighten your acne scars, and placenta extract to prevent the early signs of aging.”

The woman touched her face. “It will prevent the early signs of aging?”

“Yes, Ma’am. Plus, it’s water-based and not oil-based, which means it’s safe and compatible for all skin types,” Penelope replied. “And, by the way, Ma’am. You can also use this moisturizer as a makeup base because it has SPF 35 that blocks the harmful rays of the sun.”

“Really?” the woman opened the tub and smelled the cream. “And it’s—”

“Scentless,” she finished. “We don’t use perfume on our products. It’s not safe for sensitive skin.”

“Oh my god!” the woman exclaimed. “Do you also use this? Your skin is smooth and glowing.”

Penelope flipped her wavy brown hair. “Yes, Ma’am. I’m a certified Beauty Bloom user.”

______

“I WAS expecting you to blow fire in your client’s face,” Grace said to Penelope and laughed. “She’s so full of herself. Why did she go to a skincare clinic if she wouldn’t believe anything that a beauty consultant said?”

Penelope shook her head. “She even questioned if I was a professional beauty consultant.”

 “My gosh!” Grace rolled her eyes. “That kind of client is a no for me.”

“Well, at least she bought two Beauty Bloom moisturizers,” she said and focused her attention on her cup of spicy noodles.

“But I’m sure that she’ll keep coming back to you from now on,” she said. “It’s a good thing that it was you who helped her. I couldn’t handle that kind of attitude.”

Penelope shrugged her shoulders. “I dealt a lot of bitchy attitudes for decades,” she said. “She’s our client, by the way. We have to treat her right no matter what.”

“Yeah, right,” Grace muttered. “Oh, today is the official release of Justin’s comeback album!”

Penelope watched her colleague take out her phone with a knotted forehead and excitedly searched for the artist’s social media page.

“Look! He’s so handsome!” She squealed and showed her. “Justin took a one-year hiatus from show biz, and now he’s back with a new album.”

“Is he the pedophile singer?” Penelope asked blatantly.

Grace nudged her in the waist. “Come on, Penelope. Those were just rumors made by his former manager. According to his statements, he was fostering children and was part of an organization that supported homeless children for years.”

“Then, maybe that was one of his ways to get near the children,” Penelope countered. “He’ll get the trust of the staff and nuns in charge of the orphanage, so they won’t suspect him of his plans to molest the kids.”

Grace looked at her unbelievably. “I can’t believe you’re saying those hateful words against Justin. Are you a hater?”

Penelope arched her brow. “Hater?” She shook her head. “Why would I hate somebody that I don’t know?”

“That’s it!” Grace snapped her fingers in front of her face. “Same as why would you judge a person that you don’t know?”

Penelope made a ‘tss’ sound. “I’m judging him because I don’t know him. If I knew him personally and the real story behind that rumor about him, do you think I would react like this? I wouldn’t, right? Because I would already know the real story. People tend to judge other people because they seek the truth.”

“Whatever,” Grace said with a wave of her hand. “For me, Justin didn’t do anything bad. His former manager just can’t take the truth that Justin doesn’t like her. That’s why she quit as his manager and spread false accusations against him.”

Penelope laughed. “It’s easy for you to judge the former manager, huh?”

“She was proven guilty,” she said. “And Justin didn’t file charges against her for the sake of their friendship.”

“As if I care,” she said and cleaned her table. “I have to go—”

“Where are you going? I thought you were going to teach me how to cook chicken cacciatore?”

“I’ll teach you some other time,” she said. She took out her phone and checked for Nicholas’s messages. “I need to go to church now.”

“Why? To ask for forgiveness for judging my Justin?” she snorted and looked at her phone again. “Oh, Justin’s IG story is now on trending. He visited an orphanage again…”

Penelope ignored what Grace was saying. She was preoccupied with Nicholas’s message to her. Nicholas was her childhood best friend and first love. But because of their different life decisions, they didn’t end up together.

“Shoo now, you better repent for insulting Justin,” she heard Grace said.

Penelope rolled her eyes. The only sin that I wanted to repent is desiring a priest…

***