Free B008IJW70G EBOK by Soraya Lane Page B

buzz tore through her body. From the way he’d reacted, it wasn’t just her hiding an attraction. 
          It should have scared her, but it didn’t. She’d never felt so excited.       
           Or conflicted.
          And she still didn’t really understand what was going on. Or who their enemy even was. 
          Or how her sister could be alive.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
          “So what are my options?”
          Hunter slumped back into Sophia’s outdoor rocking chair, his big frame dwarfing it. Riley stayed perched on the wooden rail that wrapped around the porch.
          They were both exhausted from a long day outside again. 
          “You don’t need to think about that yet, just…” He kept rocking, but not talking. 
          “Just what?”
          “See how you feel in a few weeks.”
          She wasn’t the kind that could just roll with the punches. Riley liked plans, liked to know what was going on. She needed some more information here. “If I stay with you, what happens?”
          He looked exasperated. “I think you should be having this conversation with Sophia.”
          She snorted. “So I’m told that you’re meant to become my husband ,” it seemed the most appropriate word. She wasn’t happy with mate. “And yet we can’t even talk about what will happen if I go along with it?”
          “Fine.” 
          She hadn’t heard him snap before. Show a flash of anger like he had just now. Hunter stood, taking a few steps toward her. 
          She suddenly wasn’t feeling quite so confident. It was better when they had some distance between them. He didn’t come any closer, just shoved his hands in his jeans pocket and glowered at her. 
          “What do you want to know?”
          She hesitated, but saw in his eyes that he was serious. That he was actually going to answer any questions that she fired at him. 
          “If I go along with the plan, will I go back home at all, or do I have to stay here?
          “You’ll go home.” His voice was flat, like he didn’t want to be having this conversation but felt he had to. 
          “So I’d just go back and pretend like nothing happened?” Riley didn’t get this at all.
          “No, you’d go home to make everything look normal, then we’d figure out a plausible plan to get you back here for good.”
          Riley gulped. So it did mean she’d be living here forever. It made sense; she just hadn’t really given it much thought. “So I’d finish out the school year and plan to come back after that?”
          “Yeah, something like that,” he muttered. 
          It amused her, how touchy he was over this discussion. The usually cool, laid-back Hunter actually seemed rattled. 
          “And I would, ah, move in with you?” She cleared her throat, repeatedly. 
          Her question made him look up, eyes flashing with adrenalin, with the confidence she’d become used to from him. “That depends.”
          It was taking all her power to stay seated on the rail. He was making her go all hot and bothered again and she was craving some distance from him to order her thoughts.
          “On what?” Her voice was whisper-soft. 
          “Whether or not you’re ready.” His wry smile made her change the subject. Fast. 
          “Let’s say I choose not to stay, what then?”
          A dark cloud settled over his eyes, turning them dark and brooding. He was clearly trying not to make a deal out of it by shrugging.
          “You go home, pretend like none of this happened, and carry on like normal.”
           Normal . She didn’t even know what that felt like anymore. With her sister gone but really here, a bond developing with a grandparent she’d barely ever spent any time with before, and a growing attraction to a guy she