Naughty Stranger (Dangerous Love 1)

Peyton’s phone suddenly beeped and a text message appeared on the phone from Remy.

Thinking of you today. Call me when you can.

“Remy just texted,” Peyton said. “Why is she not with you?”

Kinsley’s eyes saddened. “She’s pissed at me.”

“About Damon?” Boone guessed.

Kinsley nodded. “I told her the truth about thinking that there is something really wrong with him.”

“I take it she didn’t want to hear the truth,” Peyton said.

“Not particularly.”

Boone hesitated, wondering how to approach this subject. He figured with all they’d been through, honesty was the best way. “Asher is looking into this.”

Kinsley frowned. “Looking into what?”

“Damon.”

“Good,” his sister said with a firm nod.

Boone barked a laugh. “So, it’s fine to look into other people, just not when those people are you?”

“Exactly,” Kinsley said without a hint of guilt. “Besides, while I know she’s mad at me, she’ll also forgive me because she always does, but I can’t shake that there is something wrong with him.”

“You’re not alone,” Peyton said with a yawn.

Boone saw the dark circles under her eyes. “And that’s our cue to go get some lunch before heading back to the hotel to rest. We’ll see you at home tomorrow.” The ten o’clock flight in the morning was the only flight back unless they wanted to take the red-eye, which Boone didn’t.

Kinsley blew them a kiss. “Have a safe flight. Love you both.” She ended the call.

Peyton rose, grabbed his hand, and tugged him up. “I’m not that tired. Before we go for lunch, I’ve got things to show you.”

For the next hour, Peyton had led him around the city that she grew up in. Boone stayed quiet most of the time, listening to her talk. They’d stopped for lunch at a café on the corner of the road, while she told him all about her childhood—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

After lunch, she brought him to a red-bricked middle school, with children playing out on the playground. “And what’s this place?” he’d asked, loving the brightness in her eyes.

She turned to him with a smile, taking his hand in both of hers. “This is where I won the seventh-grade science fair.”

“You were a brainy, huh?”

“Don’t you know it.” She laughed.

Boone simply watched her as she told him about her great teachers, and about the terrible ones. He found himself relaxing more and more, forgetting the reasons that brought them there, and all the darkness and sadness that came from Peyton learning what Justin had done.

When Rhett had told them what happened, Peyton fell apart, throwing up and then sobbing. Boone made a promise in his mind at that moment. She’d never cry like that again, not on his watch. And he held her, hoping she saw that he was there, and that she was no longer alone.

Another twenty minutes down the road, and they stopped in front of an old stone church with a red front door and a tall black steeple. She entered first, and he followed, in awe of the soaring ceiling and stained-glass windows.

Up ahead of them, there were a few other people, obviously praying. Peyton slid into the last pew. Boone sat next to her and rested his arm across the back of the pew, caressing his thumb against her nape. “So why this place now?”

“Because I want you to know me,” she said, glancing sideways at him.

The emotion filling her eyes had him bracing his hand around her neck. “I do know you,” he told her seriously.

“But I want you to know all of me, including the parts I wanted to stay hidden.” She looked toward the front of the church. “Remember when I told you that I moved to Stoney Creek because I had that one magical weekend there?” she asked.