Page 90 of At the Edge of Surrender

Yeah.

She was just as affected as me.

What I wouldn’t give to haul her out into the hall and push her up against the wall. Lift that thin cotton tee that hugged her delicious frame to get to the sweetness underneath.

Get her behind a locked door so I could explore every inch of that body.

The lid of the toybox clanged shut.

I jolted back, instantly knocked out of the trance.

“Excuse me,” Emery wheezed, jarred from it, too. She dashed out, her footsteps echoing on the floor as she hurried into the next room.

“Mr. Kane, you wanna come play with me? I got so many toys, and Ifinkyou’re really gonna like ’em.”

I shifted to find Maci on her knees and waving two dolls in front of her. This child that needed to be my only focus. The one I needed to get to know. The one I was meant to cherish.

I had to let that attraction go.

Whatever that insane connection was that blistered between me and her aunt.

So I muttered, “Yeah, Maci, I definitely want to play with you.”

TWENTY-THREE

EMERY

I crept downstairs,keeping my footsteps light, like I was on some covert mission.

I guessed that I was.

Wanting to witness Kane interacting with Maci when he didn’t know I was there.

They’d spent the entire afternoon playing together, basically any game that Maci could come up with.

Hide and seek and cards and every toy that had been in that toybox and stuffed into the built-in shelves on the wall opposite her bed.

I’d hidden in my room.

About thirty minutes ago, they’d gone downstairs, and the only thing I’d heard from them since were the faint bumps of movement that echoed through the floor.

I hit the bottom landing, and my pulse turned thready as I turned toward the sounds that were coming from the direction of the kitchen. Laughter and the strains of what sounded like opera music that curled and twisted down the hall.

I tiptoed, keeping my breaths quieted as I inched along the corridor.

I crept by the rooms that lined the left side, passing a library, aden, then a formal dining room before I edged up to the entryway that opened to the kitchen and a casual living space.

Glittering rays of early evening sunlight poured in through the large windows that lined the room.

I pressed myself close to the wall as a peal of laughter suddenly ripped through, and I peeked in to find Maci had changed into the ballerina outfit she’d insisted on packing when we’d come.

“Look it how many spins I can do, Mr. Kane! One, two,fee, four!” Maci twirled and twirled before she stumbled to the side when a rush of dizziness hit her.

I started to rush inside, only Kane already had her swept up and into his arms before I had the chance. The man laughed casually as he intoned, “Whoa there, that might be one too many spins.”

“There can never be too many spins if you’re a really good ballerina,” she told him.

Another low chuckle rippled through the air and skated over me.

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