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I asked, following up that trust me line boys use so often. I swear, the men who wooed so expertly had a little too close of a relationship with Aladdin during their formative years. Even still, I placed my hand in his.
    His lips parted and then he shook his head. His hand held onto mine tightly; the large expanse of his swallowing the delicate feminine form of mine. “I didn’t say I’d never hurt you. In fact, I can promise you that I will hurt you.”
    I gasped, trying unsuccessfully to pull my hand from his. “Austin . . .”
    He stepped toward me, still holding tightly to my hand. My heart was beating a whole new song and dance now. “I won’t hurt you physically, Madison. And I won’t hurt you intentionally, but when you get to know someone the way I intend to know you, sometimes hurt—it’s . . .” His eyes dropped from my face to our linked hands before lifting back up to meet my eyes. “It’s inevitable.”
    “How?” I whispered, clarifying. “How do you intend to know me?”
    “Completely.” He closed another inch of space between us and I felt my mind send encouraging signals to my lungs. Breathe in—breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. “If you’ll allow me the chance.”
    “Why?” I shook my head. “Why do you want the chance? You don’t know anything about me.”
    “There’s something about you that calls to me. And I know I don’t know you,” his lips tipped upward into a grin. “If you recall, I’ve just admitted that I want to know you. In order for me to get to know you, I’d first have to know nothing.”
    I laughed, nervously. “Smart ass.”
    “She swears,” he teased. “What would your father think of that vulgar language, Madison?”
    I blinked up at him, enjoying his teasing banter. “My father’s not here.”
    “You’re right,” he grinned. “Let’s make the most of our time together today by the river. What do you say?”
    I laughed as he pulled me behind him. “I thought you had plans today?”
    “I’m fulfilling my plans as we speak.”
    “You’re a tricky one, you know that?”
    “I’ve been called mysterious,” he announced oddly.
    I laughed, loud and abruptly, but it was nice. It felt good to laugh with abandon like this. “By who?”
    “Little blonde barista at the coffee house.”
    My heart fluttered in a bad way. There was no doubt in my mind that I was jealous. Just hearing Austin mention another girl sent my body into an unfamiliar fit of heated envy I had absolutely no right to feel.
    “You mean Sarah?”
    “Oh, yeah,” he tipped his head back to wink at me. “Sarah.”
    I definitely didn’t like the sound of her name on his lips.
    “Oh,” I continued walking after him, still very aware of the warmth that was his hand encasing mine. “Do you know her well?”
    “We bonded,” he announced. “As much as a barista and her customer, who happens to be returning to said barista’s place of work, with the sole hope of running into the fleeing beauty he brazenly gave his number to can bond.”
    Okay, that was a good feeling flutter. He’d been returning with the hope of running into me again. Which was ironic, really, because for eight days I’d avoided one of my favorite places in fear that I might do the very thing he’d been hoping for.
    “You were stalking me?”
    He stopped walking to turn abruptly and I almost ran into him as I skidded to a halt on the packed down grass we were using as a path to the river.
    “Whoa,” he shook his head determinedly. “I wasn’t stalking anyone.”
    “Really?” I questioned, eyeing him teasingly. “I happen to think you were.”
    “You think you’re all that?” He stepped closer to me and I grinned.
    “I wouldn’t think that. Except you’ve already admitted to me, in other words, that you were stalking.”
    “I did no such thing,” he spoke low under his breath and I felt my blood warm as his head tipped forward. Oh. My. God. Austin was going to kiss me!
    Without thinking, I