Read Counting on Cayne (Hallow River Book 1) for Free Online Page B

would
beat the shit out of him if he ever hurt her.”
    He stared thoughtfully
through the windshield for a few seconds.
    “Cami has always lived
very close to the surface,” he continued. “She’s never hiding anything. I
admire that.” He placed a hand on my leg to cover my fidgeting fingers. “Not
like us, I guess, huh?”
    I was confused by his
reference to “us.” When he mentioned hiding, I assumed that he was speaking
only of me. But I knew what he meant about Cami. I admired and envied people
who were capable of living entirely on the surface, their thoughts and emotions
an open book for the world to read. It showed a fearlessness that I had never
been able to master.
    Cayne kept his hand on
top of mine. I turned my palm up. Our fingers intertwined. “Are you hiding something, Cayne?” My pulse rate increased. I felt tingles of heat
around my neck and cheeks.
    “Maybe,” he said. His eyes
glittered in the faint moonlight. My rapid breathing sounded loud in my ears.
He leaned toward me and reached across my body, his muscular bicep grazing the
loose folds of my top. I braced against the seatback, fighting a surge of
desire that radiated through my body from the warmth of his fingertips on my
thigh to the sturdy heft of his chest pressing against my arm.
    Then I heard a click. The
passenger door swung open. Cayne straightened up, snatched his hand away, and
turned the key in the ignition.
    “Passenger door sticks,”
he said with a smirk. “I just wanted to help you out.”
    The insistent ding-ding
from the dashboard only heightened my embarrassment. I bent low and fumbled for
my purse on the floor. Cayne chuckled. I was about to call him a bastard and
stumble into the night when he gently tugged at my elbow.
    “Come here,” he said
softly.
    He lifted a section of hair
that had flopped over my face and delicately tucked it behind my ear. Then he
rested his palm against my burning cheek, brushed my lips lightly with this
thumb, and kissed me. His lips were warm and full. I tilted my head back as he
leaned in closer. His fingertips snaked down my neck and chest and under the
border of my top. He pressed his mouth firmly and hotly against mine. His
fingers danced along the rounded curves of my cleavage and then probed beneath
the black lace edging of my bra until his hand was wrapped around my bare
breast, squeezing tenderly and fondling my nipple with an expert touch.
    I wanted him to go
further. I wanted to be naked in his strong embrace and feel his moist lips and
probing tongue massage and stroke every part of my body. Our lips locked in a
final long, sultry kiss and let go. He squeezed my breast once more and removed
his hand. My heart was pounding, my breath was shallow, and my mind was hazy.
    “There,” he said as he
adjusted the bra strap that had slipped over my shoulder. “I’ve wanted to do
that since I was sixteen. Good night, Brinley.”
    “Good night, Cayne.” My
voice trembled and cracked. I climbed out and picked my way along the uneven
path to the front door. I glanced back as I turned my key in the lock and saw Cayne’s
truck already rounding the corner.
    I undressed and prepared
for bed in a pleasurable daze, replaying the kiss over and over in my head and
still tingling with the sensation of Cayne’s fingertips on my bare flesh.
    Just before I drifted
off to sleep, a different vision flashed unbidden into my consciousness. It was
an image of Granton, his eyes flashing with menace and a cold maniacal grin
stretching across his face. I knew that he was coming for me. And with the
sudden chill of a terrible foreboding, I knew one more thing. He was getting
closer.

Chapter 5
     
    Look outside .
     
    The phone buzzed once on
my nightstand. I read the incoming text before I saw the identity of the sender.
A wave of panic crashed through my brain. Granton had been the last person on
my mind before I fell asleep and the first to disturb my thoughts when I awoke.
But the message was from