Free Bound by Lies: Bound #1 (Adult Romantic Suspence) by Hanna Peach Page B

asks
for he always leaves as my choice.
    Yes, Caden might be hiding things, but I am hiding things,
too. And whatever he is hiding, he has a good reason for it – I just know it.
    He hasn’t given me any reason not to trust him.
    So I nod and step forward, an indication for him to continue
leading me. The smile that he rewards me with is the most beautiful thing I
have ever seen. And it causes my stomach to roll with pleasure.
    “I have a surprise for you,” he says. I can hear the
anticipation in his voice. And, if I’m not mistaken, nerves. His fingers pull
on me to hurry, and I am caught in the updraft of his excitement like a
fluttering leaf. A surprise? For me?
    Oh, Caden. Every day with you is a surprise already.
    We slip through the unlocked gates. The building is low-set,
only two stories, spray-painted with the uninspired tags of bored and high
teenagers. I stumble on some broken glass, but I don’t fall; Caden catches me
with his arm around my waist.
    “I’m sorry, kitten. I wasn’t thinking.” He pulls my arms
around his neck. I feel my legs sweep from under me and his strong arms cradle
me to his chest. I am floating and it feels like heaven.
    “Close your eyes,” he says when we reach a dark,
partially-open side door.
    I do and I push my face into the crook of his neck. In the
darkness behind my lids he is everywhere – in my nose with his smoked
wood scent, blanketing my body with his warmth, in my ears with the noise of
his breath, and he takes up this space in my heart, space I didn’t think anyone
could ever fill.
    I hear the arthritic creak of the side door we enter. I feel
the difference in temperature inside. It’s warmer and still, the air smelling
faintly of turpentine and something sweet… vanilla?
    It is vanilla. The scent gets stronger as we move further
into this building. He keeps walking and the gentle rocking of his gait and the
warmth of his arms lulls me into a haze. Underneath his feet I hear crunching
glass.
    Finally he stops. “Keep them closed.” And he gently lets me
down. I find my balance with my heels on the hard ground. He maneuvers me to
face a certain direction by my shoulders, his large hands curling over them
like plates of armor. “Okay. Open them.”
    In front of me the blackness dissolves into two rows of low
candles that light up a corridor. At the end I can see an open door. The small
flames shine across every peel and bump of the wallpaper and cause long dark fingers
to flick at the ceiling.
    “It’s through the door,” he says.
    He lets me take the lead and I walk the last few steps. When
I step through the doorway my mouth drops open. The room opens up to the left,
spanning both stories of the building, high ceilings draped with pale curtains
like ghosts. And candles, hundreds of pillar candles covering the side benches
and floor and lighting the room with a warm glow. In the middle of the room is
a table covered in a white cloth, dressed with a silver candelabra lit with
three thin white tapered candles. It is set for dinner for two.
    I hear a click. Through the speakers set up across the room
a woman starts to hum, breathy and sweet, over a deep undulating note.
Something in her voice caresses the little hairs on my skin. The beat kicks in,
raw and sensual like a heartbeat.
    Caden squeezes my hand. “Do you like it?”
    No. I don’t like it. I love it. It is exactly Caden Thaine.
Softness, light and beauty set among the rough, dark and broken. I tell him so
and he rewards me with a radiant smile that outshines all these candles.
    “What is this place?” I ask as I take another step in.
    “It used to be an art college before they ran out of
funding.”
    He leads me to the table and pulls my chair out for me. He
moves to the side and I notice a silver bucket of ice on a stand. Within it is
a bottle of… sparkling grape juice. This makes me smile. Next to it is a silver
serving trolley complete with a small burner underneath to keep the