Wicked: Sweet Temptation [Wicked Series Book 4] by Lily Graison

buzzing inside her head.
    The regular hymns were sung and she mouthed the words hoping no one would know she wasn’t participating. When her father started his sermon, she stared down at her lap and knew every word he said was directed at her. She listened for over ten minutes before tuning him out.
    Faint whispers started at the back of the sanctuary and her father’s words slowed, the volume in which he was speaking lowering until he stopped completely. When the whispers grew in volume and people started shifting in their seats, Faith looked up. Her father was staring at the back of the church and like everyone else in the room, she turned to see what he was looking at.
    Her heart nearly stopped when she did.
    “I’m in the middle of a sermon,” her father said.
    “I can wait,” Mick said. “I’ve got time.”
    “There’s nothing for you here, Mick.”
    Mick smiled. “My wife is here,” he said. “And I’m not leaving without her. I can take her now or when you’re finished. Doesn’t really make a difference to me.”
    Faith glanced back at her father. His face was red, his breaths panted out. He was livid and she knew her normally soft-spoken father was about to show a side of himself to the congregation that he never wanted them to see. She stood, hoping to diffuse the situation and didn’t know where to direct her attention … at her father or at Mick.
    Her father chose for her. “Sit down, Faith.”
    “Daddy—”
    “Faith,” he said. “I said sit down.”
    She glanced to the back of the church, her gaze finding Mick’s. He smiled at her and started down the aisle, her pulse racing with every step he took. The whispers grew louder, every person in the room watching him as he advanced and by the time he reached her, she wasn’t sure her knees would hold her up much longer.
    He stopped in front of her, smiling before saying, “I’m sorry. I act before I think and I should have never left.” He reached behind him, pulling something from his pocket before handing it to her. It was the divorce papers. “I was going to burn them but I wanted to make sure you still wanted to do that first.”
    Faith stared down at the document, the pages wrinkled, the edges torn. Her hands were shaking as she stared at it knowing what happened next was all up to her. She looked up, staring at Mick and wondered why he’d changed his mind. Does it matter?
    Her father walked to the edge of the pulpit and she turned her head to look at him. She held her breath, wondering if she left with Mick, if her daddy would ever forgive her.
    “For those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, this is the young man who married my daughter.” Audible gasps were heard through the sanctuary and Faith glanced around the room, noticing the wide eyes and whispered murmurs. “As you can see,” the Reverend said, “He not only disrupts our lives but also our Sunday worship service. For what, I’d like to know.”
    Mick turned and faced her father, leveling his gaze on him. “I came for my wife. Told you that already.”
    “Your wife? The young woman you married while so drunk you don’t even remember it?”
    Mick clenched his jaw and Faith hoped he didn’t say something they’d both live to regret. When he smiled instead she feared the worst. “I might not remember marrying her,” Mick said, “but it doesn’t make the fact that she is my wife any less true. Like it or not, Reverend, I’m not going anywhere unless Faith asks me to.”
    Her father turned his gaze on her and lifted one eyebrow. “Looks like it’s all on you, Faith. What’s it going to be? Are you ready to throw away everything you know and run off with this man because some no-name person in Vegas had you recite some vows, in which neither of you remember taking, and pronounced you married? Are you willing to sacrifice your happiness on the chance that this might all work out?”
    Mick turned and smiled at her before closing the small distance between