“Hold still,” he said, and I hid my face. “Harper.”

I sighed and removed my hands and looked at him, and he focused and took the picture. Then he smiled. “Even more beautiful in person.”

“Stop it,” I said, and retrieved my camera.

We walked until the sun dropped behind the tree line, and I took several pictures—including one of Kane that he hadn’t known I’d taken until the camera motor clicked. He just looked at me and grinned. Shook his head.

“Well if that didn’t break the lens nothing will,” he said with a grin, and threaded his long fingers through mine. “Why don’t you pursue photography if you love it so much?”

“Well,” I said, and that cagey feeling fell on me. The one that occurred when anything ever came up about my family. “Law is…sort of expected of me. The family business, I guess.”

Kane looked down at me, and his eyes seemed pure black in the waning light. “Do you always do exactly what your family tells you to do?”

“Yes,” I answered. Didn’t even hesitate. “I mean, it’s a good career choice.”

“Hmm.” He studied me as we walked now. “Remember our betting game?”

“Yes,” I answered again.

“Okay, here goes. Was Winston your idea, or your family’s?” he asked.

We continued climbing the path, back to where we left the truck. Kane now walked behind me. “Well,” I said, trying to figure out a way to phrase my choice of Winston without flat out lying. I just couldn’t. “Collectively both,” I finally said. “It…was the right choice.” We reached the top, and he rounded on me, and I looked up to him. “But I’m really glad,” I said. And I truly was. “I like Winston. It’s a good school.” And far, far away from Belle House.

Kane’s dark gaze studied me for some time. “Now that part I believe,” he said softly. His knuckles lifted to graze my jaw, and he lowered his mouth and brushed his lips against mine. He lingered there, stilling against me, just breathing. When he pulled back, his eyes sought mine. “I feel that there’s something hiding inside of you,” he said gently. “And that someone else put it there.”

I could do nothing but look at him, breathless. His alabaster skin, void of all blemishes—just those long, long eyelashes and coffee colored eyes.

“I aim to set it free, Harper,” he said, then kissed me again.

I exhaled, and he swallowed it in, drew me into him, and for once in my life I wished to God he really, truly could.

Rescue me.

It wasn’t until later that night, after Kane had dropped me off at the park and he’d gone about his business, and I was lying in bed, that I scrolled through the pictures I’d taken that afternoon at the reserve. When I came to the one Kane took of me, I stopped, amazed. Wide eyes stared into the lens. Wide, soft, and shimmering. Not quite as alien as I’d thought in the past. A small tilt to the corners of my mouth eased my features. I knew the transformation was because of who was taking the picture. It stunned me.

I scrolled some more, until I came across the ones I’d captured of Kane. Those smoky eyes stared back at me in a way no one else ever had.

And when I set my camera aside, and closed my eyes, I still saw him. Saw those eyes. And recognized in him just what he said he recognized in me.

Fear.

It was the day before classes let out, and Kane’s words from the reserve had haunted me ever since they’d left his mouth. Just as his kisses had. His touch. His sincerity. And his perception. I couldn’t stop thinking about him. Was he real? And would I ever trust him enough to let him know the truth about me? It was all so confusing. So…frightening. Why would I trust someone who was planning on leaving? Why was I setting myself up for a hurt I’d never experienced?

I stretched my legs at the Covington recreational park as I did nearly every morning of my life. This morning was cold; my breath floated out of my body in white puffs. I snugged the knit hat over my ears, did a few body twists. The air sank into the fibers of my fleece jacket and stung my skin. I shoved my hands deep into my pockets.

“You’re not starting without me, are you?”

I jumped at Kane’s voice, but it was quickly replaced by the slamming of my heart and sharp intake of my breath. He’d parked on the other side of the pond and had jogged to me. Right now, his steady gait carried his long legs and muscular frame directly to me, and he didn’t stop until his hands had cupped my face on either side, and his mouth had found mine. I couldn’t get used to his kissing; I wasn’t getting enough. His hands moved from my face, to my waist, and as his lips warmed against mine, he pulled me closer. My arms had escaped my pockets and now encircled his neck.

Almost like I knew what I was doing.

I didn’t.

He suckled my bottom lip, and the sensuality of it had adrenaline humming in my ears. When I looked up at him, into that flawless face and coffee eyes, my knees felt soft. I was glad he still had ahold of me.

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to go insane over the holidays. Are you sure you won’t come home with us to Olivia’s for Thanksgiving?” he asked. His dark brows, perfectly arched, peeped out just below the black beanie he’d pulled over his head. “You know your secrets are safe there.” He wagged those dark brows. “Endless kissing.”

A smile tugged at my mouth. “Tempting. But,” I sighed, stared away from his wise eyes before he saw something else I didn’t want him to. “I have to go home, Kane.”