Page 42 of Stay Scared

My hand settles on the counter. “You’re still blocking me.”

“You can move me.”

His voice roughens beneath the mask.

I grab the front of his vest. For a second, I could shove him away.

Instead, I pull.

The stiff webbing bites into my palms as my body meets his from chest to thigh. Cade locks his muscles beneath my grip, and his reaction presses unmistakably against me.

Heat flashes low and fast.

His breath turns uneven behind the mask.

I twist sideways through the narrow space beside his hip. The edge of his vest drags across my jacket, and one gloved hand flexes beside my waist without closing around it.

The skull follows, his mouth reaching my ear beneath the painted jaw.

“You’re not running from me anymore.”

I clear him. “Then catch up.”

The sound he makes behind me is better than laughter.

I shove through the painted curtain and run. Cade gives me barely a second before his boots hit the floor again.

The midway empties into the covered queue of an old dark ride. Rusted rails divide the path into narrow lanes. Broken fiberglass creatures line the walls, their painted faces bleached by weather.

An arch over the loading platform reads TUNNEL OF DEVOTION.

Fresh paint beneath it adds LOVE NEEDS TEETH.

I slow, and Cade closes the distance.

Several lanes weave toward the tunnel. The shortest requires a tight turn near the loading platform. Another loops through most of the rail system before reaching the same entrance.

I take the long one.

“You keep giving me room.”

“I’m avoiding the broken rail.”

“That rail was repaired.”

“You expect me to trust your maintenance?”

“Quit pretending you don’t know what you’re doing.”

His pace changes again.

By the time I reach the last turn, the skull is already waiting at the end of the lane.

I vault the low rail. The landing jars my knees, but Cade follows without slowing. His gloved fingers hook beneath the back of my waistband before I straighten.

The leather bites between denim and skin, and the jerk snaps my hips backward against him.

A sound escapes me.