When Romance Prevails (The Dark Horse Trilogy Book 3) by Cynthia Dane Read Free Book Online Page A

traffic picked up again.
    It felt like they drove for hours, touring down the interstate and then taking a rural exit out to the middle of nowhere. Hunter was careful to not get too close to other cars around here, lest they were recognized in face or license plate number. They did not stop anywhere, although Kerri needed to go to a bathroom. “We’ll be there soon,” Hunter said more than once. After a while, Kerri stopped believing him. He’s trying to protect me. It should have soothed her, make her trust him more… and she did, but as the sun began to set she found it difficult to believe him.
    They wound up into the mountains, far away from civilization. The sort of place a person would take their family camping for the weekend to get away from it all. I always wanted to go camping growing up. Kerri never had much chance to experience the outdoors. Her mother found it vulgar, and her father was always busy. The few summers she went to a camp as a kid, it was the sort of bourgeois crap that prevented anyone from getting dirty. Now that she was here in the mountains, looking at the sunset through large, sprawling evergreen trees, she didn’t know whether to be enthralled or not.
    They finally pulled up to a cabin off the county roads. Kerri gauged that there were a few cabins around there, all isolated and forgotten. Hunters and outdoorsy honeymooners probably rented them at certain times of the year. This ain’t no honeymoon. Kerry was grateful to stretch her legs as she got out of the car for the first time in hours, but Hunter went straight to the door, a duffel bag over his shoulder. While he unlocked the door, Kerri reached into the backseat to grab her things. She and Hunter still had yet to chat about what was going on.
    Inside, the cabin was sparse but pleasant. It was big enough for just the two of them, with a studio layout that was more cozy than claustrophobic. On one side of the cabin was a small kitchen nook, with burners, a small fridge, and a tiny microwave next to a sink. The living area encompassed tables and chairs, and a sturdy queen-sized bed nestled against a modest balcony, overlooking a clearing that hunters probably adored.
    Kerri put her bags on the bed. “No TV or radio,” she noticed. Hunter locked the front door to the cabin and turned on the lights. Or light, really. A simple globe light hung from the ceiling in the middle of the cabin, illuminating only the space directly beneath it. Everything else was still in shadow.
    “I thought it best we stayed away from the media. It would probably just upset us.”
    “Yes.” Kerri sat on the edge of the bed and tried to think positively about this. “We need to talk, Hunter.’
    After he finished closing the curtains and testing the front door handle, Hunter joined her on the bed, his extra weight making the weak mattress sink beneath their bodies. “What’s wrong? Are you regretting this?”
    “Yes… no….” So much for talking. The moment Hunter put his hand on her shoulder, Kerri doubled over and let out the sobs she had been holding in since she ran away from the boutique earlier that day.
    She didn’t mean to cry. She wanted to be strong and brave for Hunter, to prove that she was mature enough to handle this situation. I don’t want him thinking I would rather be at home. Quite the opposite. She wanted to be with him, here in his arms after he wrapped them around her, his heat and his love bringing her the solace she craved.
    “I love you,” he said, his strength nearly crushing her as he tried to make her believe it. “I wouldn’t put us through this if I didn’t think it would be worth it. But we need to do this both for ourselves as individuals and as a couple. Remember, they don’t own you.”
    No matter how many times he said something like that, Kerri still had trouble believing it. Perhaps her parents really had done such a number on her after all those years. She could go off to college, she could volunteer with