Read Reverend Feelgood for Free Online

said simply. “I need to be loved by the man of God.” And I need to try and fuck some sense into your head!
    Without another word, Nate stood and headed toward Simone’s bedroom, shaking off the promise he’d made to himself to not have sex with anyone tonight. He was a Thicke man and Simone was a Noble woman. Satisfying her was his obligation. Nathaniel removed his tailored suit jacket as he walked toward her bedroom. He watched the way her derriere moved in the form-fitting slacks and was suddenly no longer sorry for the fact that…duty called.

6
Keeping Friends Close
    Outside the patio door, a gentle wind stirred the dead leaves in the coral-colored clay flowerpots as unseasonably warm temperatures heralded February’s arrival. But Jennifer Stevens didn’t notice. She was too busy looking at the picture that had burned into her conscience from the moment her eyes beheld it the previous Sunday: the sly smile and secretive wink she’d seen her pastor, Nathaniel Thicke, bestow on Simone Noble’s daughter. Simone’s daughter, for God’s sake! A frickin’ child!
    Too keyed up to sit, Jennifer rose from the table by the patio and walked outside. She wrapped arms, clad in a wool sweater, around herself. Despite the bright sun, there was a chill in the air—just like the cold she felt in her heart. Jennifer had been in church her whole life. She knew the games and how they worked, knew the signs of a member slippin’ and dippin’ with the pastor or some other senior sanctuary official. That’s why she knew without a doubt that Simone Noble and Nate Thicke were screwing. That bitch thinks she’s God’s gift to the universe. But what was up with the wink?
    “Forgive me, God,” Jennifer said out loud. For all the sins her current mood enlisted—jealousy, envy, coveting, etc.—Jennifer truly loved God and tried to live the life of an upstanding Christian woman. Before happily succumbing to Nate’s charms, she hadn’t been with a man for almost ten years. But from the time Nate had preached at her former church a year and a half ago, Jennifer’s focus had been singular: to be by his side. She’d prayed and prayed for a sign from God, one that Nate was meant to be her husband or at the very least that moving to Texas was God’s will. After not getting a message from on high, at least one that she wanted to hear, she’d given a thirty-day notice at her job, gone online to find another one, and it wasn’t long before she was moving from Kansas City to Palestine.
    Jennifer had arrived at Gospel Truth Church with a written recommendation from her pastor, King Brook, and—she discovered shortly after her arrival—something to help Nate get what he wanted. A casual conversation with one of the members had clued in Jennifer to Nate’s desire to become a Total Truth member. Jennifer had wasted no time in setting up an appointment, and remembered how making one with his assistant, Katherine, had been almost as hard as she’d imagined it was to see President Obama. She’s guarding the man so tough you’d think they were screwing. Remembering that spontaneous thought gave her pause. And then she’d decided there was no possible way a man like Nate would be with a woman like Katherine. Granted, at one time Katherine had probably been a beautiful woman, like her daughter. But Nate had too many choices among the goo-goo-eyed females in his congregation to lay down with a heifah old enough to be his mother.
    Jennifer had been so deep in thought that she jumped when the phone rang. “Hey, Patricia.” Patricia Cook was the woman who’d told Jennifer about Nate’s Total Truth member aspirations, as well as confirmed that Simone and he were screwing. Then she’d shared some news that Jennifer hadn’t expected: that Patricia was screwing him too.
    “Jennifer, something is going on, girl!”
    “What?”
    “I don’t know. That’s why I’m calling you.”
    Did Patricia catch the same wink I did, from Nate to