Free Counting on Cayne (Hallow River Book 1) by Ada Rome Page B

the backs of my hands. Aunt Lu held my shoulders firmly
and looked directly into my tear-rimmed eyes.
    “What are you going to
do now?” she asked.
    “I don’t know,” I
sighed. “You saw the texts. I can’t stay here. He’ll find me. I’m putting
everyone that I love in danger. You, Cayne---”
    “Cayne?” she asked.
    I realized with a jolt the
truth of the confession I’d just made. I was falling in love with Cayne. But that
was a part of the story I wasn’t yet ready to share with Aunt Lu. I shook my
head. She allowed it to pass.
    “Brinley, listen to me.
You’re not going anywhere.” She grasped both of my hands in hers. “You are
staying right here. You are not running and you are not hiding from this
monster. If he comes, we will face him together. Do you understand me?”
    I started to peep out a
protest, but she cut me short.
    “Do…you…understand…me?”
She spaced out her words with precision and weight. She gripped my hands tight.
    “Yes, ma’am,” I said
weakly.
    At that moment, Georgie
ran into the kitchen with an excited squeal and leapt onto Aunt Lu’s lap. He
wore a pajama set covered in little pictures of trains and carried a stuffed
green dragon. Displaying a child’s innate empathy, he saw my red eyelids and
wet tear-streaked cheeks and thrust the dragon across the table.
    “Here,” he said with
high-pitched emphasis. I laughed despite myself, took the dragon, and hugged it
tightly to my chest.
    “Thank you,” I said as
he gazed back at me with innocent saucer eyes. I looked up at Aunt Lu and
managed a thin smile.
    “Thank you,” I repeated.
    She nodded and smoothed
Georgie’s corn silk hair.

Chapter 8
     
    “You look beautiful.” Cayne
looked admiringly at me as he opened the door of his pickup truck. The sky
glowed rose with the last flickers of sunset. He offered a hand to boost me
into the front passenger seat. “New dress?” His eyes rested hungrily on my
chest and the deep cleavage revealed by my plunging neckline.
    “As a matter of fact, it
is.” The dress, which I’d picked up at a local shop on my way home from work, was
a pale yellow cotton in an eyelet print with a halter top that tied around my
neck, a high waist, and a short flared skirt. The back was low and open. I felt
Cayne’s cool hand sweep down my spine just before I dropped into the seat.
    “So, where are we
headed?” I asked. As usual, Cayne was behaving as a man of few words and many
mysteries. After calling me earlier in the day to invite me to dinner, he had refused
to give any direct answers to my several inquiries about our plans.
    Now, in response to my
question, he just grinned, his dimple popping adorably into place, and ran his
hand under my yellow skirt and smoothly up my thigh, stopping with his fingers
just brushing against the seams of my panties. I could feel myself already
getting wet. My nipples grew hard under the thin cotton of my halter top. My
body reacted to Cayne’s nearness with an electric power that I had difficulty
controlling. I felt my neck prickle pink and took a deep breath to steady my
pulse.
    He maneuvered through
the quiet streets in the gathering twilight and stopped in front of an
industrial-style cement building. A hand-painted sign over the entrance read Hallow
River Community Center in bright green, red, and blue letters.
    “Here we are.” Cayne put
the car in park and looked over at me.
    “ This is our
destination? The rec center?” It was the place where I had spent nearly every
Saturday morning from the time I was five years old until I was eighteen. It
was where I first learned to dance and where I later taught classes.
    Fluttering paper flyers
taped to the windows advertised story time readings and basketball tryouts. A
row of abstract preschooler art rested on the inner window ledge.
    “It sure is our
destination.” Cayne laughed at my dismay. “Don’t ever say that I don’t know how
to show a lady a good time. Come on.”
    He hopped from